If I had a RM for every time a guy looked at me with skepticism when I try and engage him in football talk, I’d be filthy rich by now. It’s infuriating sometimes how I find myself having to prove my worthiness as a fan. I suppose it doesn’t help when you have most girls fawning over the bodies of footballers rather than the skills, strategy and beauty of football itself, but wouldn’t it be better if every guy gave a girl the benefit of the doubt when she involves herself in the banter that often comes with football? That’d be nice.
Today was Operation Day for the Law Grads Dinner so it was pretty hectic for us, preparing everything for D-Day this Friday. We all had specific tasks to do, so to pass the time as we did our work, we began the usual chatter among ourselves to add some variety to the monotony of our work. Law students are known to speak a lot, and we jumped from one topic to another, before broaching the topic of football. This is when the aftermath of the Liverpool-Chelsea match took centre stage. (FYI Liverpool lost to Chelsea in the Champs League Knockout Stage on a 7-5 aggregate last night. Boo)
So I found myself talking to a Man U fan, who asked me what was it that I liked so much about Liverpool. I recognised the tone he used, and within 10 minutes set him straight, throwing at him the basics of all I knew, and then some. I think he had a bit of a shock and finally conceded that I was a genuine. I asked him whether he thought I was the fawner type, and he sheepishly admitted to it. He said I was a rarity among girl fans, to which I disagreed and pointed to Kak Aya and Kak Ateq who were with me in the room, and added Widaad to the list for good measure.
Do you see what I mean? It’s tough when people think girls are only into the sport because we 1. like watching hot guys 2. want to impress guys 3. want to appear interesting 4. anything else not related to football itself. Not all of us are a pretentious lot.
For the fella I spoke with today, at least he’s the type who listens, and is willing to admit he had the wrong impression and change his premature judgment. The problem is most guys will brush you off because of your gender not matter how much you exert yet another show of worthiness. If they only knew the things we’ve done for the sport, like Maz who centred her manifesto using football as an analogy, and Kak Ateq who goes all the way to the mahallah office to get wifi for live streaming of a match, or Widaad who watches practically every game never mind classes the next day or myself with my unofficial sms football network. We don’t flaunt it because we know ourselves to be true, but God it would help for a little less sexism and a little more openness to the fact that no sport is reserved for one gender alone. That’s the beauty of it.
So guys, how about it? It’s the 21st century, a little open-mindedness would be welcome.
Enough said here.
