Political science and journalism junior Abby Bitterman is a self-proclaimed “hype woman.”
After coming to the University of Oklahoma from Chicago, she joined a sorority but also ended up at OU’s student newspaper, the OU Daily, where her bubbly personality has become an important asset.
Describe yourself to me – what’s one thing you think stands out?
I have a lot of energy.
A lot of energy? Okay.
Yeah, I think that’s a really accurate description. I’m involved in a lot of things, I may be a little overextended *laughs* but I enjoy having a lot to do and when I don’t, I have this sense that I need to be doing something.
I know that you work for the OU Daily as a football reporter, so tell me what that’s like, being a female football reporter.
I feel like sometimes… Well like last Wednesday, there was availability and it was my week to go and the people were asking questions and then at one point, I thought about it and looked around the room and I was the only woman there. And it was fine, but I just thought, “Hm, that’s interesting,” and there aren’t a lot of women on the beat in general. I think it’s something where I don’t feel that I’m competing with them more or trying to prove that I’m better than them just because I’m a woman, I just think that it’s something I’ve always been conscious of. Like even though the guys are cool and I’ve made friends with a lot of them, it’s something that’s there and I’ll notice sometimes.
Right, do you think that any of the male reporters or the players notice that too?
Yeah, I think that it’s easier for them to remember who we are because there is less of us *laughs* but sometimes people are creepy and that’s something we all notice.
So there are issues that some reporters have to deal with and others don’t?
Yeah, as a woman who’s a sports reporter, there are definitely a lot of issues that you have to deal with that other reporters don’t have to deal with. I know a lot of women sports reporters who get harassed more than the men sports reporters. So that’s a big difference.
Definitely. And jumping back to the energetic personality you mentioned earlier, do you think that has helped you deal with those differences at all?
I think it is helpful because it lets me connect with people better, but I’ve always just been better friends with guys. I’m not very reserved, so it’s easy for me to go out and talk with people.
Right, and why do you think you’re better at being friends with guys?
I think I just, it starts with sports. I’m really good at talking about sports, but I’m also really low key sometimes. As much as I’m high key, I barely understand how to do makeup. My roommates are girly and I just don’t care about a lot of the things they care about. I don’t care about the Kardashians or what happened on the Real House Wives and I like to talk about sports. It’s easy to start talking about sports with dudes.
Yeah, that makes sense. Is it weird for you to live with girls who are super girly?
It’s really whatever cause I’m used to it but sometimes they have conversations that I think, “I literally could not care less. I’m just trying to watch this baseball game.”
That’s funny. Sometimes I feel the opposite, where I don’t understand a lot of boys who are talking about sports. Have you ever tried to explain it to someone?
Yeah. I have one friend where we would go to football games together and something would happen and she would ask what it meant and I would explain it. I think I might have turned them into big football girls. I don’t have a problem explaining it to other people cause I know not everyone cares that much about it like me but I’ll explain it if they want to know.
Seth Prince 