Angel Reese: When women talk trash were penalized, or were considered unladylike
Embed from Getty Images
Angel Reese is a basketball player from Louisiana State University and an NCAA champion after their victory in April over the Iowa Hawkeyes. I don’t follow college basketball, but I followed the manufactured controversy after the championship game, when white men lost their minds and showed their double standards for trash-talking during games when it comes to Black women. Angel Reese remained unbothered and enjoyed her win and now she’s appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In the accompanying interview, she talked about confidence and being a female athlete.
Angel Reese is not only a newly-crowned basketball champ, she’s also Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s newest model.
The stellar athlete made her debut with the famed publication in the May 2023 issue’s reveal, allowing the NCAA women’s championship tournament’s Most Outstanding Player of the Year to add yet another accolade to her growing list of accomplishments.
In case you missed it: last month, 9.9 million people tuned in to witness the Baltimore-native lead the Louisiana State University Tigers women’s basketball team to victory in a history-making competition. On April 2, 2023, LSU defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in a final score of 102-85, winning their first-ever national championship. The game also marked the highest-scoring championship game in women’s NCAA history.
“Having so many people come back to me and say, ‘You guys have changed the game. You guys have been a part of history,’ I embraced that,” Reese told SI Swim of the feat. “Just being able to be a part of this has just been amazing for me this year, and it’s been a blessing.”
As one of the top NIL earners at $1.3 million—with deals for Coach, Amazon Merch on Demand, McDonald’s and Mercedes Benz-Baton Rouge—Reese knows firsthand what it’s like to be in the spotlight, but stepping into this new role seems to be right up her alley.
And, in sports, confidence and competition go hand in hand for Reese. While she may have made headlines for that “you can’t see me” hand wave á la John Cena toward her Iowa opponent, the junior forward insists the media made too much of the moment.
“It’s just being able to force people to accept that women can talk trash. The women’s side gets penalized for it, or we’re considered as not ladylike and that we’re not playing by the rules,” she noted, doubling down that she’s tired of the “pitting women against women narrative.”
The standout athlete continued: “We work just as hard as the men. Women can be who we are; women can be competitive.”
[From Yahoo! Life]
Angel is completely right, too much was made of the moment. But the response wasn’t just totally sexist, it was also racist. But if Angel doesn’t want to focus on or get into all that, that’s her right. But yes, there is an unfair standard of “sportsmanship” put on women. Men can trash talk and get angry and have little tantrums on the field or court or whatever and they’re just characterized as passionate and spirited and the like. When women do the same, they’re considered not ladylike or called poor sports and that they’re not playing by the rules. Angel is right that there is a narrative of pitting women against each other. Female athletes do work just as hard and are just as competitive as male athletes. And they should be treated — and paid — accordingly. But Angel is getting paid other ways. She has deals with Coach, Amazon Merch on Demand, McDonald’s, Mercedes Benz-Baton Rouge, and now is the new spokesperson for Mielle Organics. My sister loves their products.
— MEFeater Magazine (@mefeater) May 23, 2023
Embed from Getty Images
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr-zp9nOFfr/
Source: Read Full Article