Women who date or are married to athletes, a.k.a. WAGs, are interestingly serving as a canary in the coal mine for this phenomenon. Sports traditionally are considered male-dominated spaces, where both men are both the stars and the main consumers. To some, WAGs are meant to be on the sidelines, simply there to support their partners and be seen and not heard (though many are changing this narrative).
If women do outshine their partner while supporting them, they often face backlash, as has been the case with Taylor Swift. Swift, who is now engaged to Travis Kelce, faced her own wave of misogynistic abuse when the camera focused “too much” on her as she watched Kelce play in the early days of their relationship in 2023. It was apparently lost on the male football fans what a boon Swift’s presence at games was for both the Kansas City Chiefs and the NFL, and the hate got so bad the pop star began frowning and covering her face whenever the camera swung her way.
This all culminated in a shocking display during this year’s Super Bowl, when Swift was briefly shown on the jumbotron in the stadium. As the camera flashed to her, the stadium erupted in boos and heckling, visibly disturbing Swift as she listened to the ire. She’s now been reportedly hiding her entrances into the games.
But the behavior by “fans” at the Ryder Cup this weekend shows how much worse it’s gotten. Stoll, who is not a public figure, gives no interviews and mostly keeps to herself, and she has been targeted by months of misogynistic rhetoric simply because she and her husband briefly split in 2024. They reconciled a month later, with McIlroy saying in a statement that “thankfully, we have resolved our differences.”
For some, the bump in the couple’s marital road meant, apparently, that Stoll was fair game. During the Masters earlier this year, which McIlroy won, heaps of speculation and innuendo were placed on Stoll, as if she needed to answer for whatever discord occurred between the two of them. Online commenters picked apart her clothes, her facial expressions, and her body language, examining her for any proof she was not a good enough wife.
But the hate faced by Rory McIlroy’s wife at the Ryder Cup was a big escalation from the online chatter, and it should concern us all. The fact that a woman, who has done nothing but support her husband silently from the sidelines, is being abused both verbally and physically by men at a sporting event shows how hate against women both famous and not is rapidly escalating.
The actions against Stoll are not an isolated incident. They show a cultural shift, one where men feel emboldened to attack women in public, without shame or consequence. Where a woman is being judged not by her own merits, but by her perceived value as a “good enough” wife to a powerful man. And where, it seems, there’s nothing she can do but try and get through it.
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