The New Norm for Female Athletes: Fighting for Equality as a Post-Game Celebration

When I see a female team or an individual rise to the top of their sport, there is a lingering sadness that I feel when I think of their post-game "celebrations".

During the Summer of 2019, the U.S. Women's Soccer Team won their fourth consecutive World Cup.  For their celebration tour for this monumental accomplishment, co-captain and major advocate for female rights Megan Rapinoe marched her team throughout New York City to City Hall in order to discuss the movement towards equal pay for women and men. In contrast, during this past October, the 2018 World Series Champions Boston Red Sox team had their typical city tour showing off their trophy and getting drunk with their fans instead of ending with a sobering conversation on the wage gap. The U.S. Women's Soccer team woke up to a rejection of their request for equal pay, while the Boston Red Sox players (probably) woke up with a bad hangover.

The United States Women's Soccer team celebrating in front of New York City's City Hall. Image Source.

Rapinoe and the U.S. Women's Soccer Team are not the first to use their victory as a way to utilize their coverage to take a stand. Breanna Stewart of the WNBA's Seattle Storm is an icon for many basketball players. In Stewart's third season with the WNBA, she aided her team to the championship and was awarded the league and finals MVP. However, instead of simply celebrating her victory and ultimate awards, Stewart rushed off to Spain to continue competing. The WNBA is notorious for unfairly compensating their athletes, and many overseas leagues are a prime way for women to earn more money. Here, instead of earning money, Stewart tore her Achilles and will not participate in the 2019 season. Now, Stewart is not only dealing with a massive injury during her peak performance but is losing out on the opportunity to further make money while playing for the WNBA. Unfortunately, Stewart's injury exposes the fault in the WNBA system. In Stewart's case, while she did not get the opportunity to celebrate necessarily, the lack thereof supports the need to take a stand for equal pay. If Stewart lived in a world where the WNBA compensated their players like the NBA, another title for the Seattle Storm would seem obtainable.

The new norm for female post-game celebrations is to use the platform to fight for equality. No longer can women soak up victories, there must always be an agenda to fight for

Many media outlets pride themselves on how far they have "progressed" with female sports. On one hand, there has been improvements to female sports participants. For example, during the 2012 London Olympics, nearly 45% of the participants were women. However, media coverage is quick to attack females rather than turn to praise their accomplishments, which actually projects negativity rather than progress. Clothing choices are often attacked by the media, instead of focusing on the hard-work and dedication of these females. Females are referred to as "girls" or "young ladies" during sports broadcasts while men seldom get called "boys" without backlash, further demonstrating this minimization of accomplishment. Based on the mere-exposure effect, which argues that when a person sees an image frequently their is an increase in their favorability to said image, negative media coverage on female athletes is normalizing this standard against their accomplishments. In other words, just because the media may be covering females does not mean they progressing female's in the sports world.

I suppose this new-age of female celebration-turned-to-activisim was inevitable. When females had the mere sixty-seconds of screen time to celebrate wins in the past and scrutiny was the usual response, I would understand the frustration these athletic legends are feeling. The on-screen time is limited and sacred, so taking a stand seems to be an admirable gesture.

We are lucky we live in the time of these fierce females who will stand up for the oppressed worldwide, but that does not make it fair that they must use these seconds of fame to fix years of a broken system. 

These women have dedicated their lives to get to the point of victory. Four World Cup Titles do not happen because Megan Rapinoe decided to show up on game day; victories are earned through years of sacrifice and resilience. What the media portrays, however, is how much better women would look with tighter and shorter uniforms and how that would gain more coverage. These women have earned the right to celebrate however they would like, whether that be ripping off their shirts or sipping their tea in mockery towards England, and we must let them with only supportive feedback. The fight for equality should happen off the field, where everyone is on the same team to fight discrimination.