Re: Soccer Moms?

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:28 AM -0700 10/13/98, Brown, R Ken wrote:
>In the middle of an interesting article about digital cash, forwarded
>here by Bob Hettinga, there was the line:
>
>> After all, the kind of soccer moms who elected Bill Clinton
>
>"Divided by a common language" as I am  I genuinly don't know what that
>means. And I can't even guess from context. I'd have expected a dig at
>liberals or feminists or welfare recipients at that point; and I can't
>work out what soccer has to do with it.
>
>Do mothers play soccer much in the USA?
>
>Football (as the 95% of the world's population that aren't either
>English-speaking North Americans or else Rugby fans call the Beautiful
>Game) is associated in my mind with young men, specifically working
>class men. It's connotations are entirely macho, even violent.  When a
>big match is on men gather in pubs and bars and shout at TVs whilst
>knocking back the lager. You avoid the centre of town if you don't want
>to risk getting involved in a fight.  People get *killed* at football
>matches.  That's pretty much true in every big city inthe world outside
>North America (and Japan where the fans are polite).

Theory 1: "Soccer moms" gather everyday to practice killing each other with
broken bottles.

Theory 2: Soccer (=football, outside the U.S.) has become a popular after
school thing for girls and boys. More so than other sports. Mothers who
don't work assume the role of ferrying the children to and from practice
and games, watching them as they practice, etc. More common in affluent
suburbs.

The term "soccer mom" seems to have arisen in about 1992, as in the
sentence: "In affluent Connecticut, soccer moms form the base of
Presidential hopeful Bill Clinton's support."

--Tim May


Y2K: A good chance to reformat America's hard drive and empty the trash.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.