Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 October 2024

Drummies

London-based, South African photographer Alice Mann started her series "Drummies" after reading a newspaper article about drum majorettes in 2017. Mann photographed eleven teams (school teams and club teams) in two provinces in South Africa. Some of the girls are from underprivileged backgrounds. To them, being a drum majorett means a lot since, as Mann notices, it can open doors (via)

“As a young, white, South African photographer, I am very aware of my position when making photographic work, and I always try to let this awareness affect my process. The ways that images have been used in South Africa, as a tool of colonialism, as a tool of apartheid, has a very violent history. So it is important to me that I can create work that empowers and elevates the people I work with. Particularly as I am often working with women, and with younger people, I need to ensure that the resulting images are challenging the representation of these individuals as victims.”
Alice Mann

“I’m interested in examining the relationship between community versus individual identity; how does a sense of belonging affect the way we perceive ourselves? I think wanting to belong is something that everyone identifies with, and this is an idea I return to often in my work… I’m fascinated by the way that feeling a part of something can reinforce an individual’s sense of self.”
Alice Mann

“The sport is a very empowering one for young women to be involved in. You can see how being part of the team creates a powerful sense of belonging and is a safe female space where the girls are very supportive of each other. There are a lot of accolades associated with being a drum majorette, and the discipline and hard work required says a lot about the person who can commit and put in the hours. The girls feel very proud to be majorettes, and this pride is evident.”
Alice Mann

“Photographs are so ubiquitous, and these images have such a powerful role to play. As an image-maker, I wanted to contribute in a way that might prompt people to re-examine the set ideas we have, because of what we are used to seeing,”
Alice Mann

photographs by Alice Mann via

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Tennis, Unstable Girls, Sexist Comments and Questions

"You know, the girls, they are more unstable emotionally than us. I'm sure everybody will say it's true, even the girls. … No? No, you don't think? But, I mean, it's just about hormones and all this stuff. We don't have all these bad things, so we are physically in a good shape every time, and you are not. That's it."


"Hopefully they're (his sisters) not going to pursue a professional tennis career. Hopefully, because for a woman, it's tough. I wouldn't like my sisters to become professional tennis players. It's tough choice of life. A woman needs to enjoy life a little bit more. Needs to think about family, needs to think about kids. What kids you can think about until age of 27 if you're playing professional tennis, you know. That's tough for a woman, I think."

“As a woman, you start getting to a certain age, hitting certain milestones and then it is straightaway assumed – ‘okay, well, when’s the baby coming?’ I’m not sure they’re asking Rafa Nadal when was finally going to marry his girlfriend before he did, or when he is going to have kids.
 I don’t think it’s done with any harm, but it would be nice to talk about my career and things like that – like my male counterparts in the sport. 
One, it’s a very personal decision and, you know, I think it can be a bit insensitive, especially for people who maybe don’t want to have children, or have other difficulties.
I think it was unfortunate that I was asked such questions, but I was not alone in that. And while our tennis press is mainly made up of middle-aged men, I think the questions are going to be catered so.” 

"After games us women still receive provocative comments on social media. I doubt that is the case for those on the men's tour. Our outfits are discussed, and how we wear our hair."

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photograph via

Monday, 21 November 2022

Male fashionistas, female football fans, gender stereotypes and neurophysiological correlates

Abstract: Recent studies have shown that pre-existing contextual information, such as gender stereotypes, is incorporated online during comprehension (e.g., Van Berkum, van den Brink, Tesink, Kos, & Hagoort, 2008). Stereotypes, however, are not static entities, and social role theory suggests that they may be influenced by the behavior of members of the group (Eagly, 1987). Consequently, our study examines how gender stereotypes affect the semantic processing of statements from both a male and a female speaker, as well as investigating how the influence of stereotypes may change as listeners gain experience with individual speakers. 

Participants listened to male and female speakers produce sentences about stereotypically feminine (fashion) and stereotypically masculine (sports) topics. Half of the participants heard a stereotype congruent pattern of sentences (e.g., for the male speaker, semantic errors about fashion but no semantic errors on sports sentences) and the other half heard a stereotype incongruent pattern. We found that the N400 effect of semantic correctness is larger in stereotype incongruent conditions. Furthermore, in stereotype congruent conditions, only stimuli presented in the male voice show an N400 effect in the expected direction (larger N400s to semantic violations). Additionally, when we examined ERP changes over the course of the experiment, we found that the degree of change in amplitude was predicted by individual differences in ambivalent sexism. These results suggest that not only are speaker characteristics incorporated during online language processing, but also that social knowledge influences language processing in a manner congruent with social role theory. (Grant, Grey & van Hell, 2020)

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- Male fashionistas and female football fans: Gender stereotypes affect neurophysiological correlates of semantic processing during speech comprehension. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 53, link
- photograph (stock photo from 1970s, H. Armstrong Roberts studio) via

Thursday, 6 October 2022

Evonne Fay Goolagong, Australian of the Year 1971

Evonne Goolagong Cawley, born in 1951, is a tennis legend who became one of the world's leading tennis players in the 1970s and 80s, winning the French Open singles, the Australian Open doubles championships, the women's singles tournament at Wimbledon, then winning Wimbledon as the first mother for 66 years, winning 14 Grand Slam tournament titles, representing Australia in three Fed Cup competitions, and, and, and. In 1971, she was named Australian of the Year, in 1985, Goolagong was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, just to mention a few of her successes (via).



Winning Wimbledon was fine but certainly did not mean not being discriminated against:
Before I started traveling overseas and I was with a friend and in those days I loved music and I loved disco dancing so she took me out but I wasn’t allowed in. That happened again in Brisbane and I was with two Aboriginal friends and this was just after I won Wimbledon. I said ‘don’t worry we’ll go somewhere else’. I think it hurt my friends more than me.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Sydney was to provide no respite from the racism Goolagong Cawley had to face. She especially remembers an incident while playing with Edwards’ daughter against two older ladies. “One of the older ladies didn’t like the idea of two youngsters beating up on them. We won pretty easily. When it was time to shake hands. “And she said; ‘This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of playing a N***er’ and I’ve never heard that before and I started to get really upset.” As her mentor Edwards did his best to shield her from such prejudice. “He taught me not to believe in what you read, believe in yourself so I never read anything. I realize now he was blocking me from a lot of things. “I always just thought of myself as a tennis player. I was protected from a lot of publicity and politics of life.”
Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Being an Indigenous Australian athlete she was believed to have different skills and qualities and was "patronised by both racist and sexist descriptions by a white male-controlled media" (Stell cited in Bruce & Hallinan, 2001). She was hardly mentioned without the preface "Aboriginal girl" (via)...

I'd much rather people knew me as a good tennis player than as an aboriginal who happens to play good tennis. Of course I'm proud of my race, but I don't want to be thinking about it all the time.
Evonne Goolagong

I don't think of myself as being colored but of being Australian.
Evonne Goolagong

"Australian newspapers gave considerable coverage to the 1971 women's Wimbledon final. Wimbledon was and is the tennis world's premier event, yet the women's final did not receive such coverage in Australia in the previous year, when the event was won, as expected, by Australia's Margaret Court. Court played again in the final in 1971, but this time the result was an upset: a surprise win by a young player whose coach had predicted she would first win the tournament three years later in 1974, a prediction possibly calculated to have exactly this publicity effect. Newspapers across Australia announced the result with sensationalist headlines and hyperbole. The winner was a young Evonne Goolagong (later Cawley), aged nineteen and a newcomer on the tennis world stage. Her potential to win this tournament had been hinted at earlier in the year when she won the French Open at Roland Garros. Was it her youth, her rural Australian background and unexpected success that produced this rush of interest in her and her life? Was it her beauty, in a sport where a woman's media profile was and is heavily influenced by her appearance and sexuality? Or was it that she was of Aboriginal descent, the heroine of a classic rags-to-riches tale of triumph? "
Karen Fox

Today, Goolagong`s foundation is dedicated to encouraging Indigenous boys and girls to play tennis.

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- Bruce, T. & Hallinan, C. (2001). Cathy Freeman: the quest for Australian identity. In David Andrews & Steve Jackson (eds.) Sports Stars. The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity (257-270). London & New York: Routledge.
- photograph via

Tuesday, 27 September 2022

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (1943-1993)

Arthur Ashe started playing tennis when he was six years old on a segregated playground adjacent to his home in Virginia. In 1958, he became the first black US-American to play in the Maryland boys' championships which was also his first integrated tennis competition. Later, he became the first black tennis player selected to the United Statis Davis Cup team and the first and only black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the US Open (via and via).

"In actuality, Arthur Ashe was a trailblazer for African American males in tennis every time he succeeded on the court, in much the same fashion as Althea Gibson had for African American females some 10 years earlier. The relevance of these accomplishments was not lost on Ashe. His determination to succeed despite being an outcast in a historically white sport was put to an even greater test in 1969. 

In a year (1969), when he was basking in the international fame, he had gained the previous year after winning the US Open and playing a key role on the United States winning Davis Cup team, two separate issues came to the forefront and helped shape Arthur the activist, a role he never ran from throughout his life if he believed in the cause. At a time when tennis’ popularity was growing by leaps and bounds, the amount of prize money being offered to the players, the “drawing cards,” was lagging disproportionately behind. Ashe and several other players formed in 1969, what later became known as the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals). It is from this small and visionary beginning that today’s top players enjoy the large sums of prize money for which they compete. Later that year, as the #1-ranked American and one of the best players in the world, Arthur applied for a visa to play in the South African Open, a prestigious event. His visa was denied because of the color of his skin. Though Arthur was well aware that this would probably be the case, he decided to take a bold stand. His call for expulsion from South Africa from the tennis tour and Davis Cup play was quickly supported by numerous prominent individuals and organizations, both in and out of the tennis world. In effect, he raised the world’s awareness to the oppressive form of government (apartheid) of South Africa. Buoyed by Arthur Ashe’s initial efforts, blacks in South Africa slowly but surely began to see change come about in their country." (via)

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photograph via 

Saturday, 30 July 2022

Awkward Puppets: Racist Workout

"Hey Siri, play a workout video on YouTube."
"Playing hispanic music on YouTube."
"No, I said workout video."
"Googling how to make guacamole."
"I said workout video."
"Searching nearby Mexican food."

::: Awkward Puppets, Racist Workout: WATCH

The YouTube series "Awkward Puppets" was created by Rudolfo Mancuso in 2015. Diego is the main character (and played by Mancuso), Benita is his non-beloved wife, Sarah a racist feminist, Sam is Diego's friend, Twon a police officer, and there are the twins Carl & Carl (via).

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image via

Friday, 22 April 2022

Golf in Society

The initiative "Golf in Society" has been developed to give people living with dementia access to golf clubs in their neigbhourhoods so they can either start or continue playing golf. The weekly sessions are found to be beneficial for those with dementia since they can be active, spend time outside, have some tea or lunch with others, gain confidence, and improve physical fitness. The programme is also good for carers who can create a network and provide peer support in a different setting. And, last but not least, family members find time for themselves while knowing that the person dear to them is having a good time (via).

 

photograph of Brian Barnes (1976) via

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Ladies turning into women. Figure skating in 2022.

Figure skating was the first sport in the Winter Olympics that allowed women to compete. That was  in 1924 and back then they competed under "ladies". Figure skating is also the last winter sport to let women compete as "women", not "ladies" ... for the first time in the Winter Olympics 2022 (via).

photograph (figure skater Peggy Fleming, Grenoble Olympics, 1968; photo Art Rickerby/Life Pictures/Shutterstock) via

Monday, 13 September 2021

Stereotype Threat and Female Football Players

In their study, Grabow and Kühl (2019) tested whether stereotype threat, i.e., poorer performance because of the fear of fulfilling a negative stereotype, affected female football players' performance Stereotypically, women are regarded as unable to play football, women's football is considered to be less interesting ... and this has an effect on their performance.

Female football players (n = 80) were randomly assigned to either a threat (reading a text that reminded of the stereotype) or no-threat condition. Those who were reminded of the stereotype, in fact, scored significantly less hits than those not reminded of it. 

The threatened group read:

Although men and women do not directly compete playing football, one can state on a scientific basis that men outperform women in motor tasks concerning force and velocity (Knisel, Opitz, Wossmann, and Ketelhut, 2009). Research supposes that there are hardly differences between men and women concerning the capability characteristics concentration, aplomb, and precision. During this study, the shooting precision of women shall be video-recorded and analysed in order to advance research.

The text for the non-threatened group:

In the realm of football one can state on a scientific basis that there are individual differences in motor performance concerning force and velocity (Knisel, Opitz, Wossmann, and Ketelhut, 2009). In how far there are individual differences concerning the capability characteristic shooting precision has not yet sufficiently been researched. During this study, the shooting precision shall be video-recorded and analysed in order to advance research.

- Grabow, H. & Kühl, M. (2019). You Don't Bend It Like Beckham if You're Female and Reminded of It: Stereotype Threat Among Female Football Players. Frontiers in Psychology link
- photographs by Letizia Battaglia (1980) via and via and via

Sunday, 4 July 2021

Forced to Retire

Manuel Gräfe is planning to sue the German Football Association for age discrimination. When he turned 47 in the last season, he was no longer allowed to continue to work as a referee despite being in shape, good performances and enjoying his job. Gräfe points out that the German Football Associaton states to stand up for diversity and to fight racism and discrimination but is at the same time keeping up the age limit. 

In the Netherlands, the age limit was abolished about twenty years ago (via), FIFA announced to eliminate age limits for international referees in 2014 (via and via), the Scottish Football Association made the announcement in 2012 (via). 

"We have seen examples elsewhere of match officials maintaining standards beyond the previous cut-off of 47 and it will be a major benefit to us in Scotland." John Fleming, SFA's head of referee development

"The retirement age of a referee was 48 back in 2000, but today, luckily, we don't have an age limit." Mike Dean, Premier League referee

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photograph (PA Archive/Press Association Ima), 1963 via

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Football World Cup Team Stereotypes

Here is a lovely collection of football stereotypes...



Germany: A bunch of teutonic robots who play unsexy but merciless and efficient football in rigid formations, and always seem to make at least the semi-finals of everything. They never crack under pressure, suffer injuries, or have major disciplinary issues.

Italy: Gesticulating prima donnas who worship at the altar of the beautiful game and fly into the air screaming and clutching at their limbs at the slightest tap. Often disappointments, but when everything clicks, (...), it’s beautiful.

England: A bunch of egotistical Premier League superstars who on paper should be dominant but can never quite figure out how to play together. No matter the tactical genius of whatever European coach has been brought in, they always end up just hoofing it downfield over and over and largely failing to score. Utterly doomed if things go to penalties.

Brazil: Forever the kings of football, whose legendary stars like Pele and Ronaldo could create goals out of nothing and dance around whole teams with a smile on their face.

Argentina: They run circles around everyone and score some of the most beautiful goals in football’s history, but they’re also dirty rotten cheaters. Wait, can you tell this is being written by an England fan?

United States: Chipper, harmless underdogs who just learned how to play “soccer” (lol wut) last week or so and probably compete in some sort of amateur league back home. Weirdly good at producing internationally renowned goalies. Can’t seem to decide on a color for their uniform—are they red? White? Blue? Some combination featuring stripes? (literally via)
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photograph (Gigi Riva) via

Friday, 4 December 2020

The Flying Cholitas

In her work, Brazilian photographer Luisa Dörr focuses on "the feminine human landscape" and explores "the complexity of human nature and femininity" (via). With her series "The Flying Cholitas" taken in El Alto, 4.000 meters above sea level, she captures Bolivia's famous women wrestlers who gather every Sunday evening "in the wrestling ring to rise above the oppression that has plagued them and perform alongside their male counterparts - as equals" but also to earn some extra money which again means independence from men (via).



"The history of the cholitas is as fascinating as their iconic dress. As indigenous women, the cholitas have long been one of Bolivia’s most marginalized groups. With limited career opportunities and a need to put food on the table, the women began organizing and advocating for civil rights in the 1960s. Over the years, as these women gained more power and freedoms, becoming more equal to their male counterparts, the term, “cholitas,” lost its derogatory connotation. Now, it’s a symbol of female empowerment."
Marco Quispe



photographs by Luisa Dörr via

Monday, 27 July 2020

Stereotype Threat and Women's Athletic Performance

Female and male tennis and basketball college student athletes performed two athletic tasks relevant to their sport: a difficult concentration task and an easier speed task. Participants were told beforehand that (1) there was a gender difference on the tasks (to induce stereotype threat) or (2) there was no gender difference (to remove any preexisting stereotype threat).



On the difficult task, women performed worse than men only when stereotype threat was induced. Performance on the easier speed task was unaffected by the stereotype information. Interestingly, women's beliefs regarding women's and men's general athleticism were also affected by the manipulation.
We concluded that one minor comment regarding a very specific athletic task may sometimes impair task performance and alter gender stereotypes of athleticism among women. (literally via)

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- Hively, K. & El-Alayli, A. (2014). “You throw like a girl:” The effect of stereotype threat on women's athletic performance and gender stereotypes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 48-55
- photograph via

Thursday, 25 June 2020

Nick Gabaldon. Surfing against Segregation.

"Race wasn't really an issue at Malibu. Everyone liked him. And he was a pretty smooth surfer, too."
Rick Grigg (a teenager who surfed with Gabaldon)



Nick Gabaldon (1927-1951) was the first documented black US-American surfer. He learned to surf at the Inkwell in Santa Monica which was a tiny (about 60 meters), roped-off, segregated beach designated for the black community at the time. Gabaldon paddled many miles to Malibu, "one of California's best waves" since he had no car and surfed on a borrowed lifeguard's paddleboard (via and via and via).
According to most reports, on June 5, 1951, Nick Gabaldon caught his last wave. During an eight-foot south swell, Gabaldon lost control of his board and struck a piling beneath the Malibu Pier. His board washed up on the beach shortly after. Three days later, lifeguards recovered his body, and the small community of (white) surfers who had come to accept and respect Nick mourned. (...)
For Nick, surfing was a vehicle to improve his world. The ocean was his medium, which is fitting because the sea knows no prejudice; it’s the ultimate equalizer. As is a basketball court. Or a soccer pitch. Or a football field. Or, especially, a great story. (via)
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image via

Monday, 22 June 2020

Waterskiing. Gender. Injuries.

Not only do more men than women participate in waterskiing, men are also more likely to sustain injuries (Muzumdar, 2008) and have "significantly more strains and sprains than females" (Loughlin, 2013).



- Loughlin, S. (2013). Investigation of injuries occurring within competitive water-skiing in the UK. International Journal of Exercise Science 6(1), 29-42.
- Muzumdar, P. (2008). Waterskiing. In C. H. Tator (ed.) Catastrophic Injuries in Sports and Recreation. Causes and Prevention - A Canadian Study (209-220). Toronto, Buffalo & London: University of Toronto Press.
- photograph via

Tuesday, 16 June 2020

It's all about sex, or is it? Humans, horses and temperament. An abstract.

We propose that the anthropomorphic application of gender stereotypes to animals influences human-animal interactions and human expectations, often with negative consequences for female animals. An online survey was conducted to explore riders’ perceptions of horse temperament and suitability for ridden work, based on horse sex. The questionnaire asked respondents to allocate three hypothetical horses (a mare, gelding and stallion) to four riders compromising a woman, man, girl and boy. Riders were described as equally capable of riding each horse and each horse was described as suitable for all riders. Participants were also asked which horses (mares, geldings or stallions) were most suitable for the three equestrian disciplines of show-jumping, dressage and trail-riding.



Logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate people’s perceptions about suitability of horse types for particular riders, to evaluate if age, strength or gender were important in rider choice and to investigate riders’ allocation of various descriptors to a gelding, stallion or mare. There were 1,233 survey respondents, 94% of whom were female and 75% of whom were riders with at least eight years of experience. Binomial logistic regression revealed the girl had 2.5 times the odds of being allocated the gelding compared to the boy (p<0.001). Respondents were significantly more likely to allocate the stallion to the man and nearly 50% of respondents did not allocate a horse to the boy, even though they ranked rider gender as least important to their choice (p<0.001). In a forced choice selection of a positive or negative descriptor from a series of nine paired terms to describe horse temperament, a greater proportion of respondents assigned geldings positive ratings on terms such as calm,trainable, reliable and predictable. In terms of suitability for the three equestrian disciplines of show-jumping, dressage and trail-riding, participants overwhelmingly chose geldings for trail-riding, with mares being least preferred for both dressage and show-jumping disciplines. The results suggest that female riders are entering the horse-human dyad with gendered ideas about horse temperament and view horse-riding as an activity primarily for women and girls. This could have far-reaching implications for equine training and welfare.

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- Fenner, K., Caspar, G., Hyde ,M., Henshall, C., Dhand, N., Probyn-Rapsey, F., Dashper, C., McLean, A., McGreevy, P. (2019). It's all about sex, or is it? Humans, horses and temperament; link
- photograph of Elizabeth Taylor via

Tuesday, 14 January 2020

Nothing Beats A Londoner

Here we go, Nike celebrating diversity again, London's diversity.



"The new Cannes Social & Influencer Lions has its first Grand Prix winner: Nike’s “Nothing Beats a Londoner” from Wieden+Kennedy, London. A key component of the campaign is a short film--directed by the Megaforce collective and produced by Riff Raff Films--which centers on enterprising, fiercely competitive, young Londoners who shape sport and culture in the metropolis around them." (via)



image via

Thursday, 2 January 2020

Skiing's Whiteness

According to Clifford, downhill skiing is the "whitest and least integrated popular sport in America" although Black American ski organisations have been promoting Black people skiing for decades. In 2003, Black Americans made up only 2% of the American skiing market. A survey of articles in Skiing magazine (1993-2010) came to the conclusion that there were articles dealing with disabled skiing, gay skiing, skiing in Africa, but none dedicated to "African American skiing".


Here I argue that, in addition to specific structural constraints typically used to explain Black underrepresentation in skiing, there are powerful symbolic forces which work to define and maintain skiing and its associated social spaces as essentially White. As an arena of both sports and leisure tourism (...), the discourses surrounding skiing’s all-White imagery range from residual scientific racialism regarding body types and essential differences to exclusionary tactics utilized in managing residential communities.
Harrison (2013:316)
According to Harrison (2013), Black people's underrepresentation cannot fully be explained by skiing's high costs. Washburn's alternative explanation is that Black people shy from sports they perceive as White. A cultural explanation highlights the structures and points out that skiing is usually passed down from partents to children producing patterned behaviours.
By examining the racialized construction of downhill skiing, we can better understand the processes through which exclusionary geographies are secured outside of urban areas as well as within them — for it can reasonably be argued that ski resorts seek to reclaim the appeal of the urban experience in all White. Based on the current skiing landscape, we might join Philipp (2000) in pondering the extent to which leisure spaces function as mechanisms for preserving, rather than eroding, social segregation. The boundaries of Whiteness serve as the chief barrier through which racial stratification has been maintained in U.S. society. As one of the most racially exclusive leisure activities in America, skiing offers a spectacular view of the (mountainous) spaces where the preservation of Whiteness has been most successful.
Harrison (2013:333)


- Harrison, A. K. (2013). Black Skiing, Everyday Racism, and the Racial Spatiality of Whiteness. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 37(4), 315-339.
- photographs taken in Snowmass Village, 1972 via and in Cortina d'Ampezzo, 1962, by Slim Aarons (1916-2006) via

Saturday, 22 June 2019

Find Your Greatness

In 2012, Nike launched the "Find Your Greatness" campaign showing "everyday athletes around the world training, playing and competing" (via).



One of the many messages:
"If we think greatness is supposed to look a certain way, act a certain way and play a certain way, we certainly need to rethink some things."



This is really beautiful.

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image via

Friday, 14 June 2019

"We play for a nation that doesn't even know our names." Women Playing Football

The first Women's World Cup was held in Italy in 1970, a decade that was characterised by several countries lifting their ban on women's football and establishing new teams across Europe and North America (via). Currently, the eight edition of FIFA Women's World Cup is being hosted in France (via). Generally speaking, it surely does not get the media coverage the FIFA (Mens') World Cup gets but in Britain, it is attracting a bigger audience than cricket (via).



Before 1921, women's football flourished in England with about 150 women's teams whose matches "pulled bigger crowds than most men's games". Then women were banned from playing football on pitches with spectator facilities, i.e. professional stadiums, since the sport was "quite unsuitable for females". This ban was lifted in 1971 (via), the same year women's football "hit the big time" in Mexico, "a success because the organisers did not assume it would be a commercial or sporting failure. It was sold and promoted as football tournament, one that just happened to feature women" (via).
Women's participation in football also provides a good example of the mutual ripple effect that can exist between a sport's level of television coverage and its increasing uptake in the community. Since the 2011 World Cup, media coverage of international women's football fixtures has steadily gained traction – not least on the back of the French team's commendable performances, which have subsequently pulled in higher audiences. Alongside these television and sports performances, the number of female members of football clubs has soared since the 2010-2011 season (+90%).
Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, 2017:10
Here is a strong message of female empowerment (Germany's Women's World Cup advert):



photograph (French team, 1979, photo credit: AFP/CARL FOURIE) via