While we are all picking our sides on whether we are Lebron James fans or Stephen Curry fans, the FIFA 2015 Women's World Cup continues to play on almost without any honorable mention. Yes, it may be a little unlucky that these two sporting events aligned at the same time when basketball fans are hyped for the championship playoff games. But regardless of the two events coinciding, this is not the first time that this female sporting event has been brushed to the side. And when you think about it, did you really hear anything about the Women's World Cup in 2011, especially in the time prior to the USA's team ending up in the final match? In fact, did you even know there was a FIFA Women's World Cup?
It is hard to say whether this issue is due to the lack of support for soccer or the lack of support for female sports as a whole. But when you think about the World Cup last year in Brazil, it was all anyone talked about for over a month due to all the hype. I even knew tons of people who made their work schedules around the World Cup matches. But, people don't seem to be thinking twice about sitting down to watch the female equivalent.
There is an argument for why the NBA Playoffs are clearly the one to watch that revolves around the fact that it is live on prime-time television. The NBA, with its multitude of amazing players, funny commercials, and special donations, always captures an American audience for several months at a time. All you hear in your spring semester are people comparing scoring stats of players and how injuries may impact a team. For soccer, although it may not be as popular, we still occasionally hear talk of the Real Madrid and Manchester United teams and how they will match up in the European leagues.
But, it seems that female athletic teams, overall, are an unspoken topic in the sporting world. And to be honest, the most I normally hear about female sports is from my own friends who are on the varsity sporting teams. With college sports being such a huge thing for both guys and girls when entering college, why is it that we hardly ever hear anything about what girls could do professionally with their sport? And for even a world event like the Women's World Cup, it is hard to just find a consistent schedule of all the games that are coming up.
A question now can be posed: what is so wrong with female sports? Are they lacking in popularity because society doesn't want to see women in positions where they are of equal talent or outperforming their male counterparts? Are we still uncomfortable with seeing women take on attributes that are not historically common, like being fast, strong, and smart? If many of you have a yes to any of these questions, than maybe it's time for us to rethink what it means to be an athletic female or a professional athlete all together. And if you answered no, what's your excuse for not watching the Women's World Cup?
