This summer, on a warm night in France, a team of 23 American women proved once again that they are the best soccer team in the world. The indisputable talent and drive of the US Women’s National Team brought them to their fourth World Cup Victory, and the crowd could feel the history of the moment. The US Men’s National Team has never won a World Cup, but they’ve made an unseemly amount of money compared to the women.
But this summer, with proof of another victory for the women on the scoreboard, the crowd knew it was time. They started to chant.
“Equal pay! Equal pay!”
This was the moment we could all point to and say, “The women’s team is better than the men’s. We have evidence: the pay discrepancy is unfair.” If there was going to be a time to stand up and chant for justice, this was it.
Well, on Wednesday night, another moment came, but most people didn’t see it.
After nearly three hours of performances and awards on “country’s biggest night,” the Country Music Association announced the winner of Entertainer of the Year.
Since most of you are probably not country music nerds like I am, a little context might be helpful.
The CMAs have been awarding an Entertainer of the Year since 1968. Over that 41 year period, seven women have won the coveted slot. Two of those women won twice, the ratio of male to female winners is 11/3.
One more piece of context: the CMA website says that the Entertainer of the Year award goes takes into account “not only to recorded performance, but also to the in-person performance, staging, public acceptance, attitude, leadership, and overall contribution to the Country Music image.”
I’m boring even myself with the details, but I’ll tell you that Carrie Underwood has had an absolutely stellar overall contribution, due in part to the fact that she has been hosting the CMA Awards for 12 years. And 2019 has been her year.
Carrie played 60 shows this year. SIXTY. She released an album that she co-wrote and produced, which has had two #1 songs so far. She performed with Ludacris and with Joan Jett. She is the face and voice of Sunday Night Football, plus a long list of other television appearances. And since the theme of the awards show this year was “Celebrating the women of country,” it seemed like a natural finale to finally crown an eighth woman as Entertainer of the Year.
Yeah, spoiler alert: a guy won. It wasn’t even Eric Church, who came the closest to Carrie’s unreasonable amount of Entertainer of the Year mojo. It was Garth Brooks, a country legend and amazing guy, who released one single and played 12 shows this year. TWELVE, YOU GUYS. That’s one fifth of sixty, in case you’re bad at math like me.
When Garth won, someone in my house said, “Well, maybe next year.” I understand the sentiment, and the hope behind it.
But here’s the problem. If Carrie can’t win this year, when she’s done absolutely everything a human can do to qualify for the award, then when? Carrie doesn’t really need another award, she has dozens already. But if she can’t win, what woman can? It’s an annual award, which means it takes into account what happens in a single year. Garth, who has already won the award six times, wasn’t the most deserving this year.
This is the moment. There is evidence of the injustice in our world. It’s time to stand up and chant. If not now, when?
Where do you see these kinds of injustices around you? What does it look like for you to stand up and chant?
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