Pop Culture Fix: Megan Rapinoe’s Nike World Cup Commercial Is Lesbian Anime

Happy Women’s World Cup Kick-Off Week to all who celebrate! We’ve obviously got a full list of the soccer gays coming at you, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here’s your Monday Pop Culture Fix!


+ Okay Nike’s Megan Rapinoe World Cup ad is not only one of the coolest sports animes I have ever seen in my entire life; it’s also G A Y. There’s a whole thing with an animated Sue Bird lying on the beach gazing at a Sailor Moon-y Rapinoe playing the keytar. THE KEYTAR. Also, the Nike logo fades into a rainbow in the intro and that’s rad as heck too!

+ We have received official confirmation from Deadloch writer Kate McCartney that she’s queer! (This made me laugh out loud for real. Thank you, Kate!)

+ Orange Is the New Black signaled the rot inside the streaming economy.

+ Padma Lakshmi added her voice to the Top Chef family congratulation Kristen Kish on her new hosting role.

+ Eight comedians define the meaning of “queer hack.” 

+ Keke Palmer is the internet’s sweetheart.

+ Bravo celebrates Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ 20th anniversary with a special marathon.

+ Jess Rothschild made a six-episode podcast about the gay gay gay history of Fire Island and it features Margaret Cho and Joel Kim Booster. Jess told me: “I am really trying to break the stereotype that Fire Island is relentlessly cis, white, gay men. I have at least 3 women in each episode, many sharing the Black and trans experience there.”

+ New music from Troye Sivan, Reneé Rapp, PVRIS and more in this week’s Queer Jams of the Week from Billboard.

+ The Legend of Zelda has always been queer.

+ Clowns announce new album Endless, release video for “Bisexual Awakening.”

+ When did Demon Slayer come out?

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

5 Comments

  1. I’d like to see Autostraddle post a roundtable/article about trans bans in sport in light of some of the recent news & the way things are going. Cycling’s governing body said, that trans men can compete with men, but trans women can’t compete with women. Total fucking BS. https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-bans-transgender-women-from-competing-in-womens-category/?fbclid=PAAaa7c_n3hhqCaC4aU_LM6HP9_nn9Wy4wKyWyILC8yu9fw38LKmyrS4ZNGa8_aem_ATbB_aS567Iy-CH1pcecjQv8I6OteDj9oc_zVsj_Io3IlbMIE2g9z1K4rfDuS4KmEuI

    This article was a worthy read. https://www.aquickbrownfox.com/blog/2023/7/15/banning-transgender-athletes-is-not-helping-us-in-any-way

    • I for one would like to see piece on these bans, but I know they won’t do it. Their bias on which sports get covered really shows. Just look how they focus mainly lesbian basketball and soccer/football with the Olympics ever 2-4 years. It’s never the other sports, which sucks for us gays and theys that like those sports. Come autostraddle do better, better. This is one of the reasons why I don’t come to here as much, the lack of diverse lesbian, trans and women topics you know they can cover but refuse to.

  2. Thanks for including the “Finding Fire Island” pod in the roundup, Heather! I think everyone will love episode 2, focused on CHERRY GROVE – the known lesbian/trans/nonbinary destination for NYC queers! On all pod platforms now :)

  3. Usually I am anti-ads and anti-80s but I will make a huge exception for that megan rapinoe perfection!

    Subscribed to finding fire island and excited!

    Thanks to AS for filtering the internet for us.

Contribute to the conversation...

Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation and thanks for stopping by!