THREE reasons you should appreciate the U.S. women’s soccer team:
1. They aren’t the abused baby-girl gymnasts.
2. They aren’t spoiled, dysfunctional baby-girl tennis players.
3. They aren’t the WNBA – the Spice Girls of Sport.
From the looks of it – and this is from one who believes a prison should be erected to contain a large percentage of professional athletes -these soccer chicks are the real deal.
Let’s hope it lasts.
There exists a rigid gender double-standard in sport, but not the kind you’ve likely read about. It’s true that in the world of athletics, males are entitled to be entertainers – ridiculously overpaid reprobates with limber limbs.
Call a Mike Tyson or Latrell Sprewell on the carpet for behavior that is not just immoral – but unlawful – and eager sports fans, greedy promoters and wimpy judges won’t hear of sidelining the creeps. And so it goes that acting like a thug evolves into behavior that is not just excused by testosterone, but protected by the culture. Provided you wear a uniform.
But the fiction is that girls are different. Or at least, that they should be.
Every time a female proves she has the dexterity to hit, dribble, kick or otherwise knock a ball around a field, it seems her physical accomplishments are not considered sufficient. The culture insists that any woman with coordination is, by definition, a “role model” for young girls who, as contemporary gospel claims, are a class whose talents are woefully underappreciated.
In reality, female athletes are tremendously coddled. And they are capable of being every bit as spoiled, pampered and insufferable as their male counterparts. We just pretend they’re not.
In recent times, girls in uniform have been rolled out to the public and sold like a product line.
As a result, we learn all about the screwed-up personal lives of tennis phenoms such as Jennifer Capriati – pushed into stardom by a stage father, burned out and in rehab before age 20.
We are treated to the revolting sight of stunted gymnast Kerri Strug, her body abused while barely out of the cradle, being commanded by her coach during the 1996 Olympics to take a flying leap over a busted ankle.
Then, there are the basketgals of the WNBA -recruited, packaged and distributed more like spokesmodels than athletes. At the least the Spice Girls don’t pretend to be something they’re not.
And who can forget Tonya Harding.
We are told little girls must have role models in uniform. But the reality is, women are just like men: Pushed at tender ages to ruin their bodies, sold like sex symbols, pampered into believing they are above the rules.
Hardly models of how to live.
Despite arguments to the contrary, today there exist numerous opportunities for girls in sports. Perhaps years ago inequality was the norm. Today, we overcompensate.
The only difference is that there is somewhat less of a chance to become stinking rich from sports if you’re a girl. Which presents an irony: Isn’t money what killed the beauty of sports in the first place?
Much has been made of the fact that the women on the U.S. soccer team are not raking in the same bucks the boys get. Strangely, that fact, in and of itself, is said to make them “pure.”
“It’s a very pure team we have, and I think people see that and respond to it,” says Shannon MacMillan. “We do this because we have such a passion for the game and … that definitely makes up for the [lack of] money.”
The soccer girls are irresistible. We could all learn from them.