A couple of weeks ago, Grant posted a video of a girl’s soccer game in which player Elizabeth Lambert acted very aggressively on the field, even going so far as to punching and hair pulling.
At the time she only got a yellow card — for tripping, not the hair pulling — but after the video made the rounds, she was suspended from play.
Lambert has now spoken of the incident for the first time since it happened. In a New York Times story, she says she didn’t recognize herself in the video, deeply regrets what happened, and is even going so far as to get counselling for her aggression.
However, she also argues that the story wouldn’t have gotten as much attention if she were male:
“I definitely feel because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it,” Lambert said. “It’s more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The female, we’re still looked at as, Oh, we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to. The physical aspect has maybe increased over the years. I’m not saying it’s for the bad or it’s been too overly aggressive. It’s a game. Sports are physical.”
As someone who played soccer from about 8 until 18, I have to disagree with that claim. No one ever treated me or any other girls like we just kicked the ball around, and the games always involved physical contact.
In fact, I once had an injury to my ankle (from being kicked) that caused me to go through physiotherapy. Not to mention getting more cuts and scrapes than I can count, as well as several occasions of verbal abuse.
What made this story so different and newsworthy, I think, is the apparent viciousness of what she did. No matter how physical a game is getting, I don’t think anyone would think of going as far as Lambert did.
Just think of hockey: yes, it’s a violent game, with fighting being a huge part, but when a player does something intentionally vicious, they get penalized for it, sometimes even suspended, fined, and charged (remember Todd Bertuzzi?).
In my mind, the dissemination of the video had nothing to do with her being a woman, but everything to do with how violently she reacted in a heated situation.
Amy Breen
5 Responses to “Soccer player responds to violent actions”
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Yeah, I don’t see how this is about gender. It’s about the media capitalizing on stupid behaviour, deservedly so. Aside from this example she might be onto something but she’s swinging at the wrong pitch.
re: the media capitalizing, I think you, yourself are swinging at the wrong pitch (awesome metaphor in this situation, btw). The media was way behind on this story, picking up on it after it had made the grassroots rounds.
re: the gender card, here. thought, I think she’s way offbase. Male or female, her behaviour was beyond the pale. As Amy pointed out, there are examples of male misbehaviour aplenty — and they are pilloried as well. Zidane anyone?
Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t choose my words very well. What I meant was that behaviour like that, regardless of gender, will get people’s attention and response. As far as I can tell the Internet is pretty democratic in that way.
I just get my back up when people slag “the media” heh.
That’s why slagging the media on Absurd Intellectual is so much fun. It’s like poking a chained dog with a stick.