Henrietta Hay's Column

Unless you are living in a cave, you saw last week what may be the most completely joyous sight ever shown on television. After 90 minutes of regulation play and two 15-minute overtimes in 90-degree heat, a scoreless soccer game came down to a penalty-kick shootout between the American women and the Chinese women for the World Cup. The coach chose Brandi Chastain to make the final, most stressful, American kick.

She walked up to the ball, looked at it, looked at the net, and put a left footer into the upper right corner of the net. She fell to her knees, ripped off her jersey and waved it around her head like a banner. Her teammates, waiting at midfield, tore down to her at full speed, their arms waving. Seldom have I watched a scene of such sheer exuberance - such a pure physical release of fatigue and joy.

Title IX has come of age. Just 27 years after Congress passed the bill requiring schools and colleges to treat men's and women's athletic programs equally, 90,000 people showed up in the Rose Bowl to see two teams of women play a game of soccer. It has been a long hard battle with the schools, and it is far from over, but was a great day for women athletes, and for all women everywhere.

Women bring home most of the American gold from the Olympics. The women's pro basketball games are drawing big crowds across the country. Naively I had thought the guys had sort of accepted strong, physically fit women with muscles as -- well, as women, even as beautiful women. But no. They're still playing the age-old game of disempowering strong women by turning them into sex objects. Since they all got a look at Brandi's black sports bra, the male sports columnists are more interested in talking about her breasts than the rest of her, or the game itself.

Woody Paige wrote a condescending column in the Denver Post, ending with a note about men's soccer. "(Other) team USA defeated Derby County and players celebrated by taking off their jerseys. But it doesn't matter these days unless you're wearing a sports bra. Women now rule the world of sport. Men, get used to it."

Mark Kiszla suggests the possibility that Brandi's action was planned ahead of time with Nike to advertise their black sports bra.

Sure, after 120 minutes of a relentlessly tough soccer game, and faced with the chance to win the game on one single kick (never mind that is not the best way to end a tie) she stood and thought to herself, "Now I really must make this so that I can undress in front of 90,000 people and make a lot of money for Nike and me.

Whatever business arrangements may have been made, or will be made in the future, at that moment Brandi acted in sheer, exuberance, as she said, "a moment of temporary insanity," and the black sports bra became history.

If female athletes are going to be turned into "babes" will they follow their male counterparts and sell their "babedom" for money? Sure, I hope so. They have earned it. However, at $50,000 a year that the soccer players are paid it will take a while to get to Michael Jordan's $178,000 a day.

But way down inside the women were playing for the fun of the game -- and for all the little girls out there. Midfielder Julie Fowdy, "Rowdy Fowdy," wrote in her journal, "Girls have always had to watch guys doing great feats on the field, in front of huge crowds. Now they can watch women doing great feats on the field in front of great crowds. What was once unrealistic becomes realistic. What was once just a dream becomes a tangible goal."

Those women are happy, and they are proud of their strength. Brandi Chastain said, "Hey, I ran my ass off for this body and I'm proud of it." They have earned whatever they can get. I hope that the famous picture of Brandi on her knees in her black sports bra hangs on the wall of every little girl in America who has dreams of being an athlete.

I Think I'll go out and buy one of those $40 Nike black sports bras just for the heck of it.