Men’s approval of women athletes keeps sneaking into the picture, no matter what women accomplish on their own.
A popular commercial for a sports drink shows a soccer player, Mallory Pugh, dribbling past defenders before she shoots a rocket into the net. The soccer player epitomizes the form and shape of an athlete. Not only built for the game, she is also very good.
Pugh smiles as she drinks her sports drink. But the commercial isn’t over. The spot cuts to another athlete, the legendary Lionel Messi, who’s draped in sweat, a towel around his neck. A smile breaks out on Messi’s face because of what he sees on his cell phone–a text with an affirmation for Pugh. The commercial ends with the sports drink slammed on a stool. Messi approves.
Yesterday, the American women defeated England in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup. The score, 2-1, is indicative of how close the match was. America’s goalie blocked three penalty kicks, and the entire team played with heart, as did the English women.
For me, it was a game where, in a way, I didn’t think either team should lose. However, I am happy that the U.S. women’s team is going, once again, to the finals of the World Cup–and for the third straight time. The game was fast, well played and, for some fans, worthy of being the finals match.
I could not watch much of it directly, but I read a feed from the Washington Post, which was as good a feed as possible. However, as I read updates about the stellar play of Alyssa Naeher, Christen Press, Alex Morgan, and all the other players–both British and American—I noticed a tweet on the feed. The tweet was a silly remark by the golfer Phil Michelson, who wrote how he liked soccer as a youngster, but not the running involved. Goodness!
The United States female soccer team is defeating England. It’s winning (again) in the lofty atmosphere of World Cup soccer and, then, a major newspaper shows a comment by a male about his soccer experience as a child.
One could argue that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but I see both situations illustrating just how far we have to go to achieve gender equality in sports. Somehow and someway the prevailing attitude is that men must approve women–no matter what women accomplish on their own. To make matters more troubling, in these two cases we have high-profile male athletes saying women athletes are ok.
I offer a different perspective. No female athlete who is serious in her training needs the voice of male approval. She is capable enough on her own. We men may or may not support female athletes, but we must never patronize them.
