Not everybody likes Megan Rapinoe.
This summer, the American winger had a World Cup that could almost match Ronaldo’s 1998 or Zidane’s 2006 for talking points.
She shot to public attention when she said she had no intention of visiting the “fucking White House” if the USA won the tournament, made the ostentatious claim that “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team,” and scored the opening goal in the World Cup final – after being surprisingly omitted from the semi-final squad.
One might say she was just one headbutt shy of having the most controversial World Cup in recent memory.
Usually, a World Cup is a time when players shy away from the glare of the media and the heightened expectations that come with it. Rapinoe went in two-footed and came out with the ball, a whole new audience of fans, and the fury of critics the world over.
Patterns quickly emerged in the language used by that contingent. Nobody hated her because she’s opinionated, or because she’s a woman, or because she’s gay. No, far from it. They hate her because she’s arrogant and smug. She celebrates too much. Too big for her Olympic gold medallist, two-time World Cup-winning boots.
Even now, well into the aftermath of the World Cup, people are trying to catch her out – sharing videos of her signing footballs for children without smiling. You wouldn’t catch the famously self-effacing and jolly Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulling something like that.
Indeed, the top-level of male football has always been renowned for its humble good-time happy-chappies: Cristiano Ronaldo, Roy Keane, Diego Maradona. All those unproblematic fellas.
Tonight, her cocky little arms stay down. Come on @Lionesses. pic.twitter.com/OLanf9XbfS
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 2, 2019
Some have even gone so far as to use Rapinoe’s family against her. Her brother Brian was originally in a white supremacist gang in an American prison and was inked with swastikas – a lifestyle he has since disavowed.
A separate human being to her brother, Rapinoe’s record on racial issues is clear. She was one of the first white athletes of any kind to join Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against the treatment of black people by the institutions of the United States. She has repeatedly condemned the racism of her president, Donald Trump. Anyone trying to pin her brother’s past on her is desperately clutching at straws in the hopes of a stick to beat her with.
Cockiness is a word necessarily and inherently male in its own etymology, its own genetics. That a woman could embody the spirit of cockiness is perceived by some as an unnatural state of affairs. Not to be tolerated.
Another recent example of female cockiness is Maura Higgins, one of the breakout stars of this summer’s season of Love Island.
The 28-year-old from Longford almost single-handedly saved interest in the series early on after it turned out many of the original entrants were total duds.
She has been unabashed in discussing her sexuality in terms so Irish that its comical – an effect very much aided by her densely Longford accent. “My vagina is trobbin’,” she told Curtis as they kissed. Words that will echo through the ages.
I mean, it takes some amount of cultural impact to get esteemed RTÉ broadcaster Seán O’Rourke to say “fanny flutters” live on air at nine in the morning. But that’s the Maura Higgins effect.
Ireland will not soon forget Maura. Indeed, she’s probably played her way into the Irish consciousness for the next several years. All sorts of brands are surely already looking at ways they can bring her aboard.
Still, there has been backlash. Men and women alike have taken to Twitter to bash the way she carries on, as is entirely their right.
But it does seem somewhat selective.
Maura’s post-watershed coarseness is nothing compared to the scheming exhibited by the likes of, say, Jordan — the kind of guy who’ll conspire to cheat on his partner, then when he gets caught out tries to convince her that it’s all in her head, going so far as to call her crazy. It’s a process that’s often reflected in the real world, called gaslighting.
Hate when ppl tink dey can walk all over ya!!!!!#notmyday
— Maura Higgins (@MauraHiggins) February 15, 2012
We’ve seen it time and again from men on the show, and it’s much worse for society’s collective health than Maura saying the word “willies” on TV.
Women like Megan and Maura are box office. They’re value for money. They are precisely what they are, and where they are, because of a personality that does not shy away from from elements of life that women are traditionally discouraged from pursuing. Sex, sport, swear words.
It is obvious that some people are uncomfortable with this. What’s obscure is why they’re uncomfortable with it, especially when they might readily applaud these same virtues in a man.
A question that presses on the mind is this. If Katie Taylor had been as arrogant during her come-up as Conor McGregor had been during his, would everyone still have loved her the same? It’s troubling to think that the answer might be no.
Cocky women are the future. You don’t have to like it. But you should be honest with yourself about why you don’t.
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