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This summer belongs to Megan Rapinoe. The 33-year-old co-captain of the US women’s soccer team scored six goals as the reigning world champions retained their crown. The famous athlete’s amazing performance in the World Cup has earned Megan the Golden Ball (best overall player) and the Golden Boot (top scorer) awards as well as appearances on talk shows and magazine covers. However, just a day after their triumph in France, while Rapinoe and her teammates were probably still celebrating, public posters of the star back in her homeland were vandalized with homophobic slurs. Online, where fans are turning her iconic goal celebrations into joyous memes, hateful comments are thrown at the athlete over both her attitude and feminist activism.
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After US women’s soccer team won the World Cup, haters began attacking its co-captain Megan Rapinoe
Image credits: JakeFutboI
The confidence that Megan displays is not customary for women, University of California Berkeley history professor Bonnie Morris told the BBC. Usually, women are expected to “put themselves down and be modest.”
“Women are very careful not to seem too assertive or knowledgeable because it’s taken as a kind of cockiness that is a turn-off to men,” she said. However, the openly gay and feminism-driven athlete isn’t concerned about how she comes across at all.
When Rapinoe celebrated one of her World Cup goals with a confident pose, holding her head up high, the image took off on the internet with many people praising her warrior-like attitude. Others, however, called her egotistical and arrogant person. “Nobody knows what to do with Megan because she’s attractive, smart and a fantastic athlete,” Ms. Morris said. “She’s earned the right to present herself as capable, but still people don’t want to let her show pride.”
There are double standards, the professor said.
Male athletes who are brash and pound their chests aren’t criticized, Ms. Morris continued, but because Rapinoe is a pink-haired lesbian willing to take on President Trump, some people who haven’t met anyone like her feel threatened by her and her equal rights demands.
However, people were having none of it and jumped to the athlete’s defense
Image credits: _EthanGrey
The star of the US team is very active off the court as well. Recently, she demanded equal pay for the women’s team and has also used her popularity to raise awareness of gender equality issues, including some of the cultural flashpoints where American public opinion is so deeply divided. For example, she was one of the first prominent US athletes to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality, which many labeled as unpatriotic.
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What do you think ?
William Teach 5 years ago
There were also many who agreed that Rapinoe is arrogant, and agree that she is a great soccer player, one of the best out there (she is). She also thinks that her view is the only one that counts, and that everyone who thinks differently should sit down and shut up. That's arrogance.
Monika Rhodes 5 years ago
Yeah, lots of men have that too but apparently it's what makes them strong.
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Herb Eaversmells 5 years ago (edited)
Isn't it even remotely possible,that jake dislikes her? Maybe it doesn't have to be,with her being a woman, or gay. There is a long list of,American sports male athletes that are,disliked because they come off as cocky or arrogant. Bryce Harper, T.O. Manny Machado, Floyd mayweather, Johnny Football, ......
Just Me 5 years ago
Did anyone see the footage of her signing a young boy's soccer ball? Let me know if she is not all about herself. https://www.theblaze.com/news/megan-rapinoe-ignores-young-fan
Moose Face 5 years ago
Note to readers: link is to a hateful, homophobic, transphobic, white-supremacist, right wing hate site. If that's your jam, click through.
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William Teach 5 years ago
There were also many who agreed that Rapinoe is arrogant, and agree that she is a great soccer player, one of the best out there (she is). She also thinks that her view is the only one that counts, and that everyone who thinks differently should sit down and shut up. That's arrogance.
Monika Rhodes 5 years ago
Yeah, lots of men have that too but apparently it's what makes them strong.
Load More Replies... Herb Eaversmells 5 years ago (edited)
Isn't it even remotely possible,that jake dislikes her? Maybe it doesn't have to be,with her being a woman, or gay. There is a long list of,American sports male athletes that are,disliked because they come off as cocky or arrogant. Bryce Harper, T.O. Manny Machado, Floyd mayweather, Johnny Football, ......
Just Me 5 years ago
Did anyone see the footage of her signing a young boy's soccer ball? Let me know if she is not all about herself. https://www.theblaze.com/news/megan-rapinoe-ignores-young-fan
Moose Face 5 years ago
Note to readers: link is to a hateful, homophobic, transphobic, white-supremacist, right wing hate site. If that's your jam, click through.
Load More Replies...
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