sports

Katrina B.

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I worked at a sporting goods store and was the only female that worked in the hunting and fishing section. my knowledge of the equipment and other hunting related things were constantly questioned and overlooked by mainly white men. The look on their faces is priceless every time when I know something, and they weren’t expecting it. Also, when I’d answer the phone, I’d give my name and then the man on the other end of the line would interrupt me and say I needed the hunting section they must not have connected me to the right place then I had to politely inform them that I am who they needed to talk to. the tone instantly changed. I knew when I applied and got the job that this would happen but the frequency it happened was still very eye opening to me.

anon, 37

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I’ve always liked sports but online I always find myself reminded that I’m female and therefore not really included or ever truly respected in the sports culture. Boxing in particular recently reminded me of this. I like watching some fights but when one of them loses the comment section always feminise the loser and call them a woman or a little girl or a bitch and I get so tired of having this machoistic nonsense ascribe the loser as automatically female by default of losing. Why is female such an insult? The idea that we are weaker is a message I am told over and over again and it is so annoying. How are we meant to ever feel valued as a gender when my gender is automatically synonymous with weaker and not being the best when it comes to sport. I get so fatigued with the male ego, even as a tomboy myself. Many ‘male’ traits are great and I get on with men pretty well on the whole but I can never forget that I’m female and therefore always seen as less strong than them biologically even with the nicest men because it’s been so battered into my mind in the way that boys talk about what they perceive as ‘weaker boys’. In our society macho men = the strongest, then ordinary men, then weaker or effeminate men and then women are always at the bottom of the pile of perceived strength. It’s so exhausting not to be allowed to just be a fucking human being and to not be judged just as such when being a woman. God I wish that men understood even a fraction of what it feels like to be devalued in that way just for being female.

Arabella

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On Saturday evening, GMT, everyone was glued to their screen watching the British protégé Emma Raducanu playing her first final in a Grand Slam, winning it superbly, as just emerging from the qualifications, a first in tennis history. She was splendid in every way, brilliantly competitive, sportively outstanding despite a booing crowd clearly in favour of the 19-year old Canadian. I won’t here write in details about Emma’s story, achievement, record as others – surely more ‘tennistiquely’ qualified – have already done so, and yes she was just exceptional with a capital E. So please follow me on the after match highlight. I will try – well too late – to mention in details the appalling US Open organisation to try to set up the most hideous and marketingly cheapest podium, 80’s out-dated look inspired in a mere 20minutes. Surely those 2 young champions had nothing else to do but to wait for a team of 50 people probably to set up 3 pieces of carton boards on a hideous sort of stage, when finally Michael J. McNulty III of the USTA Southern Section and currently serving as President on the USTA Board of Directors for the 2021-22 term took the microphone. He couldn’t be spontaneous; he had to read a scripted, pre-approved, pre-written, pre-checked, sleek speech and tried to thank everyone, then congratulated both players. And then came the priceless comment addressing both players: ‘thank you for your smiles’. Not thank you for your competitiveness, your joie de vivre, your youth, being ambitious, being strong, being inspiring. No no. ‘Your smiles’. Mr McNutty III, how this could be simply relevant to the outstanding performance those 2 greatly young players have offered to the world? Would have they been less smiling make a difference to their technical and sportive exploits? Have you ever considered just one moment how this was just so irrelevant to the moment within Emma’s victory? And how tacky, sexist and patronising this would appear? And most importantly Mr McNutty, how comes you haven’t also thanked the day after the 2 men finalists for ‘their smiles’? I will let you find the answer yourself.

Agatha

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At the sports day at my high school, there were different races to sign up for. One was the 300m race. Well, that was the girls’ version. The boys had 400m. Because obviously the girls couldn’t run as far as the boys. And I know AFAB bodies are meant to be weaker, etc., but they were ALREADY SEPARATE. Girls only raced against girls, boys against boys. So couldn’t the girls run a 400m race against girls? Boys run 300m against other boys? There were girls running the 1500m race. I don’t see the difference. Nothing else was changed. Why did the girls get a shorter distance? I doubt it is for a reason that has nothing to do with the idea that ‘women must be weaker than men and all men must be stronger than girls’.

Barbara

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I was at the gym squatting when a guy I had never seen before deemed that I needed help. I didn’t. He came mid-set to ‘spot’ me, literally hugging me from behind as I was lowering down. After that rep I stopped, pretended I was done, and left the gym. This was 5 years ago. What bothers me to this day is not slapping that MF instead of cutting my workout short and leaving.

Laura

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I was groped at a sporting event I was competing at. I felt like a guy has been watching me all day but didnt feel too worried as I knew there were selectors at the event. I had to go to the bathroom quickly during a break between matches and I was in a rush so I went into the disabled toilet. I still dont know how but the guy unlocked the door while I was in there and stood there as he watched me urinate. I didnt even know what to say. I left as quickly as possible and he never even tried to touch me so I felt like I couldnt go to anyone about what happened :/

Maddy

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Earlier this month a man wouldn’t let me leave his house. I’d voluntarily got in the uber with him, but had changed my mind and wanted to leave before we got in the front door. He said when we were inside I could call another to go home. The house was in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t know where I was and then he said he’d let me call an uber if I got into bed and let him spoon me. I said I wasn’t going to do anything, so he lay there for hours narrating his sex life and holding me down. I was too scared to kick up a fuss because he was far stronger than me. At one point I was hyperventilating and he told me to stop. Eventually, after the whole night of lying there clutching my phone, under his weight, he let me leave at 8 am. What makes it worse is he’s on the same sports team as one of my friends and has told him a very different story. Looking back, I should’ve just called a friend to come get me but I didn’t want to cause a fuss. It was the whole flight or fight thing, but I completely froze. I didn’t properly get scared until I got into my bathroom at home shut the door and it all hit me and I had the worst panic attack I’ve had in years. Nothing actually happened, and I don’t know why it’s got to me so much. Since it happened I haven’t had a proper night sleep, which is making my mood get low and I’m panicking going places that he might be (campus), and what he’s exactly said to my friends.

Yet another supposedly light-hearted joke.

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I was talking to a friend at school about how we find it annoying that we’re expected to wear a skort for PE and Games even though we both prefer to wear leggings as we find that skorts restrict our movement (e.g. whilst stretching and doing lunges). My friend mentioned that she hates having to bend down in a skort when she’s trying to pick tennis balls up off the floor. At that point a guy then said that he wouldn’t mind seeing a girl bend over and pick something up off the floor whilst wearing a skort. Other guys in the room started laughing as well whilst my friend and I became frustrated. Honestly you’d expect better from a bunch of sixth formers seeing as some of them are now adults. When will there be lessons about sexism on the national PSHE curriculum?

Amber

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All these moments where men think they’re being gentlemen but actually they’re just being sexist. I used to play soccer (I was very young and back then they didn’t separate girls from boys) and the coach had the boys run laps but said the girls didn’t have to. Sure, he meant to be a gentleman and do us a favour. But I ended up just standing awkwardly around and being bored because I actually wanted to run. And also, it makes us look weak! Boys can run laps and girls don’t? And no wonder boys are better at sports if they get challenged more! If you have the boys run and exclude the girls from it, the boys will be fitter in the end and the girls will only be weaker and the whole cycle starts again. The same thing at school. The teachers need to get some books from the school’s library. Standard phrase: “Can I get some help from some strong boys to help me carry the books?” Yeah because us girls can’t carry a fucking book. I know you’re trying to do us a favour and I know you’re trying to be a gentleman, but honestly don’t make us look weak. Just don’t make us look weak, because we’re not.

Michelle

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There’s an annual double-handed (two person) sailboat race which I entered my boat in. When I told people I was racing this race most people, male and female, asked whose boat I was on. I replied “my sailboat”. Most of those people further asked who is skippering, to which I replied “Um, me, it’s my boat. And also my crew is another woman” We took third, I have my trophy sitting right here as I type this. After taking third I was asked who skippered my boat. Because of course a female couldn’t possibly own a sailboat, skipper it in a race, with another female crew member…and take home a trophy. Both males and females were party to sexism in this.