Sexism in Football
This article is a submission for the Soccerlens Football Writing Competition; to participate, please read the details here.
Written by Julia.
Oh please, it’s no longer a guys’ world.
Yes indeed, you’ve probably heard it all. The feminists who stand out time and time again to demand for equal rights since forever have said everything there is to know about sexism. True, we strive for that perfect equilibrium where men and women are treated with the same respect and attention and whatnots, but we can never deny that this will never happen. In the working world it is no secret that a male commands a higher paycheck than the female, regardless of job abilities. Women will always be seen as ‘the fairer sex’, and this mindset definitely isn’t going to change in a matter of years. Even women see themselves as the weaker ones, and that is exactly why women always demand for help when it comes to physical work.
Reality is cruel, and age old concepts that have existed long before our time can never be changed that easily. We accept that sexism still exists, probably not in the context of the women of a hundred years ago, but it is indeed evident in our society today. In the football world, there is no exception.
Sexism is definitely rampant in football. The misconception that females watch the game solely for the ‘hot guys’ is present in the minds of most men, and I do not deny that there are the females around who do nothing but prove this misconception right. However, the generalization that ALL women are like this is something that I stand against. (Strongly too, if I might add.)
More often than not, I get into arguments. Be it with my peers or someone I could have just met, we tend to argue about football. Sure, there are neither hard feelings nor personal attacks, but when we defend the team we love we try to shoot the other team down. The days after football matches are the worst, especially when my team has played against his. One side loses, and even if the result is a draw we still have plenty to argue about – which team had the better performance and actually deserved to win, which player had this ridiculous action that should never have gone unpunished, which decision the referee made had been wrong etc. We talk about it over lunch, and as more people start to join us the conversation gets heated and we raise our voices.
‘Manchester United were far better, Chelsea was just pathetic,’ said he.
‘We weren’t! We would have won it if Mourinho hadn’t taken out Joe Cole, he could have worked with Robben and our attack would have been stronger with the strong support from the sides! It was a wrong tactic.’ I argued.
Then he stares at me, speechless. He widens his eyes, and asks, ‘How do you know all these? Girls aren’t supposed to know things like these; I thought you merely supported Chelsea because you liked Frank Lampard.’
Of course, the feeling that surges in me when I left him speechless and shocked was sweet, and perhaps held a tinge of unexplainable victory. Even so, it irks me when guys blanket all girls as people who support the club for this certain good-looking player. I do find Frank Lampard good-looking, oh yes, but if he wasn’t this inspirational and powerful for Chelsea, with such splendid performances that win games for us, without a doubt I would have wished him out of my team. I follow Chelsea because of their wonderful team spirit, their drive and their team play (yes, disagree all you want) and not for a player. With the news of Mourinho leaving Chelsea rampant of late, what I would like to quote from everywhere is this.
‘Managers and players come and go, but a club and a fan is forever.’
It is pointless supporting a club because of a good-looking player, or even a skillful player, you have to love the team. Yes, even girls understand that. Besides, a girl can love her team as much as any guy can, she can cheer for them and spur them on with the same passion as any guy will, and she can fall in love with the beautiful game just as deeply as any guy does.
Move over, it’s no longer a male-dominated stage.
This article is a submission for the Soccerlens Football Writing Competition; to participate, please read the details here.
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Discussion - 10 Responses
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Oh, how right you are!! But you know most girls really, really do not do a lot to support your case. Ocasionally, some girl gives herslef as a fan of team XYZ, but then everything she knows about that team is revolved around player ABC and his hiarstyle. Indeed, the impression I get when a girl tells me that she is a Real Madrid fan - for example - is that she has 20 posters with the oh-so-cute Iker and another 15 with Metzelder in a spandex undershirt.
It is a surprise when you do find a girl that actually gives a damn about football. BTW my sister recomends Bojan Krkic. She suddenyl changed her affiliantions when she saw him.
such a fan she is talking about a match that happened like at least 6 months ago.
aww come on people give her some respect
to be fair julia not a lot of girls are like you and not a lot of guys are as stupid as the bloke you argued with
as far as sexism in football you picked a tame subject. . you could have bitten into the apple of women referees ..shit i’m not going near that haha
Please don’t read my submission
Its the same with any other topic, Women have just as much say in Football as in other topics such as politics, cars and whatever else you ladies want to argue. (pretty much anything from my experience lol) Passion for the game does not come from which of the two sexes you are.
Andrei, LOL indeed! Iker Casillas must have won over a lot of girls to the Real Madrid side though. Sigh, stereotypes haha.
tubbo, I was citing an example about a discussion after a match I was having with my friend, and I am a good enough fan to watch my team play week in week out.
joninjapan, Yes I understand that a lot of girls out there cause such a misconception, and that there are plenty of nice guys who don’t generalise girls as well! (I have met some, for starters.) Still, I think I know enough girls around to change this stereotype haha.
And I didn’t even want to touch on the thing about the women’s referee because I really don’t want to go into that either, lol.
Shane Coghlan, haha indeed we feminists can argue about anything under the sun! Sexes don’t define passion, indeed.
The gender pay gap is a myth, as anyone with two wits to rub together can tell.
If women are paid less for the same work, in the face of of decades of legislation and countless lawsuits, why don’t the successful firms employ only women?
I’ll be honest Julia: before I came to Canada in 2000 I used to be same kind of guy you described in your conversation. However, I’ve been living here 7 years now, and I’ve seen my fair share of impressive technical display from female players (as you may guess, female soccer is very popular in North America). Thus I am no longer very surprised when I see a girl play well, or to a lesser extent when I hear her talk very technically about formations and tactics.
You’ll have to admit though, these kinds of female supporter/players are very rare, so despite I acknowledge the fact that they exist, meeting one in real life is something fairly unique
(especially the over-analytical fan kind, because there’s many more female players than female watchers of the sport).
I have made it a rule that when it comes to discussing tactics or detailed sports issues, I will give anyone the benefit of the doubt. If you show me you know what you’re talking about, we can have a very deep conversation regardless of gender.
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see i’m i play on a football team full of guys and i’m the only girl on the team i get a lot of grab in end up be fun but you still get the low comments that bring you down.but women shouldn’t let men bring you down if you want to play football play it