The mens’ and womens’ USA hockey teams have been at odds in the media after President Trump called the mens’ team locker room and invited them to the White House, while saying he reluctantly has to invite the womens’ team too, around two weeks ago. With that drama on the forefront of many, Saturday Night Live does what it does best, by confronting the tension and making light of it.
This past week, there was a clip of the mens’ USA hockey team calling President Trump after their huge win against Canada. President Trump is heard talking negatively about the USA women’s hockey team, and the boys’ team was laughing along. The video got leaked and immediately circulated on the internet.
Player Jack Hughes from the USA team made a statement that he is excited to meet the president and represent the USA. The interviewer asked Hughes how he felt about the women’s team not going: “They got busy schedules too. Everyone has been giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today, but it’s so negative. People are so negative out there, and they’re trying to find a reason to just like put people down and make something out of almost nothing.”
He then mentioned how much the men support the women’s team and how proud they are of them.
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This SNL skit pokes fun at how Heated Rivalry was more “impactful” than the actual sport of hockey. The women’s team also joked about how they won gold in 2018 during the PyeongChang Games, while the men haven’t won gold since 1980. They also joked about how the men’s team went to the White House, while the womens’ team didn’t. The whole skit was very ironic.
Sartell students shared what they thought of the situation and if it was handled well.
Owen Rath, Senior at SHS
Q: What do you think of the situation?
A: ” I think the whole situation was blown out of proportion, and people are too sensitive.”
Q: Why do you think people took it too far?
A: “I think because politics was involved, and who made the joke, people were trying make it sound worse than what it was.”
Annabelle Trombley, Senior at SHS
Q: What do you think of the situation?
“I think it’s unfortunate that even though the women’s hockey team achieved the same feat as the mens’ hockey team, their accomplishment was diminished and used as a butt of a joke by President Trump and the mens’ hockey team. Although it was disappointing to see, it has been cool to see how much support has been rallied around the womens’ hockey team to celebrate their success regardless.”
Q: How do you think this further divides men’s and womens’ sports?
“I think that it polarizes how mens’ and womens’ accomplishments are viewed and valued, and that even though women have accomplished the same and similar things as men, they are going to be undervalued regardless. I also think that watching the mens’ team laugh at the womens’ team could make it hard to support both of them at the same time, which is unfortunate and not fair because they both did very well at the Olympics.”
