Equal opportunity
U.S. women’s soccer team should be allowed to celebrate like men
The Dream Team made its official debut 27 years ago this summer in Barcelona, opening up play with a win against Angola, a team that didn’t have a player over 6 feet 7.
The U.S. men’s basketball team’s 68-point win over Angola was the largest margin of victory in Olympic basketball history. It was the first confirmation of their greatness and the team was widely celebrated — even by the Angola players. The Dream Team’s opponents turned into fawning fans after the 116-48 loss, posing for pictures and collecting autographs from the team that had just steamrolled them.
Contrast this to the treatment that the U.S. women’s soccer team received Tuesday after defeating Thailand, 13-0, in the opening game of World Cup play.
Rather than being celebrated for scoring the most goals in the World Cup’s history, the U.S. team has received a non-stop lecture for its so-called lack of sportsmanship.
While some observers were upset by the lopsided score, others took issue with the way the team celebrated their later goals. Megan Rapinoe’s goal that made it 9-0 seemed to particularly tick people off as she slid to the turf and kicked her legs in the air before being mobbed by teammates.
Would the U.S. men’s soccer team have faced the same kind of backlash for a 13-0 win? Well, we will probably never know given that it has taken nine games and nearly two years for the men’s team to total 13 goals.
It’s ridiculous, however, to think that the women’s team owes the world some kind of apology for winning big and celebrating. It’s also more than a little sad given that it illustrates how women athletes continue to be held to a different behavioral standard than men.
Women, far more than men, are asked to rein in their emotions and demonstrate “class” as they compete in sport, according to Rachel Allison, an assistant professor of sociology at Mississippi State and the author of “Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Soccer.”
“It’s much easier for women to cross that line into poor sportsmanship than men,” Allison said. “There are powerful gender expectations of women’s friendliness, nurturance and humility. Because what women in sport are perceived to be doing can run counter to that, we often see a policing of femininity in sports.”
Not long ago, it was not seen as feminine for a woman to compete in sports at all, Allison noted. While that has changed, the treatment of women in sport - the fact they are routinely paid less, receive less coverage in the media and are scrutinized for their behavior - is a form of social control that protects the long-standing perception that sport is an endeavor most appropriate for men, Allison said.
Why are women athletes always expected to be nice? Why can’t they just be good? Why can’t they get ticked off, throw in-yourface celebrations and show raw emotion like the men often do?
This is a question I have often wondered over the course of Serena Williams’ career. Williams was vilified by many after she called chair umpire Carlos Ramos a “thief ” during last year’s U.S. Open’s final. Ramos reacted by assessing what was basically a match-ending one game penalty against Williams for verbal abuse.
Never mind that tennis has a rich tradition of bad-boy players who have mouthed off to officials, including Rodger Federer who was assessed a whopping $1,500 fine when he swore at an official at the U.S. Open in 2009.
No one expected the Dream Team to apologize to anyone after they cruised to a gold medal by beating their opponents by an average of 43.8 points a game.
And it’s ridiculous to expect that from the women’s soccer team.