#some ppl in chat agreed but lmk if i’m of LOL

[falling-existence]

vigilantism would probably be a good middle ground for zam, to be able to protect spawn and its players while still being nice to the people.

[possibilistfanfiction]

same english football fan here! ty for your answer - v rare that i get to talk with someone who both enjoys football and cares to engage with the context of wider issues in & around the game… i relish the opportunity lol

100% agree about the impact of ‘99 team. i’d say it bled out beyond creating this stagnant image of what the uswnt ‘should’ look like into football more generally. i grew up playing & ‘lesbian’ was one of the worst insults on the pitch - you could see people actively leaning into this hyper-feminine presentation to avoid it (like with tobin…). definitely fucked with my little gay brain, a sport i love subconsciously teaching me i was an insult…

i don’t enjoy alex as a player. at all. some set ups definitely need the player to draw fouls, slow it down etc but i don’t think she’s good enough outside of that? (espec not if you’re going to sideline christen lol) idk comparing her to someone like grealish in eng men - can play a false 9, drawing fouls is a major part of his game but he’s almost stupidly creative on & off the ball. lbr alex’s face fit for the old guard scared of changing dynamics & it’s perhaps kept her more centralised than her talents deserve? (i’m also a bit bitter at her 6 month training holiday at spurs as a former spurs player lol)

could spend pages on christen. watching her play for man utd was a delight - the shift she puts in off the ball, can tell she is someone who gets the game on a fundamental level and reads patterns, not just good w the ball at her feet. agh, so much of your response i haven’t even mentioned - i may return for more football chat lol

first of all i would be remiss to not be like holy shit congrats on playing w spurs?? badass !!

also yah i think that their impact changed women's football in general for sure, but also women's sport more broadly & even just body image for DFAB ppl in general. that sounds like a rly wild claim but i think if we look at diet culture & how the "ideal body type" for women rly started to become a little more "athletic" in the early 90s (e.g., britney spears!) it's impossible to look past brandi chastain's iconic image. & its odd bc that actually has nothing to do with the uswnt itself but it was at the time of this rampant like low-fat, low-carb diet culture rise (i'm sure we all remember the horrifying 100 calorie packs). i think about this, like, every day lol like it’s ok to perform some kind of masculinity (eg sport, muscles, streetwear etc) as long as ur thin, white, wealthy, family-oriented, patriotic, christian, able-bodied, neurotypical, straight, etc etc. it’s just so anti-Black at its core in clear service of the state. i think of it in light of a radical fat politic now & especially during the olympics when its like becoming more & more clear that the surveillance of Black & brown queer femme bodies is more apparent in sport than ever ... the uswnt has this standard that is tied to class & performance & race & sexuality etc. anyway that's a lot but... i rly do think it's true

it's odd too, i think football afforded me the opportunity to perform or present androgyny in a way that my conservative christian family & community deemed okay bc i was just a "tomboy" or, the even more respectable, "an athlete." for me i found an incredible amount of quiet freedom on the field bc of that, even tho i couldn't name it at the time. as i got older i too leaned into trying to be feminine (like tobin) in a way that was just so horrifically dysphoric for me. tobin being a huge homo now is like... soothing lmao like yah babey me too!!

anyway abt football i too don't think alex is great. sure she's scored a lot of goals but like ........ she isn't a wonderful player? i don't love comparing women to men players just bc the game is different in (the best) ways for women but even comparing alex to sinc or viv like... she's boring at best? that's what i could say about her as a player lol. as a person i think she's a democrat so like white women approve of her but she's also so diluted in any opinion that conservatives think she's fine. which is also gross lol

(don’t get me started on how “equal pay” as a crusade without any discussion of a radical, intersectional politic misses the mark so terribly its not even on the same planet but ... )

cp puts on defensive shifts off the ball that are... absolutely nuts. watching her play is truly beautiful bc i don't think anyone in the world plays like her. she's so smart & sees like 20 plays ahead, her finishing is beyond. it's fun to watch her play with tobin honestly bc i think their vision & workrates are so similar but their styles of play are so different (in a fun way tbc lol). i wish we could know what 1v1 days look like at their house lol

anyway pls message me abt football et al anytime!! (if u wanna connect off anon lmk)