In today\u2019s edition: the mayor on the ground in D.C., some projects to add to your streaming watchlist, and women\u2019s sports have come too far to be the butt of a joke. <\/p>\n
\u2013 Game time. For the past two weeks, WNBA games have been interrupted. Sex toys have been thrown on the court<\/a> in the middle of matchups between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries, New York Liberty and Dallas Wings, Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut Sun, and more.<\/p>\n At first, it seemed like a well-intentioned, if mildly dangerous, prank. The WNBA is made up of many queer women, and coming from a fan, it could have been something of an inside joke. But as the incidents racked up, players started to be less amused. The police have even gotten involved, with an arrest in Phoenix and the NYPD searching for a suspect<\/a> in New York. It became decidedly less funny when a cryptocurrency group claimed responsibility<\/a> for some of the incidents, saying they were intended to market a new coin. This was \u201cmarketing\u201d going for a shock factor at the expense of a growing game\u2014one that\u2019s still in the middle of figuring out how to market itself.<\/p>\n It was almost a physical manifestation of what the WNBA has been going through over the past year. As the league surged in popularity<\/a>, it attracted a host of new viewers who didn\u2019t always come in good faith. They directed racist commentary<\/a> toward players online, among other incidents. For players, it was an at times difficult departure from the safe environment of hardcore, devoted fans that the league attracted when it was less popular. <\/p>\n But the demeaning nature of these stunts\u2014men throwing sex toys to disrupt arguably the most successful women\u2019s sports league\u2014is somehow worse. For years, one of the biggest problems facing women\u2019s sports was that they weren\u2019t \u201ccool.\u201d Girls played sports growing up, but lost interest<\/a> when they hit their teen years. On the professional side, women\u2019s teams had to contend with not only less funding and less media coverage, but media attention that was sometimes actively hostile to their success. Last year, when I wrote a feature story for Fortune<\/a> about the growth of the WNBA, longtime star Sue Bird analyzed this problem for me. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve used this term \u2018cool factor,’\u201d she told me last year, well before the sex toy incidents. \u201cFor some reason, we got put in the \u2018not cool\u2019 category. It was easy to have us be the butt of the joke on SNL, it was easy to have dudes walk around and be like, \u2018I could take them.\u2019 It seeped into our society.\u201d <\/p>\n These stunts attempt to make women\u2019s sports the butt of the joke again. And we\u2019ve come too far to let that happen. The WNBA is an eight-figure business, whose players are superstars with die-hard fandoms, earning multimillion-dollar endorsement deals. Celebrities sit courtside. A viral t-shirt<\/a> from the brand Togethxr that says \u201ceverybody watches women\u2019s sports\u201d made women\u2019s sports not just popular, but ubiquitous, part of the air we breathe.<\/p>\n Bird told me last year that she never let the jokes get to her during the two decades she played. \u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t true,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were a thousand reasons\u2014attendance, companies paying us thousands of dollars to represent them. So you can\u2019t tell me there\u2019s no value in our country for women\u2019s basketball players.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans are seeing through these stunts. And players have been speaking up, especially as the incidents have become more dangerous with players and fans in danger of getting hit<\/a> by an object hurtling through the air. The writer Frankie de la Cretaz wrote last week that these stunts are about power<\/a>. I\u2019ll say, they\u2019re about who gets to drive culture\u2014and who\u2019s the punchline. This time, the difference is women\u2019s sports have their own media ecosystem and fans. Those who want to turn women\u2019s basketball into a joke will simply be drowned out.<\/p>\n Emma Hinchliffe The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune\u2019s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n ALSO IN THE HEADLINES<\/p>\n – Front lines. After President Donald Trump announced his takeover of Washington’s police force and activation of the National Guard, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the move “unsettling.” She said it’s one reason why she’s advocated for full statehood for the nation’s capital. AP<\/a><\/p>\n – Are you still watching?\u00a0Meghan and Harry have a new deal with Netflix. It’s a first-look deal, rather than their past exclusive arrangement. A second season of\u00a0With Love, Meghan\u00a0is coming, as is a holiday special, and Netflix remains a partner in Meghan’s As Ever brand. New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n – Coming soon.\u00a0Swiped, the movie about Whitney Wolfe Herd and Bumble, will premiere on Hulu Sept. 19. The trailer dropped yesterday; Lily James plays Wolfe Herd, who wasn’t involved in the production.\u00a0Variety<\/a><\/p>\n – Burnout warning. A new study finds that female teachers are more stressed and burnt out than their male colleagues. Women make up three-quarters of the teaching workforce in the U.S.\u00a0The 74<\/a><\/p>\n MOVERS AND SHAKERS<\/p>\n Life360 promoted Lauren Antonoff to CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lisa Coffey joins iHeartMedia as chief business officer.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Goodles, the mac and cheese brand backed by Gal Gadot, named Monica Sejour SVP of operations.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n ON MY RADAR<\/p>\n Mothers are leaving the workforce, erasing pandemic gains\u00a0Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n ‘Icy cool’: How Claudia Sheinbaum is navigating Trump’s new world order\u00a0Politico<\/a><\/p>\n Investor Bill Ackman proposes combining Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac\u00a0Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n PARTING WORDS<\/p>\n “Most people can only handle one side of a public figure. They can\u2019t handle a whole person. I kind of describe it as a hexagon. We\u2019re all hexagons. We all have multiple sides, multiple facets.”\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014Lee Tilghman, who was one of the first successful Instagram influencers. Her new book<\/a> is about the reality\u2014and downsides\u2014of influencing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n