Next weekend the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) will kick off its Dream Gap Tour in Toronto, Ontario. The Dream Gap refers to the fact that little boys can dream of being a professional hockey player but little girls have no such equivalent dream to chase. In the PWHPA’s press release for the tour,…
Co-Authored by Brett Pardy and Courtney Szto. Mainstream (sports) media has no idea what to do with well-spoken and educated women. If they also excel at sports the confusion is compounded. This likely has a lot to do with the fact that 90% of sports editors, 70% of assistant sports editors, 83% of columnists, 89%…
It’s Friday night. I worked all day, had a 5:30pm tournament game, and came home from the rink to a text that read: “Why are the CWHL trophies on sale? Disgusting.” So here I am, at 7:30pm, hungry and rage-y, poking the keyboard because, as Kirsten Whalen wrote for the Victory Press on April 20th,…
Co-Authored by Brett Pardy and Courtney Szto *Note: We tend not to refer to the CWHL in the past tense in these posts because…it just feels wrong.* In 2001, Japan created a reality TV show titled, The Tigers of Money. This venture capitalist show was the impetus for the Dragons’ Den series that has been re-created…
Welcome to Part 1 of a 3-part series authored by Brett Pardy and myself, where we will bust three dominant myths associated with women’s hockey. We had planned this series before the CWHL announced its closure, and now these arguments become even more relevant. This first post will address the myth that the media only…
Co-Authored by Brett Pardy and Courtney Szto. Women’s sports, on the whole, is far more interesting than men’s sports. That’s right, we said it. We make this assertion based on the fact that women athletes have to cultivate a life outside of the playing field, even if only to make ends meet. But subsistence purposes…
“The story of women’s hockey is a tale of unimaginable progress while at the same time only scratching the surface of how far there is to go” (Alana Paterson, Globe and Mail, 2017). The CWHL has a new commissioner in Jayna Hefford and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Hefford is just the league’s second…
Hockey moms represent an integral pillar of hockey culture. So much so that in Canada there is a website called “Canadian Hockey Moms” dedicated to connecting and supporting all the rink moms. Gongshow apparel has even written an open letter to hockey moms expressing, “Thank you for giving us that extra 10 minutes on the…
The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. ICYMI: I took Elliotte Friedman to task about some concussion research he was promoting on Hockey Night in Canada. He also responded in the comments section of the article. [The Dangerous Partial Truth about Concussions] In Game 6 between the…
The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. Enjoy! ICYMI we had two new posts this week: A guest post encouraging empathy for sexual assault survivors in the locker room [Ensuring the Co-Ed Hockey is for Everyone], and new contributor, Doo Jae Park wrote about identity and radicalization…
Hockey in Society / Hockey dans la société 