However coy they may be about it in public, Americans love to win. And when they do, they make no secret of it. Today saw two American triumphs in world sport: Serena Williams securing her sixth Wimbledon win and the Women's national team securing their third World Cup title. America has had little recent success in men's tennis, lorded over as it is by seemingly invulnerable demigods like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. On the women's side though, Serena rules alone. As far as soccer goes, the US may not have a chance of ever dominating the male equivalent, but they rule the women's game, and are becoming increasingly vocal about it. Hopefully this will kickstart the one thing America is better at than any other nation in history: sales. As their ebullience translates into exposure and buzz, slowly other countries will come to treat women's football with the respect it deserves.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 5 to 11, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Serena's no stranger to this list, but this week sent her into the stratosphere. Not only did she win Wimbledon for the sixth time in a straight-sets duel with Garbine Muguruza, she also secured her second "Serena Slam" – winning four major titles in a row, and is on course to winning a Grand Slam (four major titles in a calendar year). If she succeeds, she will be the first woman to do so since Steffi Graf in 1988. At 33 she is also the oldest ever world women's tennis number 1; with 16 years between her first title and her latest, Williams has already surpassed other long-surviving legends in her sport, such as Graf and Martina Navratilova, and shows no signs of slowing down. To put this in perspective, the 21-year-old Muguruza was only five when Williams won her first title.
It took the horrific act of the Charleston church shooting on June 17 to refocus the attention of South Carolina politicians and public at large to the fact that South Carolina was still flying the battle flag of the Confederate States of America near their state capitol. This flag causes a lot of controversy in the United States, though its general modern use as a symbol of racist oppression of blacks is undeniable. Will the flag of ISIS/ISIL be similarly used in the Middle East one hundred years hence? In any event, on July 10, after an emotional debate in the state legislature, the flag was finally taken down.
This film marks the fourth attempt in 12 years to restart the dormant Terminator franchise without the aid of its creator, James Cameron. To date, if Metacritic and IMDb are anything to go by, the only remotely successful of these resuscitations was the hugely underrated TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. One wonders if audiences are wishing they'd watched that when they had the chance, because the box office numbers for this flick are bad. Really bad. As in, "made as much in its first five days as Terminator Salvation made in its first weekend" bad. Salvation, mind you, was the black sheep of the series until now. Even after two weeks, the movie has made barely $70 million. All this is rather perplexing, since the two things that usually drive movies up this list are box office and controversy, and so far the only controversy generated by this film is from the few scattered critics who don't consider it utterly terrible. Perhaps it was the presence of Emilia Clarke (currently the second Game of Thrones star to take on the role of Sarah Connor). Or perhaps, if this ageing Terminator fan could be wistful for a moment, the critics are wrong when they say the Millennial generation has no love for this franchise. Perhaps they rushed to their tablets incensed at the terrible reviews; determined to learn who and what was responsible for vandalising the legacy of this landmark work of science fiction. Or perhaps it means nothing at all. Who am I to guess?
Want a quick route to temporary posthumous fame? Become the subject of an interactive Google doodle. Which is exactly what happened to the creator of Ultraman this week.
At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the Telugu actor Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days.
The midfielder's hat trick in the final against Japan helped clinch the USA the World Cup title, and made her a national hero in the process. Though not enough of one to top this list, apparently.
If America wins a tournament, you can be sure it will end up on this list. And while the old US of A hasn't exactly stormed the palisades as far as men's football is concerned, it's comfortably ensconced at the top of the women's game. Perhaps this challenge to the world will lead some of the more macho footballing nations to begin to take their female counterparts seriously.
A fixture on this list last year, the former Disney poplet has struggled to maintain a presence this year. Until this week, when she was filmed licking a doughnut on a display counter and then putting it back, before declaring, "I hate America". Not sure if this qualifies as a Britney Spears-level meltdown, but it's certainly lifted her profile.
The US national team has now secured the World Cup title 3 times. If they were counted among the men's records, they would have a legacy as secure as Germany or Italy. Perceptions are changing though.
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Discuss this story
I never thought I'd see a week where there were women in six of the Top 10 spots, for good (Gooooaaaalll!) and for ill (licking doughnuts?). Liz Read! Talk! 23:08, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Is there a reason why Wambach's sexuality is mentioned - and so prominently too (I'd never heard of her before and thanks to this listing, the first piece of knowledge about her I learned was that she was gay, before I found out what her job was, which is the far bigger deal). The other five women's sexuality isn't mentioned, and neither is that of the only man on the list. It really does make Wiki look like some schoolboy-giggling-at-the-lesbians type when we mention, let alone lead, with something like this. - SchroCat (talk) 11:10, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Homosexuality and transgender issues are fairly hot topics right now, so that could explain why she is so high on the list regardless of her performance in the tournament. Serendipodous 11:52, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- [citation needed] They are always hot topics, but highlighting this lady's sexuality without explanation does nothing but create some divide, pointing out that she is "different" from the others on the list, simply becuase of her sexuality. Our write up suggests she is high because of her retirement, not her sexual preference. If it were down to homosexuality and transgender issues being "fairly hot topics", there would be others on the list, and a more definite connection to the topic. I'm going to take it out becuase it's not doing anything useful, constructive or informative where it is. - SchroCat (talk) 11:59, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Calling "citation needed" on this list is pretty pointless. All we have to work with is the numbers. We have no information as to why the numbers are the way they are, and sometimes the reasons are not obvious. Serendipodous 12:04, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Making claims like "Homosexuality and transgender issues are fairly hot topics right now" (to which the citation needed tag was referring) is also pointless, especially when trying to justify including text which doesn't need to be there. There is no connection between these "hot topics" and the need to mention her sexuality. The lady is a professional athlete: treat her as such, or go through and add the details of sexuality for all the others on the list, male and female. - SchroCat (talk) 12:07, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Why is Carli Lloyd, who scored the winning hat-trick in the final, at no 7, while Abby Wambach, who scored one goal in the entire tournament, is at no 2? There has to be a reason. Maybe it's because she's retiring from international football; maybe it's because she's a married lesbian at a time when gay marriage is dominating the political discussion in the States. Who knows? But I think that both possibilities should be mentioned. When I typed her name into google, the first suggestion that came up in the search box was "wife". Serendipodous 12:19, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- If you can find a reliable source that points to the reason for her being ahead in the list, then go ahead, but otherwise we're down to your personal opinion, which is absolutely no good reason to lead with the something so spuriously connected. Public affection and selection of reading matter is fickle - David Beckham creates headlines constantly, and had a higher profile in news reports, google hits and Wiki views than his his on-field exploits demanded at times. - SchroCat (talk) 12:25, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
[outdent]If you look at the Google results for the week in question, you will see that they are dominated by mentions of her kissing her wife after the win. Serendipodous 12:45, 17 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]