The Cardinals sent out a sexist tweet about a World Series ring giveaway
It's kind of amazing that "Women like sports and you don't have to bribe/trick them into attending a game" is a hard-to-understand concept in the year 2017 (or at all), but the Cardinals clearly haven't fully grasped that one. Behold, a since-deleted tweet of theirs promoting a World Series replica ring giveaway, awash in some impressively casual sexism.
It's a bad tweet—though honestly, it's not too far afield from the tone-deaf way teams announce and promote Ladies' Nights and other such "Teach women the sport, because they couldn't possibly understand it on their own" events—but how did it come together? Lucky for you, I was behind the scenes* when it was hatched.
INT. CARDINALS SOCIAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: Hey, we have this 1967 World Series replica ring promotion coming up.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: Oh yeah, that thing looks pretty cool. How should we get the word out?
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: Well, it's easy enough to sell this giveaway to men, who all love baseball.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: Wait, we have fans who aren't men?
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: I know, right? It's weird. I don't know why women even care, there's nothing in the sport of baseball for them. No designer shoes, no fancy clothing, no Lisa Frank stickers.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: People still buy those?
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: Sure. Anyway, I guess we should reach out to the women as well, but how? How on earth can we interest them in a sport that no woman anywhere cares about or likes?
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: I've got it! All women like shiny stuff, right? And jewelry is shiny. And a ring is jewelry.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: Go on.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: So here's the tweet: "You love baseball ... she loves jewelry."
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: ...
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: What do you think?
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 1: It's perfect! Everyone gets what they want! Men get baseball, and women, all of whom hate baseball and have to be dragged to a game by men because no woman alive would ever want to attend one, get an incentive to be there through a cheap piece of plastic.
CARDINALS EMPLOYEE 2: It's a win-win!
So yeah, here's your daily reminder that most sports teams have no idea how to address women without having to talk down to them or treat them as an undifferentiated mass of stereotypes who are only watching a game because a man is making them.
*I was not behind the scenes.
