LSU Outrage Triggers Sudden LA Times Flip

Hands with bandages holding an orange basketball against a dark background

A Los Angeles Times sportswriter called LSU’s women’s basketball team “dirty debutantes” before a big game — and what happened next says a lot about how the media still treats female athletes differently.

Story Snapshot

LA Times columnist Ben Bolch called LSU women’s basketball players “dirty debutantes” and “villains” in a March 2024 preview column — framing UCLA as the good guys and LSU as the bad guys.
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey fired back, calling the column “sexist.” Player Hailey Van Lith went further, calling it “racist” and “offensive.”
The LA Times quietly updated the column and admitted it “did not meet Times editorial standards.” Bolch then issued a public apology, saying he “failed miserably” in his word choices.
The episode fits a well-documented pattern: sports media routinely uses gendered, appearance-based language for women athletes that it almost never uses for men.

What the Column Actually Said

Before the Sweet 16 matchup between UCLA and LSU in March 2024, LA Times sportswriter Ben Bolch wrote a preview column framing the game as “good vs. evil.” He called UCLA the team of “milk and cookies” and “America’s sweethearts.” He called LSU the “dirty debutantes” and the “villains.” The word “debutante” refers to a young woman being formally introduced to society — a term loaded with old-fashioned, gendered meaning. It had nothing to do with basketball.

The Backlash Was Fast and Loud

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey did not hold back. She publicly called the column “sexist” and said her players deserved better. LSU player Hailey Van Lith called the article “racist” and “offensive.” ^[1] The reaction spread quickly on social media. Within hours, the LA Times updated the online version of the column, replacing “dirty debutantes” with different wording and stating the original “did not meet Times editorial standards.” ^[2]

Bolch then issued a personal apology. He wrote that he “failed miserably in my choice of words” and admitted the language carried “deeply offensive implications.” ^[4] He said he “tried to be clever” with alliteration but did not understand the harm in what he wrote. ^[5] The apology was widely covered by ESPN, ABC News, the New York Post, and others. Notably, Bolch admitted the words were wrong and offensive — but he never used the word “sexist” himself, leaving that specific label as Mulkey’s characterization.

A Bigger Problem in Sports Media

This was not a one-off mistake. Research shows that sports journalists consistently describe female athletes in ways they would never describe male athletes. Studies have found that male athletes are linked to words like “fastest,” “strong,” and “dominate,” while female athletes are described in terms of their looks, age, or personal lives. ^[2] Terms like “girls” are regularly used for elite women athletes, while male athletes are almost never called “boys.”

The Bolch column fits that exact mold. Calling UCLA players “milk and cookies sweethearts” and LSU players “dirty debutantes” focuses on image and personality — not athletic skill. It frames a basketball game as a morality play starring women defined by their social roles, not their jump shots. Whether you call that sexist, tone-deaf, or just bad journalism, the result is the same: the athletes’ actual abilities get buried under loaded, old-fashioned labels. That’s a disservice to the players — and to the fans who follow the sport seriously. The fact that it took public outrage to force a correction is a problem all by itself.