A tweet Monday from Men’s Health Magazine advising men how to talk to women about sports prompted a quick, and furious, backlash on social media, and has since been removed.
The tweet, "She sees the game differently than you. Here's how, and what to do about it," comes with a link to the story titled, "The Secret to Talking Sports with Any Woman" and a picture of a smiling young woman holding a massive red foam finger.
Monday night, the publication apologized for the story and the tweet, saying it "missed the mark" with the piece, and the "negative feedback was justified." Both were removed.
After the initial tweet was sent Monday, both men and women, professional sports writers and the common reader, found the premise insulting.
Among the gentler descriptions of the magazine's angle: "tone deaf," "misogynistic" and "ignorant."
According to Topsy, a trend tracking website, the tweets prompted a flurry of social media activity, with about half of the Twitter mentions of @menshealthmag on Monday coming in the hour after the tweet in question went out.
Specifically, between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., @MensHealthMag garnered more than 4,800 mentions, mostly from outraged readers, according to Topsy.
Here's a look at some of the responses and Men's Health apology:
She sees the game differently than you. Here’s how, and what to do about it: http://t.co/AaQXS1bsWY pic.twitter.com/fh83bb6Zc4
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 6, 2014Cancel my subscription. RT @MensHealthMag: She sees the game differently than you. Here’s how & what to do about it: pic.twitter.com/iXkHRB6Apy
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) October 6, 2014hi @MensHealthMag, you don't know me, but i run @ESPNMag's annual analytics issue. also, i have a vagina!
— Megan Greenwell (@megreenwell) October 6, 2014Step 1 @MensHealthMag? Know that bc we deal w crap like this & still love sports, our passion likely outmatches yours pic.twitter.com/dVCeZH6THJ
— Stephanie Haberman (@StephLauren) October 7, 2014Excuse me @MensHealthMag, can you provide some stats to back up your claim? Also please send a man to explain them to me. A hot one. Thanks.
— Elika Sadeghi (@steakNstiffarms) October 7, 2014Apologies for our “talk sports with her” story. It missed the mark and the negative feedback is justified. We've deleted it. [part 1]
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 7, 2014It wasn’t meant to suggest that women are in any way inferior to men, in sports, or anything else. But … we’re sorry that it did. [part 2]
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 7, 2014UPDATES
9:48 a.m.: This story has been updated with the information that the controversial tweet and story were taken down. Men's Health issued an apology on Twitter for both.
7:53 p.m.: This story has been updated with specific figures from Topsy.
This story was originally published at 7:14 p.m.
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