The Boston sports scene is known for its die-hard fanatics, so much so that many claim that Beantown is the greatest sports town in America. But sports media coverage is lacking in some areas — a fact that became abundantly clear to one woman on November 26, 2021. When she approached the sports section of The Boston Globe, Reverend Laura Everett was shocked to discover that of the 12 .full pages, there was not a single mention of a women’s sports team. So she took matters into her own hands. Everett, who serves as executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to unpack her new venture: Boston Women’s Sports. The following is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: You wrote in a tweet that the date we mentioned, November 26, 2021, about a year ago, marked the start of the Boston Women’s Sports “villain origin story.” Unpack that sentence for us.
Rev. Laura Everett: I had noticed for a while the real lack of coverage of professional women’s sports here in Boston. But one day for me, I looked in the [Boston] Globe and I couldn’t believe my eyes that not a single professional women’s team here in Boston, in New England, any of our national American teams, was covered at all. It was as if women did not exist. It was the day after [footballer] Formiga retired from international play. This is a player so important to the women’s game that there would never have been an Olympic tournament without her. So from that day on, I started a gender audit of the Globe’s sports section, and the results were embarrassingly biased. Professional athletes in women’s leagues did not exist here.
Rath: I’m sure it wasn’t the first time you flipped through the sports section of the Globe that day. Was that shocking to you, or how much was it relevant?
Everett: I think it was eye-opening to really put numbers and then put pictures behind it. What I started doing was scrolling through the pages to see how long it took for there to be a story about female athletes. And then I started using pictures on my phone just to block out all stories about men and to see where women were visible. It gave a real visual representation of how small women actually existed in the pages of the Boston Globe, and it really brought me to a greater awareness.
You know, before all of this, I want to know that I didn’t pay much attention to the Boston Pride, our local professional women’s hockey team. But now I count myself among the fans.
Rath: When newspapers are online, that research is right there for you to do it. As you dug into it, give us some of the details beyond that one day. What are some of the broader patterns you saw?
Everett: You know, the things I started to notice, first, is that it’s not just limited to The Boston Globe. The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, frankly, our two local NPR affiliates aren’t great at covering women either.
Then there’s also the tendency for girls’ high school sports to get decent coverage, and even some of the college teams do as well. But the idea that professional female athletes in the WNBA, in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) and PHF (Professional Hockey Federation) deserve equal coverage just isn’t there. So it’s really hard to figure out when these women’s professional teams are playing, what the results are.
And then something about stories of local athletes who have moved on to other teams. Athletes like Shey Peddy, a Roxbury native who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, or even an athlete like Aliyah Boston, a senior at the University of South Carolina, who is one of the best basketball players in the NCAA right now. We have so much local talent coming out of Boston. What is lacking is the coverage.
Rath: As much as I really want to be indignant with you here, I have to take some ownership because you mentioned public radio. We have two public television stations here and on this broadcast I will routinely throw in sports when there is time at the end of the newscast and I very rarely say anything about women’s teams.
Everett: Yeah, that’s really a question I have for all of you at GBH. I listen pretty regularly and I hear you all calling the scores or upcoming games for the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and Patriots. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard you all mention when the Boston Pride played or how they did in their last game and I wonder why that is. What decision goes into which professional teams you call and which ones you leave out?
Rath: Yes, that’s a fair question. I promise you it’s something we’ll consider going forward because we’ve covered Boston Pride, but we don’t cover the games in the kind of detail that we should. So we talk more about this and you can come back and rate us.
Beyond that area, tell us about the feedback you’ve gotten from taking this, and have others and the media had any reaction to it in terms of taking ownership of it?
Everett: Well, look, it’s something that comes from a place of joy and not anger. I really believe that women’s sport is not a charity case. It is an investment opportunity. It’s elite athletes and you see it because it has incredible skill, tenacity and athleticism. And therefore the investment is timely. It is worth our energy and it is worth our attention. The reason to watch Pride might be a feminist commitment for some, maybe a dollar commitment for others. But right now it’s because it’s a really winning team.
So while I’m annoyed that the Dec. 23 Globe columnist complained that there hasn’t been a championship in Boston for the past four years, Bob Ryan is wrong. Which has been. He just hasn’t been paying attention. The rest of us have had a damn good time because the Boston Pride have won two Isobel Cup championships in a row. So what’s available for everyone, including Saturday and Sunday at Warrior Arena, are back-to-back championships with the Boston Pride.
Rath: So I can’t speak for other media organizations, but I think it’s generally true that when we see areas that aren’t getting coverage, I think the reason a lot of the time is the perception that there is not an audience that is interested. However much it may be a concept, can you disprove it for us?
Everett: Absolutely. You know, I think it’s like arguing that the WNBA doesn’t deserve coverage because it doesn’t get the same numbers as the NBA, but the NBA started 50 years before the WNBA. The NBA started at a time when men could buy tickets on their own and women couldn’t even apply for their own credit cards. So if you have a product that only men can buy, of course there will be a larger audience for it.
Last year there was a new investment of $75 million for the WNBA. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re looking at a WNBA team for Boston in the short term. Women’s sports fans are some of the most devout. What we lack are options. There are great investment opportunities here. What doesn’t follow is the coverage.
C’est quoi le passé simple en anglais exemple ?
L’affirmative du passé simple est simple. I was in Japan last year. On the same subject : Boston shooting temporarily closes Museum of Fine Arts. She had a headache yesterday. We did our homework last night.
When should we use the passé simple? Quand utiliser le passé simple ? The passé simple is used to design a generally short action, ending in the passé. Sur une échelle de temps, le passé composé, qui expresse lui aussi une action brève, se situe plus près du présent que le passé simple, plus remoten.
Comment faire le passé simple en anglais ?
Comment le construire Pour les verbes réguliers, il suffit de prendre la base verbale, et de rajoutre ED à la fin du verbe. Par exemple, le verbe to walk marcher, donnera went. He/she went, they went.
C’est quoi le passé simple en anglais ?
The passé simple, appelé également preterit ou past simple, is an English tense that allows speaking of an event, of an action passée et terminee ou d’un état qui a eu lieu pendant un laps de temps précis. To see also : The European Parliament condemns the American abortion decision and demands protection of human rights.
Quels sont les 3 temps en anglais ?
Mon conseil: apprenez les 3 temps les plus utilisés en anglais. To see also : Top 10 books about women written from history.
- Simple gift (present simple).
- Simple past (prétérit).
- Simple future (future simple, avec will).
Quelle est la différence entre le past simple et le past continuous ?
| English | Phonetics | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| You were rude. | juː wɜː ruːd | Past simple: c’est un trait qui caracterisait ta personnalité. |
| You were rude. | juː wɜː ˈbiːɪŋ ruːd | Past continuous : c’était le cas à ce moment dans le passé. |
How can you tell the difference between past perfect and past perfect continuous? Past Perfect indicates that an action ended in the past before another one started, while past perfect continuous indicates that an ongoing action ended at a specific time in the past. Therefore, this is the key difference between past perfect and past perfect continuous.
What is the rule of past continuous?
To form the past continuous tense, we use the past tense of the verb followed by the present participle of the verb. The present participle is a form of a verb that ends with the ending -ing. For example, the present participle of read is reading.
What is difference between past simple and past continuous?
We use the past continuous to talk about events and temporary states that were going on around a certain time in the past. We use the past simple to talk about events, states or habits at specific times in the past.
Quand utiliser le phrasal verbs ?
A phrasal verb (ou verbe à particule) is an English verb followed by another word. Or bien souvent, ce petit mot que l’on ajoute va modifier le sens du verbe en question, voire même lui faire revestir un sens totally different ! For example: To come means âvenirâ
How many phrasal verbs are there in total? Memorizing phrasal verbs is inefficient because there are over 10,000 phrasal verbs in the English language.
What are the 20 most used phrasal verbs?
20 super common phrasal verbs
- Turn up/down â Turn (something) up/down â turn up or down the volume or strength. …
- Turn up â appears suddenly. …
- Turn down / Turn (something) down – decline. …
- Wake up â stop sleeping. …
- Exercise â exercise. …
- Train to succeed.
What is the easiest way to memorize phrasal verbs?
Who created phrasal verbs?
What is the logic behind phrasal verbs? Verbs become logical and predictable when you are familiar with the different meanings of prepositions, so watch out for similar patterns. All prepositions have a literal meaning: up and down, in and out, to and from, through, away and so on.
Why are there so many phrasal verbs?
Phrasal verbs are so common not only because they are more specific, but because they are also slang.
Why do phrasal verbs exist?
Phrasal verbs are important because they are extremely common in informal English, and unless you are familiar with their meanings, it will be difficult to understand informal language. Additionally, learning to use phrasal verbs correctly will help you sound natural in casual conversation.
