The wives and girlfriends of the NFL have started a podcast called Women of the League and talk about various things hosted by Matt Leinart’s wife, Josie.
So far, five women have talked about money, contracts, prenups, and overall life as a wife or girlfriend. One of the big topics, though, has been them being called gold diggers for being with their significant others.
On a recent episode of the podcast, the ladies talked about the stigma of being an NFL WAG, and they do not like it.
“One of the things that bothers me so much, and I see it all the time in the comments section, is how people view NFL wives and they are constantly viewing NFL wives, generally speaking, as gold diggers,”
“I know, personally, it’s a huge insult and I know that Whitney deals with it a lot like on TikTok, all those comments,” Allison replied. “It’s frustrating when you’re putting in so much hard work behind the scenes.”
Sadly, I don’t think that’ll ever happen because many people will always believe they are in it for the money.
What is a Gold Digger? The phrase has been around longer than you think.
The gold digger emerged as a dominant trope in American popular culture beginning in the 1920s. Stephen Sharot stated that the gold digger supplanted the popularity of the vamp in 1920s cinema.
By the 1930s, the term “gold digger” had reached the United Kingdom through a British remake of The Gold Diggers. While the film received negative critical reception, several sequels with the same title have been produced.
In the 1930s, the gold digger trope was used in a number of popular American films, most notably Gold Diggers of 1933, Gold Diggers of 1935, Baby Face, Red-Headed Woman, Dinner at Eight, and Havana Widows. Film historian Roger Dooley notes that the gold digger is one of the most common of the “stock company of stereotypes that continually reappear in the films of the 1930s.” Gold diggers in 1930s cinema were often portrayed in positive, sometimes heroic, ways. The character has featured in many films since the 1930s such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), both starring Marilyn Monroe, or as a villainous foil, as in both versions of Disney’s film The Parent Trap.
The gold digger image or trope appears in several popular songs, including “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” (1938), “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (1949), “Santa Baby” (1953), “She Got the Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)” (1982), and “Material Girl” (1984). Rap music’s use of the “gold digger script” is one of a few prevalent s*xual scripts that is directed at young women. For example Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” and EPMD’s “Gold Digger” both reference a woman marrying for perceived wealth. West’s “Gold Digger” brought attention to the Gold Digger trope into Pop Culture, especially because of the music video that followed.
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