Thursday 26 September 2013

Guestie: Another Fine Myth

Big thanks to Deb for sending this in - very topical! 

It had all the ingredients of a classic myth.

The young, astonishingly beautiful blonde hero pitted against the Forces of Evil: AKA King Larry the Ruthless and his henchmen Ozzie the Spit and Cunning Ainslie. The little New Zealand battlers versus Wealthy America. And we all loved it. Against all odds it seemed that our young hero would win. But of course, as the saying goes; old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill – and so it unfolded true to form.

The reality is we’ve been sold another male myth with the Americas Cup. Both teams are middle class white men. Both support crews are comprised mainly of NZers and both boats were built by NZers in Aotearoa New Zealand. And our dashing young hero is in fact a very rich man, who will continue to get richer no matter if he wins or loses, playing with other rich white men’s boats.

While our nation has been feasting on this bloke-fest, a true group of little battlers have succeeded against all odds on the world stage. A women’s team, The Football Ferns, claimed a memorable 1-0 victory over Brazil in the Valais Cup at Chatel-St-Denis a few days ago; making history as the first NZ team to beat world champions Brazil ever. That’s EVER. It hardly made the news.

So whilst New Zealand prepares the mourning rituals for the guys, let us not forget that we are a nation of strong women. WE win. We win every time a woman succeeds. Go you good woman thing! We rock.

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

Haha! So funny, and so true. Thanks Deb for this, very timely as I try to decide whether to watch the final or whether to get to work early. Even seeing behind the myth, even knowing what kinds of 'kiwi-bloke culture' rich sports men might indulge in, even knowing how much I will hate it if the races are here next time - I still wanna watch!

Melinda Szymanik said...

Then they won the cup after a 4-0 win over China. So while the boys were busy beating their chests the women were actually bringing the cup home

Brett Dale said...

The treatement that NewZealand sportswoman receive by our media is disgusting.

The only exception to the rule is Netball, and not many other countries play it.

How many kiwis wouldve known that the Football ferns were actually playing?

How many kiwis can name the football fern who has signed a professional contract in europe?

How many kiwis know the name of kiwi girl playing high school Basketball who was named "All American" meaning she is one of the top players in the states.

How may kiwis can name one of our ladies playing NCAA Basketball last year?

We have so many females playing Basketball and football overseas, yet we never hear about it??

Two of the world's biggest sports, and yet we dont hear about it all.

Its disgraceful.