It’s dawned on me that I am gradually finding it more and more difficult to sympathise with female football fans. In fact, some of them are starting to grind on the very little patience that I possess. This may seem odd to any of you who know me as, for the past 12 years, I’ve spent most of my Saturdays watching the best (and, er, only) league team in Kent. And the last time I checked, I was a woman.
Before I explain myself, I’d like to distance this ‘rant’ from a few things. It’s nothing to do with women’s football – something which I respect but do not follow – and also very little to do with the recent sexism ‘scandal’ revolving around female lineswoman Sian Massey. What it is, really, is an appeal. I would quite like female football fans, if they would be kind enough to do so, to stop telling me what they are.
Whilst I’m no historian, I’m aware that up until the mid 1880s women were often admitted to matches for free which would suggest that female supporters were few and far between. I’m also, perhaps wrongly, under the impression that after the 1890s the amount of women attending matches fell. It then rose again in the period between the World Wars. Following this, the attendance of women at professional matches has fluctuated for many reasons – fortunately for all of us, this post isn’t a history lesson and thus I won’t go into any further detail.
In 2006 a study showed that women attending Premiership matches made up 18% of the total support and that in the Championship 1/5 of season ticket holders were female. That is, if you think about it, quite a lot of women. It’s perhaps fewer than some would like to see and probably greater than others deem suitable. Also, I can’t speak for other clubs but certainly I’ve noticed a great deal more women in attendance at Gillingham in the last couple of years. I’m not all that bothered about the whys, though. Of course, I’m extremely proud that numbers are increasing in this way and that the majority of women I speak to know a great deal about football. What I’m not so happy about are the number of women who seem to think it’s important for their status as a football fan to remind us that they are women. Whether it has been a blog or on Twitter, during a conversation or just something we’ve heard in passing I imagine most people have come across a female football fan just that little bit too enthusiastic about her femininity.
I don’t have any opinion on what these individual women do when they are not at football. I’m not at all fussed if they spend hours having manicures, are plumbers for a living or a combination of the two. (In fact, if that’s the case then I’d love to hear from them because the few times I’ve painted my nails I’ve chipped the bloody stuff off within an hour...) What I do have an opinion on is the way they add “and I’m a woman” or “I’m not your average football fan” to comments. Well spotted, ladies. You are indeed women and I imagine the national average shows that football is a predominantly male supported sport. Like most of the other ones. However, there are problems with them doing this. I don’t know if it’s pride or a way to draw attention to the fact that they have boobs but either way, focusing on their womanhood can surely only be having a negative impact on the stereotypes of female football fans. If we, as women who attend football, want to be treated the same as the other fans – the men who attend football – then we should stop reminding them of our sex. A passion for football is, I’m sure, very appealing to some men but I imagine that they will be able to discover you are a woman by themselves. The more we insist on forcing this fact upon them, the more we are asking to be set apart. And, in my mind, there is no need for it. Yes, perhaps we spend a little longer in the loo than them but, otherwise, are we not exactly the same?
I’ve absolutely no problem with women being proud that they support their football club. In fact, I am proud of their pride. I was brought up in a predominantly male environment. Of my four siblings, three are male and at the tender age of 6 I demanded to be taken to football. I’ve never looked back. And it’s absolutely brilliant to have been witness to the rise in numbers of women attending football at all levels of the game. But at the moment, there are things still holding female football fans back from being just a normal football fan. Most of the time, these things aren’t men. We don’t need to tell them we’re women; we don’t have to prove our worth to them because our continued attendance and appreciation of the beautiful game does that for us. What’s holding women back from being an “average” fan is the attitude of women themselves. We aren’t at all different from the men who support our teams and we should stop telling them that we are.
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