Good Effort

 I don’t like football and I doubt anything will change my mind on that. It’s just not for me. Too tribal, too noisy, too physical. However, I am pleased for the women’s National football team, who just won something and burst into a news conference, singing and jumping on tables. You could tell that they were really happy. 

I knew it was a big football match because as I sat in the garden with my book, the dog woofed every time there was a collective groan or cheer from the surrounding open windows. 

Before it started a man on the radio said something about how the ‘girls’ needed to win or no one would be interested ever again. Since they won they have been discussing the sad history of women playing football. Finally, the open secret is out there. They were banned from playing when men came back from the First World War because people liked watching them and the men wanted their sport back. 

The win has brought out all the prejudice. And I mean ALL the prejudice.

“Yeah, they did alright but it’s not the same game is it?”

“See, it took a woman to bring it home.”

Please can we stop!

Stop making men and women two separate species that always have to be at war.  Even though I don’t like football I do want it to be available for the girls and women that do. I want men to be happy for them, rather than feeling threatened.

Men: You don’t need to say things like, “It was a good effort, I suppose but let’s not pretend it’s the same game.”

Women: You don’t need to pretend that the games are being played at the same level or have the same support or are even better than the men’s game.

It’s a work in progress. Don’t spoil it now.