Online Ronda Rousey Criticism And Hate Proves Women Still Don’t Like When Other Women Succeed

UFC’s Ronda Rousey has became a female icon across the planet. UFC was able to draw over 50,000 people to UFC 193 in Australia just because of her. The sad part is that we in the media and everyone across the planet have made Ronda into something she is not. We’ve made her into some deity or God, and she isn’t. She is human and bleeds just like we all do. She is a fantastic athlete, but people hate people who succeed it seems.

Ronda Rousey was the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion and the only one UFC had before Saturday night. She lost the title to newcomer Holly Holm, who seriously brought it. Holm admitted she had all the help in the world and if she didn’t win against Rousey, it was all on her. She had the best camp, best coaching, best preparation. There was nothing she lacked. On top of this, she was already a well known kickboxer with numerous championships to her credit. She beat Rousey and had a great gameplan in doing so.

However, Holly Holm was a relative nobody before this past weekend. Now, she will forever be known as the person who ended Ronda Rousey’s undefeated streak. This article is not about Holly, as Holm to her credit did an amazing job and was able to beat Ronda after a great contest. Ronda did not show up the way she had been. Keep in mind, however, she was 12-0 in her MMA career and won her last four fights all within 64 seconds. This made her into some sort of unbeatable monster to many, She wasn’t though. Everyone can be beaten.

Anderson Silva, potentially the greatest MMA fighter, did lose in his career. George St. Pierre also lost. As did Shane Carwin. All of them had big winning streaks and each were brought to an end. Mike Tyson lost in his career as did Muhammad Ali, and both are seen as two of the greatest boxers of their era. The New England Patriots lost before having an undefeated season as did the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s with the some of greatest teams of all time.

People get beaten, it is a part of life. So why is Ronda Rousey’s one loss in her entire MMA career such a huge problem for people? Why in the world are people taunting her?

Some talk about Ronda not touching gloves with Holm. She doesn’t do this a lot because most of the time, the girl across from her has run her mouth far too much, and she doesn’t care to be all respectful before a fight. Holm was no different as she pushed Ronda back with her fist at the weigh-in on Friday afternoon. Naturally, Ronda was still hot from it as she was the entire afternoon and night after. So sorry Lady GaGa, but saying “that is what you get for not touching gloves” holds no ground when Rousey was well within her right to not do so and most would have agreed with it.

Miesha Tate, long time MMA rival to Rousey, was overjoyed when Ronda lost and did some taunting. Which is possibly something you have to do when you had two opportunities to beat Rousey and lose both times. Tate had to live vicariously through Holm like a mother has to do through her daughter in pageants because she was never allowed to be part of them or was never good enough to win them.

We all know why Tate cheered, as it made sense for her to be happy her rival lost. However, Rousey has already proven she was better than Tate time and time again. So there is no real need for anyone to care what Tate has to say. Meanwhile, what is idiotic is the rampant hatred for Ronda that happened both before and especially after the fight.

Women across the world were either pro-Ronda or not. There was no in-between, Most of them didn’t care about MMA before her, but now they did due to her. This was only good business for UFC as Ronda brought eyes to something women didn’t care about two to three years ago as much. Ronda empowered many women and people loved her because of what she stood for. She is confident in herself and her ability and stands for what is right for both her and other women. Such as when she called out Floyd Mayweather over his domestic violence issues. This only led to people idolizing her and saying she could beat Mayweather in a fight.

It’s possible she could, but that is another argument for another time.

The main issue is the criticism we have seen. The same things people love her for are the same things people hate her for. People hate that she is so high on herself and that she acts untouchable.

To those people, think for one second. Why in the world would a fighter not believe they were the best? Plus she talks a lot because she’s interviewed a lot. For this fight alone, SHE had to sell it. No one cared about Holm. So every talk show had Rousey, not Holm. Ronda is the star and talked a lot in higher profile because of it. However, she is respectful of those who respect her. If you say something bad about her, she does it back. However, what her opponents say must go unnoticed, right?

She is successful, but many women hate this. We’ve all heard the idea that one can only be so successful before people begin to hate them for being such. There is apparently this unwritten rule that says you can only be so good for so long before you become too good. Then people want to see you fail. Look at the Patriots now. They win and people hate them. People hated Tyson as well. You cannot be good in today’s world because people cannot stand when someone is great for longer than a certain window. Apparently Ronda crossed her window long ago. I guess she didn’t get the memo.

We’ve also heard that all women are jealous of each other. A woman can only be so great for so long and then another woman wants her to go away for someone else, maybe for themselves. In a business, we’re always hearing about how women talk about others and how a girl cannot reach too much success without jealousy to take over among other women. That has happened exponentially with Rousey. I cannot tell you how many women went from loving to hating Rousey all within 24 hours. Some hated Rousey before, to be fair. They fell into the above category well before.

So can a woman not succeed in today’s world without people hating her for it? We all wonder why women are not as successful as men despite the fact many women are qualified for more. This is why. This is the exact reason. Once a woman reaches a certain level, everyone wants her to come back down so that another can rise up. Everyone loves an underdog, well, until they win of course. The Boston Red Sox were once underdogs, then won a World Series after decades of being out of it and then suddenly people began to hate them after a while.

Again, people have lost so many times before. Ronda is no different. There have also been shocking losses, take Tyson’s to Buster Dougles alone. Yet no one was ridiculing Tyson for his loss. No guy was saying he was overrated after the loss. No one was saying that was what he got for not touching gloves with a guy. They said he was not the best on that day. Which he wasn’t.

That being said, why are we treating Ronda Rousey any differently than anyone who lost before her? The answer is her gender. Women can only succeed for so long before they are brought down to earth, and it’s not just by men. It’s by women. In fact, the hatred online is mostly by women across social media. All because of the fact Rousey is great at what she does. Apparently, that is a crime.

[Image via UFC]