Sex-toy chuckers at WNBA games? Call it what it is, peak 2025 America

San Francisco Chronicle​

09-08-2025

The search to find meaning in the dildo-chucking phenomenon in the WNBA is going about as well as the search to find intelligent life in the solar system, or at the White House.
It's like asking a 10-year-old, 'What were you thinking?'
We're all trying to understand it, because it's so weird, and because it is hurtful and disturbing to many.
And that might be the answer: The chuckers chuck because to them, weird and hurtful are aspirational goals.
We probably shouldn't dig too deep for answers, because the thinking behind the action is about as deep as an Archie Comics plot. Besides, by seeking to understand and explain the phenomenon, we self-identify as old and out of touch with new reality. I think, therefore I suck.
If you have to ask why little boys in grown men's bodies are tossing green dildos onto WNBA courts, you'll never understand.
We do know that it's supposed to be funny. Hilarious! We know this because Donald Trump Jr., one of America's foremost humorists, shared an AI-generated meme showing his father tossing a green dildo from the White House roof onto a WNBA court below.
If you missed it, in real life Trump Daddy really was on the White House roof Thursday, trying to get closer to the rays that purportedly give his skin its golden glow.
In response to Don Jr.'s infantile meme-share, the president, who promised during his campaign to protect women 'whether the women like it or not,' publicly scolded his son and voiced his support for WNBA players. Wait, my mistake. Trump has not done that, not yet, if ever.
In fact, the chucking craze began as a gimmick to advertise a crypto meme coin — remember when we thought Joe Camel was offensive? — and Trump might just see this as a brilliant new marketing tool, so to speak, to help sell his own cryptocurrency.
Sadly, the chucking craze has probably transcended its original advertising intent. Now it's just a thing. There are copycat chuckers, chucking simply because it's chicken soup for the chickens---, solace for the soulless soul.
We search for motives, even though it's like mining for gold when the nuggets are lying right there on the ground. Ass clowns gonna ass clown.
'Young men are absorbing frameworks of meaninglessness, where 'funny = power' and shock is its own reward,' wrote columnist Lee Escobedo in the Guardian.
This much is clear: Chuck a dildo and you become a mircowave hero in your own weird, overly online world.
It's the perfect crime. You get results. Either the product you're selling earns free advertising, or, Eureka! , you achieve the fulfillment in life that has cruelly eluded you.
If you throw your toy and escape into the night, you're like the Alcatraz dudes who were never apprehended. Or you get arrested — even better! You're the Martin Luther King Jr. of dildo chucking.
One thing I can see coming a mile away: A backlash to the anger of WNBA players and coaches, as the online bros whine, why can't they take a joke?
The problem is that there is no logical or workable defense, not even humor. This isn't about being thin-skinned, it's about being attacked and humiliated for the 'crime' of being women.
Hey, LeBron James wouldn't take this guff, right? Toss a dildo at LeBron and he's liable to find you and a place to put it.
That's exactly why this is a WNBA phenomenon. It's more fruitful to attack a traditionally maligned and disrespected group, in this case women playing professional basketball. And their fans.
The players and fans have been forced to serve as props in this nonsensical mockery, demeaned for the sport of it — and for clicks and attention online.
There's no cure for this disease. In a country where a grizzly bear could buy a military assault weapon, it's not like we're going to institute background checks for dildo buyers. And you can't pat down every fan entering the arena.
The expectation is that women will simply have to rise above this. I can't tell them how to do it, but they don't need me to try, because they've been stuck doing it for centuries. That grossly unfair expectation or that experience for women doesn't make this grotesque situation any better.
There are a lot of branches to this tree, but the root is pure misogyny. If nothing else, let's urge parents to teach their child the meaning of that word: 'Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.'
If your child is 23 — the age of one of the arrested chuckers — it might be too late.