Some thoughts following a screening of Sue Anstiss’s Documentary - Game On - fearless women
Me at football camp (the one in pink); I did a very big Facebook deep dive to find this
I always played football with my dad when I was younger and he was so amazingly supportive of me, it led me to develop a real passion for the game. Subsequently, at around the age of ten, I joined a football summer camp in my local area. I was the only girl.
To me, this was no issue. Having had such an attentive football dad, I genuinely had no clue that there was an attitude of disdain towards girls playing football. That was until the comments began.
I was told things like “ew what is a girl doing here?” And, “girls can’t play football”. This was a huge shock to me. What I consider to be even worse is even though some of the coaches were women they never spoke against what these boys were saying and never offered me any kind of comfort.
As a child, I was led to believe that my gender automatically set my skills behind those of the men around me. That is heartbreaking.
When Sue Anstiss came into uni to talk about women in sport this week, it made me consider how we can solve this, which seems a very big ask - to fix sexism. Objectively, women have made progress both in legislation and acceptance but this is not enough for me.
The hardest thing to change is attitudes and stereotypes because they are so deeply ingrained in how we perceive people and how we act. That’s why I think everything starts with education. In primary school PE girls and boys were separated with the boys playing football and the girls playing netball. This already gives young children a very gendered image of sport. It also gives the impression that yes women can achieve, but only in specifically stereotyped feminine sports.
Had the boys in my summer camp been socialised with girls in sport from the start they would have likely been more friendly towards me. They also wouldn’t have been so surprised to see a girl on a football pitch.
Overall, I was so inspired by Sue’s talk because my experience as a young footballer had been pushed to the back of my mind. Having remembered it now I hope that no girl will have to have their dreams ridiculed simply because of their gender. And vice versa. No young boy should be forced into typical masculine jobs and interests purely because it is seen to best suit their gender.
Being a girl in sport myself who is also a member of UOP’s feminist society I already felt very well-versed on women’s issues in sport.
Sue spoke about campaigns to lessen the regulation on women’s sportswear. In tennis women previously were only allowed to wear white undershorts which some people found worrying during their period. (Which Sue wanted to emphasise is not a taboo). In July 2023, Wimbledon finally relaxed this restriction.
She also told us how in women’s beach volleyball the athletes are forced to wear bikini-like bottoms and sports bras while their male competitors wore baggy vest tops and shorts.
To me, this shows how sport is managed by men and therefore its regulations are created for men as well. There was an overall lack of consideration given to the specific needs that women had when organisations such as The Premier League and Wimbledon were created. It is important to show how increasing the number of women involved in sport is not enough to say that we have reached equality because there are still barriers in place which stop women from being able to comfortably and easily achieve in sport.
A final thought - something interesting to me is that this year will be the first year that the Olympics will feature a men’s synchronised swimming team. As much as it is important to get more women involved in sports this can’t be done without breaking down our gendered images of specific sports themselves. This may seem like a small step but it is an indication that we are making progress. If we can make synchronised swimming less feminine we can change the image of other sports too. Then sport can just be sport, something which is not affected by gender.
To consider and learn about this topic more check out The Game Changers Podcast.
Sue Anstiss , CEO of Fearless Women, came to the University of Portsmouth to show her Netflix documentary Game On followed by a post-viewing discussion.
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