Do you all know the secret? The deep, dark, totally secret-secret? Female fans talk about sports just like males fans do.

I realize that most everyone reading this article is thinking, “well, duh,” but sadly, not as many people are as enlightened as the readers who frequent EcoSalon.

About a week or so ago, Men’s Health Magazine made a big mistake by publishing the article, “The Secret to Talking Sports With Any Woman.” Luckily, the magazine was struck with a stroke of genius later, though, and the publication deleted the article.

Men’s Health’s “eject now” button was not pushed nearly quick enough, though. Mediaite clicked a pretty choice screen capture of the article’s headline, and its first few paragraphs. Let me tell ya – it’s about as insulting you can imagine. Here are a few bon mots from the now deleted article:

“Not all women share your passion for sports, in case you hadn’t noticed. The reason? They need story lines.”

“Most women don’t care about stats.”

Good one, guys! Up top! But really – what the heck was Men’s Health thinking? Not much, apparently. But after the magazine tweeted out its unfortunate article, it got a heck of a lot of feedback. Men and women alike were mad, strike that – incredibly mad – that the magazine thought this story was a good idea.

Men’s Health eventually caught wind of all the negative feedback and ended up deleting the article and the tweet it sent out to promote the piece. The magazine apologized for the article and tweet, and swore up and down that readers really weren’t supposed to be offended.

Come on, Men’s Health. It’s 2014 — Women and men like sports and want respect. I know plenty of female sports fans who are just as rabid, if not more rabid, than male fans. If Men’s Health were paying attention to anything (and by anything, I mean society, a television, a sports bar, a game, etc.), they’d know that, too. Also: Women, just like men, can be casual fans, too. You don’t need to understand everything about a sport’s team in pain-staking detail to appreciate the game.

So, still need advice on how to talk to women about sports? Here you go: Ask her if she’s a fan and if she says, “yeah, totally,” you say, “rad, me too.”

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The post Mind Blowing: Talk to Women About Sports as You Would with a Dude appeared first on EcoSalon.

So, you’re a girl. You say you like rock music? Perhaps you even want to perform a cover of your favorite T. Rex, Nirvana, or James Gang song at your next gig? Well, you better check with the boys first, or you very well could be boo’d off stage, or taunted on your band’s Facebook page the next day.

This is what happened to Miley Cyrus when she dared cover the Smiths’ “There is a Light That Never Goes Out.” Now, I typically don’t write in defense of a pop star’s actions. (After all, most of the time these performers are looking to ruffle feathers.) But if there’s one thing Cyrus shouldn’t be criticized for it’s her want to perform a song she admires. The same thing happened to One Direction, too. The pop band was berated for performing a combo cover of Blondie’s “One Way or Another,” and The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks.”

So, why do professional and armchair fan boys and girls get huffy when they hear a pop star covering a rock music anthem? One guess: They despise these pop stars’ young, female followers.

A recent article in Rookie entitled “The Importance of Music to Girls” talks about this issue. After all, why is it so terrible when teen girls start to like rock and dig your beloved band’s music? It doesn’t affect you. Not really. And do you really think these classic rock bands care who their fans are, or their fans’ age? I’d venture to say that all these “big” artists don’t care who is listening: They are just happy people are listening.

The Rookie author also expertly points out that teen girls have been the demographic that has helped music acts gain notoriety. Where would Michael Jackson and The Beatles be without their young, female followers? The author notes that even Kurt Cobain, perhaps the modern day rock god, wrote that: “I like the comfort in knowing that women are the only future in rock and roll.”

So, you rock on, you young, female rock music fans. Keep listening to music and devour as many different genres as you can. Who cares if you fall in love with a classic rock song because one of your favorite pop artist’s covered it? I sure don’t.

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The post Breaking into the Boys Rock Music Club (Girls Can Like Rock, Too) appeared first on EcoSalon.