Essay:

Yes! How one moment defined the progression and viewing of women’s sports for decades to come.

In the modern era, women’s sports is burgeoning, from superstars like Caitlin Clark defining a new era in the WNBA, to dominant performers who always deliver, such as Simone Biles. However, a quarter of a century ago, this wasn’t the case. The WNBA was not founded, and neither was the NWSL. For many extremely talented female athletes, the best moments to show off their talents were limited to global stages, such as the Olympics, or in this case, the World Cup. However, one singular moment, when Brandi Chasten celebrated her World Cup winning penalty, stripping off her shirt in celebration, defined the viewing of women’s sports and also, what they are capable of. This issue is still present within society, as one of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals is reaching gender equality (Ballreich), and Chaistain’s decision and the following discourse regarding it, marks as one of the pivotal moments in changing the narrative regarding female athletes. Represented in the Sports Illustrated cover, a direct challenge was raised to the commonplace of women sports at the time. This moment, and magazine cover demanded the viewers to change their views, and no longer think of women’s athletics as secondary, but rather a growing competitor, to male athletics. The magazine titled, “Yes! Why Brandi Chastain and the U.S. Women’s Soccer team Were Unbeatable” highlights a moment which challenged the commonplace of Women’s ability and marketability within sports at the time and helps to show how this moment spurred a discourse with a wide variety of views. The magazine’s almost instant coverage of the event made this relevant issue a hot topic, appealing to its kairotic nature, and helped to grow a discourse surrounding equality at the time. So why was this moment so impactful, and what this magazine and moment do to help inspire change?

To truly understand the value these artifacts and moments hold, it is important to understand the situation at the time regarding women’s sports, and specifically Women’s soccer. As previously mentioned, there was no professional league for women’s soccer, and the U.S. team was really the only stage for female soccer athletes to show off their talent. Support was limited however, as FIFA, the organization tasked with running the World Cup, originally planned to host the games in 10,000 seat stadiums. This was not unprecedented, as the previous Women’s World Cup hosted in Sweden averaged a total of 4,316 fans per match. However, with the U.S. team deliberately running marketing campaigns to drum up excitement, fan attendance never dipped below 50,000 for a U.S. game. (Edler). The World Cup final culminated at the Rose Bowl, where the United States took on China in a classic match. The game went to penalties, and with the United States and China tied at 4-4, Brandi Chastain stepped with the fate of the game on the line. With over 40 million viewers at home, (Edler), this moment offered an opportunity for Brandi and U.S. soccer to change the narrative. At the time, the understood idea was that women’s sports and female athletes were secondary in skill and talent when compared to their male counterparts. Women had historically been stereotyped as quiet and unassertive, and therefore their ability in sports was quite undermined by this commonplace. However, with millions of eyes watching the final, and this being the most attended women’s sporting event in U.S. history (until 2023, when Nebraska volleyball broke that record) (Edler), finally female sports was given a stage to show their talents to an adequate audience. With this opportunity in her hands, (or rather at her feet), Chastain delivered a majestic penalty, winning the game for the United States in dramatic fashion. In celebration, she stripped off her shirt, in what became an iconic moment, as it had been done before by male soccer athletes, this action was extremely uncommon for female athletes. 

This picture of Brandi celebrating with unbridled passion and joy was captured in a Time Magazine cover, titled “Yes! Why Brandi Chastain and U.S. Women’s soccer team were unbeatable”. This magazine cover helps to provide insight regarding the impact of this moment when considering the situation at hand. Firstly, female athletes at the time were often underrepresented within the media due to the lack of perceived attention they received or deserved. Challenging this commonplace, Time Magazine is an established news source appealing to the ethos and credibility. Secondly, the picture chosen as the cover was the exact moment Brandi was celebrating, with this “controversial” action of her removing her shirt being presented as the cover of the magazine, regardless of how you feel about it, it would trigger a feeling of emotion at the time, likely either pride or shame. Finally, this magazine was released less than a month after the World Cup, appealing to its kairotic nature. With all of this in mind, this artifact clearly chose to represent the moment most scrutinized on the front of the magazine, and with a celebratory title, the intention is clear regarding Time Magazines decision to highlight the Women’s team achievement, even going as far to call them “Unbeatable.” This glowing review of their ability and already mentioned highlighting of Chastain’s celebration as positive attempts to both show the reader what is possible for female athletes, and challenge their preconceived notions regarding the issue as a whole. Unfortunately, as this issue was complex and challenged a commonplace at the time, there were a wide variety of views that were presented, including ones that were less positive regarding the whole event.

Comparatively, a news article was released by Democrat and Chronicle, a Rochester, New York centered paper, where they questioned the true impact of the victory. Firstly, the section is titled “United States team comes through for their fans.” The usage of “their fans”, helps to represent a clear bias on the side of the reporters. Rather than describe the large crowd drawn to the historic event as the “American people” or simply “Americans”, the Democrat and Chronicle chose to rather describe then anonymously as “fans” of Women’s American soccer, which as mentioned previously, cannot be confirmed, (the large influx of attendance featured a wide variety of fans, many who were newly attracted solely for the purpose of this final), and this also undermined the impact of the achievement on American citizens in general, rather leaving the celebration to a specific group (“Fans of Women’s American soccer). Moving down the article, the next section is titled “Winners on the field; losers in ad game.” Throughout this section the author first compliments the nature of the achievement, reflecting on the Women’s World Cup “enjoying the most fanfare of any women’s sporting event in history”, however it quickly shifts in tone, questioning not only the legitimacy of the impact on women in America, but also casts doubt on future progress. Key language throughout this section, such as below the photo of Brandi Chastain (“Brandi Chastain (6) may have been yesterday’s hero, but she’ll probably have trouble scoring many endorsement deals”) really highlight the complexity of the issue as there were many who while recognizing the accomplishment from the women’s team questioned the true future impact. This represents the issue that many have, being resistant to change and holding on to commonplaces. 

The first magazine decided to take this moment and turn it into a celebratory recognition of these women, while the newspaper attempted to downplay the moment. This wide variety of views held at the time regarding women’s sports is important to be recognized even in today’s society, as it shows the true nature of what was accomplished from these female athletes, overcoming commonplaces and stereotypes to reshape the narrative, and paving a brighter future for talented women of tomorrow. 

Here are the artifacts if you are interested

^Used for speech

Speech Outline

Introduction

In the modern era, women’s sports is burgeoning, from superstars like Caitlin Clark defining a new era in the WNBA, to dominant performers who always deliver, such as Simone Biles. However, a quarter of a century ago, this wasn’t the case. The WNBA was not founded, and neither was the NWSL. For many extremely talented female athletes, the best moments to show off their talents were limited to global stages, such as the Olympics, or in this case, the World Cup. However, one singular moment, when Brandi Chasten celebrated her World Cup winning penalty, stripping off her shirt in celebration, defined the viewing of women’s sports and also, what they are capable of. This issue is still present within society, as one of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals is reaching gender equality (Ballreich), and Chaistain’s decision and the following discourse regarding it, marks as one of the pivotal moments in changing the narrative regarding female athletes. Represented in the Sports Illustrated cover, a direct challenge was raised to the commonplace of women sports at the time. This moment, and magazine cover demanded the viewers to change their views, and no longer think of women’s athletics as secondary, but rather a growing competitor, to male athletics. The magazine titled, “Yes! Why Brandi Chastain and the U.S. Women’s Soccer team Were Unbeatable” highlights a moment which challenged the commonplace of Women’s ability and marketability within sports at the time and helps to show how this moment spurred a discourse with a wide variety of views. The magazine’s almost instant coverage of the event made this relevant issue a hot topic, appealing to its kairotic nature, and helped to grow a discourse surrounding equality at the time. So why was this moment so impactful, and what this magazine and moment do to help inspire change?

Mostly rough notes I will be basing my argument off of, I don’t really prefer to have a direct script for these sort of things.

Intro/Context + Clinton Photo

Delve into first artifact and analyze with the understanding of commonplaces at the time.

Kairotic nature-both made less than a month after the game, kairotic moment for women’s sports, tie into how they had to drum up funding

Be clear in what the Commonplace was-women have less ability in sports, not represented in popular media at the time

Ethos-sports illustrated magazine established news source

Pathos-Due to it’s controversial nature it spurred reaction from both sides.

Logos-not really existent

Representation as an issue, why choose this moment to be represented as the cover?

Delve into second artifact, and analyze how comparatively it paints the women in a different picture

Also that women are able to do the same thing as males, despite not being in the sport as long

“Came through for their fans”, analyze specific language, why not came through for their country, circumscribed, very connected to the questioning of can you bring this to a world’s stage, Didn’t come through for the American people but their fan’s, almost questioning the existence of fans

Language also questions the longevity of the impact.

Deliver your speech as if it was your opening statement-think back to Mock Trial

First cover the situation at the time in women’s sports, then go into the moment (Clinton), then analyze the artifact, compare to the other artifact and sum with theme.

Similar to essay but shortened and more persuasive.