Forget the bald eagle or the Statue of Liberty – the best symbol of modern America may well be a neon green dildo. Women’s basketball fans will know exactly what I’m talking about. On 29 July, a brightly coloured sex toy was thrown on to the court during the final minutes of play in a WNBA game between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream. In the weeks that followed, more neon dildos were flung at female basketball players, with at least six WNBA games disrupted.

The culprits were reportedly members of a cryptocurrency group trying to boost a memecoin called Green Dildo Coin. It was all very 2025: brainrot stunts, get-rich-quick schemes and memeified misogyny. And, of course, the Trump family joined in. Donald Trump Jr, who fancies himself an edgelord, posted a crude meme of his dad throwing a green dildo on to a court of young, female basketball players.

Thanks to a couple of arrests and threats of perpetrators being banned from games, dildo-flinging has now died down. However, women’s basketball is still attracting a lot of toxic attention. The latest indignity professional players are being forced to put up with? Period betting: gamblers are trying to figure out where a player is in........

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