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Cryptocurrency meme coin creators behind recent WNBA sex toy incidents<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Sports has uncovered the group behind the incidents where sex toys have been thrown on the court at WNBA games. Meg Hall explains why this group says they’re doing this.<\/p>\n
The crypto bros behind the rash of sex toys being thrown at WNBA games<\/a> are not funny, creative, rebellious or any of the other glowing narratives they\u2019ve imagined for themselves.<\/p>\n They\u2019re misogynists, showcasing their immaturity and insecurity in the oldest way possible. The WNBA and its players have reached a level of popularity usually reserved for male athletes and leagues, a level of popularity these man-babies can only dream of.<\/p>\n Whatever message they\u2019re claiming to be wanting to send<\/a> about the toxicity of the crypto industry is negated by the callout to the long history of slapping down women who dare invade the male sanctuary of sports. And doing so with the kind of \u201chumor\u201d that has the demeaning of women at its very core.<\/p>\n These aren\u2019t pranks. This is a coordinated campaign of harassment designed to remind WNBA players and their fans that, for all the progress women\u2019s sports have made in the last few years, the playing field will never be level if they have anything to say about it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sobering reminder of the power of misogyny and the pervasiveness of misogyny and homophobia in our culture,\u201d said Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sport and culture.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really important reminder for those of us advocating for equality, advocating for women\u2019s sports and trying to increase their visibility, that the work isn\u2019t done,\u201d Cooky added. \u201cJust because women are filling stadiums, the work is still not done. The struggle is still not over.\u201d<\/p>\n Since July 29, sex toys have been thrown at six WNBA games in five different cities. That\u2019s more than a third of the league, for those who\u2019d try to downplay it.<\/p>\n Had a player slipped on one of the objects, it could have resulted in a torn ACL or a broken wrist or a concussion. But it shouldn\u2019t take a career-altering injury to see how malicious this is.<\/p>\n Creators of a cryptocurrency meme coin, Green Dildo Coin, have claimed credit for this inanity, with a spokesman telling USA TODAY that it wasn\u2019t meant to be a takedown of the WNBA. Rather, he said, these crypto bros are trying to perpetuate a culture cultivated around jokes, pranks and stunts.<\/p>\n Which, aside from not making sense, is contradicted by the acknowledgment that the group\u2019s next foolishness will be \u201ca\u00a0lot lighter. They’re a lot more tasteful.\u201d Sure. Save the \u201ctasteful\u201d and funny stunts for the general public while subjecting the WNBA, its players and its fans to this NSFW nonsense. Not demeaning or hateful at all!<\/p>\n I\u2019m just surprised the crypto bros didn\u2019t tell WNBA players to smile more while they were at it.<\/p>\n The crypto group\u2019s spokesman also pointed out that objects, including sex toys, are thrown at other sporting events<\/a>. But a sex toy being thrown \u2014 repeatedly! \u2014 at women\u2019s games when most of that league\u2019s players are queer and women of color hits differently than the one-off tossing of an octopus or a hat or even a sex toy at a men\u2019s game, and it begs credulity that these \u201cbros\u201d don\u2019t get that.<\/p>\n Especially when you listen to one of their social media livestreams and hear their vulgar comments about W players. Or see their \u201cPaid You What We Owed You\u201d merchandise, mocking the T-shirts W players wore at the All-Star Game<\/a> to call attention to their demand for higher salaries and more equitable revenue sharing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe showing of sex objects is trying to show male dominance. (Because) women\u2019s sports is the ethos of women\u2019s power in our country,\u201d said Ajhanai Keaton, an assistant professor of sports management at UMass who specializes in the intersection of organizational behavior, race, gender, media and politics.<\/p>\n It should not be lost on anyone that the crypto bros launched their campaign of misogyny two weeks after the All-Star Game. The WNBA had been front and center in casual conversation, and the StudBudz<\/a>, two Black, masculine-presenting players, went viral.<\/p>\n Of course there was going to be repercussions.<\/p>\n The history of women\u2019s sports \u2014 hell, women in general \u2014 is littered with stories of backlash any time there\u2019s progress. Women\u2019s soccer was banned in England for a half-century<\/a> because its popularity was considered a threat to the men\u2019s game. An increase in the number of women athletes resulted in gender tests<\/a> and insane claims that physical activity would damage their reproductive systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n And this country might never recover from the audacity of two women running for president.<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as there\u2019s a cultural narrative of the rise of women\u2019s sports, there\u2019s also a really powerful backlash that corresponds to that celebration and explosion in interest and explosion in popularity,\u201d Cooky, the Purdue professor, said. \u201cThose two things are happening hand in hand, and that\u2019s not by accident.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the crypto bros have gotten the attention they wanted. But they’ll soon discover what other trolls have: Only weak men demean women, and anyone insecure enough to pull stunts like this is desperately trying to compensate for something.<\/p>\n Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency meme coin creators behind recent WNBA sex toy incidents USA TODAY Sports has uncovered the group behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[31289,461,49,48,10665,10668,1329,11232,37543,37538,12303,37537,44,927,10232,10666,5589,37542,37539,37540,37544,26636,36646,82,865,37541,1335,4139,630,4134,4143],"class_list":["post-56619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-adult","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-columnists","tag-columnists-opinions","tag-content","tag-discrimination","tag-discrimination-u0026-identity-relations","tag-harassment","tag-identity","tag-misogyny","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-content","tag-opinions","tag-purdue","tag-purdue-university","tag-relations","tag-sensitive","tag-sensitive-subjects","tag-sexual","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-subjects","tag-u0026","tag-university","tag-wnba","tag-womens","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}