Thanks, But No Thanks - Women's Ice Hockey Coach Doesn't Like Palin Plugging the Sport

With all of Sarah Palin's talk about being a hockey mom, is she helping the sport?

Michelle McAteer has her opinion. An Assistant Coach for the defending National Champion Women's Ice Hockey team at the University of Minnesota Duluth, McAteer is Canadian and unable to vote in the U.S. But she shares her thoughts in "The Puck Stops Here: A Hockey Coach Analyzes Palin’s Brand" posted yesterday at Beacon Broadside:

I'm used to my sport being largely ignored, but suddenly it's the newest political catch phrase. Bowling gets more television airtime than hockey (so does cheerleading), but suddenly the word "hockey" is coming out of the mouths of Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly, Larry King, and is at the heart of the political dialogue. Will this newfound fame propel my sport? Will hockey become this country's sporting darling?

No, it won't....Palin's "hockey world" resembles nothing like the one that I know—that is, the world of women's hockey....I've played and coached and have happily resided in the hockey world my entire life, and we are not all white, Christian, "pro-life," gun-touting, gas guzzling, and certainly not all Republican. Women's hockey struggles for support and respect, and...fights even harder for a piece of the pie. In addition...women's hockey players battle stereotypes that force them to defend their "feminity" as they play a "masculine game."

Time magazine wrote last week that...women identify with Palin's complex life as a working mom and raising a child with special needs. But pit-bull Palin....wasn't trying to associate herself with me, my community, or my experiences....[T]he large subset of gay women in the hockey world never crossed Palin's mind as she branded herself part of the hockey minority. At the collegiate level, though, lesbians are a visible part of game. In some cases, we are even the majority....[T]he subset "lesbians in hockey" is comparable to "gay men in dance." And, yes, some of us are lipstick lesbians.

Palin's claim to authority as a "hockey mom" is useful to her because this paradoxical phrase symbolizes the essence of Palin's brand. The unflinchingly patriotic masculinity associated with hockey allows Palin to take on a powerful position, but by fusing it with motherhood politics, she's kept within her God-given role as a submissive wife, mother, running mate, and perhaps even as a sort of First Lady.

So, if I could chose between having my sport plugged nationally through Sarah Palin's frame of reference, or return to the status quo of being overlooked, let's just say that I'd watch bowling any day without complaint.