The piece also points to a wider climate in which Donald Trump has saved some of his sharpest attacks for female journalists who challenge him, and argues that such talk from a US president emboldens other men, including those posting anonymously. In one video, men who did not know the abuse aimed at Spain and DiCaro read those comments aloud while sitting across from them.
Comments accused her of envying attractive, glamorous presenters, of being a feminist, and of sour grapes because she could not have those women’s jobs. She wrote that she had also addressed systemic sexism, patriarchy and the fetishisation of white skin in explaining why cheerleaders are recruited to appeal to a male audience in the ground and at home.
She described entering a press contingent as one of only two women and being afraid of how male peers and senior colleagues would judge her presence and her work. At a tabloid, she wrote, male colleagues repeatedly reminded her how gifted and knowledgeable her predecessor had been.
Earlier, while reporting, she was groped in a crowd and dealt with a stalker. Those, she wrote, were one-off incidents, not the torrent of vicious micro-assaults she now describes. She also noted that more prominent women in the field have had it as bad, or worse.
Female sports journalists say sexist abuse that once came in isolated incidents now arrives as a constant stream on social media, often aimed at their voices, appearance and private lives rather than their reporting.
The account cites the case of Kuggeleijn, who was acquitted in 2017 at a retrial after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict the first time. Details from the case angered fans.
On a show, she and colleagues noted that eight of the 32 NFL teams had dropped cheerleaders, with owners saying they were uncomfortable with scantily clad women dancing on the sidelines, which they called sexist and degrading.
Doshi said that even after 20 years in the job she still questions whether she belongs, and that small mistakes feel costly because they can feed existing prejudice. She wrote that most women in sport feel they must work twice as hard as male colleagues to prove they have a place.
She said abuse poured in from the moment she appeared on The Scoop and expressed strong views, particularly on the politicisation of cricket and sexism in the sport. She has treated that platform as a place to raise politicisation, colourism, racism and sexism around the game.