The first women's Ballon d'Or winner in history was congratulated in one of the most offensive ways possible
On Monday, Olympique Lyonnais striker Ada Hegerberg, aka the first-ever women’s Ballon d’Or winner — aka the world soccer Player of the Year award — was congratulated by the host of the ceremony, French disc jockey Martin Solveig … by being asked if she would twerk?
If you’re stupid, or sexist, or both, you know what that means.
If you’re not, let’s clue you in. “Twerk” is a wholly derogatory term toward women that inclines their preferred method of celebration is this, reducing them to objects instead of, you know, people.
Surely, the host of the ceremony knew this. Or did he?
Sincere apologies to the one I may have offended. My point was : I don’t invite women to twerk but dance on a Sinatra song. Watch the full sequence People who have followed me for 20 years know how respectful I am especially with women pic.twitter.com/pnZX8qvl4R
— Martin Solveig (@martinsolveig) December 3, 2018
On face value, this reads as awful. It’s couched with “I’m a little bit amazed” at what he was reading on the Internet. “I, uh, of course didn’t want to offend anyone.”
“This was a joke. Probably a bad one, and I want to apologize for the one I may have offended, um, sorry about that.”
That’s a bunch of sidestepping, and a bunch of zero accountability.
This needs to be included too. Hegerberg apparently understood it was a joke:
Ballon d’Or winner @AdaStolsmo says she wasn’t upset when French DJ Martin Solveig asked her if she could twerk at the award ceremony in Paris. Apologies for my framing at the beginning pic.twitter.com/LFzEoCccRo
— John Leicester (@johnleicester) December 3, 2018
That said, it doesn’t mean it’s OK. Norway made the first women’s World Cup Final in 1991. And the nation won the second edition in 1995. It’s hardly a nobody country in this regard.
And Hegerberg is arguably the Norwegians’ best overall player since that era. This kind of garbage needs to be eliminated from the sports discourse, and also the general discourse, sooner rather than later. Call it “virtue-signaling” or whatever mealy mouthed term you want. It’s really, really easy to not be offensive in this regard.
On this same day, the outstanding Croatian playmaker Luka Modric, one of Real Madrid’s best players during their last half decade of unparalleled European dominance, ended the stranglehold that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have had on the male Ballon d’Or over the past decade. And there was zilch during the ceremony about anything other than his prowess on the pitch.
That’s not the case yet, apparently, for women. Sadly, Solveig didn’t account for that.
Joey Gulino is the editor of FC Yahoo and moonlights as a writer. Follow him on Twitter at @JGulinoYahoo.
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