Men Read the Horrible Tweets Sent to Female Sports Reporters

Mean tweet videos are fun, right? People like Obama, Tony Romo, Olivia Munn, Justin Bieber or whoever else read all the nasty shit people say about them on Twitter? Such fine japery! Well, that might be true in those cases, but most certainly not in this one. Last year, sports journalist Julia DiCaro wrote a powerful, distressing piece for Sports Illustrated about how she has been treated online throughout her career.  Beyond her own experiences, she also touched upon those of fellow journalists, many of whom are referred to in the most abhorrent, unacceptable and even threatening terms. Threats of violence, rape and murder are not uncommon.

In a bid to illustrate just how appalling it is to speak to anyone that way, let alone someone just trying to do their job, DiCaro teamed up with another writer – ESPN’s Sarah Spain – to produce the above video. The men who read the tweets are seeing them for the first time, and the way their reaction changes as the video progresses really lays out how fucked up this all is. At first only the language intensifies, then the imagery, until finally it reaches a twisted fever pitch as the men twist with discomfort at the notion of saying these things out loud. DiCaro in particular is a rape victim, and some of the tweets she receives directly reference this, not in a supportive way.

By the end of it, all the men in the video are practically choking on the words, looking up with baleful eyes as if all they want to do is apologise endlessly. It’s a startlingly effective reminder of how much worse online abuse seems when you actually sound it out. People hiding behind the cloak of a Twitter or forum account are using it as a way of remaining detached from consequence, but it will always be there, even you hide from it. If something is too horrible to say out loud, don’t type it either, especially as a way of admonishing someone for their job, their gender, or any combination of the two. Massive respect to DiCaro and Spain for doing this, as well as all the men who struggled their way through the recording. I’ll wager they’ve all grown a little from the experience.