WNBA stars react to homophobic SNL drama
A week ago on Saturday Night Live, a couple of noticeable cast individuals and SNL’s host throughout the night, Idris Elba, played out a sketch called, “The Gold Diggers of the WNBA.” The sketch based on a couple of unfashionable men in a club attempting to turn into a “kept man” of WNBA players. There were a couple of fair jokes about the tremendous dissimilarity in pay among WNBA and NBA players, however fundamentally the sketch drifted on generalizations that WNBA players are largely butch, have profound voices, and are lesbians.
The last “joke” of the sketch was that 90 percent of WNBA players are lesbians. Also, generally, WNBA players weren’t chuckling.
“I wasn’t generally affronted to such an extent as I felt they called it in. They utilized truly tired jokes and did them severely at that,” Imani McGee-Stafford, an inside for the Atlanta Dream, told ThinkProgress.
“I thought that it was hostile and in all honesty, apathetic – particularly on the grounds that I’ve never observed anyone in that production – or even on the SNL cast at an amusement,” Las Vegas Aces’ star A’ja Wilson, the 2018 WNBA Rookie of the Year, told ThinkProgress in an email. “You can’t ridicule something you know nothing about or have never really attempted to help. It just knocks my socks off how no one represents racial or homophobic jokes with regards to the Oscars, yet with regards to the WNBA out of the blue it should be entertaining and a joke.”
The Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart, the 2018 WNBA MVP, likewise shared her dissatisfaction on Twitter.
You all went too far with this one. This ain’t it, sister. https://t.co/UMD8CGvz0d
— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) March 12, 2019
The drama included Elba, Kenan Thompson, and Chris Redd as the men seeking after the WNBA players. Leslie Jones and Cecily Strong both played WNBA players, while Kate McKinnon played the lady that leaves the club with Jones. Wilson was inconceivably baffled that a portion of the cast’s most noticeable supporters of ladies’ rights were in the drama.
“I’m particularly frustrated in Leslie,” Wilson stated, alluding to the way that amid the 2018 Winter Olympics, Jones was an extraordinarily vocal web based life supporter of the U.S. Ladies’ National Hockey Team, which won the gold decoration in PyeongChang. “For everything she did around ladies’ hockey and advocating female competitors at the Olympics, it would have been pleasant to see her, Kate and Cecily push back on being utilized to execute unsafe generalizations”
Golden Cox, the VP of the Connecticut Sun, communicated comparative dissatisfactions on Twitter, calling the production “tone hard of hearing.”
Baffled in the @SNL ladies who took an interest in the WNBA production. Female comics have been vocal about the battle for equity. Pitiful they were tone hard of hearing re: female competitors in a similar battle and senseless generalizations. Despite everything i’ll watch and support. Expectation they will do likewise. #dobetter
— Amber Cox (@MoheganMaven) March 10, 2019
Cheryl Reeve, the head mentor of the Minnesota Lynx, additionally communicated disillusionment with the drama. Reeve is a standout amongst the most vocal backers requiring the media to furnish the WNBA with more inclusion however she felt this crossed a line.
“The SNL play about the WNBA was a poor endeavor at parody,” Reeve said in an announcement to ThinkProgress. “Rather, it served to propagate the generalizations that are utilized to hold ladies in games down. Shockingly, the naysayers are by and by energized to proceed with the negative account around female competitors.”
Numerous watchers additionally felt the production was inside and out homophobic. McGee-Stafford concurred, saying that she’s tired of the steady theory about the sexuality of ladies’ ball players.
“Like, I really couldn’t mind less whether individuals believe I’m gay or straight,” she said. “In any case, similar to, damn, aren’t you all tired of this topic?”
Wilson sees this is a branch of the manner in which society centers around the sexuality all things considered, however added that with regards to ladies’ b-ball players, the hypothesis regularly originates from a position of delicacy.
“I think there is a fixation on the sexuality all things considered and it’s silly, however it appears to be particularly with female competitors,” Wilson said. “It resembles folks need to discover some support for why we are superior to them at games. It can’t simply be that we are increasingly skilled. It’s only an ancient mindset about the world and ladies who play sports.”
Holly Rowe, a ladies’ b-ball reporter for ESPN, brought up another issue with the drama: It didn’t recognize the way that gratitude to how much the ability of WNBA players is esteemed abroad, most players in reality carry on with a decent way of life.
I LOVE SNL however this isn’t interesting. Too misogynist. Do your examination @idriselba Our @WNBA players drive Maserati, Tesla infant! They are entrepreneurs, speculators. All the best for your new Luther and Netflix show Turn Up Charlie. I support all that you do. Be smarter to these ladies. https://t.co/ruTVlLbDXj
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) March 12, 2019
Wilson realizes that many will take a gander at this analysis and think the WNBA players are basically over-touchy ladies who don’t have a clue how to chuckle at themselves. In any case, that is not the situation, she said. It’s just that the production came up short.
“We can take a joke superior to anyone. It’s SNL and a ton of us chuckled at a portion of the lines. We may even utilize the drama as a showing point or exercise however it’s only an appalling editorial,” she said. “We can sparkle a splendid light on the WNBA to start more discussion and snickers. We claim organizations, we have begun establishments, we adore our activity and play at the largest amount on the planet yet we keep on being slammed and it’s simply irritating and silly.”
At last, players focused on that the media needs to recollect that it tends to be a power to help change stories, not propagate them.
“You control the story, subsequently when you treat the WNBA as a joke or rehash the equivalent tired [jokes], its not our blame. It’s yours,” McGee-Stafford said.
