Double standards over women’s sport

Many New Zealanders have been closely following the fortunes of the national women’s football team at the FIFA World Cup. Their opening match 1-0 loss to 8th-ranked Netherlands in extra time showed their class, although they weren’t able to back it up against Canada. The Football Ferns’ exploits and potential in the event are part of daily conversation. I even overheard a group of older men at the pub discussing it.

Yet the public reaction to the #1-ranked US women’s team setting a world record for the most goals scored in a men’s or women’s FIFA World Cup match reveals the ugly double standards that top female sportswomen still face.

During the US team’s dominating 13-0 win over Thailand, Alex Morgan set a FIFA record for most assists in a game – three – and tied a FIFA record for most goals in a game – five. But did the New Zealand and US public unanimously celebrate this amazing achievement? Alas, no.

Instead, the American women were roundly criticised on social media for exuberantly celebrating every goal. On Twitter, their celebrations were described as classless, ugly, disgraceful, showing poor “sportsmanship”, rubbing it in, and leaving a sour taste.

World Cup television analyst and former Canadian player Kaylyn Kyle described the team’s goal celebrations as excessive, disrespectful and disgraceful once the score reached 8-0. Tweeters suggested the team should have pulled back and knocked the ball around once the score blew out or that the USA was embarrassing the Thai players.

It is heartening that criticisms like this were challenged by other posters and journalists, such as USA Today columnist Nancy Armour who felt that any other reaction would have been patronising and disrespectful to the Thai team, as well as “offensive to the spirit of the game.” She concluded that the “US women owe no apologies” for celebrating every goal, especially in a part of the tournament where goal difference matters.

As well, numerous tweets and social media posts downplayed the team’s record-setting achievements as reflecting the overall low quality of women’s football. Yet, as Armour pointed out, instead of criticising the US women for dominating a weak field, the spotlight should be on the long-term failure of FIFA and national football federations to invest in developing the women’s game.

The media and public reactions clearly illuminate double standards in men’s and women’s sport. Accompanied by a thick dollop of unconscious bias, they reveal the persistent gap in how we understand women’s place in elite sport.

Bringing the issue home to Aotearoa, the All Blacks have dominated world men’s rugby in the same way that the US women have dominated world women’s soccer. Since the early 2000s, each team’s stranglehold on the world #1 ranking has rarely been disrupted.

Yet I don’t recall any public outcry when the #1-ranked All Blacks demolished Japan 87-3 and Canada 79-15 in the 2011 Rugby World Cup or trounced Namibia 58-14 in 2015. Instead, New Zealanders celebrated the team’s success.

In elite men’s sport, winning and even dominating other teams is expected behaviour. Even though minnows exist in rugby just as they do in football, there is no expectation that the All Blacks should reduce their intensity. Why then, were so many people offended and upset that the world #1 women’s football team played as hard as they could for the whole match? As Armour wrote, this approach showed respect for the opposition.

We celebrate sportswomen when they win, especially for the nation, but it seems almost impossible to escape our deeply-held ideas about gender difference. We still expect women to be nurturing and careful of the feelings of others, a belief that most likely underpins much of the negative reaction to the US women’s focus on celebrating the success of each player who scored a goal, even after it was clear they would win.

The attributes most valued in sport are associated with men. Remarkably, when women enter the field of play and behave like men, many people still aren’t sure how to respond. The Twitterstorm that erupted in the wake of the US win reflects an ongoing cultural ambivalence about women being aggressive, exuberant and assertive, even though sport celebrates these attributes.

Surely it’s time to put aside these out-dated and unrealistic double standards. It’s 2019 and women are increasingly being respected – and paid – for their exceptional sporting skills. Why not celebrate the US women as the best in the world in their sport, and relish the joy and exuberance they express when celebrating with their teammates, including those who set FIFA records or scored their first-ever World Cup goal. Let’s stop comparing the ‘standard’ between men’s and women’s teams.

Things are changing in women’s sport, generally for the better. More women’s games are broadcast live. New Zealand Football recently announced parity between the top women’s and men’s teams including pay, prize money, rights for image use and travel conditions. New Zealand Rugby launched its first Black Ferns jersey for sale. The Black Ferns Sevens are national heroines, and the Black Ferns 15s recently won World Rugby Team of the Year. And we hope that netball’s Silver Ferns will do us proud next month.

There’s so much wonderful women’s sport available today. Let’s celebrate it rather than becoming mired in old-fashioned and limiting notions of gender difference.