{"id":79491,"date":"2025-08-18T20:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79491\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:07:10","slug":"why-were-people-throwing-dildos-at-wnba-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79491\/","title":{"rendered":"Why were people throwing dildos at WNBA games?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Published<\/p>\n

2025-08-18 11:27<\/p>\n

11:27<\/p>\n

August 18, 2025<\/p>\n

am<\/p>\n

For weeks, WNBA fans and players kept an eye out for\u00a0green dildos flying toward the court, a phenomenon that started July 29 during a game between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream and occurred during at least six more games around the country. Players, coaches and fans expressed shock and frustration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Online, an entirely different group of people were following the games. Instead of focusing on the athletes, the cryptocurrency enthusiasts were posting derogatory comments about the WNBA and scanning the stands, awaiting the emergence of the green sex toy, based on a meme coin<\/a> they launched the day before. They quickly claimed credit<\/a> for some of the incidents, which were designed to create publicity for the meme coin and drive up its value. The meme coin\u2019s value jumped 300 percent in its first week and traded over $1.3 million<\/a> in a single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t do this because we dislike women\u2019s sports or, like, some of the narratives that are trending right now are ridiculous,\u201d the spokesperson for the group told USA Today<\/a> under the condition of anonymity. \u201cCreating disruption at games is like, it happens in every single sport, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

For these women athletes, it wasn\u2019t a harmless disruption. It was a safety concern and deeply disrespectful<\/a>. Humiliation, often lewd, has long been used to make women feel uncomfortable or diminish their athletic accomplishments. The WNBA has grown significantly in the last two seasons with record attendance, television viewership and financial investment. As they negotiate for higher salaries, players are fighting to be respected.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to make sure the W is not a joke, and it\u2019s taken seriously and then that happens,\u201d Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever said during an August 5 podcast interview, referring to the first dildo being thrown. \u201cI\u2019m like, how are we ever going to get taken seriously?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 19th spoke with experts about the popularity of meme coins, how online jokes can lead to violence and what can be done about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are meme coins?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency based on Internet memes or viral trends. Because they are not tied to any specific technology or practical application, they are known for their extreme price volatility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Molly White, a researcher, engineer and prominent writer who focuses on the cryptocurrency industry, said a lot of times meme coins come down to what cryptocurrency groups find funny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s often misogynistic and racist,\u201d White said. \u201cI think it\u2019s part and parcel with a lot of the behavior that we see in the crypto sector, broadly speaking. A lot of the jokes and meme coins are fundamentally incredibly bigoted. The more shocking it is, the funnier people in these spaces tend to find it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

White, a longtime critic of the crypto sector<\/a>, said the financial terminology that is used in describing crypto can be misleading for the inexperienced and that many people lose a lot of money because they think they are investing and have protections similar to if they were investing in the stock market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really not investing; the speculation that happens around meme coin is sort of more like gambling,\u201d White said. \u201cAnd not only that, it\u2019s almost like gambling at a rigged casino. If you go to Vegas, and you\u2019re in one of the legitimate casinos there, there are some requirements there. You can\u2019t weight the dice, and they have to publish the odds at the tables so you know how lucky you have to be to win. That\u2019s really not the case with a lot of crypto trading, which happens on marketplaces that have very shady backgrounds and do a poor job of controlling market manipulation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After President Donald Trump\u2019s second inauguration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released a memo<\/a> that neither \u201cmeme coin purchasers nor holders are protected by the federal securities laws.\u201d Trump has openly embraced crypto<\/a> since taking back the White House, and his family has generated around $4.5 billion<\/a> in crypto wealth since January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really in a Wild West situation when it comes to meme coins because there is no oversight at this point in time,\u201d White said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because meme coins rely on virality and face thousands of competitors every day, creators have been known to use extreme and sometimes illegal stunts to get attention and news coverage. People have set themselves on fire<\/a>, shot guns out of windows and threatened to hurt themselves and their own families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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How does an online joke turn into a dangerous trend?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pasha Dashtgard, director of research at the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University, said \u201cthe weaponization of humor\u201d is a common strategy used by extremists to recruit people to their movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how it works: Your entry into this space is as a joke, through memes and humor, with the idea that it gives you plausible deniability,\u201d Dashtgard said. \u201cRather than being held to some academic or professional standard, you can write yourself off as \u2018I\u2019m just joking around, so if you\u2019re offended, don\u2019t follow up with me. Don\u2019t hold me accountable.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for the people who are being radicalized, Dashtgard said they understand \u2014 sometimes subconsciously \u2014 that this isn\u2019t really a joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a persuasive tactic. It is meant to be resonant \u2014 like a dog whistle of sorts,\u201d Dashtgard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the manosphere \u2014 a network of online influencers promoting male supremacy and far-right ideologies \u2014 has grown<\/a> and become more mainstream<\/a>, young men are being radicalized into male supremacy at higher rates. And a small contingent of those men are \u201ctaking their online behavior into the offline world,\u201d Dashtgard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t serious, until it is serious \u2014 and then it\u2019s like disrupting a professional\u00a0 basketball game in order to embarrass and humiliate these women who are working,\u201d Dashtgard said, adding that it\u2019s not a coincidence that the majority<\/a> of WNBA athletes are Black women, who often face disproportionate hate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a researcher of extremism, Dashtgard said there are levels of radicalization before violence. For example, someone who is posting vitriol on 4chan is one level. Doxxing and harassing women reporters online would be a higher level. And if you are attending a nationally televised event like a WNBA game to throw a sex toy, that is an even higher level of investment in and endorsement of male supremacist ideology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the next step is more violence: intimate partner violence, domestic violence, violence against random women on the street,\u201d Dashtgard said. \u201cIf this [WNBA trend] becomes a phenomenon that a bunch of young people take up as funny, that then imperils women. It makes it less safe to be a woman in public\u00a0\u2014 which is, in a sense, the broader aim.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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How concerned should WNBA fans be about attending future games?<\/p>\n

Fans shouldn\u2019t be too concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

White said it is challenging to sustain the value of a meme coin. There are thousands of new ones that emerge everyday, and even the more successful ones typically get headlines for only a couple of weeks before the joke gets old and attention and value drop. There are a few exceptions, such as the $TRUMP meme coin<\/a> that the president announced days before his second inauguration. Shortly after launch, the coin\u2019s value on paper soared to more than $10 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to predict which way things will go with any given meme coin.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither the whole thing dies out with the early buyers making a lot of money, but the majority of people losing money,\u201d White said. \u201cOr the creators of the token are incentivized to up the ante and do something more dramatic and attention-getting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As it stands, the WNBA announced that anyone who intentionally throws an object onto the court would be immediately ejected and face a minimum one-year ban, in addition to being subject to arrest and prosecution by local authorities. Two people have been arrested<\/a> so far.<\/p>\n

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What can be done to minimize violence and combat online misogyny and hate?\u00a0<\/p>\n

White warned that giving dangerous trends attention is oftentimes exactly what feeds their longevity. However, she said, when it becomes increasingly shocking and dangerous, the solution isn\u2019t ignoring it and hoping it goes away. At some point, people need to discuss what\u2019s happening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than starving it of attention, I think it is a phenomenon that needs to be grappled with by broader society,\u201d White said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be attention paid to it, whether it\u2019s big media outlets or social media, and so giving it an accurate accounting is ultimately important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

White said there should be consequences for bad behavior. Ideally, she said, there would be discouragement from external parties. Meme coin platforms \u2014 where the coins are bought, sold and launched \u2014 would monitor their platforms more. Organizations, like the WNBA, would eject people and prosecute criminal activity. And the federal government would tighten up regulations for meme coins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dashtgard said his focus is on engaging with susceptible young people before they are radicalized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Dashtgard said PERIL released a guide last year called \u201cNot Just a Joke<\/a>.\u201d The goal is to arm authority figures, like parents and educators, with the knowledge to reach young men without condemning or humiliating them. Dashtgard compared this method to a vaccine: You inoculate people against propaganda by giving them a small dose and explaining what persuasive mechanisms are being used to change their beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the vaccine doesn\u2019t work if you are already sick,\u201d Dashtgard said. \u201cIf you are already bringing a dildo to a WNBA game, you are too far down the rabbit hole for a simple redirection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Dashtgard said, the situation is more similar to rehabilitating alcohol or drug addicts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can be done for a guy like that?\u201d Dashtgard said. \u201cHonestly, not much. He has to want to come out of this. Maybe it\u2019s his wife, a girlfriend, a friend, a family member, a cousin, a brother, a best friend, somebody in his life has to help him recognize the harm that he\u2019s doing. And he has to want to change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published 2025-08-18 11:27 11:27 August 18, 2025 am For weeks, WNBA fans and players kept an eye out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-79491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79491","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=79491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}