Talk:Soccer mom

Interesting... here in Canada, as far as I can tell, this phrase has been stripped of its political overtones. I have always known it to mean (based on its context in casual conversations) as a mom who takes an active part in her son or daughters sports life, typified by carting the kids around in a mini-van to their soccer games.

Yes, associated perhaps with boring and self-sacrificing, but not with a political point of view.

The section describing the pop culture references has a paragraph of gibberish, incomplete sentences, missing words, its so bad I can't even correct it - I don't know what the author was trying to say.

One sided POV in the article

There seems to be an attempt to paint the soccer mom as liberal in this article, when some people actually consider the stereotype to be conservative. Assuming that they would only vote Democrat shows a one-sidedness to this stereotype, which is used by both sides of the political spectrum to insult each other. Also, I've heard more people talk about "SUV driving soccer moms" than minivan driving ones. I've heard a similar flipside to the anti-creationism stereotype as well. -- LGagnon 01:20, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

I perceive that the McCain-Palin presidential campaign is attempting to create a distinct political identity in "hockey mom". The term "soccer mom" played a similar identity role in the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign. Because Bill Clinton won that election, supposedly with the votes of the "soccer mom", the 2008 creation of a "hockey mom" identity for conservatives renders "soccer mom" a liberal identity by default. More accurately, the Republicans would have us see "soccer moms" as the past and "hockey moms" as the future. Hopefully some citations can be found to support my analysis for the article or articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.220.164.38 (talk) 01:44, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

restored original name

Why was this article renamed and replaced with a disambiguation page, with a link to a non-existing article, Soccer mom (Canada)? I have undone the move. -- Viajero 13:36, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Added definition

Added definition(s) as I know, and have seen used very often. Also, To the best of my knowledge this IS a one sided word. I've never heard the word used to describe a repulican, or female party member of a group other than liberal EXCEPT if they were a bad driver of a minivan/SUV; in which case political beliefs were not a factor, the driver was assumed liberal/a Democrat.

Liberal vs. conservative

I have always associated soccer moms with conservatism and I was surprised when I read this article. I was wondering if the liberal/conservative thing may have more to do with the area than the soccer moms themselves; here in the suburban South I think that soccer moms are quite conservative. I would like to strip at least most of the political stuff out of the article. TomTheHand 20:15, Mar 30, 2005 (UTC)

I'd have to agree with that. I'm pretty shocked that there's nothing in here about the general conception of Soccer Moms as overbearing parents with too many opinions and too much time. Lines like "This video game is sure to upset the soccer moms" or "The soccer moms are throwing a fit about such and such on TV" are common enough to warrant a mention I'd say. Charagon 7:08, Dec. 2, 2007.

Recent edits

Just wanted to thank Samaritan for the recent revisions to this page. It looks great now! It's much less biased and in my opinion provides a really good definition and history of the term. TomTheHand 21:18, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

*blush* Aww, thanks! The heart of it was there; it just needed more context in places. Samaritan 21:33, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Related Terms

I am not a native speaker (perhaps a naive one) and have a question: can somebody explain the related "sucker mom" and it's place in the discourse to me. (Ok, I know the saucy side of the term, but I thought, ther might be more to it. Thanks.

I just did a quick word search in the article and couldn't find the word "sucker" anywhere. Did you see the two terms linked together elsewhere and then come here to find out how they may have been related? Dismas|^(talk) 16:50, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

probably needs a little background

I'm not sure where to best put this, but for those who aren't from North America some background might make things more comprehensible. In particular, soccer as a professional-level sport is not very popular in the U.S. or Canada, but soccer leagues for suburban children are extremely common. So in contrast to, say, Europe, in the U.S. and Canada the very mention of the sport has an association with suburban children's leagues. --130.207.119.24 12:58, 28 June 2006 (UTC)! lol![reply]

Image

Man, it would be incredible if there were a subject photo for this article like this. I wish I knew a soccer mom type willing to stage it, so I could release it the public domain. Does anyone else? --nathanbeach 15:36, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hang out at a suburban elementary school with a camera and snap some pictures of a woman with a bunch of bratty kids. --Kalmia 19:26, 28 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

disconnect

Disconnect is not a noun; it is a verb. If you connect (v.) something, you have a connection (n). If you disconnect (v>) something, you have a disconnection (n.).

Feel free to edit accordingly.

In California English, at least, disconnect functions as both an noun and a verb, whereas disconnection is awkward and rare. Atropos 08:57, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Missing defn added, many citations needed, remove racial and restructure it vastly minimized.

Most of this article contains questionable text. It didn't include the main definition, so I've included it at the top. The article even tries to establish a link to race which I consider wrong. The terms associated meanings are rapidly changing as soccer takes a greater hold in the US and they are heard and adapted in the rest of the world. Today's meaning is different than the meaning yesterday or one, 10 or 20 years ago. It would be wise to minimize the text related to this term, cite it all and revisit it frequently. In short, I think it needs to be rewritten. Edit June 5th - The Citation banner was placed at the top of page and the few lines of text I added removed (now gone). In my opinion the article doesn't represent the meaning (that most people associate) of "Soccer mom" and instead represents it as more political/historical (which might still be used as additions). I am fairly confident that the Denver soccer mom first knew/thought of the term (even if 1 second before stage delivery) in relation to its simple definition "A Woman (normally mother) taking an active interest in (generally taking to play - not always driving) children playing soccer". That's fairly close to the removed sentence I think!!! When I initially wrote it I double checked, and this meaning was the first definition in the dictionary I used, and the political side was second.

The definition suggested above is vague and awkwardly worded, as well as redundant: of course soccer moms are normally mothers! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.174.24 (talk) 19:24, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations

One of the best entries on Wikipedia (along with the expansive definition of the word "Bollocks") I have seen. There are always those pseudo-intellectual twerps, mainly Americans unfortunately, who agressively dismiss anything they don't happen to agree with or, more likely understand, as "liberal" but this is a wonderful definition of a harmless and devoted segment of our society.

Australia

Soccor mom is rarely used in Australian political discourse. However, a phenomenon commonly referred to as "Doctor's wives" is often used to describe upper/middle-class house wives with "small-l liberal" views moving from support of the Liberal Party to various left-wing parties. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.2.96.240 (talk) 07:07, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Europe

In Europe the term "Soccer Mom" is identically with "MILF" - so its quite disturbing seeing it used in respected publications and I had a good laugh when Mrs Palin (vice presidential candidate in the US) referred to herself as "Hockey Mom". To clarify this for People not from the US or Canada I would agree if the Background proposed in Section == probably needs a little Background == was added to the article

Is a 'Hockey Mom' the same as a 'Soccer Mom'?

According to Wikipedia, it is ('hockey mom' redirects here.) But this Slate article [1] differentiates them, in the light of Sarah Palin's profligate use of the term.

example videos

I think a "hockey mom" is a more aggressive version of soccer mom, and this should be mentioned on the front page.

hockey mom home video (bad language)
Daily Show bit shows Sarah Palin make the joke "Q:how is a hockey mom different from a pit bull? A:lipstick"