Like I tried to say in my earlier post about gay WNBA players, I am aware that the gender norms are different for men and women, and that Jason Collins coming out is an absolutely historic event. Here, Garance Franke-Ruta at the Atlantic says it much better than I did:

Female professional athletes are already gender non-conforming. Male ones are still worshiped as exemplars of traditional masculinity. Extremely sporty women have to fight stereotyping that they are lesbians and ignore all manner of unkind commentary about how they are mannish, while sporty men are seen as participating in a form of the masculine ideal.

This is the backdrop to why N.B.A. center Jason Collins' revelations in a Sports Illustrated piece today that he is gay are such a big deal—and why it is that similar recent revelations from the this year's W.N.B.A. Number 1 draft pick Brittney Griner were greeted in mid-April with a collective yawn...

The reality is that by becoming a top-ranking female basketball player, Griner had already done hard work violating gender norms and was already seen as a gender outlier.

Truth. (Read the whole thing.)

Thanks, Eli!