many things can be true at the same time: my thoughts on the fact that some of y'all are acting very weird about olivia miles
with much love to my twins @infinityinakiss and @wlwnba for their contributions 🩷
olivia is flashy and exciting to watch. she loves no-look passes and driving layups, which is appealing for casual fans. incredibly quickly, she drew a lot of attention from people who aren't necessarily in wnba fan spaces and has become a favorite of those folks. for example, timberwolves fans, have really embraced her, which makes sense; she and anthony edwards wear the same number after all, and the wolves just got a new pg, lamelo ball, both of whom have publicly complimented her. as have many in the nba community (like when they call her 'baby magic'), who don't watch the w regularly. please note though, that i didn't say MORE flashy or MORE exciting to watch. also, notice that this isn't me glazing her either -- like every other rookie, she has lots of areas with room for improvement. hell, cheryl's first words to her after congratulating her on getting drafted were "bring your defense" (and cheryl really did need to say that; her defense in our first preseason game was rough). but obviously, fans of her aren't gonna bring those up; we like to see her incredible court vision and want her to succeed. and just as obviously, olivia has no control over whether people are drawn to her play style or not, nor what they choose to say about her.
the rhetoric around olivia having an 'attitude' is inseparable from olivia's race and performance of gender. am i happy with how she reacts to every call? no, but can someone honestly tell me specifically what actions on court she has done that have warranted this kind of label? i'll be the first one to agree that olivia is a barker, absolutely, but is she so disparate from everyone else? and equally importantly, everyone around her is not only one of her peers, they're also professionals, and trash-talking is not new lmao. specifically, if another player finds issue with it, i'm sure they'll bark right back. if a referee finds it to be unnecessary, she'll get a tech (and she has). if cheryl thinks she's being excessive, that woman has no qualms about benching her ass. who are we, as fans, to evaluate what is 'respectful' or not?
olivia is cocky, for sure. but also, duh. she's a professional athlete for god's sake. that same energy is what fuels her competitiveness and has gotten her to the absolute highest level or her sport. sometimes, she might benefit from pausing, but mostly, in scenarios that are more internal to the lynx than anything else, like occasionally when cheryl pulls her but she wants to stay on the court, and frankly, that's none of my business. cheryl and the lynx coaching staff are some of the best in the league -- if they sensed an issue as people who literally interact with her every day, i'm sure they'd say/do something. this conversation about olivia 'having an attitude' is so often feels like people trying to tell her to make herself smaller, that she should "know her place", etc.
olivia may be cocky, but she's not disrespectful. of course, this league is predominantly Black, but olivia's gender presentation and hair specifically was a huge topic of conversation, even before she was in the league (recall draft night) and has continued to be. and because olivia presents quite masculinely, it's hard not to see the discourse around her as leaning into stereotypes of excessively perceiving masculine-presenting Black women/studs as aggressive. other people have written about this far more eloquently than i'll ever be able to, so i'll defer to them, such as in this fantastic piece about alyssa thomas, which brings up a number of points about how i think olivia is also being treated. here are a few relevant quotes:
"More often than not, my experience [of being a of being a Black masculine-presenting queer woman] has been that, in an employment setting, the same presentation is perceived as an active and imposing threat."
"To temper these defensive responses, I quickly learned to navigate a professional double standard .... All were conscious, tactical wardrobe choices to make my presence more palatable..."
"When we navigate professional spaces with strength and confidence, the dominant culture immediately defaults to a familiar script, using our presentation to reinforce the restrictive “Angry Black Woman” trope. This bias transforms our competence and masculine presentation into a threat, completely splitting how our masculinity is received when compared to men more generally."
mvp stuff. yes, the lynx were successful last season. but we also lost two starters, one of whom was a DPOY, and our 6th, 7th, and 8th man in the offseason. in fact, you can go through my page, i was CRASHING OUT about potentially not even making it to the playoffs, which everyone was predicting (and reasonably --- practically 80% of the league were free agents, and the two we signed, no one thought would make the impact they'd have -- myself included). i was so worried: our team was practically gutted, and we had just gotten the news that BOTH phee and dorka would miss the beginning of the season. do i think olivia should be mvp for leading a team from number one last season to number one this season? no, because i think that's a statement that's missing a lot of the important context behind why her season thus far has been so impressive. again, note that i'm not saying more impressive -- just impressive. i don't think it's unreasonable for people to be praising her considering how poorly the lynx were predicted to do this season. also the few games this season she's been out? we were ASS without her. we couldn't run an offensive play to save our lives. it was tragic to see. and the lynx leading most offensive statistical categories (whatever that means, idk how stats work), so obviously her presence is important. mvp worthy? probably not, but more importantly, shaming players for the online rhetoric other people create about them is weird, and potentially incredibly consequential. of course she's likely happy to be in mvp/roty/etc. conversations --- it's one of the highest honors she could potentially receive at her job, and of course her teammates are going to hype her about it; they're literally her teammates, but none of that is in her control, and it's totally understandable if she's pleased to hear it.
finally, some of olivia's fans are weird, but that's also how fandom works; every single player has weird fans. every major player on every team has been used to drag another player. that's not a good reason to hate on a player though. now, if her fans were spewing harmful rhetoric to the point where it broke fan spaces into actual reality -- like if they were leaving racist comments in someone's instagram comments, for example, then, i would think she has a responsibility to say something. but not only has that not been the case, olivia's been nothing but supportive of fellow players and, specifically, the other rookies in her class. also, due to the aforementioned point about casuals, i think she gets a lot of people who use her name to dunk on other people that i wouldn't actually count as fans of hers, who she almost certainly has no control over.
if you've read this far, i truly appreciate it. overall, i just hope that people are cognizant of the narratives they are potentially contributing to when calling olivia 'aggressive' or saying she has an 'attitude'. those statements carry weight. and this league already overwhelmingly fails to protect its Black constituents; in many ways, the fans are a hugely important resource for players, maybe one of the only ones they have.
"In 2024, when Engelbert was asked directly about the racist attacks flooding Angel Reese’s mentions, she pivoted to talking about rivalries being good for business instead of condemning the racism aimed at the rookie. Engelbert also hasn’t addressed, despite promising to, the ongoing concerns about uneven officiating, where Black players aren’t getting calls and are left to absorb rough play that goes unchecked." (source)
i'll end with two quotes, also from madame noire author nicky childers (as all the quotes from this piece have been),
"These caricatures are deeply rooted in historical tropes that strip Black women of our humanity"
"This duality in how Thomas is perceived on and off the court mirrors my own life. People who know me well see my softness, tenderness, and femininity behind the masculine exterior. For Black masculine-presenting women, our presentation does not erase our capacity for tenderness, affection, and deep care, but the dominant culture and the workplaces we inhabit rarely allow space for both sides."
