The Playing Field

Sport and Culture Through the Lens of Science

Steven Kotler is the author of West of Jesus: Surfing, Science and the Origins of Belief. His magazine writing has appeared in more than 31 publications. See full bio

October 4, 2008, Sport and Competition

Comments on "What's Wrong With The Women Of ESPN?"

What's Wrong With The Women Of ESPN?

By Steven Kotler on October 4, 2008 in The Playing Field

In the past few years, the sports entertainment behemoth ESPN has done a remarkably great job of integrating female reporters into what has long been the ultimate boy's club. There are now women anchors, women side line reporters, women correspondents and a half-dozen other estrogen-laden categories. Read More

Hannah Storm rocks; I think

Submitted by William Todd Schultz on October 4, 2008 - 3:35pm.

Hannah Storm rocks; I think she's definitely an exception to your rule...

News and Sports vixens

Submitted by Writing Frontier on October 4, 2008 - 5:42pm.

Interesting piece. Here's another take. First you win a beauty contest. Then comes the sports, or the news, or . . .

Your readers might be interested in a related piece on this topic at Writing Frontier. See "News Vixens" at

http://writingfrontier.com/2008/09/24/news-vixens/

An Australian Perspective

Submitted by Adrian on October 4, 2008 - 11:08pm.

Although I have no idea about the people you are writing about in this article, and I might sit down and watch ESPN about once a month, I notice the same with female sports presenters in Melbourne commenting on Australian Rules Football. The AFL has made great strides to incorporate women into all aspects of the game, outside of actually playing it with the "boys", the exact same thing has happened with female sports reporters. The actual game commentators are all men, the only reporters with gregarious personalities are men, and while the female reporters are highly knowledgeable and respectable, they are all seem like they are cut from the same "robot" mold.

people feel guilty because

Submitted by farouk on October 5, 2008 - 2:01am.

people feel guilty because of not being able to respond to the so called "feminists" and thats why they pay for their sins by acts like that

The NASCAR broadcasts that

Submitted by Dave on October 5, 2008 - 4:31am.

The NASCAR broadcasts that ESPN and ABC do show that both the men and women can be less than exciting on the mic. The folks in the booth, and those doing the interviews (both men and women) are knowledgeable, but there's not a lot of excitement there.

Fox, however, has DW. Same race, same drivers, but much more interesting to listen to. Maybe it's the training at ESPN.