Even CNN’s Don Lemon recently had to admit the obvious about why men’s soccer players tend to make a good bit more than female soccer players, saying during a broadcast of the daytime show he was demoted to be on that “The men’s team makes more money because, you know what, people are more interested in it.”
A frequent complaint from the feminists on the US Women’s Soccer team is that they, though training and playing as hard as the US Men’s Soccer team yet make far less money for doing so (with the same dynamic applying to non-national sports teams).
Megan Rapinoe, for instance, said in 2020 that“Men are so often paid and compensated on the potential that they show, not necessarily what they’ve done. And women are so often paid on what they’ve actually done — which normally I would say, we outperform what our contract was.”
Adding to that, she said “The amount of money that [the women’s team players] could possibly earn in our contract — compared to the amount of money that the men could possibly earn in the contract — is very different. We’ve been very successful … and to get paid about the same dollar-for-dollar amount [as the men] — that’s sort of at the heart of pay inequity and gender discrimination.”
Well, for whatever reason it was left to Don Lemon to say the obvious, which is that it’s not sexism behind why women soccer players are paid less, but rather that people are just more interested in men’s soccer. Watch that here:
WATCH: Don Lemon actually drops a truth bomb about why the U.S. men's soccer team is better paid
"The men’s team makes more money because, you know what, people are more interested in it."pic.twitter.com/V5g4p1hd5F
— Ben Kew 🐶 (@ben_kew) December 2, 2022
As you can hear in the video, Lemon said the obvious and infuriated his even woker co-hosts by doing so, which is that the men’s soccer team players earn more money because more people watch them play, which means the team makes more money. In his words:
“Make the exact opposite argument. I know everyone’s gonna hate me go ahead but the men’s team makes more money. If they make more money then they should get more money.”
One of the others on the show then tried interjecting, saying “because you know why?”
Lemon, continuing, said the obvious, which is “Because people are more interested [in men’s soccer].”
The co-host mad with Lemon for stating the obvious then pushed back, saying: “But he gets who takes part of like, I have big issue with this guys WNBA same thing is happening to them in social media. Hold on, hold on hold on. Until big media companies, big tech companies, advertisers invest and put them on their airwaves more and allow people we don’t know and allow people to see it more and gain more fans, then you will push toward more quality but if they are blocked in so many ways and not invested in as much.”
Lemon, then rebutting that after saying he is “not sexist,” said “I understand what you’re saying. But not everybody honestly has the same skill.“
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