The article describes how a team made up entirely of girls participated in a junior football league, a sport which is almost entirely dominated by males in Spain, and won convincingly against the boys. When I was growing up in Spain myself, I remember playground kickabouts never included the girls, and in all honesty I cannot recall a time in twelve years there when I saw a girl take part in football. Your writer set out stock early by purchasing a whistle and some cards, and simulating refereeing… some things never change.
The article itself highlights what a difficult achievement this was, with women’s football in general marginalised and mostly ignored in Spain, which largely retains a strong machista culture. It doesn’t surprise me to see that this team emerged from my own region of Cataluña, an area notorious for its large progressive population and liberal values. It just shows what can be done when the psychological barriers are removed…
Recent social developments in the UK would make it very easy to think that, at least for male homosexuals, prejudice is so minimal that they scarcely even count as a minority group any more, nor require focus or assistance in carrying out their daily lives. With marriage now legal for all, gay characters common and normalised on film and TV, and even most socially conservative political parties largely expressing at least acceptance of gay people, life could be considered quite rosy for them.
Some independent campaigns are already championing the issue
Such is their position of relative comfort to other groups in the traditional LGBT+ grouping, that the NUS recently told their individual societies to abolish any extant gay reps, and some societies have even called for a rebranding to LBT+, or similar alternatives, to focus their energies where they consider the need to be greater.
While this may be true of society at large, it is adamantly not true in sporting circles, particularly professional ones. Football, inevitably as one of our most prominent and popular sports, receives much of the focus here, and is also one of the worst at tackling issues relating to homophobia. When even the chairman of the FA acknowledges that it would be difficult for a professional to come out of the closet, and given the incredibly scarce numbers of players who have come out while playing in English leagues, this is an institutional problem. There are scores of teams across the various professional tiers of football, each with at least two dozen players on their books, and yet we have only ever had one prominent professional player come out, with tragic consequences.
Whenever I have been to see a match at my modern-presenting, family-friendly, London-based club, which even has (shock, horror!) a woman as Vice-Chairman, I have heard fairly regular insults directed at players and officials on the basis of their perceived masculinity and sexuality. Phrases like ‘get up, you poof’, ‘ref, you’re such a faggot’, etc., shouted out irrespective of families and young children nearby, are so normalised that no one even reacts when they echo across the crowd.
Such is the extent of the problem, both on matchday and in social media, that it can make it impossible to play or officiate while being out and proud. Given the UK has no examples of such a sporting figure, we must turn to Spain, where the first referee to come out openly was unable to continue due to the abuse he faced. It hardly bodes well for our domestic officials or players who might consider coming out…
Some local communities are setting up their own anti-fascism and anti-homophobia groups, in imitation of ‘ultra’ fans, like this Brighton gang
If this problem is going to be tackled, it must come from within the hierarchies of football. The FA have proven to be very pro-active in dealing with the issue of racism, through their Kick It Out campaign, and could very much do the same for homophobia. It is surely only a matter of time. In the meantime, there are at least some clubs boldly standing up for the rights of LGBT+ people in their community.
Even if we believe that any discrepancy in raw strength is a factor in choosing the elite drivers of this sport – which is dubious given the technologies involved – this is outright ruling out and discouraging an entire gender from participation. In addressing the former point, accomplished British racing driver Pippa Mann stated on her Twitter account that: “Perhaps someone should remind him that IndyCar doesn’t have power steering, and we’re strong enough to drive those.”
As for discouragement, this is probably the single biggest factor behind the lack of female participation in elite sport. When a sport fails to put forward role models for young people to aspire to, when there is a lack of prominent visible figures of differing gender presentations, it is hard for anyone to envisage achieving that success unless they match the seemingly ‘requisite’ appearance. This inevitably leads to a smaller pool of potential elite sportswomen, and further compounds any existing biological disparities (although, as already mentioned, assisting technologies such as power steering mean that these are minimal at most).
The fact that F1 has had any female drivers at all is a testament to the fact that this is entirely logistically possible. That the last of these was in 1992 shows a worryingly backwards trend in this prestigious sport. Ecclestone’s statement will do nothing to help this.
Comments such as this one occur far too frequently in sports. It was recently reported that the chairman of a regional leagues football team was overheard criticising the female official refereeing his team. The terms he used to criticise this official were particularly telling: “he was overheard saying Harmer was not fit enough to referee a women’s match, let alone a men’s game.” In a later post I will address the prejudice against women’s sport and its quality at greater length.
At least in this particular case the person involved was fined and banned by the league authorities, a recognition that this comment was unwarranted and unhelpful. No doubt Ecclestone will escape such censure, as he has for previous unwise comments, thereby further institutionalising the prejudice. It is problems such as these that make for such a glacial rate of change in attitude.
Questions arising from this week: how do we challenge the prejudices of major figures and policymakers in organised sport? Should we try to enforce change through gender quotas or by trying to establish an equally prominent female F1 racing competition?
Batting for Both Teams 