Elizabeth Lambert's demolition job on BYU's strikeforce is in heavy rotation on the intertubes today:
ESPN's coverage of the event appears to be pretty evenhanded, focusing on "Julie Foudy, tell us in your vast, infinite wisdom: how the fuck wasn't Lambert sent off?" Overall, not too different from ESPN's usual coverage of sports with a niche following - wait until something bizarre like this happens and put it in rotation.
Over on Twitter some are saying that Lambert got just as good as she was giving, others are saying she's the dirtiest player alive. I tend to agree with the first crowd - there's no question Lambert was getting provoked. Before the hairpull Lambert gets taken down by Kassidy Shumway, and immediately before the hairpull Shumway is grabbing Lambert's shorts. We also see Lambert get elbowed before she punches the other player in the back. While Lambert clearly went over the line with her retaliations, it's not like the refs weren't allowing the game to be played at a very, very physical rate. I think this picture of Lambert and Shumway from cougerblue.com says all you need to know about how tough this game was:
The pony-tail pull to cripple her opponent from behind was undoubtedly Lambert's tour-de-force that will get get her a suspension. But let's be honest, some of you sorta wish someone would do something like that to Beckerman.
And of course there's the sexism in the mainstream reaction. Headlines like, The Devil Wears Shin Pads, New Mexico Women's Soccer: Probably Tougher Than Cristiano Ronaldo, and innumerable cat-fight references are popping up all over. The real fun is in the comments to Bill's post:
I'd do her.
Though, her bio says her favorite food is "tacos" so perhaps New Mexico isn't the only other team she plays for. - Sandon Mibut
I don't care what she does, she's HOT!!! The fact she can slap some other fems about like rag dolls makes her even HOTTER!!! (starts a shrine)
She's like a viking chick! A super villain woman! A... never mind she's just crazy. - MightyMouse
Yeah, the worst fights I've ever seen have been between girls. Specially if a) It's over a guy. B)alcohol is involved or c) it's during a sporting event.
I mean, shirtless redneck meth heads have more decorum and sense of fair fighting than some of the girls I've seen in scuffles. And the majority of these took place when i was in college, so these nutters were members of a institute of higher learning. -StingerC
[She wasn't sent off]^^ Because guys (ref's included) LOVE chick fights!! -Oldsmobile
The fact that the officiating crew ignored all of it is rather pathetic (but at least we get the side benefit of watching some hot girl-on-girl action). -Timon19
Besides reaffirming that there is "no homo" in the comment thread, several posters brought up that the women's game is often dirtier because referees don't make the calls they should, and that until that changes, stuff like this will continue to go on. Is that another over-generalization? I haven't watched a ton of women's soccer at as many levels as people like Andy Meade probably have, but I can't say that in what I've seen it's appeared to be a whole lot worse than the men's game. I mean, Jay Heaps has played in MLS for a decade.
Edit: Dan pointed out in the comments that there were a grand total of 4 ejections in 70 games the first WPS Season. Contrast that with 82 in 225 MLS games this year. No, I'm not adding up the cautions.
So yeah, it's good stuff. While I think it's sad that women kicking the crap out of each other apparently fits in the "man bites dog" news cycle or the "OMG HOT LESBIANS" meme, or the "women are vicious toward each other" stereotype as opposed to "women are just as tough as men" or not gendering the incident at all, at least there was some more soccer on tv. And now we all have something to talk about.
Damnit, I need to get to practice.
-FS
9 comments:
Spot on, as usual, to point out the gendering of the reactions. (And, of course, asking Julie Foudy--the Token Female Analyst--to explain the incident. Because all women are secretly tapped into a collective unconscious in which we bicker over shoes, boys, and bra sizes, and we always know exactly what every other woman's motivation is.)
There is no doubt that the game was physical, and to that end, the official(s) may have been justified in letting rougher play continue. It's never a good move to start cracking down on plays that you let slide earlier in the game, so I guess I'm willing to grant a little red-card wiggle-room for the sake of consistency.
That being said, however, I do think (as a former player and a watcher and an official) that women's games tend to be officiated either much more leniently or much more strictly than men's. My skewed perspective? Officials' subconscious desire to see a muddy catfight develop? Hard to say. Maybe there IS no difference.
Want to crunch the numbers on this? We should run some analysis on fouls called and cards given at various levels to both men and women. Obviously there are a whole bunch of unquantifiable factors in play, but it'd be a start.
Heh, I didn't even think about the angle on Foudy. But you're right that they had to get a woman since she had the special knowledge.
As for crunching numbers, I am at my core lazy. Maybe scaryice over at Climbing the Ladder could take a look at WPS and MLS.
I was shocked at what Andy said, because there was a grand total of four red cards in all of WPS' first season - http://www.womensprosoccer.com/standings/detailed/player_e. I thought by and large the women's pro game is vastly cleaner than the men's version.
Wow, that's really not very many.
Of course, there wasn't a red card in this game either, so WHO KNOWS what those women were getting up to unnaturally.
Turns out in MLS there were 82 red cards in 225 games, compared to WPS having 4 red cards in 70 games.
If my maths are wrong on the total games played, let me know.
Well, come to think of it, the most notorious incidents I remember in WPS were Wambach injuring Daniela and Marta injuring Wilson, and there was one yellow card issued between them.
But...boy, the only other red card I can think of that was significant was Boxx in the World Cup final in China, and, that was widely thought to be a very harsh call. Andy's seen an order of magnitude more women's games than I have, so I hesitate to contradict him, but comparing the Sol to the Galaxy or Chivas USA, and there's no comparison about fair play.
My take on Lambert is that we're seeing a sexist reaction of a player cheating at roughly the level of a male player, and unfortunately playing into the hair-pulling stereotype. You could put a camera on an MLS defender chosen nearly at random, and get similar footage, up to and including David Beckham.
We might ALSO - should I have saved this for my own stupid blog? - see a re-enactment of the development of the men's version of the game. The game was hilariously rough, but "gentlemanly" - calls would slide because no sportsman would dream of, or tolerate being accused of, committing a deliberate foul. As the game got more profitable, and as the stakes grew larger, the incentive to foul deliberately and dive deliberately grew, and there was much more pressure on the referee to enforce the rules as written. So as more and more girls are playing for their scholarships and their livelihoods, we'll see the women play rougher, just like the men.
AND...well, Youtube. If she had done this a couple of years ago, no one would have noticed.
Hell, if she had done this last week, she would have been overshadowed by the bitching about umpires. Too much technology, bad timing, hypocritical media moralizing, the need for constant news - it's not just sexism at play here.
"My take on Lambert is that we're seeing a sexist reaction of a player cheating at roughly the level of a male player, and unfortunately playing into the hair-pulling stereotype. You could put a camera on an MLS defender chosen nearly at random, and get similar footage, up to and including David Beckham."
I can't find footage at the moment, but look at what Beckerman did to Lenhart on a fk in the first game, I think. Same stuff.
As for the development of the game, I hadn't thought about that. You should make a post of it.
You have it wrong Elizabeth Lambert is a UNM Lobo, NOT affiliated with New Mexico State. You are slandering the wrong program. It's University of New Mexico.
Wow, can't believe I missed that. Thanks.
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