Tag: feminism

Women’s Football. What’s the problem?

EllieLeave a comment

Football

Any of a number of games played between two teams and involving kicking or in some cases handling a ball (OED).

Women

The female members of a family, household, or other group, etc.; womenfolk. (OED).

v

A short history of women’s beautiful game 

Go back almost 100 years, and you would be surprised to discover that you can’t get into a big Boxing Day game played by, yes, women footballers. You might be less surprised to discover that women’s game was officially banned in 1921 because it was ‘quite unsuitable for females’.

Now, almost a century after the ban, women’s football is growing in strength and popularity, but it seems like some menfolk struggle to accept that it’s here to stay.  At Down the Language Hole HQ, I have spent hours clarifying and womansplaining to various representatives of the male species why women’s football is not a joke or a hobby sport.

If you exclude one group from playing a sport, claim it for yourself and have all the time in the world to build your reputation and popularity, those re-entering the pitch will not be able to compete with your achievements and history. And your global fan following that stretches well beyond friends and family members. So, yes, women play to nearly empty stadiums and get paid pocket money. None of the male football stars would ever lower themselves to that level for the love of football. And yet, women turn up on the pitch, day after day, despite the jeering and lack of interest.

Be a game changer

To help you argue better in defence of women’s game, I have listed a few ideas you might find useful. And don’t forget to watch at least some matches in the Women’s World Cup. You might enjoy them!

  1. The power of storytelling and identities. Football, as it is today, is often the main connecting narrative in many men’s lives, spanning across generations and communities. It’s part of their collective identity and anyone who has ever seen boys or grown men trying to bond will realise what a powerful WD-40 it is in most social interactions. For men, to find a fellow club supporter at a party is to welcome one more brother from another mother into their tribe. Women’s football has never been part of those narratives but give it a generation or two of girls and boys watching it and playing together and see what happens.
  2. Football is about power. The Man Utd supporters find their strength in numbers. Watching their favourite football team win is equal to them belonging to something bigger and much greater than themselves. And they can legitimately get their innate urge to kick other men’s asses out of their system, mainly by chanting songs, not wielding swords.Today’s footballers are superhuman athletes who are everywhere – in adverts, on posters and in countless collections of football cards. Boys want to be like them. Grown men act as if they were at least Maradona. As a result, men’s football has become a global money-making machine that women cannot compete with. So, instead of earning millions each month, most women players train alongside their daytime jobs. Not to disregard Messi or Ronaldo but there is a lot to be said for women’s motivation to turn up to training without the same rewards. Just saying.One way to solve it would be to ask major clubs to invest their spare millions in improving access to sporting facilities for all; it would be a right step towards us becoming a more egalitarian and healthier country.  It wouldn’t hurt to equalise earnings a bit more as beyond a certain threshold nobody needs another million or 25 in the bank.
  3. Gender politics. When talking about women’s football we just can’t ignore the G-word. If I got a penny for every time a guy told me that women’s game wasn’t as good as men’s football, I would be rolling in it by now while wearing CR7’s new line of (unworn) underpants on my head.Why are women expected to imitate the male style of kicking a ball and scoring goals? Surely, there must be more than one way to play football and make its fans roar with pride (or weep tears of disappointment) after each goal.  Also, pitting women’s teams against men or teenage boys only discourages girls from playing football for fear of being ridiculed. Such tactics reinforce the damaging stereotype that only men know how to play real football. How about, please hold your breath and bear with me, accepting women’s football for what it is: a sport which is played and owned by women and which is valuable and deserving respect in its own right? Revolutionary, right?

What’s next?

Whatever gender you identify with, give women’s football a go. Go ahead and criticise it but watch at least three beautiful games played by women before you judge them.

Question the morality of the male stars’ pay and demand social justice. So much more could be done with a fraction of their and their clubs’ profits to give children in our communities access to facilities that will set them up for a healthy and fit life.

Lastly, for any hardcore football fans out there, women’s football can give you a much-needed closure.

Have fun!

From the Language Hole HQ

I love listening to Always Take Notes

I love reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I love watching Women’s World Cup. Obviously.

Feminism is broken. Here’s how we fix it.

EllieLeave a comment

Feminism

Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex; the movement associated with this (OED)

1913   ‘R. West’ in Clarion 14 Nov. 5/2   I myself have never been able to find out precisely what Feminism is: I only know that people call me a Feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. (OED)

What kind of feminism do you subscribe to? Twitter activism? The type that once upon a time broke the mould, but who has now been reduced to click-baiting headlines whenever she needs to sell a book? Do you prefer to reduce men to a bunch of awkward pre-teens by randomly adding the word period into conversations, especially when rare steaks are being served? There are as many definitions of feminism as there are feminists, and feminism’s real purpose often gets lost amongst all the noise. Its key issues become pushed aside and blurred by the constant debate about definitions. So, maybe we should not be so shocked about many women distancing themselves from the concept. We get bogged down in identity politics so much that we have allowed a bunch of white privileged men who have no respect for women’s agency and their freedom to decide what happens to their bodies introduce an abhorrent abortion ban.

So what?

By searching for a perfect singular definition of feminism, we have left a few cracks open, unanswered, and therefore left the movement vulnerable to endless Twittercism (Twitter criticism – you’re welcome) without achieving its real goals for ending oppression. But then again, maybe it’s worth paying attention to some criticism, because it may tell us something important about what feminism should focus on.

Should feminists fight for the rights of women in their own country or women oppressed everywhere? Should they focus on white women, BAME women, working-class women, women with children or no children, trans women, gay women, women who have survived domestic violence, poor women, rich women, unhappy women, disabled women…? Trying to justify one’s choices could take a lifetime of deliberation without ever reaching a meaningful endpoint.

So, consider approaching feminism from a different perspective, starting with a ‘veil of ignorance’. Imagine that you have no idea what your class, gender, race, religion, level of education and health, attractiveness or your sandwich preference is. You don’t know if you have children or a spouse, or if you or your children are healthy and whether you have a career that pays enough. Not seeing what lies ahead, may help us recognise that oppression is rarely about just one thing: maybe you are a woman of colour who has a disabled child or society stereotypes your religion or you fight the age discrimination. Our lives contain ever-shifting multitudes which those in power should respect and value.

Increasingly, there is an urgent need to extend equality beyond singular terms to encompass the diversity of life circumstances. By virtue of our place of birth, through no doing of our own, we all have very different life prospects, very different mountains to climb. Some are rolling hills with signposted paths; you barely break out into a sweat on the way up, before unrolling your picnic blanket and commenting on the glorious sunshine and landscape around you. For others, there are rugged edges and mountaintops obscured by the clouds. The safety equipment is out of reach because you had to choose food over a harness, and even if you get to the top, the risky climb will leave you shaken and your body bruised.

Feminism 2.0: Sounds like fun!

Next, think about the kind of society you aspire to live in. What principles would you choose to govern it? Of course, some people may always be happy to take risks, and choose values that only reward monetary success and abandon anyone in low-skilled and low-paid jobs, leaving it up to food banks to make sure they don’t starve.

To most of us, it may become clear that values such as compassion, cooperation, respect and dignity for all would be more desirable than wealth. Offering everyone access to good quality education, regardless of whether their parents can afford either a very expensive mortgage in a good middle-class state school area or private school fees, might become a priority, alongside removing other barriers.

If your starting position lacks the superiority of class, gender, race, health or education, you will be concerned (hopefully) with the well-being of all human beings while recognising that the wheel of oppression is a complex machine that keeps on turning because it is powered by so many intricately connected cogs. Only by working across all sections of society we can hope to dismantle it. It is not unfeminist to worry about the fate of white working-class boys while fighting for women’s rights. Because these boys will then grow up to respect women’s and everyone else‘s rights, instead of ignoring their humanity. We may then feel more compassion towards those who have fallen through the cracks, whether through their own or nobody’s fault. We may feel more compelled to redefine success and make our citizens’ wellbeing a priority.

Stand up for everyone’s rights. A revised manifesto.

 Choose your battles wisely to have a maximum impact because today you may be a City trailblazer, but tomorrow you could wake up as an unemployed factory worker who after decades of low-skilled and backbreaking labour feels suicidal. Therefore, I propose that the next wave of feminism should be about advocacy of equality of all, and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of all citizens; the movement associated with this. So, let’s revise the feminist manifesto and direct our energy towards shaping a more compassionate and just society. Because only when we aspire to and fight for making everyone’s lives better, we have a chance to transform society into a place for all.  How about that?

From the Language Hole HQ

I love listening to A Good Read

I love reading to The Abbess of Crew by Muriel Spark

I love watching Happy Birthday OU: 50 Years of the Open University