Female Sports Fans: First blog entry...EVER.

After years of ditching brunch with friends to watch football and turning up disgracefully late to weddings to catch post-game press conferences on ESPN News, I've gotten used to people's surprise at my priorities. Somehow one can expect—and even accept—those choices from a man, but a woman passing up mimosas and romantic ceremonies for sweaty grown men throwing each other onto the muddy field (or, annoyingly, the immaculate turf), apparently that defies the natural order or things.

We've gotten used to "metrosexuals." We no longer assume that a man who can make a soufflé or identify Manolos is gay. It's not even shocking for straight men to get facials, for crying out loud. In an era that's produced a serious female contender for the White House, why hasn't our perception of female sports fandom evolved?

I'm not just talking about women who tune into some ice skating or even tennis from time to time, and are aware of the latest steroid scandals. I'm talking about women who know what "K" stands for, women who call in sick the day after their team loses, women whose significant others are football widowers. Female viewership for the "big three" has been steadily increasing, and we're always hearing about how advertisers are planning to target fans of both genders. But I do worry that all we'll get out of this apparent trend is more mawkish human interest stories and sentimental player portraits on television, a proliferation of nacho recipe ideas in magazines, and the arrival of douche commercials during the Super Bowl.

Surely there's more to women's fascination with sports than that....