Dillydallying - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Here in Canada - and I say this not just as a father of a young girl who likes to play sports, but as a longtime fan - I’ve always felt that we have been more supportive of our women athletes than most. Specifically, because of the recent success of our national hockey and soccer teams and the majority of our medals won in the last few Olympic Games coming courtesy of our women, Canadians have welcomed these athletes with open arms and cheered as full-throatedly for them as they do for the Leafs, Jays or Raptors.

 

Of course, Canada is not a perfect country in this - or any - regard, but we’re doing alright. The Northern Super League has created an environment for the country’s many talented soccer players to go professional, kicking off earlier this year, the Toronto Tempo will begin play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) next season and Canadian teams in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) found great success, breaking attendance records and selling out many games since its first season in 2023.

 

Editor’s Note: The column you’re about to read contains frequent and substantial mentions of the word dildo. Hit the deck!

 

This is all just prelude to a column about an unfortunate situation that has taken hold at a handful of WBNA games in the past week or two, during which moronic fans have thrown dildos onto the court at the all-female players. The Dean Martin in The Rat Pack: Live at The Sands defence - also known as, “Just trying to have a little fun, folks” - has been invoked, but smarter people than them know that something else - something darker - is going on here.

 

Twenty-three-year-old Delbert Carver has been arrested in connection to the first dildo-throwing incident. He says, allegedly, that it was “supposed to be a joke” that would, perhaps, “go viral”. More than continuing the tradition of people named Delbert sucking (Delbert Grady, the caretaker in The Shining who “corrected” his wife and kids, is the only one that comes to mind right now), Carver and the others have taken the sexism towards women’s sports - and the professional athletes who play them - up a notch, violating the players in a crass attempt to undermine them.

 

Then there’s the practical element of this whole situation. Most of the players interviewed in the wake of the dildo throws focused not on the sexism of it all or how the new trend made them feel as women, but rather on the safety concerns. As athletes, they are offered a certain degree of safety on the court and a heavy, rubber sex toy, thrown from a great height poses a significant threat.

 

For its part, the WBNA implemented extra safety measures, such as a no-bag policy, in an attempt to curb the throwing of dildos at its games. Furthermore, owners of several sex toy companies spoke to TMZ, decrying the stunts.

 

It’s unfortunate to see gifted women who have worked all of their lives to get to where they are now - as leagues continue to grow and gain visibility with the young women of the world - have to deal with this nonsense. It also reinforces the unsettling direction that much of the world is heading, eroding women’s rights and their ability to be the authors of their own stories (sadly, in the case of the U.S., often at the hands of women themselves who are voluntarily voting for right-wing traditionalists who want them confined to kitchens and bedrooms for the rest of their lives).

 

I hope this silliness dies off instead of gaining steam and finding its way to other women’s sports leagues. Most people know it has no place in the world in 2025.