not to get too political, but am i the only one feeling a little snubbed that Jason Collins coming out has thrown the media and corporations into a gay rights, equality, coming out celebratory party? women like Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King who've been out for the past several decades garnered no media attention, and more recently, Brittney Griner's coming out was barely touched by the media. Is it because our culture expects female athletes to be gay, as where there's still an element of machismo in male athletes that makes coming out that much more difficult? i call bullocks. i think both genders deserve equal attention and recognition, especially considering women have to challenge traditional gender roles when choosing professional athletics as a career.

I think the at the heart of all homophobia is an element of misogyny. It's not necessarily ok for a woman to be gay (because they're perceived as snubbing men), but it's taken less seriously b/c women are taken less seriously. Hence, when a female athlete comes out as a [whatever queer label we want to use], it's no big deal because she's already a woman; she's already unfairly devalued in our country in a general way. But when I man comes out?

Oh no she better don't!

Now, my incredibly superficial, unfair, and inappropriate response to this? Why can't the hot guys come out as gay?

I dunno, I mean I think there's an element of that but its not the whole story by far. There's a racial element to it as well, but the BIGGEST element is just plain that women's sports are not a big deal. Men's sports are massively followed. Lakers games cause RIOTS. Football (american) games are the most watched TV in the US. But women's tennis? Women's basketball? Not really.

I imagine that if Serena or Venus Williams was to come out right now, they'd also get a lot of press, because those are big names in the US, but another woman's tennis player would probably not get nearly as much because most people just don't know who the hell they are.