12-year-old criticizes sporting goods chain for gender-biased advertising
The idea of "women playing sports" is no longer a novelty. Yet there are still plenty of places where women get relegated to positions of cheering and observing, not participating ... and it's not going over so well.
A young girl in Arizona noticed something peculiar about the Dick's Sporting Goods "Basketball 2014" catalog, and decided to have her say. McKenna Peterson, daughter of a Phoenix news reporter, observed that there were no women actually playing basketball in the catalog, and so decided to write the sporting goods chain and inform them of their "oversight."
My 12yr old basketball loving daughter got the latest @DICKS catalog & had a big problem with it. She wrote a letter. pic.twitter.com/MH46ktNOaw
— ChrisPetersonTCS (@TheCheapSeatsTV) October 9, 2014
"I have received your Basketball 2014 catalog in the mail," McKenna writes. (All quotes [sic]'d.) "I am writing about the matter that there are no girls in the catalog. I think that girls should be treated as equally as boys are treated. I, myself, enjoy playing and also watching basketball, WOMENS basketball. I had season tickets for my state team."
McKenna adds, "There are NO girls in the catalog! Oh, wait, sorry. There IS a girl in the catalog on page 6. SITTING in the STANDS. Women are only mentioned once in the catalog on page 5 for some shoes. And there are cheerleaders on some coupons. It's hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog."
The Phoenix Mercury, Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner all retweeted McKenna's letter. Dick's Sporting Goods has not tweeted since Oct. 8 and has not yet responded to McKenna's letter.
[Via Business Insider]
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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