The FIFA Women’s World Cup has been a cracking tournament and a revelation for many sports fans. It has also been an invitation, apparently, for some pretty base commentary about women’s sporting abilities.
On ESPN, for instance, Stephen A. Smith had a theory as to why Germany’s defenders failed to stop a Norwegian free kick early in the tournament.
“They might not have wanted to mess their hair,” he said.
This in a sport where, with all the corn rows, cut-ins, highlights and industrial strength hair product, the men spend way more time on their hair than the women.
Smith’s a serial offender when it comes to stupid comments about women.
He’s a long-time apologist for domestic abuser Floyd Mayweather and, following Ray Rice’s assault on his fiancee, helpfully suggested to women: “Don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions.”
Why you’d put him anywhere near women’s football is beyond me. The bloke sitting alongside him, retired basketball player Tim Legler, wasn’t any better.
“You see the young ladies all turn their head,” said Legler. “They didn’t want to catch one in the grill.”
Show me one person who does, Tim.
No wonder the Norwegian women’s football team released a parody video about the stereotypes they face. Smith and Legler would probably mistake it for serious documentary.
Joining Smith and Legler in the Hall of Shame is Sports Illustrated‘s Andy Benoit, who tweeted during a World Cup game: “Women’s sports in general not worth watching.”
Comedian Amy Poehler took him down. “No more tweeting, Benoit,” she said. “You’re too dumb.”
Of course, this knuckle-headedness isn’t confined to football. In the UK, jockey coach Michael Tebbutt was interviewed by the BBC for a story about equality in racing. You’d tread particularly carefully on that one, right?
“Still can’t ride though,” was his take on women jockeys.
Female cyclists in the recent Lotto Cycling Cup were shocked to find themselves joined by bikini-clad models on the podium. The agency that provided the models couldn’t see the problem. Said its manager: “Sometimes during the race, women race with their shirts open.”
At the beginning of the Women’s World Cup, I wrote an article about the gender pay imbalance in football. Here’s a selection of the comments it received on a popular sports website. This website.
“Cristiano Ronaldo gets paid more than whoever you mentioned (I’ve already forgotten) because he is a far better player. There is no comparison except in your PC vanilla world.”
“Women’s sports is for the most part just not as good to watch as men’s sports because men are just better at pretty much every part of the sport. That’s just how we are made, in the same way that black guys are quicker than white guys.”
“Men and women players are not equal in skill or in popularity. Market forces dictate who gets paid what.”
“Emasculating us until we all go ‘Caitlyn’?”
Pro mountain biker Georgia Gould neatly summed up the problem with perceptions of women’s sport in an interview with bicycling.com.
“The sad thing is that the boring or exciting of the game is put down to gender,” she says. “So then, it’s women are boring, rather than they’re playing a boring game.”
I started a series called Foul Play earlier this year documenting alleged sports-related assaults on women and girls. I never have any trouble finding examples. Some of the men listed in the latest edition are already making repeat appearances.
There are no simple solutions to domestic violence. Short of people choosing not to hit loved ones, that is. But it will absolutely continue to thrive in an environment where women are allowed to be perceived as lesser beings.
The likes of Stephen A. Smith, Tim Legler, Andy Benoit and Michael Tebbutt foster such an environment when they make these sorts of comments.
They might like to think about that before they open their mouths next time. I’d like to think they’re capable of that.
Josh
Guest
Lipstick on a pig. In other words, sexism dressed up as reason. Articles like this always leave me depressed when I read the comments.
144
Roar Guru
i loved watching the Matildas play, i love watching football and any other womens tennis because i enjoy those sports, it's the sport i love, so no matter who is playing it, i myself have no right to attack it if it is being played by a woman. Poeple just do not understand common manners
CG2430
Guest
Exactly.
CG2430
Guest
Zing!
pjm
Roar Rookie
And he hasn't picked this one so he knows he's going to lose.
pjm
Roar Rookie
But you're a man commenting on women, that makes you angry. Feminism logic 101.
pjm
Roar Rookie
I'd rather that 50c go to health.
kurt
Guest
Basically choose the arguements your going to win
kurt
Guest
Wheres the 50 cents for womans rugby? See the issue here
sheek
Roar Guru
Don't be offended. One thing I've learnt in life is to pick a debate or argument of my choosing & time.
Will Sinclair
Roar Guru
You could allocate just $0.50 from every taxpayer in Australia and it would still be more than enough. I'll pay 50c to support a national sporting team. Won't you?
Dean
Guest
I guess one of the main points is choice. If there was a woman's game on channel 501 and a men's game on channel 502 both at the same World or Continental Cup level, most viewers would go the mens (let's face it, there are less women watching too). There are all sorts of reasons people watch the sport they do. 1) Connection to team (suburb/country/family/team) 2) Proximity and ease (it's on TV, it's just around the corner) 3) Quality (Is it of sufficient skill to not be frustrating/boring, will it be a close contest?) Clearly for the Women's World Cup, people felt 1 and 2 were important enough to overlook 3. I can't see many local women's football evoking any of those 3 feelings outside the World Cup. Same as local sport, take the quality reduction for the sense of connection and ease of proximity. But you wouldn't fork out $20 for a seat at AAMI to watch the Melb City Women when you could spend $10 and watch the Sth Melbourne Men at Albert Park for better quality. Sport is a crowded market and the quality of women's football is a lot lower than that of the other local, international and national football matches it competes with. I watch women's football every week as my partner plays, but I don't wonder why the crowds aren't big when the game is so much slower and less skillful than many junior games on the same day.
Dean
Guest
Serena Williams could definitely not hold her own against many male pro tennis players. Her fastest serve, of about 200 km/h would put her in the bottom quartile of male players (mostly short guys) and her serve is by far her biggest weapon.
James
Guest
i hate that argument! at a nice dinner party after you have said something and been disagreed with absolutely dont engage but this is the freaking internet, try and have a meaningful debate and then dont engage but at least try. at least attempt to change minds, this is an important conversation to have and we only get to have it once every 4 years when the womans world cup is on.
James
Guest
if a woman was even remotely as good as messi or even if she was even remotely near to being good enough to play in any professional male team be it a top league or even a second or third division professional league in any country she would be snapped up right away and would be worth so much money. there are definitely males in power in professional sports who are sexist but any sexism would be completely beaten by the financial awesomeness that would come about from having a female who could hold her own in any professional football team. the marketing value that she would have would be insane. having said that, as you admit, science says it wont happen anytime soon. messi, best, maradona, pele etc they are brilliant because they are graceful and smaller guys but you need that grace married with power or you dont win shit. im sure there are female players who have beautiful first touches, who can see and read the game as well as any man, who can time shots as well as any man but power is needed without the loss of any grace. and females just are not capable of doing that, just as white guys are not capable of getting those quick twitch muscles that allows them to run the 100 finals. you mentioned tennis, martina hingis was beautiful, her touch with that racket was easily at least the equal of any man but she did not have power so when she played against serena she was beaten. it is that marriage of grace and power that is needed ideally in equal measure but ladies just dont have that grace and power enough to compete with men. and serena has said herself she wouldnt be able to beat most of the professional male players who make a living from tennis, when she was younger but still the best woman around she played a guy ranked 200 odd, but who admittedly was at one time ranked i think in the 70s and she was smoked 6-1 or 6-2. i want to stress i am not attacking womans sports, womans sports as a seperate entity is great and brilliant and if you like it its just as thrilling viewing as any male sports can be. my problem is in saying that women can compete with men and be as good in most sports. most sports there is a womans team and there is a mens team but the mens team is an open team. if a woman was good enough to play the guys they would be. now maybe you can change the rules of the game so that women can play for barcelona or manchester united but you would have to change the sport itself.
Kaks
Roar Guru
You're asking her that? Expect a response along the lines of "100% because companies are sexist"
Kaks
Roar Guru
College football is of high quality. It is not solely because of 'a contest' that Fuss claims. If you add up the thousands of games that occur around the country you may end up having a greater number of people who attended an amateur or semi-pro game than a professional game. But that stat would completely misrepresent what is actually going on. If there are 5000 amateur games with 30 people attending each then you will have 150k people. If you have three professional games with 50k attending each then you would also have 150k people. What would you claim is more popular? The professional game obviously. And do you believe everyone is there for the contest or because the high quality of entertainment?
Billy S
Guest
If a company were able to pay women 17% less than men then how many men would be getting employed?
SM
Guest
'How out of touch are you to claim that more people watch amateur or semi-pro Aussie Rules and Rugby League than they do the professional league?' Well in the US, I've read that more people watch college gridiron than the NFL because they have more of a link to those particular teams. I would think think it's similar with Aussie Rules or Rugby, where private school old boys are watching their school teams.
SM
Guest
Stephen A. Smith, Tim Legler, Andy Benoit and Michael Tebbutt. Sorry, who are these non-entities? And why are we even acknowledging their opinions on football or any other matter?