Jessica Luther

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Blogger. Academic. Ranter.


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This Feels Very 1999: Manufactured Controversy Around USWNT’s Gold Medal Celebration

Filed: 10th Aug 12 4:43 pm by
Filed under: Blog Featured, Featured, Soccer
Heather O'Reilly celebrates USWNT's gold medal win - Matt Kryger-USA TODAY/US PRESSWIRE

I don’t know what this should be a story about. How much attention three tweets about the USWNT‘s celebration following their gold medal soccer win on Thursday actually got or the celebration itself. Because the story so far has been about the celebration and whether it was tasteful. It’s entirely unclear to me, though, why [...]

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#NBCFail: NBC Will NOT Show the Women’s Gold Medal Match on NBC

Filed: 7th Aug 12 12:37 pm by
Filed under: Blog Featured, Featured, Soccer
Wembley Stadium, site of Thursday's gold medal match between Japan and the USA. - photo by Jbmg40 on Wiki Commons

Yesterday I wrote about why I thought NBC should show the US women’s semifinal olympic soccer match on NBC instead of the NBC Sports Network. Now it’s time to address NBC’s decision to air the gold medal match on NBCSN. It is a terrible choice that shows NBC’s total disregard for the audience’s wants, something they have [...]

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#NBCFail: US Women’s Semifinal Game Should Be on NBC, not NBCSN

Filed: 6th Aug 12 1:41 pm by
Filed under: Blog Featured, Featured, Soccer

Today the US women’s national soccer team take on Canada in their semifinal game in the 2012 Olympics. And you can watch it…if you have access to the NBC Sports Network. As of now, 80 million do. During the Olympics, about 1.9 million viewers tune in on an average day. The US women’s soccer game [...]

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Equality on the Pitch: Major League Soccer’s Support of the LGBT Community

Filed: 27th Jul 12 1:37 am by
Filed under: Blog Featured, Featured, MLS, Soccer
LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo - YoTuT on flickr

A week ago, Major League Soccer announced that it was ending its 6-month-old partnership with the Boy Scouts of America “for a variety of business reasons.” Yet the timing of the announcement followed closely on the heels of the BSA’s decision to continue to exclude gays and lesbians from participating in their organization. Based on MLS‘ on-going public support [...]

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The Other Word in the John Terry Trial: Part 3

Filed: 23rd Jul 12 6:00 pm by
image by USAG-Humphreys (flickr)

PART 3 of 3 (Part 1, Part 2) [References to gendered slurs and misogynistic language ahead. Also, some discussion of domestic violence] Why does this matter if it’s just dudes playing the game? 1) There are sometimes, and increasingly more often, women on the field in officiating positions. 2) In this particular case (and plenty [...]

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The Other Word in the John Terry Trial: Part 2

Filed: 23rd Jul 12 2:00 pm by
Zidane headbutting Materazzi during 2006 World Cup - by Sam Szapucki (sha-put-ski) on flickr

PART 2 of 3 (Part 1) [References to gendered slurs and misogynistic language ahead.] So, why did both John Terry and Anton Ferdinand choose that word to use as an insult to the other, and why doesn’t anyone care? During the trial, the prosecution was quizzing Terry on the normal stuff that is said on the pitch: [...]

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The Other Word in the John Terry Trial: Part 1

Filed: 22nd Jul 12 6:26 pm by
John Terry - by Paulblank (wikimedia commons)

PART 1 of 3 This post is about the final word in the three-word phrase Chelsea footballer John Terry called QPR‘s Anton Ferdinand during a game late last year, a phrase now made infamous due to a trial this summer held to determine if Terry had been racially abusive towards Ferdinand. As this trial made clear, the word in [...]

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Women Are Sexy, Men Are Soccer Players: Perspectives from the London Olympics

Filed: 20th Jul 12 9:06 am by
Japan v. USA on June 12, 2012 - by Ryu Voelkel (toksuede)

Ah, it’s that time of summer again: Olympic fever has begun. And with it, constant reminders that women soccer players are not men soccer players. With the games scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 27, teams are now making their way to London. Yesterday, news broke that the Japan Football Association made a clear distinction [...]

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