Part 2: Levelling the field via media
There's no wonder why there are sites such as Women Talk Sports, amongst a few others. Women's sport, unless it is during a momentous event such as the Olympics, are brushed over on news sites. In short, amongst the men's sports, we don't really feature.
At a university such as Rhodes, I feel completely alone in my fight for equal treatment on the playing field. I play soccer, so this metaphor and play-on-words is totally relevant. Even more so, I feel like my place in my university community is a micro example of how women's sport is viewed in our country as a whole. And then this goes on to represent a small example of how women's sport is viewed across the globe. At the moment, I am barely still kicking in this fight. I am tired.
I am tired, but not knocked down entirely just yet. I feel like my most powerful tool at the moment is writing about it, so that is what I will keep on doing until I find another method.
However, although I feel alone, there are professional people out there fighting the exact same fight. I use Jos Dirkx as an example in almost too many of my posts, but she is an inspiration and honestly someone whose life I would like to mimic one day. She is an award-winning marketing and communications advisor, but more importantly she is the founder of Girls & Football SA, which aims to empower young girls and women through sport. So far, it has reached 3000 girls in South Africa.
The aim of the organisation, in addition to empowerment, is to also explore integral issues such as HIV/AIDS, abuse, and poverty, all of which are heavily prevalent in our country. This organisation is in tune with statistics that show that girls and young women are more likely to perform better in school and less likely to fall pregnant as a teenager if they play sport.
Research done by GFSA showed that:
Is this not enough? How can we achieve a more holistic and balanced, fair society when these statistics are ignored or brushed under the rug?
When the Ancient Olympics in Greece were a thing, women were excluded from participating. But now they are included, and what does the media do about it? Not enough, that's for sure. Instead it's all about what they look like and their relationship to other men. The first women's football match was played in 1895. Eighteen-freaking-ninety-five. That was 122 years ago.
With the state of our media and how women's soccer is treated, we might as well still belong to that era. However, even then critics were turning their heads and newspapers were documenting the strength of the female athlete. When the first match between North-London and South-London took place in 1895, when all the men were at war, a reporter from the Sportsman newspaper noted:
"True, young men would run harder and kick more strongly, but, beyond this, I cannot believe that they would show any greater knowledge of the game or skill in its execution. I don't think the lady footballer is to be snuffed out by a number of leading articles written by old men out of sympathy both with football as a game and the aspirations of the young new women. If the lady footballer dies, she will die hard."
So, there you have it folks. 130+ year olds are more socially aware about female soccer players than you 2017 people are! But, who do we have to blame for this, for the basis of our perception-creating and decision-making surrounding women's sports? The media. It is all about how they are presented in the media.
Of course a lot of us succumb to gender stereotypes about female athletes, because media perpetuates this by focusing on their bodies, behaviour, and relations to other men. Dirkx aptly states in her TedTalk that "when we do have the conversation [about women in sport] it’s either about the struggling female football player who is by default labeled a lesbian, or the soccer babe, during which we seemingly have to associate sport with women’s nude bodies.”
In relation to the media, Dirkx adds that we have a responsibility as a society and as sports lovers “for the stories we tell boys and girls about young women and girls in sport, and that these stories are actually much more important than we realize.” For an inspiring talk about women in sport by one of my role models, have a watch here:
So, if someone tells me I kick or throw like a girl, I will thank them. Because women in sport are strong, and brave, and inspirational. But also, I will expect them to not be so surprised next time. To end off, I will round off this post with Dirkx's closing comments: “This isn’t about 'strong is beautiful.' This is just about strong... Tell the girls in your life that it’s not about pretty. It’s about pretty smart, pretty courageous, and it is about pretty strong.”
