It’s been a rough month for the women of the Seattle City Council. They’ve gotten vicious online abuse from trolls inviting “those BITCHES” to “BURN IN HELL,” or speculating that their “cycles must have synced up.”
What did they do to deserve this, asked Samantha Bee on Monday night’s Full Frontal? They dared to vote down a proposal for a new sports arena in Seattle.
The vote against the proposed arena was 5 to 4, split down the gender line. The women council members had good reasons for voting against the arena, Bee said. It would be built right on the Port of Seattle, which would threaten industrial and maritime jobs. But that didn’t stop Sonics fans and other haters from bombarding the women with misogynistic abuse online.
So in response, Bee turned the councilwomen into a badass new sports team — complete with nicknames like Lorena “The Gavel” González and slickly produced player profiles that highlight their political achievements.
“Ports before sports!” Bee said. “Because those big, throbbing civic pride hard-ons that stadiums give a city are typically used by taxpayers to screw themselves.” Like the Kingdome, which Seattle only finished paying for 15 years after it was imploded.
That’s why Bee decided to name her new sports team the Seattle Seawards — featuring “those seaport-loving ladies, the sweethearts of stevedores, the saviors of shipping jobs.”
Sexist abuse is unfortunately part of being a woman on the internet, Bee said, “especially if you have the nerve to run for president, or talk about politics on TV, or criticize literally any video game.” The subject of sports can be particularly fraught.
