Abstract
Using a post-colonial framework, the authors interrogate how power dynamics around how women’s national teams are portrayed in the media prior to and during the 2019 WWC. Grounded in literature on women of color in the global south and racialized identities among colonized people, post-colonial scholars contend our current global reality can only be understood when related to the history of colonization. Power relationships are defined by, and persist when, the colonizer is offset by the other (e.g., the colonized). Since its inception, the USWNT has been embedded within a global soccer structure built upon a capitalist system that favors men. This chapter outlines the ways in which the media constructs the team as both colonizer and colonized in the current 2019 geopolitical climate.
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Notes
- 1.
Lalas gained notoriety after playing one season in the Italian Series A with club Padova who finished the 1994–1995 season in last place. Lalas was a mediocre American male player who never advanced beyond the round of 16 in the men’s World Cup. In spite of this, he has managed to garner positions of power in sports media as a commentator on the women’s game.
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Narcotta-Welp, E., Baeth, A. (2021). “You Come at the Queen, You Best Not Miss”: Post-Colonial Representations of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team During the 2019 World Cup. In: Yanity, M., Sarver Coombs, D. (eds) 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75401-3_5
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