football

Em

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Two weeks ago at work, my manager had put a poster up about a football tournament for all of our stores across the UK to play in. Not many people had signed up for it, so I offered the team on the day that I was available if they needed extra players. The boys didn’t believe I could even kick a ball, but said to come along anyways. I had taken two buses and a train to find the field, and when I had gotten there I’d noticed there were only two girls in the team. Throughout the game, nobody wanted to pass the ball as they thought Id mess up, and the game turned to penalties. I begged the team to let me take one, however they told me that Id miss because Im a girl and to be serious. All the boys had missed their shots, however there was one more shot for the team to win. The other girl in the team said to me that, I need to realise boys are stronger and that theres no point or we will loose. He had missed the penalty. We all had a team talk and one of the boys, had said having the girls was a big disadvantage and was the reason we had lost as the other teams didn’t have girls. This is making me feel like I’m not strong or as strong as boys and that Im not good at what I enjoy to do. However we had a last match, and I worked hard at it and even tackled the ball of a man, dropping him to the floor and the ref said it was amazing. A man in my team offered me a lift home, but then turned around and said he was joking. I thought I was doing the team a favour however they clearly weren’t happy that there were girls in the team.

Karen, Brighton UK

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Walking my dog in the local park as a group of children and mid teens – all boys – are led in a kick-around on a football pitch. The ‘responsible adult’ in goal yells “Chris, Chris, if you score I’ll buy you a prostitute for your sixteenth birthday!” I’m the only person around and obviously in earshot. As a middle-aged woman I am presumably invisible. To their credit the children do not laugh at this witticism.

Emma

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Sport is apparently still in the dark ages. I tweet one thing about football fans invading the pitch at the national stadium and I’m greeted by several men responding or quoting the tweet as “Your GF’s back on Twitter” and “Thanks for that, Emma” along with taking several screenshots of when I either block them or delete the tweet to joke about, to then find out a twitter account had been retweeting all posts from “women/football journos/easily offended” despite there being hundreds of male fans criticising the incident. If you’re a female football fan with an opinion, you’re not only a football fan but you’re ridiculed for your opinion as you’re a women. No, I am a football fan first and foremost, I have the same knowledge as a male football fan.

Grace Morgan

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I play football and wanted to buy new football boots. I went into my local Sports Direct and was shocked when I began looking at the selection of football boots and the labels that stated ‘adidas men’s football boot’. Why men’s? I wondered if these were men’s, where was the women’s section of football boots? Oh wait there wasn’t one. This is 2017, and still labels say ‘men’s football boots’. Women’s football is a thing despite whether people like it or not. It should be accepted and also how off putting to young girls that would go into that shop with their parents to find boots. It could put them off or make them feel awkward. I was shocked to say the least.

Same old Uni story

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I was a freshman in university. My friends and I were walking around campus and ran into some upper classmen at a liquor store. They had much better alcohol than we did and invited us up to their on-campus apartment to join them. We readily agreed. In our group were two girls including myself and three boys. We did not feel unsafe. The apartment consisted of four juniors and seniors, all male. They played guitar and some video games and we played a few drinking games. I particularly found myself flirting with an attractive junior. My male friends were becoming bored with the lack of available girls and left, really before we knew they were leaving. My female friend had split off from me at some point and was talking in a adjacent room to a few other people. I didn’t feel afraid or alone but I was very drunk. So much so that I decided I wasn’t really interested in partying anymore and found a small futon near the tv and fell asleep/passed out. I woke up several hours later in a room I did not recognize with one of the boys from the party on top of me. He smiled when he noticed I was awake and said ‘well, welcome back !” He was actively having sex with me. I was incredibly alarmed, and confused. I tried to quickly look around to see where I was. Still didn’t recognize the room and clearly showing signs of panic. He said with a bit of a laugh, ” Oh don’t worry. You’ve been clearly enjoying yourself. You’ve been moaning so loud this whole time my roommates could hear you. ” He directed my attention to several used condoms on the floor beside us. This had been going on for a long time. I didn’t know what to even say. I think the first thing I said was ‘ I was alseep’. He just said ” that hasn’t stopped us from having a great night. Don’t worry, you did great.” I tried to sit up but he pressed his weight on me and told me he was ‘almost done anyway’. I closed my eyes. One of his roommates came in . They laughed and kind of congratulated him. I just knew at that point I was going to vomit. He finished, I sprang up and found only my underwear and a tank I had been wearing under my shirt. I pulled them on and said. ” I need to get a drink of water.” He laughed and pointed toward the kitchen. I ran out the door. I ran across campus. No shoes, barely dressed. I was sore, and hung over, and terrified and humiliated. I then realized I didn’t know what had happened to my other friend. I raced to her dorm room, hoping she was ok. She was. She was in her room and when she saw me immediately laughed. I began to tell her what happened between the urge to vomit and the need to shower and hold back tears. She stopped me. She congratulated me. He played Football. He was VARSITY FOOTBALL. He was so cute. She was so jealous. All the blood rushed to my ears. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I was CONGRATULATED on this several times throughout my freshman year. He went on to play in the NFL, for a very brief time, and now coaches on the high school level. I still have nightmares. I have suffered from anxiety attacks and depression. I dropped out of school shortly after the incident and never came back for the next year. I gave up everything. I knew I couldn’t see his face on campus or on Football flyers or hear one more time how cute he was. It was one of the worst events of my whole life and I’ve only ever been congratulated for it.

Ben

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A quote from my Phys Ed teacher “… you all watch football. Girls, you watch the netball…” No girl I have ever asked has replied with netball when I ask them what sports they like/play.

Clara

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Watching a 3rd Division Spanish Mens league game where the lines woman happened to be, suprisingly enough, a woman! She was excellent and composed throughout the entire game and put up with the upmost professionalism. Through out the game I heard the players refer to her as ‘rubia’ (blondie) and dramatically protest any decision she made. Meanwhile the fans were asking her ‘hey blondie where do you live’ and making sexually provacative comments.

Kitty

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There is a footy match on one of the Sky Sports channels at the moment (Peterborough v Swindon), & there is a Ginsters logo at the side of the stadium. What’s wrong with that, I hear you cry? Well, how’s about the fact that next to the Ginsters logo, it says “food for hungry men”? I ask you! Thanks for wilfully excluding 50% of the population with that sexist advertising, Ginsters! Women get hungry too, & I’m sure women buy Ginsters products as well (although I won’t now). And there are, believe it or not, women who like football & go & watch the teams they support play- how will they feel about being excluded like this?