After the NHL Rangers' website on Friday published an article entitled "A Girl's Guide to Watching the Rangers," the organization was "quickly derided for the condescending way in which the article addresses its female readers," according to Chris Peters of CBSSPORTS.com. Sometimes with a new audience, "it's just best to let the game speak for itself and let them learn as they go." The team now is "finding this out the hard way." The story was presented in a "slide-show format with words of apparent advice for female fans." The Rangers were "quick to point out" that the story was "written by a contributor not employed by the team." The article "suggests learning a few names of the players by looking up the roster on the Rangers website, the importance of getting to know goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and reassuring the reader that it's all right to ask the man questions." The Rangers in response to the backlash tweeted, "Today's article was posted by a fan contributor. We determined article was inappropriate & took it down. We apologize to all offended fans." Peters wrote it is "good that the Rangers acknowledged that the story was in poor taste and shouldn't have been published, but the fact that a fan contribution wouldn't go through some sort of vetting process before it appears on a team-affiliated site seems a little hard to believe." Additionally, the Rangers "initially tweeted the link to the Girl's Guide from the official Twitter account" (CBSSPORTS.com, 1/25). YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote, "No one associated with the post evidently remembered the 'While The Men Watch' controversy last season, in which CBC pushed a female hockey program" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/25).
HOW BAD WAS IT REALLY? In Philadelphia, Deanna Vasso wrote, "As a female hockey fan, I found this article to be unintentionally hilarious." Vasso: "Although it was written by a woman, the condescending tone throughout the article hit on a lot of female stereotypes and assumed all women know absolutely nothing about hockey." The purpose of the blog was "understandable, but the lexicon and tone of it made it come off as sexist, even though it was written by a woman." Vasso wrote, "Here’s my advice to anyone -- male or female -- who wants to learn more about hockey: Be a visual learner and just watch the game" (PHILLY.com, 1/26).
