sports

Anonymous

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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.

Being the “bitch” at the ball game

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I was watching my younger sisters baseball game. Her team is the 16U girls team which is also known as team British Columbia. Since baseball is not generally the most welcoming sport for girls as many people consider it a “boys” sport I was happy to see an entire team of girls all playing ball together. I was also proud to have parents in the crowd supporting the girls and I truly believed that all of the parents were feminists, especially because they all seem to believe that girls should have just as much opportunity in sports as boys. I still believe a lot of the parents feel this way but recently my positive spirits about this community were shifted due to a man in the stands comment on my vocal support towards the girls. Every time the girls start doing well or I feel that they need some encouragement I cheer words such as “let’s go girls you’ve got this”, “let’s show these boys what you can do”, “lets go *insert individual girls name*!” And today in the stands I said quietly to the parents “I really hope the girls beat the boys today, I think they should be beat because I think the girls are the stronger team and they can do it!” A man in the stands (from our own team!) quickly told me to shut up as he was shaking his head and I replied by saying “I’m never going to stop supporting the girls!” He then said “you’re such a little bitch” in a very harsh tone and then proceeded to tell me that no one wants to hear what I have to say. These comments hurt because this was coming from a community that I thought was sort of a safe haven for feminists, a place for women and men to support each other. I told him that by using misogyny to defend his own misogyny will never silence me supporting girls baseball! I then turned to some of the mothers and grandmothers in the stands looking for support but instead heard comments such as “I can’t believe she is bringing this up at a ballgame!” And I was told that my response to the man was wrong and was encouraged once again to stop speaking. During this time the man continued to call me a “bitch”. My mother stepped in telling him to never say that to a woman again. My mother’s support gave me the courage to share my story because I know there are women out there that will support me and share ideologies such as my own. Even if my comments were a little too “out there” I will never apologize for sharing my voice with the world and will never ever be silenced by such hate. Thank you Laura for making this absolutely phenomenal site and allowing me to share my story of being referred to as a “bitch” at the ballgame. I hope this story empowers other young girls to refuse to be silenced by men who don’t want to hear our voice.

Grace

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Back when I was about twelve years old, I played camogie, (the female version of hurling). We were hosting a charity car wash in the middle of our town to try and fundraise for our team. a man drove up, saw us in our jerseys which are identical to the boys’ team. He pulled up and asked if we were fundraising for the boys’ team. We replied it was for the girls’ team and he paused for a moment, then worldlessly reversed out and drove off.

Jane

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I was playing golf with a guy and won. I play far more often and practice etc. He seemed to think it is still wrong for me to win because that is “emasculating” for him. It is depressing to think that no matter how hard I work I amsill expected to lose.

Akyna

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In my gym class in high-school there is always one group of boys that plays basketball more intensely and more seriously than the other almost non existent games in other parts of the gym. I have very little people that I like to talk to in that class and to fulfill my boredom so I decided I might as well play basketball like I am supposed to. I came across the group of boys and asked to join their team unknowing that a full game was about to commence with me being the only girl. My gym teacher asked me if I was okay playing because these boys were really good. This was upsetting to me because why did my teacher need to ask me if I was okay playing with all of these boys who apparently “played rough”. I said yes and was assigned a team. Throughout the game I was not passed to as much as others even though many of the people were really much worse than me. Although I was not amazing other people on my team were really not great either however I know I was judged more for it.

Ilsa

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Today in class some kid was talking about March Madness and saying who all was going to be into it during class. He started asking all these guys, I jumped in and said I was going to be into it and watch. The kid looks at me and asks if I know any other player then Zion Williamson, I do know many other men’s college basketball players, but I responded I don’t need to tell you that. He laughed and said that meant that I didn’t, then this other boy said something similar. I responded by saying that I didn’t want to say because of the principle, that I didn’t have to prove anything to them. They laughed and blew it off but it made me feel bad and like I didn’t know. It was an event that was so small, but it really got me thinking and made me angry. The boy did not ask any of the other boys to prove if they knew any players names, just because he thought, since I was a girl, I would not know anything about it.

Jasmine

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The 6 Nations is a massive Rugby event that happens each year. The men’s series gets much more attention (as you can imagine) today while I was at my local rugby club the boys/men made non-stop jokes about how the girls shouldn’t “be allowed” to play rugby because it’s a “high impact man’s game”. The thought that the women’s series wouldnt be as entertaining as the men’s because we were “weaker” …..

V

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I’m a girl and I play a co-ed sport and the guys on my team never pass the ball to me.

Anonymous

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My mother and I were out to dinner last night and after eating with some friends we went to go watch a baseball game. We unfortunately couldn’t buy tickets to the game so we decided to stand outside and watch the game from the screen. A man came up to us and asked us to wave to his friend who was staring at us from one of the windows in the building behind us. My mom waved but I felt uncomfortable enough that I just stared at my phone until the man went away. The man unfortunately made us feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave the game and to go home instead of finding somewhere else to watch the game.

Anon

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While at the hockey arena I was walking down the hallway were the change rooms are located. I didn’t really notice what was going on until after it had happened. I saw a few girls around 12 years old enter one of the change rooms to get ready for their game. When a boys hockey team came running down and thought it would be hilarious to open up the door and look in. These boys couldn’t have been much older than 11. Why do 11 year old boys find it amusing and okay to ‘walk in’ on girls changing? Where was their parents? Their coach?