Friday, February 26, 2010

Canadian Women Win, Apologize

In what universe is it a crime to celebrate a win?
First, let's give credit where it's due: Canada won the Gold medal in women's hockey, and congratulations to them. It would have been nice to see the US women get the gold, but alas.
So the Canadian women celebrated their Olympic win (which may be their last), after the medal ceremony, returning to the ice drinking champagne and beer, and smoking cigars. I don't know about you, but that's my kind of women right there.

The International Olympic Committee is investigating, since A) it seems players are not allowed to have fun, and B) one of the women was underage (Marie-Philip Poulin is 18--legal in other provinces, but not in British Columbia). I guess what she should have done was go celebrate away from her teammates in a less controlled, less safe environment.
Hockey Canada encoded a subtle "Fuck You" to the IOC in its apology:

"The members of Team Canada apologize if their on-ice celebrations, after fans had left the building, have offended anyone."

"In the excitement of the moment, the celebration left the confines of our dressing room and shouldn't have. The team regrets that its gold medal celebration may have caused the IOC or COC any embarrassment."

Translation: "The celebration occurred away from the public, so no one actually had to see it who didn't want to. And we're so, so sorry for celebrating winning the biggest tournament available for women hockey players. Next time we'll get right back to our knitting, fuck-wits."

I recall Mike Vernon smoking a cigar at center-ice when he won the Stanley Cup in 1997. And every year we see men guzzling champagne out of a giant silver mug. I don't recall hearing an uproar then. Shit, I forgot: women are not supposed to party or present an image other than the sexy, demure, submissive women we see in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Sure, we'll let them be athletes, but they'd better not act like men when they win. We want crying, grateful champions who smell like buttercups and Estee Lauder, not powerful, kick-ass females who can not only play the sport better than you can, but might have beer on their breath too.

1 comment:

BofK said...

Isn't my husband a great feminist.