The Worst Football Dives Ever-Ham Actors Analysis

Two Sides of a Coin: The Beautiful Game With every job in the world, there are gender norms and expectations. Soccer is no exception. According to Kathleen Deveny, there exists a “soft bigotry of high expectations.” Women are not seen as equal to men in the soccer world and have gone through many different struggles, such as not being as skilled as men or even being paid less. Females do their part to challenge these conventional images, but these women can do only so much without the support of fans. Women soccer has surely had a bumpy road, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Men and women are on different skill levels. According to a tweet from Junior Flores, a Borussia Dortmund II soccer player, the United States men’s national

Women do not attempt to cheat, if at all, as much as men do. In a YouTube video about diving by mlssoccer.com, Tim Howard, US soccer player, says “I would encourage my own players. If they feel contact, go down.” Tim suggests for his players to “dive”, or let yourself fall, in order to gain an advantage. Many see this as a cheap tactic and is widely frowned upon, yet it still occurs. In the YouTube video “The Worst Football Dives Ever -- Ham Actors” you see many male players using cheap strategies in order to get an upper hand on the opponent. These male players are falling way too easy and for ridiculous reasons, even without being touched sometimes. On the other hand, women play slightly different. According to the article “Soccer: How Women Play Differently from Men” by Emily Sohn, men and women have different styles of play in soccer. Women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance said, “After the first women's World Cup in 1991, referees who were accustomed to the men's game reported being more fatigued after reffing women's games” (Sohn) This means that women do not spend as much time on the ground and overall spend less time cheating; the referee had to do more running because play did not stop

According to esquire’s article, “The Minimum Pro Female Soccer Salary Is Below the Poverty Line” by Sam Fortier, women’s salary in the NWSL is certainly low. The minimum salary in the NWSL is $6,842. As stated on aspe.hhs.gov, anything below $11,770 for a one-person household is below the poverty line. With a salary of $6,842, clearly a NWSL player making the league minimum cannot even support themselves. Likely, several NWSL players would have to live together to make ends meet. When compared to MLS, the minimum salary stands at $60,000 as mentioned on esquire. With these numbers, MLS has a whopping 88.59% higher minimum salary than the NWSL. Women are underpaid, but what else do they struggle