It’s 2011, the year the Women’s World Cup takes place in Germany. So far, ticket sales have been extremely successful.
The Bundesliga is boasting record attendances every season and it’s evident that a huge proportion of those present in the stadiums are females from every age group.
There are gay and lesbian supporters’ groups at most of the top men’s clubs in the country, with ultra groups displaying banners against sexism and holding debates on how best to integrate female members.
Taking all that into account, you might suppose that gender equality in German football is not just around the corner, but on the doorstep. Well, you wouldn’t be totally wrong, yet not totally right either. Open intolerance and exclusion may be on the retreat but casual discrimination is still alive and – forgive the pun – kicking.
Let’s look at a few examples from recent months:
- Sky Germany (who broadcast all Bundesliga matches live) is not very well off, economically speaking. Nevertheless, the company discarded the female viewing population with its ad campaign in the lead up to the current season.
The advert shows women on the verge of a nervous breakdown as they are faced with Sky’s offers for the new season. Clearly, these offers are not directed at female viewers.
It is portrayed as if women are not fans of the game, as they would rather beat up their boyfriend than allow him to see a deal on televised football.
- Following a disastrous 6-1 defeat, the coach of third division side Wacker Burghausen claimed that during the second half he hadn’t seen his players on the pitch, but ‘a girls’ team’.
The statement was broadcast during Sportschau, Germany’s top free football television programme. The reporter didn’t bother to ask for clarification, while the anchorman didn’t challenge the statement afterwards.
Predictably, ‘like girls’ made the headline for the match report at leading football magazine Kicker.
- A couple of months ago, another coach, second division side Alemannia Aachen’s Peter Hyballa, used the girl simile to point out the merits of football.
Hyballa though, was rather adding confusion to insult by explaining that, in his view, football is not ‘girls’ mikado’, whatever that might be. However, the message was clear: football is a boys’ thing.
The view behind these statements seems to be that whatever women can do in sports must inevitably be inferior to what men can do (see here for a differing opinion). Women’s football tends to be seen as… well, not really football football, but rather a different discipline altogether.
Sadly, the marketing strategy for the World Cup (incidentally named ‘Women’s World Cup’ rather than ‘Football World Cup’) has also adopted that view, turning it into a glorification of the ‘female sport’.
Read this press statement from organisational director Steffi Jones. She says: “Everyone should be involved in 2011, when the best women’s players in the world celebrate the world’s favourite pastime in a typically feminine manner: elegant, dynamic, technically adept, agile and informal… in short, beautiful.”
Now, can anybody ever get it right for you silly feminists? Well yes, but it’s difficult. However, that shouldn’t stop anybody from trying. I would also like to make the point that the road to equality in sport and society doesn’t lead via casual prejudices.
As long as women’s presence in the game and their performance are still regarded as a point of negative reference on the one side, or as an epitome for eternal beauty on the other, we are not moving in the right direction.
Nicole Selmer works as a freelance author and translator in Hamburg, Germany. She is a Borussia Dortmund supporter and an active member of the network ‘F_in Women in Football’.
On the ‘F_in’ website, you can find, among other things, good and bad examples on the topic of gender in football.
You can visit the ‘F_in’ homepage at www.f-in.org and email Nicole on info@f-in.org
