hashtag: her game too

by Megan Feringa

Racism is rightly in the spotlight – it is a blight on society and it appears to have become fashionable for the moronic few to abuse footballers over social media. But just as abhorrent and perhaps more widespread is sexism in football – a problem now being countered by the ever growing #HERGAMETOO campaign. ATFV is proud to introduce our new columnist Megan Feringa and her debut piece details this much needed movement for us…….

It was mid-May and the football world promised to implode. Women were trying to stick their grimy fingers into football, a man’s sport, the man’s sport by some standards.

How dare they?

Mid-May marked the launch of #HerGameToo, an anti-sexism campaign geared at stamping out the abuse females face across football, from derogatory comments and crude euphemisms to unfettered dismissals, blatant harassment and a general sense of exclusion and unease on and off the pitch.

It’s a hot-button issue. Females endeavouring to enjoy football have never known an easy business. Social media has readily exacerbated things. Consequently, the #HerGameToo campaign was bold, unapologetic and within two days, rupturing football’s very milieu.

Backing & backlash

Four months later, support for females and the campaign has surged, but in many corners of the football world, backlash towards #HerGameToo has only mounted.

Because, as the adage goes, girls belong in the kitchen, making sandwiches and tea. They are too pretty for the stressful ethers that football inspires.

For years, this was the argument heaped upon females like an immovable pile of laundry, keeping them from not only participating in football but consuming it altogether. If she did, there lurked the tingling sensation that she was somehow committing an act of nefarious subterfuge, or the assumption she was only doing so to impress a brother, a dad, a male partner, not by her own volition.

keep out!!

Football may as well have been shoved behind a door draped in yellow caution tape and a loud ‘KEEP OUT’ sign, with the words ‘especially girls !’ scribbled underneath it in black Sharpie.

If a woman managed to wiggle her way through that, there stood the gatekeepers, ready to remind her that the football lands were ultimately sacrosanct for lads and lads only, most brandishing the same firing line of questions to swipe away the floor she stands upon:

“Can you name anyone other than [insert club’s marquee signee here]?”

“Which one do you fancy?”

“What is the offside rule?”

Apprehension & Anxiety

Quantifying the varying experiences women confront is nigh impossible. #HerGameToo recently released a survey in hopes of doing just that. Yet, delve into the social media comments of any announcement, promotion or post with a female in the headlight (or the contextual sidelight), then imagine personally dealing with those comments daily.

The comments eventually manifest into a fear or a niggling anxiety that keeps women from voicing support loudly or even attending games. Consider the last football match you attended in person. Out of the throngs of fans, how many women could you spot peppered about? How many of those women were alone?

The argument goes that women do not want to go to matches. Yet, the reality is many women want to but don’t feel comfortable doing so out of apprehension or lack of companionship.

Turned Away Days

I experienced my first away-day on the EFL’s opening weekend. I did not feel out of place, but I did not feel in it either.

The majority of my day saw me exist in an awkward middle space. Pre-match, I attempted the pub opposite Blackburn Rovers stadium, the sole pub within safe walking distance, only to be told to leave because it was “bad enough” being a Swansea fan, “not least a girl”.

So, two hours to kick off, I walked around the Iceland a half mile down the road, keeping myself occupied with their three aisles filled to the brim with riveting reduced items (I found the UK’s version of Lucky Charms for less than £2). Eventually, I made camp at the McDonald’s across the street, biding my time over a Kids’ Meal of fries and nuggets until kick-off.

Within the away end, the landscape changed. That’s what happens when you’re an anonymous one out of 1,000 travelling fans and Swansea are finally playing the kind of champagne football fans sung about vainly for the last two seasons.

Iceland was cool though

For those two hours, football felt familiar again. Still, the experience wasn’t one I’d readily jump off a bridge without a parachute to repeat. “Iceland was cool” does not spell out “amazing away day”.

“Not least a girl” does not spell out “come back next time”.

It can feel funny, thinking such locker room culture still stalks about so free and happy. Yet, this is the same place where taking the knee continuously incurs an onslaught of boos and chides.

It is often the minority spoiling the atmosphere for the majority. But that is the life many female football fans are subjected to consistently – a creeping, consuming feeling of dread and anxiety coupled with a sense of loss in the sport they love and want to continue loving.

The #HerGameToo movement ventures to change this, and in the four months since its fledgling video went viral, #HerGameToo has successfully shone a very bright light on a very dark corner of football culture.

But change ultimately begins in those smaller corners, within football grounds, fan buses and local pubs.

It begins with men as much as women, calling out inappropriate abuse, the gags, the jeers, the seemingly innocuous but sexualised comments made in confidence to a mate. The acts are small, but the headway huge.

Brain harvesting aliens!!

In its nascent hours, #HerGameToo incited as much fury as it did jibes.

“Calm down” came the cries. “Why do women have to ruin all the fun?”

The response raised an important question. Seriously, what is it that makes girls in football so antagonising?

What is it about shouting “YJB” and sharing tactical analyses that likens women to aliens coming to harvest brains?

Is it the slightly higher pitched octaves in which we do so? The fact our shirts stick slightly tighter to our bodies? That sometimes we brush our hair?