Written by More than 140 days have gone by. A lot can happen in 140 days. Novak Djokovic won the men’s Wimbledon tennis tournament, the Colorado Avalanche won the NHL Stanley Cup, and the WNBA had their All-Star game without one of their All-Stars, Brittney Griner. By now everyone should know her name, do you? It should be a hot topic in all news media outlets. After all, Brittney Griner is a seven time WNBA All Star, a two time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, and has won a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury.
Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia on July 7, 2022, which is more than four months since she has been detained. Has there been news coverage of Griner? Yes, there has been, but has it been enough to help her come home? No it has not. Is it because she is a female? Is it because she’s black? Or is it because she is a lesbian?
Without getting into political debate, if it were NBA star Lebron James or NFL legend Tom Brady, let’s face it, they would be home already. The truth of the matter is, if this had happened to a female athlete as little as 3 years ago, nobody would have heard about it. There has been a slight shift in the mainstream media of how things are reported for female athletes.
This shift in the media helped Griner get to the President, Joe Biden, for help as to getting her home to her friends, family, and teammates. The entire WNBA has a saying, “We Are BG”, which has also made its way into the mainstream media in order to draw attention to bring Griner home.
Today, bringing awareness to female athletes in all forms of media is imperative to help them get the exposure they deserve and let more people hear about what is going on in women’s sports. Even though this shift in the media culture is small, it is one more step in the right direction. We owe it to all of our women athletes no matter their race or sexual identity to give them a sense of importance so that it is known that they are valued.
We still have a long way to go, but having more media coverage for our female athletes is a definite start. Don’t forget, we are BG.