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Talk Sporty 101: There's No Such Thing as Sports Talk For Women

becoming a sports fan business communicaton communication skills Sep 11, 2021

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but there’s no such thing as sports talk “for women.” I’m a woman who’s worked in sports broadcasting for 20 years and I don’t know what that means.

The implication is that women need special help talking sports or that you need to talk to women differently that you would talk to other sports fans. That’s just not true. (And if it was, TV and radio broadcasts of games would sound much different.)

Sports fans are sports fans. That’s it. End of story. You don’t talk to fans differently because of their gender. Wait, maybe I should clarify, you shouldn’t talk to fans differently because of their gender.

When people distinguish male versus female fans it’s often a misguided attempt to categorize different types of fans. I think they’re trying to say that not every fan wants to talk about stats and draw the distinction that some fans would prefer to hear more about a player’s background and a team’s efforts in the community.

There are different types of fans - in fact, here’s the list of profiles we developed and use at Talk Sporty to Me - but fandom isn’t based on gender it comes down to your level of fandom and your communication preference.

When you categorize fans as male and female you create barriers that prevent you building relationships and using sports to your advantage.

And if you do it with sports fandom there’s a good chance you’re creating those barriers in other conversations with colleagues, clients and friends. Take a step back, recognize the bias you’re bringing to a conversation and remember fans are fans. There’s no such thing as sports talk for women.

Talk Sporty 101: There's No Such Thing as Sports Talk For Women

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