The USWNT will play The Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday. The women are mad that the Copa America and the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals are scheduled on the same day. While millions of Americans and Dutch people will watch the WWC final, it won’t be as big of an international viewership because of the men’s finals playing around the same time – like, the Copa America final pretty much means that no one in South America will be watching the women. Which sucks, because as we’ve been saying for weeks: one of the primary reasons why everyone has been talking about the USWNT is because of VISIBILITY. The fight to be SEEN.
Megan Rapinoe and the ladies of the USWNT have also had their patriotism questioned, because it’s 2019 and people still fall into the trap that “patriotism” is defined by old unhinged white men. After the semifinal win, Rapinoe was asked about patriotism and her answer was so eloquent and thoughtful, I basically want her to be president:
“I’m particularly and uniquely and very deeply American. If we want to talk about the ideals we stand for, the song and the anthem and what we are founded on, I think I am extremely American. For the detractors, I would have them look hard into what I am actually saying, the actions I am doing. Maybe you don’t agree with every single way I do it, and that can be discussed. I know I am not perfect.”
“I think I stand for honesty and for truth and for wanting to have the conversation,” Rapinoe said. “Looking at the country honestly and saying, ‘Yes, we are a great country, and there are many things that are so amazing, and I feel very fortunate to be in this country.’ I would never be able to do this in a lot of other places. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get better. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t always thrive to be better….This country was founded on a lot of good ideals, but it was also founded on slavery. We just need to be really honest about that and be really open about talking about that . . . so we can reconcile that and hopefully move forward and make this country better for everyone.”
It’s almost like she thinks “a more perfect union” means we’re not already perfect! It’s almost like she thinks that one can love our country and acknowledge our flaws as a country, flaws in our history and flaws in our current American project.
Rapinoe also had some words for people criticizing Alex Morgan’s tea-sipping celebration: “Wah, wah, wah. We’re at the World Cup. I don’t think anyone truly believes we disrespect the game or our opponents. What do you want us to do? We work hard. We like to play hard. ”
And finally, Ali Krieger on Megan Rapinoe: “I refuse to respect a man that warrants no respect. And I feel like staying silent, at times, can side with the oppressor … A lot of us do have those similar feelings.”
U.S. soccer's Ali Krieger on Trump and defending her teammate Megan Rapinoe: "I refuse to respect a man that warrants no respect. And I feel like staying silent, at times, can side with the oppressor … A lot of us do have those similar feelings."
Via CNN pic.twitter.com/voCKjCg8qq— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 4, 2019
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Happy Birthday, Megan!
She’s not singing along to the anthem. Who would have thought that something so simple would cause such an uproar??
and she is of course right. Part of being patriotic and American is questioning our leaders and our country. I love the USA, but its not perfect and right now its REALLY not perfect. I think that’s okay to say.
I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately and although I said that damn Pledge every day of my school life, I really REALLY do not want my son to do the same. I have realized just how weird and creepy it is to have a classroom/school of children pledging allegiance to a country/flag.
Not really sure how I am going to pull this one off, though.
Take a page from the right wing playbook … claim religious liberty.
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not do pledges and anthems and I was very confused why the Kaep thing blew up (at least in the beginning) because I spent my whole childhood watching Lou Whittaker not participate.
@Meghan, I’m a teacher. We never said the pledge in my classroom. It’s basically the teacher’s choice to do it, and most of us didn’t do it for a variety of reasons (at least here in Oregon). I think only one teacher had his kids say the pledge. It shouldn’t be an issue at all, just talk to your son’s teacher about it. No worries!
I am so excited for Sunday. GO USA !!!!
The concept of patriotism has always been open to interpretation, but after 9/11 Dubya and Cheney worked overtime to redefine it as never questioning the the president.
I absolutely remember this too.
I’ll say it, I’m not much of a Rapinoe fan. Not because of her political beliefs, which I agree with, but because she’s made herself the focus of attention in a situation where it ought to be all team. She kind of always does. She’s a bit lucky that the team is so much better than anyone else, had they struggled and been knocked out, the conversation in the greater sports world would have been centered on how much of a distraction she’d been, there’d have been leaks from the organization and other players about it, and it could have been ugly.
I appreciate her beliefs and if she wants a public career post soccer based on them, I’d probably be a supporter, but she’s making this her moment when it’s a team moment.
That’s not any different than what happens with men’s sports – soccer included – where you have one or a couple of good players on a team who get most of the attention: Christian Renaldo, Messi, Neymar, etc. It seems unfair to criticize her for being in the spotlight because she’s an exceptionally good player.
I’m from Southamerica, and Copa America is a big deal over here, I don’t think anyone is aware of this world Cup; wich is a shame; maybe if they were insterested in making people care, they shouldn’t have scheduled a World Cup during Copa America (I also have no idea if there’s any southamerican teams, I mean the final is between USA a Netherlands, i dont think we would care that much even if it was the male teams).
Also from South America here, and I second that the Copa America is much of a bigger deal than WWC. However, this is the first WWC that was broadcasted in an open-signal channel – not only that, but the channel with the largest audience in Brazil. And I can say that it made all the difference. For the first time people were at least aware of something going on, and the audience numbers were very significant. I will admit that we lost interest very quickly after Brazil was eliminated, but at least on the internet the talk is still strong. I believe TV will show at least the final. Baby steps, sure, but at least some steps. I was happy with the outcome.
But it’s very hard, for any sport really, to compete against male soccer competitions in Brazil and in South America. Copa America is something that is very cherished by South American teams, and it’s actually being held in Brazil, so there’s no escaping for us. I made a personal point of not cheering but mostly because I hate Neymar, Dani Alves and company with all my strength.
Ultimatley, though, I found incredibly disrespectful that the finals of both Gold Cup and Copa America were scheduled for Sunday, when WWC final was already scheduled for over a year! After FIFA tried to say “oh it’s a day of celebration for everyone” but that bulls*it. They just didn’t care for their own product!
I wish more people had this as their working definition for patriotism. I love being American but we can do much much better. Loving these eloquent buff ladies, go USA!
Kind of late to this party of 14?? comments, but anybody living in America should be grateful and proud. No matter who the current “leader” aka figurehead is. Americans are so spoiled and ungrateful for all the opportunities we are afforded, how relatively easy it is to own a home (a nice home! With running water and windows and stuff), a car, women’s right (although, not perfect). America ain’t a utopia, but it sure beats the hell out of the majority of countries. The fact that you can even criticize the leadership and bitch about other things, (free speech), is awesome, as well. However, we are a Christian nation, and that’s why we are the best. Because, we are God’s country! *fist emoticon in the air and an eye roll*