When Sports Illustrated writer Charlotte Wilder retweeted a job opportunity from the magazine, she passed along an encouraging message to fellow female sportswriters.

“Especially if you’re a woman trying to get into sports, you should message me – DMs are open,” she wrote.

What was a helpful message to women was construed as an unhelpful message to men. Former ESPN reporter Ed Werder felt he, as a male, was being discriminated against.

“So men need not apply? Any others ineligible?” Werder tweeted.

Werder, who was laid off from ESPN in 2017, found himself in the depth of feminist Twitter. He relentlessly argued with female sportswriters who challenged him to see Wilder’s message for what it was intended: support.

Wilder “encouraging women to apply for a position isn’t the same thing as ‘excluding’ men,” ESPN’s Mina Kimes wrote. “it’s helping female applicants network, which can be a challenge given the massive gender imbalance in our industry (which I’m sure you know exists).”

“Wow. This is particularly disappointing coming from someone like you, Ed,” wrote NBC Philly’s Sarah Baicker. “No wonder so many women view the industry as hostile toward us.”

“Oh WOW you’re right, Ed,” Wilder tweeted. “Sorry for attempting to make sports media more than 10% female, my bad.”

That 10 percent is spot-on.

Women’s Media Center reported in 2017 that the number of female assistant sports editors at 100 U.S. and Canadian newspapers and websites dropped by almost half between 2012 and 2014 — plummeting from 17.2 percent to just 9.8 percent.