A federal district judge dismisses the U.S. Women’s National Team’s claim that the U.S. Soccer Federation discriminated on the basis of sex in paying women less than men for the same game. His reason may surprise you.
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24 replies on “No Deal: Judge Kicks Out U.S. Women’s Soccer Unequal-Pay Claim”
Ohh I get it
this is why you have an Israeli on your blog, you want to have someone to defend our football (or as you refer to as Soccer)
well – I’m not going to do this, it is boring 🙂
It is all about the eyeballs on the screen. PGA purses are much higher than LPGA due to the ratings (largely due to Tiger Woods). Tennis at the majors started paying the men’s and women’s champions the same, mainly due to Serena and Venus. When Serena retires that sport will decline significantly. Even though the women’s matches are shorter, they have more eyeball on them while on and the networks can charge more for the ads; so the final equation comes out to similar dollars. I wonder if most sports fans could name more than 2 or 3 female tennis players (or male for that matter). Iused to follow tennis and cannot get past Nadal and Federer or Venus and Serena. Gymnastics and Ice skating are the only other where the ladies ratings are better, and then only in Olympic terms.
Maybe the only good that has come from our national self-immolation of our economy is we all realize that we can live full lives without NBA, MLB, Movie stars . . .
I will watch football (both the college and NFL varieties) but don’t think I will pick up the bad habit of most of the others when this is through.
The last women’s world cup certainly got a lot of play here in the UK. Of course, there was a huge amount of MSM coverage to convince us it was something worth watching but I must admit, my mates who actually watch and like soccer were discussing it down the pub. I’m not convinced the interest has survived outside of the incubator conditions of the world cup. I do hope not, not because I wish women’s football any ill will, but I loathe soccer (at least what it has become) and the discussion of it bores me to tears, having my mates talk inanely about men’s and women’s versions is too horrible to contemplate.
Two points about soccer.
When someone says the term soccer is an Americanism they’re wrong. It comes from Association Football, as opposed to Rugby Football. Association got shortened to assoc. hence soccer, while rugby is often called rugger.
On Bill’s accurate portrait of modern soccer players being poncey prima donnas, I think it was best summed up thus:
Soccer is 90 minutes pretending you’ve been injured. Rugby is 80 minutes pretending you’re not…
Having only watched highlight reels never a full match of women’s soccer (or men’s for that matter), I hope they sue the hand that feeds them into bankruptcy. Better yet, I’d like to see identifiers of womanhood tryout for the women’s soccer team, since that’s all the rage at the high school level and knock off Ms. Rapinoe off her perch.
I have been waiting for that to happen on a level higher than high school. Some deep pocket altruistic type will need to fund the effort.
The Comedy team of Bud Abbot & Lou Costello: Abbot got more money because Costello said ‘Good straightman are hard to find’
Gymnastics, ice skating, (ballet,) and horse racing are sports where females have an advantage over men based on their body mechanics. Their smallness, center of gravity, and even their wider hips make them better at it than even small men. Men might have a slight advantage over women as jockeys, because strength is a factor, but a small, light woman in prime condition can give them a run for their money.
In almost every other sport, men have most of the physical advantages.
I recall early in Danica Patrick’s career some of the Indy car crews were complaining about just those advantages for her. When she didn’t win much, they stopped whining.
If the demented left of left had their way, discrimination based upon ability, competency, and delivery of results would be made illegal. Then if you are of high ability, are in fact competent, and do deliver results, they would bind/punish you so you couldn’t function because your superiority is “so unfair”. What they want is a flat, stale, mediocracy in all things to guarantee equality of results. After which they would complain that nothing worth having happens.
I say send them to the hell they are trying to create on earth and go on living your own life.
Harrison Bergeron
We are not there yet but much further along than I thought possible.
Strange how if enough people predict enough things once in a while, what they predict comes true.
See also Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. It was once said to be a prophesy. I replied “It is a script.”
I am currently re-reading 1984. Amazing how some look to it as a how to , or ideal vision rather than cautionary tale.
First of all, a quote from myself, something I’ve been saying for decades: “Soccer is hockey at the speed of golf.”
Now on a different topic: Is there any similarity between the phrase that Bill used, “…the country that has made her rich…” and “You didn’t build that.”? (When you reply, please note that I’m simply asking the philosophical question – I do not agree with the 0bama quote.)
Finally, I’m adding the following to my quote collection:
“In gymnastics, you’re competing against gravity.” – Bill Whittle
That’s a great question, Michael. I might pose that to Bill during our Backstage meeting this week. Stay tuned.
Don King said it best “only in America”
Sports are like the movies in a way. Certain actors and actresses get paid more than others. Some sport players get more than others. Why? Because they bring in more income. Why? Because they are either better,or more popular. Actresses often complain about lower pay. Bring in the bucks, and I bet you’ll get paid more on the next performance. Bring in fewer bucks, and you’ll get less money. Supply and demand, people. Supply and demand.
Spot on. Likewise modeling. Female supermodels are paid huge amounts more than even the biggest male supermodels. Again, there’s simply more demand for them.
There is a simple solution. Eliminate men’s & women’s sports, and make all teams coed. The best players get to make the team and get paid as starters. The players who don’t make the team, whether male or female, can go make me a sammich. A yummy, yummy sammich…
You may have something there. Then all teams will be equally handicapped. No one can complain. Unless, of course, they lose.
Yum.
I would instead expect that they would demand that broadcasters air women’s sports as much as men’s and demand that they pay the men’s and women’s leagues the same for the rights.
THAT’S enforcing “equality and fairness!” 🙂
Don’t forget the Oscars. There have been years in the past where instead of categories for “actors” and “actresses” they had “actors” and “female actors.” Sorry, you want to get rid of the term “actress” because it’s “sexist,” you don’t get to have a separate award category by sex. This is such a great example of how ridiculous “non-sexist” language is. When it’s descriptive, it is NOT inherently inferior to use words like “waitress,” “actress,” “stewardess,” “ambassadress,” “testarix,” “executrix,” “mistress,” “patroness,” etc., etc., etc. I regret the loss of words like these to our culture. Unfortunately, we lost this battle early on when we conceded that “sexist” is a value judgement instead of a neutral description.
(And don’t get me started on the abuse and destruction of the grammatical descriptor “gender.”)
Good point, Laura. I supposed they have sex-divided acting categories because if they didn’t, they’d have to make sure they alternated male/female each year in the best actor category.
Yes, either that or face the reality that few women would win if they were competing against men for “best actor.” I will refrain from writing an essay on why that might be, while noting that I don’t think it’s because of “sexism” or “male chauvenism” or “patriarchy” or “oppression” or any of that nonsense.