Great news, guys. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament, but it didn't kill me.
That's amazing? As we wait for Sunday's championship game, I can confidently say that men all over the world still love and exist in women's basketball.
What a world!
Manly men have long been skeptical of women's basketball.
For years, a sizable segment of male society has rejected women's basketball, despising it for reasons such as lack of dunks, lack of players, or violation of the patriarchy's beloved but secret rules. I've been doing it.
The women's game seems to have been designed to allow men to express deep thoughts like, “Why would I watch something like that when I can watch the men's game?'' “I'm pretty sure a college girls team can't beat a local high school boys team, and this hypothesis I came up with is in no way rooted in sexism.”
Whether it's college basketball or the WNBA, women's sports have long been fodder for important male thought leaders who do podcasts wearing tank tops and looking like they'll faint if they walk more than 6 feet. Ta.
Do I hate Caitlin Clark?I want to disrespect Caitlin Clark for taking School Rivals to new heights. But I can't do that.
For years, if I was caught watching a women's basketball game, I would be stripped of my male card and sentenced to watch 400 hours of 1960s and 1970s sitcoms to re-educate myself about gender roles. I was thinking of going.
The situation is gradually improving for men who want to watch women play sports.
But gradually the situation changed and became better for men.
I think it all started with the release of the Mad Max movie in 2015, which had a female lead role. I liked Fury Road and it didn't make me feel like it was overdue or that my childhood was ruined after watching it once.
This prepared me for the all-female remake of Ghostbusters to be released the following year. It was intimidating, of course, but I sat up straight and watched it, thinking it was great and somehow never leaving the theater feeling boneless and unmanly. My bud still called me “Broseph.”
Fast forward to the emergence of NCAA superstar Caitlin Clark from the University of Iowa, standout Angel Reese from Louisiana State University, and fierce Paige Bueckers from the University of Connecticut. They're all women, they're all people, and they've turned this year's tournament into must-see TV.
I don't like March Madness.Sorry if it seems weird.
I wish I could explain why men are hesitant to accept women in sports.
Part of me thinks the women's game is much better and I just haven't been paying attention to it because their programs don't get the same level of financial support or media attention. I would like to think so.
And part of me wonders if there's some kind of misogyny ingrained in male culture that makes accepting women as equals somehow taboo. Because that means we men can literally lose complete control over everything.
But then I realized the problem was that LeBron James still hadn't told me it was okay to watch women's basketball. The Los Angeles Lakers star has been a fan for years and recently said: “I don't think there's a huge difference between the men's and women's games when it comes to college basketball. I think the popularity comes from their iconography in the women's game.”
nice. Now, we men have a male-approved permission structure that allows us to enjoy women's basketball without fear of being unmanned.
I would like to congratulate my colleagues on this great achievement. It takes a lot of courage for us to watch and evaluate a game that doesn't feature men doing the exact same thing.
Come on, everyone. Hooray!
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Hupke on X (formerly Twitter). @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk