Everyday sexism
I took my daughter to a women’s cricket match the other day.
We sat next to an adult son and father who expressed loudly some questionable views about a variety of topics (egg donation, transgender people etc.). They spent the match sarcastically applauding any mistakes the teams made, shouting “just hit the ball” and generally rubbishing women’s cricket. (The home team contained 3 English players who have recently won the World Cup.)
By the end of the first innings, I had had enough. We packed up our things and moved to where more families were sitting. As we left, I told the men they were pathetic.
My daughter loves sport (as do I), and we go to lots of football and cricket matches. We now attend football matches with friends due to the toxic atmosphere even in the family stands of our local team. I hadn’t expected to experience similar behaviour at a women’s cricket match.