When I grow up, I want to be a soccer player and play on the world stage. Yes, I know I’m already grown, but I can dream, can’t I?
I want to run like the wind, jump with abandon over the other team’s players, dribble the ball with my feet, and with enormous effort and precision, knock that ball into the goal with my head, hairdo be damned!
And then to celebrate that incredible feat, with joy and pride, I want to jump and scream with my teammates as loudly and raucously as I can. I want to act as unladylike as all women should, without a care for how it looks in the eyes of the “Women’s Proper Behavior Committee” that is no doubt watching from around the world.
I guess by now you’ve figured out that I’ve been watching the Women’s World Cup soccer games and I’m sure that I’m not alone in this kind of wishful thinking. I hope that millions of girls have been watching too as the U.S. women’s soccer team beat every team they’ve faced on their way to winning the World Cup on Sunday.
It’s not just that they win, though watching them continue to do so is thrilling. No, it’s much more than that. It’s the way they live in their bodies, so unlike the way most of us live in ours. When they run, and they sure do run (for 90 minutes each game with just a 15-minute halftime break), they lunge. They reach out with their strong legs and grab the field and pull it to them. They race. They dive. They fall, and, most often, pop right back up.
And on top of all that they are political activists, fighting for the rights of women to receive the same pay, treatment and recognition as the men’s team. In March of this year, the entire U.S. women’s team filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation demanding equal pay for equal work. And leading this effort is team co-captain Megan Rapinoe, the star on the pitch, and a very outspoken activist for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, who has said in no uncertain terms that she will not go to the White House should the team be invited.
Of course, the president launched into a tweet war with Rapinoe over her comment, causing my eyes to once again roll uncontrollably. Isn’t there something more important that the president should be doing with his time? You know, like stopping a coming war with Iran over the nuclear agreement he chose to dishonor, or maybe working on a health care bill for the millions who are now without coverage and for the additional millions who will be once his court rules the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional? I could go on, but you get the idea.
To clarify the team’s argument regarding its lawsuit, here’s what the Washington Post Fact Checkers have said about it: “there is — without question and for whatever reasons — still a massive gap between men’s and women’s World Cup bonuses.”
These women are showing us that we can be strong and powerful, that we can use our bodies as we see fit, that we can stand up against oppression and inequality. And that we can speak our minds regardless of cultural expectations. We can be angry when anger is appropriate, or loud and unladylike in our manner when we feel the urge.
Though I’m obviously too old to do what they do on the pitch, those powerful, talented, outspoken soccer players are now my role models for how I want to be in the world.
And that brings to mind the coming presidential election. There are currently several incredibly smart, experienced and capable women running for the Democratic nomination; the two that top my list are Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
The current chatter is that we must choose a nominee who can beat Trump and I completely agree with that. But should that chosen nominee’s most electable feature be the possession of a certain anatomical appendage? The belief is that a woman cannot and should not be the nominee for reasons like “it’s not the right time,” “a woman can’t stand up to Trump,” “he will roll right over her,” and “this country will not elect a woman.”
This is just more trash talk denigrating women, a continuing effort to keep us in our place and under control. Well, I say, enough of that. Women are just as capable of running this country, if not more so, than any man and certainly more capable than the one who, much to our great misfortune, currently holds the office.
And look what a mess he’s made and continues to make. It’s time we stop seeing women as inherently less than their male counterparts, and finally put a woman in the White House. I think this country is more than ready for just such a change and it’s up to us to make that happen.
Karen Gardner, of Haydenville, a retired computer programmer, is a bird watcher, nature photographer and ukulele player. She can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.