Spare me the flowery International Women's Day posts when you disrespect us rest of the year

The love for International Women’s Day was nice and all. What would be even better is if the folks posting gushy messages kept up the same energy the other 364 days of the year.

Take the NFL. The league, and several of its teams, had Twitter posts Wednesday celebrating women and their achievements in the game. Yet it wasn’t so long ago — last week in fact! — the NFL lionized the former owner of the Carolina Panthers while conveniently glossing over the fact he’d been forced to sell the team because of his rampant sexual harassment and racism.

That’s nothing, though, compared with the Washington Commanders, which posted links to the professional women’s sports franchises in the D.C. area. Maybe it’s me, but a team that’s already been penalized once for a toxic and misogynistic culture and whose owner is being investigated for additional allegations of sexual misconduct should probably sit this day out.

Or how about FIFA touting the ways in which soccer is helping women break barriers. This while it’s trying to finagle a way to accept a sponsorship for the women’s World Cup from Saudi Arabia, where women still need a man’s permission for many major life decisions. Paying its women’s champions a fraction of what it pays the men, too.

And don’t forget about the International Ski Federation, which had the audacity to praise women taking on challenges when it has actively fought their efforts for full participation in the sport.

This gaslighting, while hardly surprising, is exhausting. Women want equity and equality, not empty platitudes, and a day of flowery sentiments cannot make up for the disregard and disrespect women experience on a routine basis.

This is not unique to the sports world, of course. But there is something particularly galling about seeing leagues, teams, international federations and even athletes themselves express support for women when it’s convenient or it makes them look good when we know damn well they won’t be there when it really counts.

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I’ve lost track of how many athletes, coaches and executives have proclaimed themselves to be proud “girl dads” but have yet to say a word about our fundamental rights being stripped away. Leagues and teams will slather themselves in pink each October and then turn around and enable abusers and misogynists. Organizations will defend short-changing women athletes by saying women’s sports don’t generate the same kind of revenue or interest when they know that men’s sports were given a 100-year head start.

And that it’s still usually men who are making the decisions that allow male sports to maintain their places of privilege.

Equal funding and equal opportunities shouldn’t be some big, provocative ask. Nor is it unreasonable to expect we be treated with basic dignity, to be able to make decisions for ourselves about our bodies and for there to be consequences for those who hurt and abuse us.

You know, the default experience for men. Every day of every year. 

Follow Paste BN Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.