SEVERAL years ago, I was carrying out my duties as head of delegation for the Scottish FA by accompanying the women’s national team on a trip to Greece where they were playing a couple of friendly games.
At this time there was very little coverage of the women’s national team, so I was surprised when I returned from training to find I had several missed calls from journalists wanting to speak to me.
But they weren’t after an update on the women’s team and their trip – rather a comment on a statement from Fifa president Sepp Blatter who had announced his thoughts on how we could get more people to follow women’s football. His statement was: “Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball – they could, for example, have tighter shorts.” He went on to add: “Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball.”
I am sure you can imagine my response, yet we still have the expectation that women and girls need to look pretty when they are participating in sport. In sports that have a marked system, it can sometimes count towards their overall score.
Recently, German gymnast Sarah Voss, competing at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, took a stand against sexualisation in her sport. Instead of the traditional leotard, she wore a one-piece which covered her legs. The following day, she was joined by two of her teammates.
A comment from Voss helps you understand the motivation: “As a little girl I didn’t see the tight outfits as such a big deal. But when puberty began, when my period came, I began feeling increasingly uncomfortable.”
You can see why we need to look at this situation from a different perspective. While I fully support a women’s cut for all sports kit, we must always ensure it does not sexualise the participant in any way.
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