Like most other residents of Madison, I am all for total coverage of Badger football games. But has anyone on your sports staff realized that one of the biggest sporting events in the world is going on right now? The FIFA Women's World Cup received not so much as a sentence in Monday's edition of The Daily Cardinal. And not only did the United States win their first game, but they happen to have two championship titles under their belts. So why are they being ignored?
While I was pondering this lack of coverage this morning, I struck up a conversation with some fellow coffee shop patrons. One man replied, \Yeah, I tried to watch some of the game, but it just didn't hold my attention. The least they could do is take off their shirts or something."" At a loss for words to his chauvinistic comment, I wondered, ""Is this really the state of affairs for women's sports these days?"" Whether he was referring to Brandi Chastain's post-goal celebration in the 1999 championship game or to his own sexual fantasies for women's sporting events, I realized that there is still a serious deficiency of respect for female athletes. Even while performing world-class feats of athleticism, these women still cannot escape the sexual objectification that indeed all women face on a daily basis. It seems female athletes should entertain people with NFL-equivalent brute force and aggression, or if they cannot do this, they should ""at least take off their shirts or something.""
However, the UW women's soccer team is consistently covered in the UW sports media, so I do not mean to suggest that all women athletes are underrepresented. I hope that the obsession with Big Ten football does not continue to overshadow other more universal sporting events like the Women's World Cup.
Sarah Thanig
UW-Madison Senior
