#TBT: Act Like A Lady

“Momentary insanity, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn’t thinking about anything. I thought, ‘This is the greatest moment of my life on the soccer field.’” ~Brandi Chastain

No. Why should she? Why should we as females act like a lady when we celebrate? Once we hit that field, pitch, ice, court, track or whatever the sporting surface may be, gender rules do not apply. Gender stops on that surface. Women will play just like the guys, so why shouldn’t we celebrate like the guys?

Photo Credit: The Chicago Tribune

In 1999, Brandi Chastain participated in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Chastain scored as the fifth kick on a penalty shootout in those Finals. So excited about that moment, Chastain did something many have seen done in men’s soccer matches . . . she ripped off her shirt and fell to her knees in celebration. There was Chastain on her knees celebrating in her sports bra. Some folks went beserk over it.

In a July 2014 article for BBC, Chastain comments:

‘”There’s always going to be someone who says, ‘Why did you do that? That’s disrespectful,'” she says, but she didn’t mind. “I was grateful for those comments because it gave me a new platform to express myself about what sport has given me. “There’s something primal about sport that doesn’t exist anywhere else – when you have a moment like scoring a winning goal in the World Cup championship, you are allowed to release this feeling, this emotion, this response that is not elicited anywhere else.”‘

Jump 20 years later, and once again, folks are hung up on how the United States women soccer players are celebrating their victories. Alex Morgan sipped tea as celebration for her goal, and Piers Morgan and his fans didn’t appreciate it:

It’s funny how women are expected to act like ladies when they celebrate success. While decency is expected, those expectations of gentlemen qualities are not expected of men in sports. The field of sport doesn’t differentiate between men and women, so don’t expect women to act like ladies. In the words of Hillary Clinton: