“There were a ton of people in the sports media who wanted Ronda Rousey to be good because it represented their belief that women are better than men.”
And the first hot take of 2017 goes to Clay Travis from Fox Sports Radio who made that comment earlier in the week following Ronda Rousey’s loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 after 48 seconds in the octagon.
According to Travis, the public image and success of Rousey is one which has been ‘created’ by the media and bought into by us, the public. He went so far as to say that Rousey was “the most fraudulent creation in the history of sports”.
For me, these comments show tremendous disrespect towards a woman who has almost single-handedly changed the way women are perceived in one of the hardest, most masculine sports on the planet.
It’s been a challenging 14 months for Rousey. She experienced her first professional loss to Holly Holm via knockout. Her first fight back was against Nunes and this certainly did not go as planned.
But Rousey’s two most recent losses do not take away from her immense success and the fact that prior to her loss to Holm, Rousey was the undefeated Women’s Bantamweight Champion in the UFC and prior to that in Strikeforce, the first major women’s division.
“Undefeated” does not do Rousey’s record justice. Not only was she undefeated, but she dominated her division, with several of her fights lasting less than one minute. It’s no surprise that during her career Rousey has been the highest paid athlete in the UFC and has even featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated next to the headline, ‘World’s most dominant athlete’.
All this in a sport where it was declared in 2011 by UFC President Dana White that there would ‘never’ be female fighters.
With every step Rousey took in that ring, she challenged and changed gender stereotypes about the physicality of women and dominated almost every competitor thrown at her. She encouraged women to be fierce, strong and physical and at all times has been the ultimate competitor.
Throw away lines like “Don’t be a Do Nothing Bitch” became part of the cultural zeitgeist overnight. While there was undeniably a media and marketing push by the UFC, Rousey’s reach and popularity at her height is not something that can be constructed (and if it could be, it would have been replicated to create other stars).
Rousey’s success and fame was created by us, not by plan. We embraced her and it’s a narrative that I have very happily bought into whether Rousey chooses to end her career now or chooses to fight on.
Putting all that aside, I’d like to ask Clay Travis what role Fox Sports (the entity he works for), played in creating this constructed media image that so many of us so foolishly bought into.
WBBL
We are over halfway through the WBBL season and at this stage, it remains anyone’s competition.
The top four teams will progress to the finals and at the moment, there are only two points separating the leaders, the Sydney Sixers, from the seventh-placed Brisbane Heat.
While there have been standout performances from some of our favourite female cricketers, including Elyse Villani, who has scored three half-centuries and taken a league-high seven catches in the competition so far, to Meg Lanning, who currently has the most runs in the competition (363 in eight innings), there have also been some outstanding performances by some up-and-comers.
I firstly wanted to mention Sarah Aley who plays for the Sydney Sixers. Sarah’s bowling figures are a standout for the Sixers with 11/149 overall and a best innings of 3/13. Sarah also took one of the standout catches (one-handed, mind you) of the tournament on December 29 when the Sixers played the Hurricanes. There has been plenty of talk about poor fielding in the Big Bash – perhaps some of the men should take some lessons from Sarah.
Sophie Devine from the Strikers has also been exceptional and has currently scored 230 runs in the competition – the fifth-highest so far. She has also hit 13 sixes – the most in the competition. Her first three innings in the competition saw her score 40 each time and on Boxing Day she single-handedly guided the Strikers to a seven-wicket victory over the Hurricanes, scoring a century off just 48 balls, finishing on an unbeaten 103.
You must also keep an eye on Sophie Molineaux – an 18-year-old who plays for the Melbourne Renegades. Sophie has been explosive with bat and ball in hand with a high score of 37, 155 runs so far and best bowling figures of 4/18 on opening weekend. It’s not too early to declare Sophie a star of the future.
On a side note, has anyone been missing Chris Gayle from this year’s BBL? I certainly haven’t, but it seems he’s missing Australia a lot. His tweet on Wednesday (accompanied with a raunchy video) read “4th Jan officially 1 year anniversary #Don’tBlushBaby – Australia, lighten the phuck Up!!!…” and was another desperate cry for attention from a man I am very happy we did not welcome back to the competition in the 2016/17 season.
Goodbye Emeralds
The Canberra Raiders have decided to dump their cheerleading squad in 2017 in favour of inviting local dance schools from the area to participate in half-time entertainment.
I’m not sure how I feel about this decision.
I have met several cheerleaders through my involvement in rugby league and what I have learned is that plenty of work needs to be done in this space to recognise what talented athletes they are in their own right.
So much of what Women in League is about is encouraging women to be involved in the rugby league family in whatever way they choose. For many women who are deeply passionate about their clubs, cheerleading gives them the chance to do something that they love, while feeling more involved in the clubs they are passionate about.
The Raiders are the second club in the NRL to get rid of cheerleaders after the Rabbitohs did so in 2007, declaring that it made fans ‘uncomfortable’.
I applaud the Raiders’ decision to include more people from their community in the match-day, but I would be interested in exploring whether there was still a role for cheerleaders going forward.
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