Clean and colourful bibs that smell nice, twitter breaks, pink whistles, pink water bottles, pink hair bands, pink everything. These are just some of the suggestions the Football Association have made in a paper encouraging girls to play in the sport. And these school girls aren’t happy.
Pupils from Lumley junior school near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, thought the paper was a joke when they were first asked to write a project on it by their teacher. They objected to the claim that ‘sport and its traditional image can trigger negative associations for many women’ and its recommendations for a smaller ball as beginners might be put off. Students were so outraged by the implied sexism some of them took pen to paper.
10-year-old Nancy wrote to the FA chief executive Martin Glenn saying ‘I am absolutely astonished that you have the nerve to write all of that absolute rubbish about women and girls playing football.
‘I am a girl myself, I like playing football and your [paper] is totally wrong… we will not go to your training sessions just because you give us stamps! Your tone of voice sounds as though you think we are brainless baby Barbies!’
Grace, also in year 6, wrote ‘we are not fussy about the smell of our bibs – would you be? And we are not afraid to get hit by a ball so why would we need light ones; in case we break a nail?’
Further complaints were made at the equipment, stating ‘we need to use proper footballs otherwise it is not proper football.’
An FA spokesperson said ‘the FA is committee to doubling female football participation by 2020 and to growing the women’s game at all levels, from elite to grassroots.
‘The document is aimed at engaging young women who don’t currently play football. It was created following research into women and girls playing football, with feedback from both participants and non-participants, and encourages a creative approach to increasing participation numbers.’
Perhaps we should start playing tennis on a pink bouncy castle, as well?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.