Molly Miller, ‘pretty privilege’ and women’s basketball’s beauty trap | college basketball
Yon March 2025, the Arizona State women’s basketball crew had been searching for a coach who may finish a drought that had seen them go and not using a NCAA Tournament look – or perhaps a profitable season – since 2019-20.
The alternative was Molly Miller, a confirmed and profitable head coach at Grand Canyon. Miller had led the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament look and a 32–3 report of their remaining season with the crew – a benchmark for this system and an vital accomplishment throughout the broader scope of college basketball. She quickly circled Arizona State, main them to a 24-11 report and a primary look on the NCAA Tournament in six years. (Their season ended within the First Four.)
But the discourse round Miller’s hiring prolonged past his credentials. Miller is blonde and petite, a conventionally “all-American” enticing girl. From there, the dialog blurred. Fans centered on a standard trope projected on to ladies in sports activities; the dialogue shifted in direction of her appears to be like, reasonably than the records she has brokenand the job she was employed to do.
One TikTookay on her appointment praised her as “one of the best basketball coaches to ever walk the Earth” earlier than noting she “is a beautiful woman… I hate saying it, but if you know anything about Arizona State, you go because it’s beautiful. If you know, you know.”
Another TikTookay, with greater than 300,000 views, seems once you sort within the identify “Molly Miller” on the app. The caption reads: “Molly Miller isn’t going viral because of her coaching.”
In the videoconsumer CFBChuck, who covers college sports activities on his web page, catalogs his accomplishments earlier than he pivots with a “but.” He provides: “Arizona State’s biggest selling point: big party school, beautiful women.” The feedback part consists of observations resembling “she’s so hot,” and “so she’s a DEI hire, got it.”
This is nothing new in basketball – and sports activities extra typically – the place ladies have lengthy been evaluated on their appears to be like, typically as an assumed extension of their skilled roles. From the formation of the WNBA, where marketing campaigns pushed a “straight girl next door” imageintertwined with overt sexualization, to at the moment, the sample has been constantly reductive. When Miller’s achievements are met with a “but…,” it means that benefit alone is insufficient, that his accomplishments, regardless of how substantial, are measured in opposition to the slim normal of bodily attractiveness. In spite of a profession outlined by tangible success, Miller’s value continues to be implicitly weighed extra closely in direction of her look than the impression she has made.
A praise right here or there about Miller’s appears to be like is unsurprising, however the broader sample tells a distinct story. Whether it is a participant like Paige Bueckers being focused with sexualized TikTookay edits or stalked onlineor a journalist like Taylor Rooks being memefied as if her rapport with NBA gamers exists solely as a result of they discover her enticing, the message is obvious. These ladies are denied the credit score of their very own skilled benefit, their success as an alternative repackaged as a efficiency for male consumption.
Misogyny, misogynoir and objectifying waste women’s time. Instead of being allowed to thrive, organizations just like the NCAA, WNBA and NWSL are stymied by pervasive narratives that query women’s legitimacy. Online commentary from males insisting that ladies mustn’t advocate for increased salaries as a result of their leagues are allegedly much less worthwhile or entertaining exemplifies this obstruction. Women are then trapped in a cycle of fixed negotiation, clarification and self-validation. They should repeatedly show their competence reasonably than merely do their jobs.
This distraction shouldn’t be incidental; it’s intentional. It reinforces a story that undermines and diminishes women’s rightful place in sports activities, delaying the acknowledgment that they’re totally able to performing their roles. Misogyny, in all its types, shouldn’t be merely a private burden; It is a systemic construction designed to stall progress, dilute energy and preserve ladies defending their very existence, reasonably than permitting them to advance on the benefit of their work.
Rooks addressed this dynamic on a recent podcast with Lou Williams and Spank Horton. She was compelled to say that, regardless of the sexualized consideration she receives, her appears to be like haven’t influenced her work – an announcement prompted by repeated recommendations that she secures the “best interviews” with NBA gamers due to her “pretty privilege.”
Rooks hit again. “To minimize someone’s skill or capabilities or talent to the fact that they maybe look good to you is such a disservice to all the work they have put in,” Rooks mentioned. “And to think that all it takes to be in this space is to be attractive is also just incredibly disrespectful.”
Rooks is an Emmy nominee, has hosted NFL nationwide protection and labored as a studio host on Amazon Prime, achievements she constructed from a profession that began when she was 18. Fifteen years later, she continues to be caught preventing the idea that her look dictated her success, forcing her to defend her legitimacy.
“What I always say to myself is like, people think I’m so good at the job, you have to think I’m cheating – like, oh, she’s only able to do this because she’s pretty,” she mentioned on the podcast.
Rooks’s struggle with legitimacy is one Miller should undergo too. While sections of the web have debated her appears to be like, she guided a beforehand dropping program again to the NCAA Tournament – an achievement that deserves the identical viral power the world gave her look. And but, the protection for this feat shouldn’t be going as viral because the movies which have glossed over her and diminished her capacity.
