(Podcast) WNBA’s Chantelle Anderson: blogging about female athletes, lesbians and her image in the sports industry
April 20, 2009 by Megan Hueter
Filed under Basketball, Famous Women in Sports, From the blogosphere, Marketing and Advertising, Objectification in Sports Blogs, Sports Journalism
On Friday, I conducted one of my favorite interviews – an informed telephone conversation with Chantelle Anderson who plays for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Chantelle touched on many different points in this interview, but this discussion was not centered upon her role on the court.
Instead, it’s formulated around some of the topics that Chantelle has brought up off the court on her blog, and they have to do with the image and sexual orientation of modern female athletes.
Chantelle’s blog has gotten quite a bit of attention since she’s started writing just a year month ago. For example, her post titled The Choice between Sports and Sex Appeal received 73 comments, and her most popular post to date, Why Men Hate Lesbians, received 193 comments. Looks like she’s going to start video blogging, too.
If you click through to her posts and read some of the comments, you can see Chantelle actively engages with her readers, responding to most (if not all) with her honest opinion. In my opinion, this is awesome. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Chantelle is the first female athlete… ever… to take these issues head on.
Regardless of whether or not I agree with what Chantelle says, I do have to give her major kudos for being open, honest and consistently responsive. She’s airing some first-hand answers to questions that many people have about professional female athletes – questions that may or may not keep them from attending games.
Instead of casting blank, uninformed opinion about Chantelle’s blog, in the spirit of openness and transparency (which both the Chantelle and the WNBA have recently decided to live), I decided to talk with Chantelle directly, asking her important questions and receiving honest answers. Oh, and I recorded it as a podcast (click the play button at the top or bottom of this post).
If you’re interested in following Chantelle, check out her Twitter account @MissChantelle or simply read the Chantelle Anderson Blog on Yardbarker.com.
Thanks again for talking to me, Chantelle – looking forward to hearing more from you in the future. Keep airing these topics – we need to keep having these important conversations. Most importantly, we need ALL women in the sports industry to participate.
Chantelle sounds like a remarkable woman. I enjoyed listening to this podcast and wish her well.
Megan,
I have been following Chantelle’s blogs at Yardbarker.com and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Her no-bull style is a welcome approach for an athlete, who seem to get largely caught up in cliches at times trying not to offend anyone or give anything away. She does a great job of relating the issues of a professional athlete with regular things that us fans can identify with, and she seems willing to speak honestly and thoughtfully about a variety of subjects.
Her approach further highlights to me just how sanitized the WNBA is. This is unfortunate IMO, because trying to keep certain things under wraps only increases the taboo factor and makes things more uncomfortable for all involved. So far, Chantelle has been a refreshing change from the typical athlete banter, so kudos to you for recognising that and catching up with her.
Thanks for conducting and posting the interview. I enjoyed it.
Luuuc
Luuc,
Thanks for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the podcast. I’m interested in what you said about the WNBA being “sanitized.” I’m not so sure it’s the leagues fault (they’re only trying to stay alive).
Do you think it’s more the sporting culture that’s sanitized? I mean, in general, I feel like EVERY women’s sport keeps these issues under wraps because it’s culturally taboo to talk about them, and sponsors/advertisers aren’t exactly quick to market issues like this because it’s political/touchy in nature.
Interested in what you have to say about that.
You’re right I guess … sport in general seems to be more sanitized than ever before. High profile athletes aren’t just athletes anymore – they represent communities, corporations and so on, and have to be so careful not to put a put a foot wrong that their personalities are severely stifled. That sucks, because we fans are regular humans and it only adds to our interest in a team when we can identify with the personalities of the players. It’s not just about wins & losses, it’s about characters and rivalries. Nothing gets us fans as passionate as when we get personally/emotionally involved.
Anyway back to my earlier statement, it does seem to me that WNBA fans more than others are treated like children. One reason for that is of course the smaller popularity of the league. It doesn’t have a lot of public interest or financial resources, so there are fewer people out there digging for stories. But the league doesn’t appear to me to be making the most of what they have. There is an abundance of wonderful and interesting people in this league, but the people covering it only seem to be willing/able to bring us the easy, obvious stuff.
I’m not just talking about issues like sexuality either. The league is clearly in no hurry to open that up but I can understand that to an extent, and frankly I’m not that concerned with it anyway. I would just like to know more about these characters that pull on the uniforms of our favourite teams. Something beyond their field goal percentage, their college major or what’s on their iPod.
Chantelle has given us a look at that, and I for one am very appreciative. I’m a Phoenix Mercury fan, but I now have a much larger interest in what is happening at the Atlanta Dream purely due to a blog. It’s just fortunate for us fans that we now live in the information age where players can communicate with us directly, because I don’t think we’d be getting it any other way.
Cool. I look forward to reading the posts you linked to, and to hearing the podcast. I don’t venture out of my little “pool” (the climbing world) very often to connect with other female athletes, but it sounds like we may have more in common than not! Thanks for this post!
I have gone through this blog and got many ideas and information about women athletes. I know women athletes are far better than Men athletes.