Soccer Moms?

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). 

This honestly isn't a troll - I am in fact bewildered by the phrase.  

Ken Brown

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, 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). 
> 
> This honestly isn't a troll - I am in fact bewildered by the phrase.  

Basically the phrase refers to suburban housewives.  (Mothers who have
time to take their little sprogs to school soccer games and the like.)

The image of suburban housewives getting involved in World Cup style
brawls and rioting does have a certain appeal though. ]:>

alan@ctrl-alt-del.com | Note to AOL users: for a quick shortcut to reply
Alan Olsen            | to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys.

At 8:28 AM -0500 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).
>
>This honestly isn't a troll - I am in fact bewildered by the phrase.

	I am currently in the process of catching up on C-punks, did this
get answered to your satisfaction?
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather nave, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html

Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent. Inc.::petro@playboy.com

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.

At 4:27 PM -0400 on 10/13/98, Robert Hettinga wrote:

> Just what they've been sucking I suppose I would leave as an exercise to
> the reader, though I bet they didn't inhale more than once without getting
> a severe um, headache, and we all know that "blow" is just an expression...

Okay, maaaaybe I was just a liiiitle bit misogynistic there.

My considerable apologies to those I offended with the above...

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

PS: No, I didn't get any mail about this, it's a real-live, genuine,
recantation.
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, 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?
> 

etc...

The answer you search for is:

In US primary schools (mostly in affluent suburbs), soccer (football)
is a very popular fall/winter sport for ages 7-14.

Soccer moms are the mothers that haul their sons and daughters around
after school and on Saturday mornings in minivans to these games.

"Soccer moms" connotes a particular kind of woman.  Its difficult to
give you an exact definition although its usually slightly deragatory.
Lets try to describe her:

Middle to Upper Middle class
White
Mid-thirties
Average Intelligence
Thinks Bill Clinton is a Stud
Probably a Career Mom and thinks working 9-5 in a big corporate
arcology is a pretty neat thing
(not relative to unemployment, but relative to others who think its a
trap)
Probably religious, either WASP, Catholic or Statist.

This, at least, is the stereotype.  YMMV.

Jim

Actually, we've been persistant victims of a misspelling, here.

According to Rush Limbaugh, the true spelling, evidently, is "Sucker", not
"Soccer" Moms.

Just what they've been sucking, I suppose I would as an exercise to the
reader, though I bet they didn't inhale more than once without getting a
severe um, headache, and we all know that "blow" is just an expression...

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'