Brilliant Defiance: Megan Rapinoe and AOC Are the Future

We humans are awakening! More and more of us are imagining and working towards a radically different world where patriarchy and domination, misogyny and denigration of the feminine, greed and mass inequality, violence and dehumanization, and the disregard and destruction of life are normalized and accepted. NO! Another world is possible! And so many women — and with the full support of strong-gentle awakening men — are leading the way! Let us remember that in addition to saying NO! to all that is unjust and violent and cruel, we need to say YES! YES! YES! to that which supports and cherishes life and love, partnership and cooperation, equality and justice, kindness and compassion, imagination and vision and wisdom, and reverence and consciousness of a highest good for us all. YES!! — Molly

"AOC’s propositions sparked thoughts — and fears, I’m sure — of a world where white supremacy and patriarchy do not set the terms of what is important, what is valued, and who is valued. And when Rapinoe meets AOC later this year at the Capitol, we may catch a glimpse of what our nation could — and should — become."

By Meleiza Figueroa

Let’s begin, as many political conversations do nowadays, with a tale born on Twitter. On June 25, just days before the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team faced its biggest challenge against France in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup, team captain and star player Megan Rapinoe was being interviewed in a video from Eight by Eight Magazine. When asked if she would be excited to visit the White House should her team win, Rapinoe huffed, almost off-handedly: “I’m not going to the f**king White House”: 

“I’m not going to the fucking White House.” – @mPinoepic.twitter.com/sz1ADG2WdT 

The video, tweeted by Eight by Eight, went viral and sparked a firestorm on Twitter, not least from the Twitter President himself, who expressed his disapproval in his usual taunting manner:

Women’s soccer player, @mPinoe, just stated that she is “not going to the F…ing White House if we win.” Other than the NBA, which now refuses to call owners, owners (please explain that I just got Criminal Justice Reform passed, Black unemployment is at the lowest level… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2019 

A few days later, after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team triumphed over France in the tournament’s biggest game yet — thanks to two major goals from Rapinoe — another tweet came, this time from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), inviting Rapinoe and her team members on a tour of the House of Representatives. Rapinoe replied, almost immediately, to heartily accept the invitation. 

Yesterday, as the U.S. women’s team rose to their ultimate triumph in the World Cup Final, beating Netherlands to win their fourth world championship, the stadium erupted as FIFA President Gianni Infantino walked onto the pitch to present the trophy. Chanting in unison, the crowd shouted, “Equal pay! Equal pay!” — referring to the nearly three-to-one pay disparity between the women’s team, the reigning world champions, and the men’s team, which had failed to qualify for the 2018 Men’s World Cup. The women’s squad is paid as little as 38 percent of the men’s salary for games, and their prize bonus for winning the World Cup is less than one-tenth the amount reserved for the men (should they ever get to win the title). Again, among the many tweets echoing the call for pay equality, it was AOC who upped the ante, saying: “At this point, we shouldn’t even be asking for #EqualPay for the #USWNT — we should demand they be paid at least twice as much.”

Even just in sporting terms, this makes rather a bit of sense. While the U.S. men’s team has always been an underdog on the international stage and has faltered in recent years, not even earning a place at the last World Cup, the women’s team has flourished, and is indisputably the best in the world, if not one of the greatest sports teams of all time.

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has also eclipsed the men’s team as a lucrative franchise, bringing in more revenue even before the World Cup started. But beyond that, AOC’s propositions sparked thoughts — and fears, I’m sure — of a world where white supremacy and patriarchy do not set the terms of what is important, what is valued, and who is valued. And when Rapinoe meets AOC later this year at the Capitol, we may catch a glimpse of what our nation could — and should — become.

Please continue this article here: https://truthout.org/articles/brilliant-defiance-megan-rapinoe-and-aoc-are-the-future/