Apparently, there’s a higher standard of decorum placed on female soccer players than the President of the United States.
This week, the U.S. women’s soccer team brings home the World Cup trophy for the 4th time, and many conservatives and just about every Trump supporter has been aghast and agog at the language and actions of some of the women on the team. They’ve been doing such terrible things as yelling, drinking, and using foul language (the women’s soccer team, not the Trump supporters. Just clarifying because I know that description can easily apply to Trump supporters pretty much any time of the week). Can you believe this? A sports team! Using foul language, drinking, and being obnoxious after winning a world-wide championship. This is absolutely crazy!
I’ve read comments by people saying things like…
“You never see the men’s soccer team use language like that.
Now, this is not meant to throw shade on the men’s team, but I guaran-f*cking-tee you, if the men’s team actually won a world’s cup, you abso-LUTE-ly would see them acting like this.
Let’s keep in mind that these are soccer players. Known to the rest of the world as “football,” soccer is the most popular sport in the world and contains some of the most rowdy players and fans. So why in the world we’re expecting these players to be anything less is beyond me.
But you don’t even have to be a soccer player to be rowdy and obnoxious when you win a major championship. I would hazard to guess that if you turn the camera on the average sports fan in the middle of celebrating a major sports win, they would not display characteristics that would be considered role-model-worthy. We can devolve to our basest selves in such situations. Drinking, screaming, and cursing up a storm is something even the most straight-laced and pinned-up Fortune 500 executives will do when in the midst of such a celebration.
But let’s look at a bigger picture here. Could there be other, more significant reasons these women are role models. I say ABSOLUTELY!
The kind of “modeling” more women should do
Let me give you three reasons why the USWNT are perfect role models for little girls.
- A commitment to excellence: you don’t make it to the World Cup as often has they have (and win it four times) without being committed to hard work, dedication, and excellence. Those are qualities worth modeling in my book.
- Fighting for equal pay: they are fighting to be paid an equal pay to their male counterparts who haven’t won ANY world cups. If you want your little girl to grow and up fight for her worth, that is a trait worth modeling.
- Standing (or kneeling) for what they believe in: whether you’re on the left and are down for Megan Rapinoe taking a knee in solidarity with Colin Kaepernik, or on the right and are inspired by a player like Jaelene Hinkle’s willingness to take a stand for her Christian principles (which supposedly got her snubbed from the World Cup team), all of these women have risked some form public criticism in defense of their principles. If THAT’S not worth modeling, I don’t know what is.
IMHO, all three of these qualities trump the language and attitude they’ve shown (no pun intended).
Of high horses and hypocrisy
So, if these women are doing things which are truly worthy of modeling, why is it that so many conservatives and Trump supporters are hopping on their respective high-horses and criticizing these women? Because most of them are hypocrites.
Just about every person I’ve seen complain about the attitudes and actions of the USWNT have been people I know to be Trump supporters; or, they’re like Daily Wire contributing writer Matt Walsh, a right-wing conservative evangelical.
In an article entitled “The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Is Very Hard To Like. This Video Shows Why.” Walsh made this comment as an explanation as to why it’s hard for him and other to like the women on our team:
It is difficult to root for people who are self-glorifying and narcissistic.
Ummm. Excuse me. Is he joking? We have an empirically narcissistic man-child of a POTUS who literally glorifies himself every single day. Now, the ONLY reason I bring Trump into this equation is because it’s his followers I see being “holier than thou” and having a conniption fit over the profane and rowdy actions of the women’s soccer team.
However…
- When Trump was a candidate and a tape came out where we hear him bragging about grabbing women by the p***y, these same people said “Oh, that’s just locker room talk.”
- He glorified violence done against a journalist, and they cheered.
- He calls Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.” Even if you overlook the possible racist implications of a comment like that, there’s no denying that the POTUS calling another member of Congress names as a way to tease her is straight up 5th grade level playground immaturity.
- He used profanity to tell NFL owners what to do with those who would dare criticize the country.
Please don’t miss the severity of this comment. When someone exercises his first amendment right to criticize the country, the PRESIDENT encouraged the NFL to punish him (which is what they eventually did). That alone should scare the living hell out of you!
We have a POTUS who does all of this sh*t and more, and whenever you ask his supporters about his conduct, they make excuses for him, e.g. he’s just being a real, down to earth, relatable kinda guy; sure, he’s no saint, but my 401k is higher and the Dow Jones is up; he’s just acting the way men in power act. That’s what they do (this is a real statement a woman on Facebook once told me when I confronted her about his treatment of women).
In their eyes, the president of the United States gets a pass—but the USWNT are bad ambassadors and not role models? Puh-lease. Get the fook out of here!
Just admit it—the main reason y’all got your underwear all up in a bunch is because the leaders on the team have done and/or said things that go against your nationalistic sensibilities. As I repeatedly say, two of the things that TRULY make America great (free speech and freedom of the press), you all hate and fight when it’s used against the president you worship or the country you think doesn’t need to look in the mirror every once in a while.
You showed your true hypocritical colors when you did a 180 on your standards for the ethics of a president once you had one in office who would support your laws and give you the judges you wanted. And you’re showing them again with this whole women’s soccer team nonsense.
So, for all you reasonable, well-adjusted, decent human beings (conservative or liberal) who are looking for the kind of women you’d like your little girls to be like, I can think of no better example than the women of the United States world soccer team.
About “Ronald”
Ron Dawson (aka “Ronald”) is a satirical writer, filmmaker, self-admitted blerd, managing editor of a major filmmaking blog, and author of the pending satirical memoir “Dungeons ‘n’ Durags: One black nerd’s epic quest of self-discovery, racial identity, and woking up in Trump’s America.” Sign up for the email list to get access to a sample chapter and be notified of the book’s release.
Header image screenshot from Jimmy Kimmel show (copyright ABC), and a photo of the President (government official. Public domain. 17 U.S.C. § 105).