Dave Portnoy Torches Critics Slamming Barstool as ‘Raunchy Sexist Pigs’ While Ignoring VMAs: They’re Showing a Girl ‘Getting Face F*cked’
After watching Sunday night’s VMA performance featuring Normani provocatively dancing on Teyana Taylor, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is crying hypocrisy.
Portnoy’s Barstool brand is routinely criticized for exceeding limits and building a foundation of rabid fans through humor that has been deemed racist and misogynistic. The negative connotation that surrounds Barstool was exemplified last month when Major League Baseball was ripped for even considering a partnership with Barstool.
But Portnoy wants to know why Barstool remains a lightning rod for backlash as sexually charged musical performances are allowed on cable TV.
This is good. Barstool bad. pic.twitter.com/i9tgdEzVTp
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 13, 2021
“People say Barstool’s too raunchy,” Portnoy ranted over the VMA performance on VH1. “Like that we’re sexist chauvinists, pigs, can’t let people see it, too over the top, smokeshows. But this girl who’s getting like face f*cked and scissoring right now…this is cool.”
The dance in question was an ode to Janet Jackson, who presented a similarly provocative act during a 2002 live performance of Would You Mind in Hawaii. Despite the homage, if you’re going to criticize Barstool for being too provocative, then Portnoy would like you to express the same anger toward incendiary artistic performances on cable TV.
Barstool has made deplorable mistakes in the past, which Portnoy has admitted now that the company seeks to build an audience beyond the frat culture they perpetuated more than a decade ago. But comedy featuring the N-word and jokes about rape are stunts that are difficult to bounce back from, regardless of how sexual a musical performance might appear to be on TV.
Barstool has matured some as a brand, after the company gained large corporate investors and sought partnership with reputable products and organizations. The company has especially thrived under female leadership in recent years, as Barstool’s CEO, CRO, CFO, and VPs of production, commerce and communications are roles currently filled by women. And now Portnoy would like to be treated with more corporate respect, rather than the devil his critics often present Barstool as.
