The weeks before the match when the whole town is abuzz with excitment , colours, pagenatry, excitement and endless pre analysis before the big game. The trip down to Pairc ui Chaoimh or up to Croker with horns a beeping and flags a waving. The rush and adrenaline pumping as you walk passed Barrys and down past Jurys waving and stopping to meet neighbours,old adversaries and new friends. Eating squashed sanwhiches and lukewarm flasked tea out of the boot of a car, Laughing as the stewards mess up Plan A again;
Ok Il stop before this turns into a poormans Billy Keane monolouge but you get the idea. Whatever gender,race,creed or age nothing beats a GAA match day.
I think when it comes to women and their involvement in sport the GAA is an exemplary sporting organisation. There is just as many ladies on the terraces and in the stands all whom can tell their Gooch's from there Gouldings. Unlike football and rugby, female GAA fans are treated with a bit of respect. Its one of the things I like most about the sport.
And then last Friday this happened and made it into every major newspaper in the land......
As a GAA women I was more than slightly peeved of at this. It was incredibly patronising getting hired models to pose beside the Waterford players when there are thousands of accomplished Camogie and ladies football players:Yet they will never ever get a chance to appear in the Sports pages as they dont fit the Western mould of what is 'attractive'. Its a kick in the teeth to all female athletes, who despite their talent and dedication recieve little recognition from the media. It seems the only way Women's pictures can make it into the sports pages is If they are a WAG, a 'hot' spectator, or an attractive tennis player.
I decided to air my grievances in my usual way over on http://www.boards.ie/ (great for a general rant or laugh!) As usual when anyone raises a bit of critisism over the use of women's bodies in the media I got hit with a barage of well, 'sex sells'.
There seems to me two things wrong with this line of argument:
Firstly, that is not sex sellling but women bodies being used as sexual objects.
Secondly,Is that really what represents 'sex' in 21st centurey Ireland? Sex is probably the most interesting thing we humans have...and this is what we have reduced it to? Blonde hair extensions, full makeup, fake tan ,with no discernible talent except to pose? Sex with all its intricities,intimicys eroticisms, taste,touch, sensations, feelings, emotions,varied and multiple turn on's; yet those two blonde girls embody 'sex', Since many people appear to believe they are selling it?
Open any newspaper and you’ll find scant coverage of any women’s sport. The usual arguments which surface to defend this situation include: women aren’t interested in sport, only men read the sports pages, women’s sport is of a lower standard, women’s sport is boring, and so on. But these are all circular arguments. The sports pages are designed for a male audience and alienate women in various ways. Targeting an entire section of the newspaper at men while excluding women, and then claiming women aren’t interested, is illogical. And if sports coverage was more balanced between men and women, greater funding and resources would be invested in women’s sports and the standard would be raised.
So I decided to do a little experiment as I feel the blatant sexism in sport reporting has to be addressed now for future generations.
I have been buying the Irish Times, The Irish Independent and The Sun from Friday last (15th Jan) to this this Friday ( 22nd Feb) to try and get a picture of the medias reporting when it comes to womens sport. I will report back in due course but at the mo It aint lookin good for womankind..........
Looking forward to seeing how the experiment goes
ReplyDeleteBoth of them would SO get it though!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I am a big fan of cricket in Ireland and despite the recent success of the national team it hardly gets any coverage at all. Who am I to blame for that? Face up to the reality of the fact that there just aren't enough people interested in women's GAA (In my opinion it gets more coverage than it deserves, have you seen the tv ratings for the ladies games, why don't you investigate that?)
ReplyDeleteStop playing the lazy gender card and face facts, people aren't interested and attitudes like yours and blogs like yours just turn off people even more to your agenda to get people interested in and aware of these sports.
It's nothing to do with gender, for example, ladies tennis and athletics and swimming for example are very popular. Why? Not because of the looks of the players although this plays a part (Sonia O'Sullivan was certainly not a looker) but because people genuinely find these competitions interesting and entertaining, women are more suited to these sports. I can't think of many people who would like to watch a ladies rugby match(and before you come out with the same old manufactured garbage argument that it is a conspiracy against females forming a team ethic then let me say sports enthusiasts are generally not interested in watching ladies boxing or wrestling or weightlifting either). You see, what you fail to grasp, as you charge one-eyed onwards on your self-defeating feminine crusade is the that the truth is very simple. We like and appreciate certain sports and others aren't as popular. Sometimes gender comes into it but not on the basis of "let's subjugate women and repress their sports"...no it's more a case of "well that's just not very interesting/entertaining". In the same way sports like men's figure-skating and gymnastics are nowhere near as popular as the female version. Don't be blinded by dumb notions of equality, it's all about taste.
Ladies soccer is incredibly popular in Germany, Scandinivia and USA. It isn't popular here. I remember during PE classes in secondary school the guys would actively participate in football or basketball or volleyball
or even gymnastics whereas 95% of the girls just couldn't be bothered/weren't interested. This is just the way of things. I may as well complain that there isn't enough clothes shops for men but I won't as the market isn't as big.
Oh but I know what your type is like so continue on with your nonsense but know this, your skewed view of things will only cause you despair. This is the way things are and it's nothing to do with gender discrimination. The sooner you realise that the better but you won't because you think you are doing something important and worthy and fine, it it makes you feel better, continue but it won't change anything and why should it? The market controls everything and the market despite your conspiracy theories about media stereotyping and lack fo encouragement for female participation, is relentlessy and ruthlessly fair.
This is rubbish, I like Fruit and Fibre and batter.
ReplyDeleteI am anonymous.
Why are women more suited to athletics,tennis and swimming and not rugby? I am genuinly at a loss,all require athleticism,skill and strength surely?
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed the sporting advert that´s up around Dublin city at the moment where the only woman athlete is a swimmer - dressed as a swimmer should, in a swim suit. What bugs me is again the gendered nature of the poster. I thought, ok so we´ve had significant female swimmers, but wouldn´t it have been nice to have seen a fierce camogie athlete or horse rider instead? Of course, the fact that the swimmers uniform is necessarily bare makes the campaign all the more typical of mainstream media´s depictions of the ´worthy´ female body. It´s totally uninspired and uninspiring. Our visual culture is bombarded with this shit.
ReplyDeleteI like what you have to say about selling sex, Chick, I also think that people defending this type of media stunt are being blindly defensive. It´s like you said, sex is so much more than this crap and the people trying to defend such unimaginative, unheroic, images lacking both in the vigour and life blood that the GAA like to associate themselves with, are contributing to the propogation of absolute bull and I would add, sexual repression itself.
Finally, I think it´s pretty ironic that the GAA would adopt the image of English footballers and their imperialist sport in this way. I mean, wasn´t the struggle to be distinguished from the British important to the GAA at one time? Uh, weren´t we proud to be dignified at one time? And really, I have lots of time for women who like to dress up and indeed, pose for cameras and respect the women who make a few bob doing so. But this was a bad decision on the part of the GAA and does reflect the terrible inequality existing between genders in sport and wider Western society.