This afternoon, the New York Ranger's twitter feed alerted hockey fans to a piece posted on their official fan site, Blueshirts United. "A Girl's Guide to Watching the Rangers" was written by a guest author as a part of a new Community Contributor program. What followed was fury from female and male fans alike, and the post was soon taken down, and the tweets were deleted as well. But, you know, the internet. Nothing dies here. The offensive article has been screen-capped, mocked, mocked some more, mocked even more, and torn to shreds by various online communities.
Personally, I thought the whole situation was farcical. An oblivious author writing for an out-of-touch PR department reaching out to rabidly unforgiving fans. Unfortunately for both the author and the Rangers, they got a shockingly cold dose of reality today. NYR's staff can hide behind a cloak of anonymity, but the author has since protected her twitter account, and I don't blame her (hey guys, cyber-bullying is not cool regardless of circumstance!)
The article itself is unsurprisingly flippant and aggravating. However, it is no worse or more casually misogynistic (or more inaccurate) than Cosmo's "My GAWD, Hot NHL Players!", or any number of messages geared toward the light-and-fluffy-and-loves-shopping side female audiences. In front of a different readership, because uninterested but reluctantly obliging girlfriends do exist, this guide may even be not-completely useless. Published most anywhere else, this slideshow would have garnered little attention and even less protest.
What puzzles me is figuring out what Blueshirts United was trying to achieve. I understand that they may want to reach out to a more "diverse" fan-base, get some on-the-fence fans to jump ship, but this was the entirely wrong way to go about it. Consider the possible situations that could arise:
1. A female hockey fan reads it because she follows @NYRangers or because she regularly checks Blueshirts United. Considering that she is proactive in getting updates about hockey, I doubt she is the target audience for this piece. It's like handing a college student a picture book about the alphabet and saying "look how much knowledge!" Yep. Lotsa knowledge. If I were still in kindergarten.
2. A male or female hockey fan reads it and understands that he/she is not the target audience. Is NYR expecting this fan to forward this to friends, girlfriends, wives, sisters, daughters and mothers? Is the organisation expecting previously unconvinced friends, girlfriends, wives, sisters, daughters and mothers to suddenly see the light because Henrik Lundqvist is a good looking dude? I deal with non-fans, male and female, all the time, and trust me, I'm as hardcore of a hockey evangelist as you will find. I know a lot of my friends just treat me as a hockey spam-bot and tolerate me only because the internet allows them to shut me off at their discretion. If all my linkage of amaze-balls goals and explosive hits and saving-the-puck-at-the-goal-line heroics haven't done the trick, I don't think Henrik Lundqvist's dreamy face ensconced behind a goalie mask will either.
3. Some women (and men) do genuinely suffer from having to tolerate the men (or women) in their lives obsessing about a silly child's game that involves large, bearded, monsters slamming into each other and swatting at a small black disc. Some of these people do genuinely make an effort to improve their relationships with said folks in their lives by taking an interest in their interests. All of these people are awesome because without these people I wouldn't have any friends...or parents. These people don't care about Callahan or Del Zotto or icing or goals; they just want to hang out with their loved ones. These people wouldn't know the NYR is talking to them because they're not following @NYRangers or any of the outraged hockey bloggers. These people don't give a shit.
So thanks for trying Rangers, but you really missed the mark!
Personally, I thought the whole situation was farcical. An oblivious author writing for an out-of-touch PR department reaching out to rabidly unforgiving fans. Unfortunately for both the author and the Rangers, they got a shockingly cold dose of reality today. NYR's staff can hide behind a cloak of anonymity, but the author has since protected her twitter account, and I don't blame her (hey guys, cyber-bullying is not cool regardless of circumstance!)
The article itself is unsurprisingly flippant and aggravating. However, it is no worse or more casually misogynistic (or more inaccurate) than Cosmo's "My GAWD, Hot NHL Players!", or any number of messages geared toward the light-and-fluffy-and-loves-shopping side female audiences. In front of a different readership, because uninterested but reluctantly obliging girlfriends do exist, this guide may even be not-completely useless. Published most anywhere else, this slideshow would have garnered little attention and even less protest.
What puzzles me is figuring out what Blueshirts United was trying to achieve. I understand that they may want to reach out to a more "diverse" fan-base, get some on-the-fence fans to jump ship, but this was the entirely wrong way to go about it. Consider the possible situations that could arise:
1. A female hockey fan reads it because she follows @NYRangers or because she regularly checks Blueshirts United. Considering that she is proactive in getting updates about hockey, I doubt she is the target audience for this piece. It's like handing a college student a picture book about the alphabet and saying "look how much knowledge!" Yep. Lotsa knowledge. If I were still in kindergarten.
2. A male or female hockey fan reads it and understands that he/she is not the target audience. Is NYR expecting this fan to forward this to friends, girlfriends, wives, sisters, daughters and mothers? Is the organisation expecting previously unconvinced friends, girlfriends, wives, sisters, daughters and mothers to suddenly see the light because Henrik Lundqvist is a good looking dude? I deal with non-fans, male and female, all the time, and trust me, I'm as hardcore of a hockey evangelist as you will find. I know a lot of my friends just treat me as a hockey spam-bot and tolerate me only because the internet allows them to shut me off at their discretion. If all my linkage of amaze-balls goals and explosive hits and saving-the-puck-at-the-goal-line heroics haven't done the trick, I don't think Henrik Lundqvist's dreamy face ensconced behind a goalie mask will either.
3. Some women (and men) do genuinely suffer from having to tolerate the men (or women) in their lives obsessing about a silly child's game that involves large, bearded, monsters slamming into each other and swatting at a small black disc. Some of these people do genuinely make an effort to improve their relationships with said folks in their lives by taking an interest in their interests. All of these people are awesome because without these people I wouldn't have any friends...or parents. These people don't care about Callahan or Del Zotto or icing or goals; they just want to hang out with their loved ones. These people wouldn't know the NYR is talking to them because they're not following @NYRangers or any of the outraged hockey bloggers. These people don't give a shit.
So thanks for trying Rangers, but you really missed the mark!
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