U.S. Women‘s Soccer Champions treated like Chumps

While we celebrate the 5-2 victory of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team against Japan, we can’t help but to see this as historic but maybe not in the way you would think.  Yes to say that they took their defeat last year hard but never let it stop those from working even harder at their tasks for this victory would be an understatement.  They put in the work and the results speak for themselves.  This victory is historic for what we learned after the win.

According to an article written by Chris Isidore for CNN Money titled “Women World Cup champs win waaaaay less money than men” it reports that “the U.S women's World Cup team are champs. But they're being paid far less than men on losing teams. The women's team won $2 million from FIFA for winning this year's tournament. Last year, the German men's team collected $35 million after winning the 2014 World Cup.  That works out to a little less than 6 cents on the dollar.  In fact the 16 men's teams that were eliminated in the first round of last year's World Cup each got $8 million, or four times as much as the championship women. The U.S men's team, which finished 11th, won $9 million.  The women in this year's tournament had to play all the matches on artificial turf, which is much tougher on the players. Men get to play all their matches on natural grass.  The game that made the women's U.S. team world champions drew the largest U.S. television audience ever for a soccer match - either men's or women's - with an audience of 26.7 million on Fox and the Spanish language network Telemundo.

Where are all those massive crowds of protesters who claim to fight for equal rights now?  I don’t hear the cries and screams of protectors of equality.  They win despite the sexist way they are being treated even while they play on the worst possible playing surface for their sport.  They win despite the discriminatory way they are being treated because those in charge claim that they are less popular than the men but this article tells us this championship drew a larger viewing crowd than ever.  It is also well known that these women do not go around biting, fighting or sucker punching their opponents, maybe that’s why more people watch the men’s.  If for no other reason than to watch they act a fool.

Either way, the women deserves and has earned as much, if not, more than the men for accomplishing the same feat but in a more historic manner.  I can and probably never will understand why we sit around saying nothing when sexism and discrimination is so blatant and clear yet c=scream to the high heavens when it appears covert or hidden.  Maybe it is true, we only care about that which directly affects us, I hope not as long as we claim to be human.