In April 2022, Portland, Oregon’s Jenny Nguyen opened the LGBTQ-friendly sports good, the world’s first sports bar dedicated exclusively to women’s sports, in her hometown. The truth is that women make up 40% of all athletes, while men’s sports make up 96% of broadcasts. From the age of 14 it becomes young women stand out Sport twice as fast as boys. It takes 350 WNBSalaries equal to what Steph Curry earns.
Despite the depressing statistics, women are moving forward. The sports bra inspired Seattle’s first sports underwire for women, Rough & Tumble, which opened in December. Nguyen is unofficially consulting with business owners interested in opening more sports bars for women. In 2030, Portland is set to host the women’s NCAA Final Four. Lately, Ally Financial and Disney announced a partnership to invest in women’s sport. In this edition of voices in foodadds Nguyen The town of Pirnia on the need for queer spaces, the positive impact of supporting trans athletes, the pursuit of justice and equality in sport, and how she believes women’s sport will “explode.”
Originally, when I opened the sports bra, I thought I was fitting a small niche of people, hardcore female sports fans. But what finally happened, almost before we even opened our doors, was this gigantic outpouring of support from everywhere — not just here in Portland, but around the world. All of my expectations, hopes, dreams and aspirations that I have ever wished for in the sports bra have been surpassed in the first month of opening. It was so much bigger and more impactful than I ever wished or thought possible. It was shocking to me. I would love to see how the sports bra evolves over the next few years because I feel like since we opened the doors every single day has been a surprise for me.
The biggest thing I wasn’t prepared for was how much space [like] The sports bra resonated with so many people on so many different levels and for so many different reasons. The intersectionality of such a space opened up a web of intersections that I had never imagined. The cross section where women and sport meet is the big bang where everything comes together and from there explodes.
The story goes on
Over the last eight months I’ve gotten a handful of emails from people who have written to me of their own accord and have written something like, “When you guys first opened up I thought it was a joke and I thought it was wouldn’t last or wouldn’t be taken seriously.” They had negative feelings about it—but they talked to the women in their lives and realized there was an entire reality they weren’t aware of. I think that’s very unusual. These things stuck in my mind as a great indicator of why such things matter.
Investing in women’s sport will never be cheaper than it is right now… The sooner people get on, the faster this whole train will go.Jenny Nguyen
Part of me feels that the goal is to have justice and parity on television and that would be reflected in any space showing women’s and men’s sport equally. But I also think about the disappearance of queer spaces in America for the last 20 years. The reality is that people love having spaces that they feel they belong in or that they own. If and when there is equality and fairness in the portrayal of women’s sports on television and all bars are going to show men’s and women’s sports equally…perhaps there will still be a place for places like the Sports Bra to have its own space because of that special unique feeling.
The attack on trans athletes is so unfounded when we talk about sport and how fear mongering it is and then the impact it is having on young children and young adults and adults and sport. Needless to say, sport has a dramatically positive impact on people’s lives from a very young age into adulthood. It permeates every aspect of their lives, from the partners they choose to be with to their career choices or how successful they are in friendships and in their careers. When you exclude trans athletes from sport, you deny them the ability to develop these important qualities and traits that sport inspires in people. It is not just not Seeing them as people but also not giving them the opportunities that literally every cis boy has. I have many feelings about it.
In recent years, the growth of women’s sport has changed dramatically. I think we’re just going to continue to see all of these things happening at a much, much faster pace. It’s rarely big, dramatic things that make a big difference – it’s like a million small steps that make a big difference. When we think about this big issue of inequity in investing and hiring women, it’s almost confusing to think, “What can we do about it?” But when everyone is taking small steps, from the people making the hiring , to raising awareness of the injustices, then what happens next will change.
People say that all the time, but investing in women’s sport will never be cheaper than it is right now. Because in two weeks it will be worth more, no matter what. The earlier people get on, the faster this whole train goes. The way capitalism works is that you need money to make money. The investments of giant corporations like Ally Financial and Disney are just as important as being a hiring manager or coaching your fourth grader YMCA.
Maybe I’m biased, but when I read men’s sports news, it’s absolutely full of negative press, like domestic violence cases, allegations of abuse, DUIs — hordes and hordes of ridiculous things. I’m not saying women’s sport is pure, but there is a fundamental difference to the rise of women’s sport through representation, investment and the intersectionality of what it means to be an athlete. It’s so different from men’s sport and it resonates with so many people at such a great level that it’s going to explode.
We’ve come a long way since Title IX passed 50 years ago. But these systems — systemic racism, systemic sexism, a patriarchal society — aren’t going away in a few decades. It takes time, but I think things have changed fundamentally over the last few years. We will continue to see the rise and dominance of girls and women in sport. I honestly think that in 10 years it will surpass men’s sport in popularity. I really believe it.
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