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Bill Burr Inspired Me to Watch the WNBA
What started out as uninspired hate watching turned into taking him up on his challenge.
So I just watched the Bill Burr Netflix comedy special with my husband. What is with this influx of uninspiring sexist and transphobic comedians just saying crazy things for an hour and a half and winning Emmy’s for it? I have no idea. Cruelty sells I guess.
But this time I felt inspired by how enraged I got.
I was watching this special, and Bill Burr was going on in his grating annoying voice. And then out of nowhere he starts talking about Women’s Basketball and I get pissed. I get mostly pissed at myself.
He talks about how as women we don’t really watch women’s basketball and how we as feminists can truly change this whole thing around by watching the sport. Do I think that we are going to solve wealth inequality by watching women’s basketball? No not at all. Do I think that I don’t know many women who can name three women on any women’s basketball team (myself included) yes. Can these same women name three sexy dudes on the mens team. Yes.
While women on women’s basketball teams barely make any money, the men make millions. While women’s basketball gets people tuning in by the thousands men get millions. The WNBA only has 1.1 million followers on social media while the NBA has that times 62 million. It is wild to think about.
I am an intense basketball fan. I don’t write about it here because I am still rusty on some fundamentals. However, in that I realize I have believed this internal hype that my father told me so long ago while I still played basketball as a child:
No one wants to watch the WNBA.
While I doubt Bill Burr even watches the WNBA (maybe he does I don’t know) I will admit I did like his special very much. I loved his conversation with his daughter and his satirical view of his reasoning for his sexism. I finally realized why his wife still is with him. (I used to question it every time he opened his mouth) I think he’s still annoying and drenched in toxic masculinity but his comedy feels more like a man taking jabs at himself and asking big questions. For those who are really listening past the loud boston accent…
