Alexia play me “Run the world (Girls) by Beyoncé”
Personally I find it so amazing seeing women play sports. It’s so good, it makes me so so happy when I see them ripping up history to shreds and re writing their own in relation to sports and other aspects of life. From Angel Reese showing glearing traits that she can even mix it up with the boys in basketball to Serena Williams owning and dominating the tennis court for many years down to The Lionesses killing it and breaking records on the international stage of football and also bringing it home for England to our very own “Agba baller” Asisat Oshoala who is by far the best female footballer to ever come out of Africa doing the nation proud every time she laces up a pair of soccer boots and lastly to every girl on the field, court, ice rink, golf course, track, in a pool and in the ring, you’ll are amazing!
But sadly…
Just like my last article on Racial discrimination here, the agitation for equality in sports comes to the fore once more but this takes on a whole new case study as Female participation is given the major spotlight because we can all agree the women’s side of things aren’t given as much attention and respect as the men’s, it is an unfair imbalance because if you are someone like me that consumes every type of sport played by both genders you will realize the female side of the game is really just as good as the male. If you want to understand completely what I’m yapping about you should read on and not miss a detail. Welcome again to my existing readers and if you are new here, you are also very much welcome.
So now that we have gotten the formalities out the way let’s get into it…
TITLE IX
Before the Federal Legislation in the United States commonly referred to as Title IX. Women were not known to take part in any form of competitive activities of any kind. They were not to participate in anything on the same level to men in terms of competitiveness and physicality with regards to sports until 1972 where Title IX was published and was effective from June 23, 1972.
The law prohibits any form of sexual discrimination in education and any form of educational program that receives funding from the federal government — per wikipedia.
In essence equality really kicked it into a whole new gear from there on in and we have had major advancements and breakthroughs in the women’s side of things in football like the Women’s World Cup, Women’s Balon d’or award, Women’s League, Champions League and so on.
THE MODERN DAY GAME.
I saw a Tiktok on FC Barcelona’s Tiktok account posted on International Women’s day about women and the horrible messages they receive on a daily basis and to be honest it hit home like I was the one who received those messages, they were hateful and also very awful to receive as humans in general and that’s just a little of the type of messages female athletes see everytime.
It is to my understanding that men and even some sections of fellow women don’t really rate the feminine side of sports and don’t even see sports associated with women at all because it’s a “male field”.
But why?
Why is sport often synonymous to the male gender?, Why are female athletes not so much as popular as the male athletes?, Why isn’t women sports as widely broadcasted as the men’s?
There are so many questions to be asked to try to understand why but for now I would like to highlight the challenges women face in sports in the grand scheme of things.
In the world today, we can all agree that women are generally seen as the lesser being and just a “subordinate other” to the man which also transcends into sports. People who hold this mentality usually always see women as nothing but sex symbols to please a man, produce children and automatically be suppressed to ‘mummy duties’ from there on in.
They usually sound a little like:“hey, you should be in the kitchen not on the track!”
Disgusting to say the very least but this sort of mentality should be unfasten sooner rather than later so as to not allow younger men and even women instill the same mentality into their own children because just like racism, gender inequality can be thought and passed on from generation to generation if not properly handled and exterminated.
Another challenge faced can be the fact that women are paid way less than men in sports. I really don’t have to stress this so much because we all know the insane amount of money pumped in the men’s game thereby making the players themselves earn so much in return. For instance, in the just concluded World cup in Qatar it is mostly evident that their was a lot of money spent on the tournament as their was even an improved budget this time around.
Can that happen in the women’s game? I highly doubt.
But from my knowledge I remember the USWNT agitated for the motion of equal pay and eventually won. This is a giant leap in getting some sort of equality in that regard if you ask me.
Along with all of this we can all agree that the women’s game as a whole is still second fiddle to the men’s side of things as it’s just not as popular as the men’s game. I will use myself as an example here as I know how vast I’m abreast with any information regarding men’s football from the players, to their positions on the pitch, to their team kit sponsor, to their jersey number for club and country, all the way down to their boot sponsor, what type they wear and their trademark celebrations. I know it all and even more but I can’t say the same about the women’s side of things, don’t get me wrong it’s not as bad as you might think but still it’s not on the level of details I have when the men’s game is concerned and I’ll attribute that mainly to what I mentioned earlier about it not being broadcasted as much as the men’s game. If it was given a chance to be broadcasted on TV more, myself and a lot of other people will definitely watch it, it will also turn unbelievers to believers after watching, for a example a good game in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, if they love basketball or a Women’s Champions League Knockout match, if they love football.
You also have to put into consideration that broadcasters put out things that are in demand and the more we show interest in the side of the game the more they realize women’s sport is in demand and eventually it is broadcasted so I would like to use this platform to also inform women that equality in sports starts with them. It’s coming to watch basketball games in numbers, it’s talking about it on social media, it’s streaming games and it’s also putting a hand in it either by playing or writing about it. It all goes a long way, trust me on that.
THE FEMININE W.
In football I would say to a very good extent that there is a lot of improvement in how they have gotten the women’s game more spotlight in recent times and the game has benefited hugely from this.
Using the Women’s Euros final of 2022 as a case study we can say that was one of the most watched women’s international tournament held because it was such an amazing tournament and a testament to that was the number of people who were in attendance for the game on that day of the final. It was also a women’s record forvrecording 87,192 people in an international women’s game in which I felt every one in attendance on the day got their value for money because it was an amazing final with the Lionesses winning on home turf against a very strong German side.
Surely, your memory of that final either you were there live or watching at home would include Chloe Kelly’s winner in the 110th minute of the game and the wild celebrations that came afterwards.
Scenes…
Another major W for women’s football is the inclusion of the women in the latest installment of FIFA.
As a die hard FIFA fan I was so happy to use the females for the first time and see how they’d feel and look in the game and EA Sports really did something with it. It was also great for the women’s game that the player with the overall stats this year was a woman in person of Barcelona and Spain’s Alexia Putellas.
No not Messi and not Ronaldo, Alexia Putellas…
I also played it recently with a friend and we both enjoyed the feel of using women in the game, we couldn’t help but almost use women all day long. It was such an experience and a breath of fresh air, you all need to try it out.
Lyon are the best team on there to me by the way.
What I have also observed watching the women’s game is the increased amount of competitiveness and intensity in the games now compared to when I started watching it years back, if you really want to know why this is so I urge you to watch the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup this year holding in Australia and New Zealand in July. I’m sure you would come to understand this and you would definitely enjoy the tournament because it would be an interesting battle between all teams vying to dethrone the defending champions for the third year in a row, The USA. It’s going to be fun.
FINAL NOTE.
It’s important that we all understand that sport is an equal game and just like racism their shouldn’t be any form of discrimination or gender inequality. The women’s game is just as interesting as the men and I really hope you try to see this more often so you can understand what I’m saying a lot more better.
And to any beautiful woman, lady or girl reading this, this was for you!
Before I go I’ll like to know…
Your favorite women in sports.
Favorite women’s team in the new FIFA, if you play.
And your favorite team in women’s sports.
Leave your answers in the comments, I’ll be checking.
Thank you for sharing your time with me again and as always don’t forget to leave a like and comment about what you think and also share with your friends of similar interests.
I’m on Twitter here.
You can also check out the FC Barcelona Tiktok video here.
Until next time.
