Issue 6 | Letter from the Editor
Equal Pay. Equal Play.*
My daughter was thirteen years old when she asked my wife–Mama, why does the whole world hate women.
She had ingested some of the rhetoric around Christine Blasey-Ford’s testimony against Supreme Court then nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Despite the all girls middle school and being raised in a nurturing matriarchy–two mother household–we could not shelter her from this realization.
We didn’t have an answer.
Less than a year later, we were in the stands at the World Cup final in Lyon chanting for “EQUAL PAY” minutes after Rose Lavelle sealed the US victory. This time it was my then seven year old son asking why–Why don’t they get paid the same as the men?
We didn’t have an answer.
This past month, we’ve had a Supreme Court document leak outlining the reversal of Roe v. Wade and have had to not only digest what that would mean for the rights and health of women (and men) in this country, but understand the ripple the ruling could have on marriages… like mine.
We don’t have an answer.
We’ve also had to reckon with the fact that since February, Brittney Griner–arguably one of the best defensive players ever to play the game–has been detained in a Russian jail (the timing and situation made all the more perilous given her queer and Black identity). What was BG doing in Russia? Playing in the WNBA offseason to make a living as a professional athlete in a country who pays her like one. But is her country fighting for her release like it would for Anthony Davis or Larry Bird? Why aren’t we fighting for the release of this woman?
We don’t have an answer.
When I am tired of this world, I find hope in what we are up to here. I want to be in the business of establishing a new trajectory. I want to have spaces where things make sense and can safely be expressed. I am proud that the Under Review is a part of a correction, even if it feels tiny in the face of so much that is so bad and backwards in the world. I am fortunate for my partnership with Terry in this mission and we are thrilled to bring editor, friend, and walk-on ringer, Carlee Tressel to the pursuit.
Issue 6 features work from eighteen women and an interview with Quan Barry. That’s approximately 70% of our content. Over half of those pieces demonstrate narratives of female bodies at play, in sport, in competition, in peril, with an opponent, with herself, with her society. The questions they ask are as real, existential, and powerful as the answers they provide.
In a world that increasingly continues to devalue women’s contributions to it, it is important that the Under Review is here to flip the tables. Sports (and thereby writing about and around them) are nothing if not a microcosm for who we are as a society. We play together in the beginning. And then somewhere we are divided. And then somewhere again, we are diminished.
2022 is the 50th anniversary of Title IX, and we are still fighting for equality. We still don’t have so many of the answers. But we have some flickers of hope. I’m proud to present the Under Review as one of the flames on the horizon.
Meghan Maloney-Vinz
Co-Founding Editor
*U.S. Soccer Federation announced 5/18/22 that it reached a deal to pay the U.S. Men's National Team and the U.S. Women's National Team equally. It is worth noting that the only other sport to present any equality in pay is tennis, and that only applies to the Grand Slam tour prize money.