Tuesday night, thousands of people across the country tuned in to watch our own UConn Women make NCAA history. The lady Huskies dominated the court with a 31 point lead over Syracuse, and claimed their fourth consecutive national title. All of our fantastic women contributed to this victory, but one player stood apart from all the rest: Breanna “Stewie” Stewart.
Hands down, Stewie is one of the greatest collegiate athletes of all time. She is the first player to be named the Woman’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player for four straight seasons. She is also the first athlete, man or woman, to win four consecutive national championships. Stewie has received an enormous number of awards for her contributions to the UConn team, as well as for her individual skills on the national level. She is the recipient of two Wooden Awards (an honor given to the top male and female players each year), as well as the Wade Trophy for being named WBCA’s national player of the year.
After the national championship game last week, SportsCenter instagrammed a picture of Breanna Stewart and noted: “Breanna Stewart becomes the 1st player in Division I history, men’s or women’s, to win 4 Final Four MVP awards.” However, beneath this honorable mention from ESPN remarking Stewie’s talent and accomplishments, strangers had the audacity to leave nasty and objectifying comments.
“Ugly ass pale bitch”
“lol its women’s ball I can win 20 mvps in that shit smh with my dick tied between my legs”
“Any decent men’s high school player would whoop her ass”
“ew”
“She ugly af”
“Chimpanzee orrrrr”
“She’s an ugly ass monkey”
“She’s a man!”
“she’s so fucking ugly”
“but is this minor skill worth being that unattractive”
“look at these hands!”
“if she gave you a handjob, it would wrap around twice and cover the whole thing. Smash”
“Fuckin ugly”
These are just a few unaltered examples of the purely derogatory comments left by men and women alike about this incredible athlete.
The ignorance displayed in these posts is disgusting, and it doesn’t take a women’s studies major to recognize that. I’m sure that this is a fact on which we can all agree.
It’s thoughtless comments like these that emphasize the double standards we hold for our athletes. While male sportsmen are viewed as heroes for their contributions to their sport, women, no matter how good they are at what they do, are only valued for their appearance. They are criticized when they don’t reach those unrealistic expectations of beauty created by society.
Why can’t we appreciate a woman’s athleticism through the same lens as a man’s?
Breanna Stewart is one of the best basketball players the nation has ever seen. Her skills and her recognitions are unmatched by any other college athlete, INCLUDING male athletes. Yet, people insist on overlooking all of her accomplishments because she doesn’t fit their manufactured description of what it means to be beautiful?
“Beauty” is so superficial! A person’s external characteristics do not define who they are or what they are capable of. Stewie is such an amazing, talented woman. She did not win four national championships because of her sex appeal, she won because she dedicates her life to perfecting her skills as a basketball player. And she’s a damn good basketball player.
I look at Stewie and see a tremendous athlete, but also an outstanding role model for women. Each athletic record she breaks metaphorically represents another fourth wall. She is changing the face of women’s sports in this country and we should all be proud to be around to witness it. Stewie is not the power-hungry diva we might expect from an athlete of her status. She is humble and proud of her achievements because she recognizes the years of hard work that she has put into getting where she is today. These are qualities that we should all strive for.
Breanna is an incredible woman with a bright future ahead of her. People should not let society’s offensive stereotypes cloud their ability to recognize her historical accomplishments.
Hopefully in time, we will all be able to leave comments like this one, by user @cmoneygram:
“Regardless of sport, sex, or level of sport, what this woman has done is UNFUCKWITHABLE! the morons that negatively comment can’t even come close to winning wiffle ball MVP one time, they had to play video games on easy mode to even get one. Setting back humanity a hundred years back. Give these women the props they deserve. Respect.”