Why Women Can’t Play Soccer in the United States? When Griner’s Legacy Cames to a Closer Look at the Problems of Women in Sport
From its very first pages – the Table of Contents is even difficult to stomach with headers that include “systemic abuse,” “there was no way out,” “emotional manipulation,” and “yet another monster” – the report, based on over 200 interviews, demonstrates that there has been little, if any, accountability or workplace protection for professional women’s soccer players.
Rapinoe had met each and every one of the questions, as she always does, with the habitual, measured candor that has become her hallmark. Not once did she intimate that she had said all she had to say. She never tried to change the subject to make the conversation less harrowing or bleak. She was asked, again and again, to describe and to parse and to relive her trauma, and the trauma of so many of her colleagues and friends, and she did so, until there were no more questions left.
She sounded exhausted for a short time at that point. But then, almost as an afterthought, someone pointed out where she was, what was about to happen: Rapinoe was sitting inside London’s Wembley Stadium, preparing for a game on Friday night that will match the United States, the reigning world champion, against England, now officially ensconced as Europe’s premier team.
But now Griner’s legacy has taken a sharp turn, the magic she has conjured on the court replaced by images of her in that Russian holding cell, stories of the penal colony outside of Moscow where she recently was sent to serve the nine-year sentence handed down by the Russian court and repeated questions from those who still fail to understand why an elite American athlete chooses to play in Russia.
Griner’s continued Russian imprisonment sits among a barrage of headlines regarding dangerous situations for female athletes. There are different circumstances that may affect female athletes differently, but one thing is the same: they are not safe. And if sports cannot protect the women who play, how can we ever expect society at large to do it?
Even though there was little and no evidence, people believed stories that Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian rock climber went missing after competing in the Asian Continental Climbing Championships in Korea without a hijab.
The climber posted to Instagram that she had made a mistake in a rush to compete and didn’t mean to climb without her hijab. Her head was covered in a baseball hat and hood as crowds greeted her and the team after she came home.
Her fate remains a question mark amongst the surge of anti-government protests, which were led by women and girls, in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Some say as of last week that Rekabi is under house arrest; others contend that authorities forced her apology, noting subtle changes in her reasons for climbing without her hijab.
Rekabi’s story and its many unknowns are eerily familiar. Just a year ago, the Chinese tennis star disappeared from public view after she posted sexual harassment allegations against a former vice premier to a Chinese social media platform.
Peng then denied making those allegations, once in an interview conducted with her in the presence of Wang Kan, the Chinese Olympic Committee chief of staff. The UN Human Rights office and the Tennis Association imposed an embargo on her and she reappeared at an event at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
What Do We Do to Protect Women in Sports? A Reflection on the Case of Sally Yates’s 1999 Football Report on the Northwest Soccer League
We see evidence time and again that instead of looking to dismantle misogynist systems, society, far too often, asks women to bear the burden of responsibility for the violence that falls upon them. That sends a chilling message: You know this world isn’t safe, and you didn’t do everything you could to protect yourself.
The Yates Report on the NWSL was done in the wake of Riley’s firing by US Soccer and was commissioned by Sally Yates, a former senator from the U.S.
The stories are wide-ranging and different, and speak to a deeper point. Sport is one of the most controlled arenas in society. There are rules, officials, managers, owners, organizing bodies, coaches, and fans all watching, all observing, every move an athlete makes.
Drug tests are needed to make sure fair play. If you commit a foul that is deemed a violation of the rules, there are increased punishments such as free throws, penalty kicks and power plays. A slide tackle in soccer with cleats up? You don’t do it again if you have a red card. Throw an elbow into someone’s face on the basketball court? Take a seat.
In the United States, Title IX, which just observed its 50th anniversary, tried to legislate gender equality in education and, in doing so, in sports. The rules of the game do not protect athletes, despite enormous strides, because of endless examples. “We know sports is a hostile space for women, generally,” journalist Jessica Luther, author of “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape,” told me. The very existence of sports is political as they were not set up to include them.
Change leads to safe space for not just female athletes, but all women. Fans of the Portland Thorns support the players by holding signs that say “Support the Players.” They did it on Saturday as the Thorns beat the Kansas City Current to win the NWSL title.
She said she is up to the challenge and has already done so much in this effort. She is chair of the newly formed Participant Safety Taskforce at US Soccer and stated that leaders in the soccer industry have not been willing to take responsibility for protecting players. We need to take action at every level of the sport, from youth game to the professional game, in order to find and fix the causes of systemic failures.
What Happens When Cherelle Griner Tells Us About What Happened: A Presidential Campaign for the Rescue of Our Compatriot and Russia’s 2022 Person of the Year
She said that her family is whole but there are so many other families who are not. I will speak on her behalf and say that BG and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, even though she is not here to say this.
As the pre-dawn whispers came to light that Griner had been freed in a single prisoner swap for a convicted Russian arms dealer, the elation of his family, friends, teammates and fans was not as great as it might have been.
Biden and Cherelle Griner made clear the importance of keeping Whelan in the conversation, but they didn’t let that distract them from the euphoria surrounding her return to the US.
While the US State Department described the allegations against Griner as “wrongful,” public response to her detainment and subsequent trial and conviction for carrying vape dispensers containing trace amounts of hashish oil became a primer on so many things.
We know the answers to the questions. She is coming home and what becomes of her legacy because of all the time she spent in the headlines?
Her teammates, her coach, her fans, her family, and many others rallied around her, demanding that the campaign to bring her home safely stay center stage in the diplomatic tug-of-war. At the WNBA All-Star game in Chicago last year, players wore her name and number 42 during the second half of the game while the league deemed her an “honorary starter.”
Griner’s return, however, is no less political than her detainment. While properly deemed a victory for the Biden administration after a critical final midterm win in Georgia on Tuesday, and Griner’s freedom a joyous outcome worth its cost, the return of Bout also gives Vladimir Putin, who for months had been called noncommittal regarding a swap for Griner, a victory in a week when he likely felt he really needed one.
Amidst news that Russia’s campaign against Ukraine continues to fail on many levels, and Time’s naming of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky as its 2022 Person of the Year, a statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about Bout celebrates the work to “rescue our compatriot” and affirms that the “Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/opinions/brittney-griner-release-whats-next-bass/index.html
What is next for Britney Griner? The Whelans and the White House — An Op-ed on a Good Night’s Sleeping
As for Griner, what comes next should be up to her, with questions of whether or not she will return to the court best left for another day. We can take a second and think about the things that should never be taken lightly, but which were revealed in Griner’s nightmare. The White House was the best place for Cherelle to say what must not be forgotten is the families of the Whelans.
An earlier version of this op-ed incorrectly described one of Brittney Griner’s achievements in the WNBA. The first player in the league to dunk was Lisa, and she was the only one who held the dunking record.