Men’s Health magazine was forced to apologize and retract an article published on its website on Monday that told men how to explain sports to women who may not “share your passion,” according to Boston.com.
The article was screengrabbed by a Boston.com reporter before it was scrubbed from the web by Men’s Health. By Tuesday morning, a message appeared on the page where the article had once been, reading: “You are not authorized to access this page.”
The article, which contained only about 100 words, was premised on the idea that “most women don’t care about stats” and suggested men use “story lines” to help women get into the sport.
“While you’re enthusing about Dominic Moore’s scoring record, she’d rather hear about how he supported his wife’s battle with cancer – and even took a season off from the NHL at the height of his career,” the magazine advised. “Treat your heroes as people and not just players on a field, and you’ll suck her in.”
Here’s the article, as screengrabbed by Boston.com:
Swift backlash on social media prompted Men’s Health to issue a two-part apology Monday on Twitter.
Apologies 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, 2014
It 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, 2014
