Take Your Best Shot
The Criticism of the U.S. Soccer Team
In a result that surprised no one on Tuesday, the United States women’s national soccer team routed Thailand 13–0. Many of the team members are in their first World Cup; they were jubilant as they scored goals for the first time on this stage. It was a triumphant win, or so the women thought. The backlash was swift and harsh. Twitter lit up with criticism from former soccer players, media members, and regular people. They celebrated too much. They left their best players in too long. They should have pulled back. Bad sports. Their arrogance was there for all of the world to see. How dare they?
In sociology, we often discuss the idea of gender roles: sets of behavioral norms that are assumed to coincide with being male or being female. So many of the discrepancies we see between men and women are treated as “natural” or “biological”, but they are really a result of the different positions men and women occupy in our society. Gender is so fundamental to our daily lives that we don’t even notice it; gender expectations permeate every interaction we have, and, indeed, the way we view behavior of others.
Do you remember the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team”? How could you not? They were an absolute phenomenon. Michael Jordan. Magic Johnson. Larry Byrd. Charles Barkley. David Robinson. Karl Malone. Scottie Pippen. Clyde Drexler. John Stockton. Chris Mullen. They even threw in Christian Laettner, the best college player in 1991–1992. Their names resonate with a generation. They were magnificent. They beat their opponents by an average of 44.3 points. They laughed and celebrated. They knew they were the best; they never hid it or tried to pretend it wasn’t true. They never pulled back or stopped celebrating. Every win was an exclamation mark: we are the best team to ever play this game. Try and prove us wrong. And no one could. In 1996, another amazing team was assembled, and they were actually criticized for not winning as big as the 1992 team had.
Fast forward to 2019; the U.S. women are the reigning world champs. Their promo was entitled, “All Eyes On Us”, and in it, Megan Rapinoe’s narration says, “Take your best shot; but remember, you come at the queen, you best not miss”. They are a confident squad; they have stars, but they are a team. They win together. They gave a warning; they are not here to make friends. This isn’t recreational league. They are here to win. And then they went out and did just that. But that’s not all that ladylike is it? That’s not what women “should” do.
Gender roles shape every part of our world; gender is a pervasive force that shapes our lives even when we don’t realize it and even when we wish it wouldn’t. Many of the critics of Tuesday’s win carefully explained it wasn’t about them being women; they would have criticized men for doing that as well. But would they? That’s the million-dollar question.
Speaking of million-dollar questions, the women’s team has been fighting a monumental battle off the pitch as well. The women on the U.S. team are paid 38 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. The men didn’t even qualify for the World Cup in 2018, and, yet, they still pulled down more than the women’s team who won in 2015. The women have something to prove, and they are on a mission to do so. They are not fighting just for a World Cup; they are fighting for so much more. Those gender roles are trying to get in the way.
Terms like “relentless” and “unapologetic” were thrown around this week to describe the women’s team. They don’t seem to be conforming to the gender roles set out for them. That can cause a wave of backlash, but they seem to have insulated themselves from it because they are a team, and they know they have each other. They have a point to make, and they are making it for all the world to see. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
