On Jimmy Kimmel Live, guests -- including famous athletes -- often read mean tweets about themselves in a humurous segment for the daily show. But while #meantweets can be funny, they can also be incredibly hurtful and insensitive, particularly when directed at women.
The podcast Just Not Sports shined light on this issue a powerful video released on Tuesday, as a group of men read a collection of shocking #morethanmean tweets sent to reporters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro. The video offered a glimpse of the abuse women who work in the sporting world face on an daily basis. As the insults got darker, the the male participants got increasingly uncomfortable, to the point where many could not bring themselves to say the tweets out loud.
The Just Not Sports team explained the thought process behind the video's creation:
"In reading the statements out loud to women journalists, guys are forced to experience, sometimes for the first time, the shocking online harassment happening to women in sports day in, day out. It serves as proof most sports fans would NEVER say these things to another person – so we shouldn't type this garbage, either."
The video is quickly gaining steam, nearing 200,00 views on YouTube as of this writing. Hopefully, this message continues spreading to sports fans everywhere in an effort to curtail the harassment we so often see on social media.
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