LFG
Bonus Youthquake Content Inside Includes: Documentary Review of HBO Max's "LFG"
On March 8th, 2019, otherwise known as International Women’s Day, the United States Women’s National Team players filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against their employer— the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Suing for equal pay, how is it that the men’s team earns more yet the women’s team are not only better players, but they’re also the world’s champions. They’re more successful on the pitch than their male counterparts, winning three World Cups and four Olympic Gold Medals.
LFG highlights an extraordinary movement by Oscar®, Emmy®, and Peabody award-winning filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine with CNN Films in an HBO MAX Original. The Fines and Abby Greensfelder produce the doc, while Howard T. Owens and Ben Silverman serve as executive producers for Propagate Content in collaboration with CNN Films and HBOMax. The doc focuses on Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press, Sam Mewis, and Julie Foudy. LFG holds nothing back, much like the captivating U.S. women’s national team.
I was fortunate enough to see an advanced screening of LFG ahead of its Tribeca Film Festival premiere, easily a documentary highlight of a team with a profound respect for each other; camaraderie shines and radiates on and off the field. Fans and spectators know who the U.S. soccer team is; their accomplishments are undeniable. Still, the women’s U.S. soccer team is cheapened out of equal pay while outplaying the men’s team, yet the federation indicated the women’s team as inferior.
The women’s U.S. soccer team is why the sport is known as beautiful; seeing them perform and their united front is so discernible. Each player knows their value and commands the federation to see their worth; this alone torched and erupted a call to action that fueled any identifying woman that sympathized with getting paid less than their male colleague or counterpart. The U.S. women’s soccer team knows their value and showed us their worth; it’s time the world does too.
The U.S. women’s further fueled a movement that showed anyone who felt marginalized and deprived for being seen less than into being fearless, no matter how daunting the edge of the cliff seems.
How much longer do women have to wait for equal pay? Unfortunately, it didn’t happen during my mother’s generation, and any sliver of hope for my generation gets smashed by the patriarchy— on Tuesday, June 8th, the Senate failed to advance the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation aimed at addressing the gender wage gap.
The vote was 49-50, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed. The bill needed at least 60 votes to end the filibuster and move the bill to the floor for a vote; sadly, that didn’t happen. According to the National Women's Law Center, women who work full-time year-round are paid, still on average, 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. This wage gap is even more pronounced for women of color: Black women typically make only 63 cents, Native American women only 60 cents, and Latinx’s only 55 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts. Senate MINORITY Leader Mitch McConnell dismissively retorted:
“wage discrimination on the basis of sex has been illegal for 60 years. What Democrats proposed [yesterday] was to kick down the carefully constructed protections to leave even the smallest American business at risk of unlimited liability in workplace cases– even where malice plays no part.”
It’s interesting to hear the Senate MINORITY Leader act concerningly for small American businesses at risk for liability when he helped put a considerable amount of Americans at risk with his more than 250 House-passed bills that were buried in his legislative graveyard.
The unbalanced structure is about securing the status quo; LFG highlights the merry-go-round charade of trying to make examples of the players for speaking up and knowing their worth. The federation’s biggest mistake was undervaluing and underestimating the ferocity of the U.S. Women’s team.
Regularly told from a young age, girls can’t— that we’re too weak, emotional, too girly, not enough, and the list goes on. Well, not only can we do it, we’ll most likely do it while multitasking instead of delegating tasks or workloads because we know the hard work in proving that we have to be better while also handling our limitations.
Instead, we get told a revisionist history by suits in power who refuse to acknowledge history books. History can be ugly and hard to admit when faults are at stake. However, change is essential and beneficial once new information is learned. Women earning equal pay doesn’t mean men will make or have less, but that’s the manipulative narrative trying to be sold. The U.S. women’s national team demanding equal pay for themselves helped empower women globally; while we appreciate the crumbs, we merely acknowledge that we deserve the whole fucking loaf too.
LFG premiers on HBO Max on June 24th; it’s a can’t miss informative must-stream.
🚨 ICYMI: While Ted Lasso isn’t back just yet, fans are treated to Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt bringing back Coach Lasso and Coach Beard to help announce the U.S. Olympic soccer team today.
Next Wednesday will be another bonus edition of Youthquake; make sure to check your inboxes!