Elizabeth Lambert Spurs Facebook Interest
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posted by ...Because I Played Sports The goal of …Because I Played Sports is to bring a voice to women’s sports online. As former athletes, we promise to do what we can to bring as much as we can to achieve gender equality in editorial coverage of contemporary female athletics. We’re here to vocalize what many sports editors are ignorantly missing… females. |
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On Friday, we all saw the below video of New Mexico professional soccer player Elizabeth Lambert, who astonishingly displayed unsportsmanlike conduct in a game against Brigham Young University. (She’s since been suspended indefinitely from the league).
The cultural fascination with violence displayed by women in sports is nothing new. The 2008 WNBA fights gave the league more attention than they’ve ever gotten. And we all know how upset everyone got when Serena Williams gave a tennis ref a piece of her mind.
But what I find particularly interesting with the case of Elizabeth Lambert this is the varied Facebook interest that this act of violence has spurred.
Three notable groups were formed in the past few days.
First, there’s one titled “BAN Elizabeth Lambert From Soccer” sports the description “Can you believe it! How sad,” with a link to the YouTube video – it has 1,435 fans. A wide variety of advocates are posting their opinions about Lambert and engaging in an interesting dialogue.
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BAN Elizabeth Lambert From Soccer Facebook Fan Page
On the other hand, we have another Page on the rise, called GO ELIZABETH LAMBERT, with 2,937 fans. Interesting how this one is more popular, huh? Not surprisingly, the “Just Fans” tab sports comments such as “She’s my American Hero” and “Now here is a chick who likes a good donkey punch every once in awhile.”
Go Elizabeth Lambert! Facebook Page
The third notable Page is one called “Free Elizabeth Lambert,” with 1,131 Fans. Comments include “Intimidation and playing over the line are part of the game” and “I’m not sure why she apologized.”
Free Elizabeth Lambert! Facebook Page
The difference of opinion with these three groups is amazing. There’s no obvious commercial interests involved, so that means they’re all general interest pages, meaning this is a cultural phenomenon spurred by the media. Seems people are taking it upon themselves to identify with this issue in a variety of ways.
Which group would you join, and why?
View Original Post at becauseiplayedsports.com
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- Filed Under:
- Soccer, Sports, SportsPLUS, College, Student-Athlete, Sexism
There are 5 comments on this post. Join the discussion!
AnnGaff
Meg, how intriguing!!
I think the "BAN Elizabeth Lambert from Soccer" one is too much. It IS soccer and the referees are supposed to control the action much better than they did. I saw her get elbowed as well, so maybe things had been going on the whole game and she'd had enough. And also, if we ban her from Soccer in this country, she'll go play somewhere else and I think we want her on our side ;)
...not to justify her actions. They were of course very unsportswomanlike. So I don't know about "GO Elizabeth Lambert" either because I wouldn't necessarily want to applaud what she did.
Maybe "Free Elizabeth Lambert" is for me because like so many situations (case in point: Serena, as you mentioned) it has gotten blown way out of proportion and I think too often people are way too upset when a "girl" shows some anger and flips out on someone. It happens to people - it's human nature in fact.
We just can't win...if we cry about something, we're "too emotional". If we get angry like she did, we're either "too manly" or we're given way more grief about our outburst than a man would in a similar situation.
I have to admit that I laughed watching the video and actually signed up for a women's soccer team that very same day. How's that for being a cultural phenomenon? I wonder if anyone else misses the game and wants to play again after watching these highlights? Or do I just have some pent-up anger???
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 2:02am EST
mhueter
Agree, Ann. I mean, if you watch the video, the other team definitely provoked some of this. You see one girl elbow her prior to the punch, and then another girl was holding onto her shorts before the hair-pulling thing. She was definitely provoked. It doesn't excuse the way she reacted, but I think often times in female sports, women display unsportsmanlike conduct but are more able to cover it up than others. The interesting part about this is that Lambert made no effort to cover up her aggressiveness. She blatantly put herself out there. She never would have been this famous if she didn't do that!
So really, the public is wrestling with a few different perspectives. Some who can see how she was provoked don't really find as much fault with how she reacted as others, who aren't used to seeing females act with such aggression. The Facebook groups represent those varied perspectives.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 9:33am EST
mhueter
Also, to answer your question, I do think this is bringing some positive attention to women's soccer. For example, I heard on the radio today, a (man) DJ said, "People don't realize just how aggressive women's soccer actually is." In my opinion, that reaction is a good thing. That's going to bring us some fans and participants like yourself who actually enjoy the physical nature of sport. It's all part of the game.
We just need to figure out ways to get added attention without pulling a girl's hair in soccer, participating in a brawl on the WNBA basketball court, and cursing out a tennis referee. Maybe it's a control thing. In all of these cases, women did these things "outside" of the control of a referee. Maybe we're controlled too much. Maybe (within reason) female sports should be re-evaluated for the amount of physical contact that is allowed? Could make the contact sports a whole lot more interesting...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 9:39am EST
robm
Excellent post, Megan. Your comments I also find interesting. The same goes for Ann's.
I'm with Ann. Probably "Free Elizabeth Lambert" fits my thinking best. Lambert's actions were egregious, but not without provocation. Aggression is after all part and parcel of sport, though ideally a bit more 'controlled' than seen here. Looking at all the chatter, I often suspect there are people who use incidents like this one to slyly tarnish women's sports as corrupting "ladylike" behavior.
I think your post, Megan, asks the right questions--questions that leave nuances as they are rather than try to crystallize them into simplistic either-or forms.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 10:28am EST
AnnGaff
Even more evidence of how varied the opinions are on this topic:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/102648/Hot_topic_Elizabeth_Lambert
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 1:25pm EST