12-Year-Old Righteously Slams Dick’s Sporting Goods For Being Sexist Jerks

McKenna Peterson is a 12-year-old basketball player and supreme badass who wants retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods to know that their basketball catalog is a piece of sexist trash. Her letter to that effect was posted to Twitter by her sports journalist father Chris Peterson, and has since taken the Internet by storm, which is good, since somebody apparently needs to tell Dick’s that girls playing basketball is kind of a thing these days. Don’t worry, Dick’s, their petticoats and dainty little feminine hands don’t cause them too much trouble on the court.

mckenna peterson letter to dick'sIn the entire Basketball 2014 catalog mailed out by Dick’s, McKenna points out, there is not a single female player depicted:

There are NO girls in the catalog! Oh, wait, sorry. There IS a girl on page 6. SITTING in the STANDS. Women are only mentioned once in the catalog, on page 5 for some shoes.

The sarcasm is strong in this one. McKenna goes on to point out that not did Dick’s crap a severely sexist brick by printing this catalog as is, but that they’re also missing out on an incentive they probably care a lot more about: the financial kind.

My last two pairs of basketball shoes were purchased at Dicks, as well as my hoop and practice equipment. Maybe my dad will take me to some other store that supports girls to actually PLAY basketball …

Hit ’em where they’ll feel it, McKenna: right in the profit margin. Based on a survey conducted by the US Tennis Association, almost 25% of girls play basketball. Even if the Dick’s corporate office doesn’t have one single fuck to give about leaving out half of the adolescent population with their crappy catalog, they have to admit that turning their back on a demographic that large means leaving a lot of money on the table. Even if it’s money tainted by the horrible, horrible proximity of preteen girls – terrifying, I know, but I promise that you will not be converted into a One Direction fan nor find your features permanently crimped into duckface by simply touching a dollar bill that’s been in a Hot Topic wallet.

As a parent, geek stuff is more my purview than sports stuff, but even I am well aware that a lot of girls are into sports. I see them walking past my house in the mornings to the metro bus stop in Packers jerseys and school sports t-shirts, I see girls playing basketball in the park down the street, I pass youth soccer practice on my way to the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. Sports are for girls too, and if companies aren’t prepared to include young women in their marketing just because it’s the right thing to do, hopefully they’re at least willing to change things up because it’s the financially sound thing to do. And don’t take it from me: take it from McKenna Peterson, the Fabulous Basketball Player. She clearly knows what’s up.

(Image: Twitter)

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