doogie004
Well-known member
Ban women job done
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[Football] Women feeling unsafe at football matches
- Thread starter crodonilson
- Start date
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
If you see idiots behaving like idiots, then call them out, or let a steward know. I have felt unsafe at games, especially one game at Selhurst, when Barnsey equalised near the end of the game. I was sitting near the front because I can't stand for a whole game now, alongside another pensioner, and stupid fools came running forward, kicking and breaking seats, and piling on top of us. Fortunately @Biscuit saw me and came to help me.
Don't give me any old rubbish about grassing people up. Look after your own fans including the women.
Crodo, get another hobby, you are starting to sink lower and lower.
Don't give me any old rubbish about grassing people up. Look after your own fans including the women.
Crodo, get another hobby, you are starting to sink lower and lower.
- Nov 3, 2015
- 3,460
What a silly, facetious poll. But it's a shame some women don't feel safe a football matches, although is it because of specific bad behaviour towards them from some men, or more about a perceived intimidating, male dominated, aggressive atmosphere? If the latter, then, well, that's just the way it is, don't go if you find it scary. As a woman, I can say I have NEVER felt unsafe at a football match. Mind you, I'm quite good at giving out the old "mess with me, sonny, and you're f***ing DEAD!" stare 
. And I rather enjoy the rufty-tufty, male dominated atmosphere too
. And I rather enjoy the rufty-tufty, male dominated atmosphere too
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That he's a comedian/smart arse?
He thinks I’ve got lots of time on my hands, I will start another thread to catch a few bites.
With respect though, this incident happened as a result of over-exuberence and stupidity rather than any deliberate targetting of you, because you are a woman. It was certainly inconsiderate but I suspect you felt unsafe because of the situation, rather than because of your gender.
No excuse for it of course. But that scenario would have impacted male fans and not just females.
jakarta
Well-known member
Have never seen any indication of this at the Amex, all good humoured and safe in my time watching.
This! to be honest In general I don’t feel unsafe going to football and I go to a lot on my own. but then I am a 50 year old I know, when I was younger I did and would have to put up with groups of pissed up men shouting lurid comments and abusive. I don’t know what the answer is, my 20 year old daughter has to put up with the same sh!t as I did today.
Cornwallboy
Well-known member
- Oct 13, 2022
- 531
Didn't know the safety of women at football was an issue. All very good natured at the Amex and other grounds I've visited, I know plenty of women who go to football and they've never told me they feel unsafe. Feels at times we play 'hunt the victims' with football and we aren't satisfied until we find the next group who feel 'unsafe.'
BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 13,043
Genuinely pleased for them.
Their experience will not be the experience of other women.
Cheeky Monkey
Well-known member
- Jul 17, 2003
- 23,867
100%.
I’m sure Crodo means well, and is a decent guy, it’s just an odd thing to start a ‘humorous’ thread on full stop, not particularly funny or well executed. Tom and Jerry and Crodo have some never to be sated need to continually start unnecessary threads, while I have some never to be sated need to post sanctimonious put downs on a regular basis.
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
I thought I was
Coldeanseagull
Opinionated
And strippers"More female prominent pre-match music"
- Aug 24, 2020
- 7,087
I thought you were too!I thought I was
I just thought the best people to consult on women feeling unsafe at football matches, might be women.
hart's shirt
Well-known member
I know Crodo's doing his usual fishing trip, but I'll bite anyway!
Going back to the original BBC article, here's a quote from Sarah Aitchison, Sutton United's Her Game Too club ambassador.
'Sarah also highlights how hard it is tackling a football culture which "has misogyny ingrained deeply into it".
"There's a particular chant where it talks about how wonderful the town or city is, because it's full of female body parts," she says. "To a lot of men, that would just seem like a harmless bit of banter.
"But actually, when you're a woman and you hear a lot of men chanting something that basically reduces you to a list of sexualized body parts, it feels quite intimidating."'
The last time I heard that particular chant sung was by Southend United fan Alison Moyet in 1996 on Fantasy Football League with Baddiel, Skinner and Millwall's Danny Baker there.
Now FFL was clearly of its laddish mid-90s time and the Jason Lee blacking up / 'he's got a pineapple on his head' has been rightly apologised for.
No-one would or should put up with that now. And Alison Moyet (who I love as a singer) may or may not have revised her opinion.
Clearly no woman should have to suffer threats of violence, unwanted touching or sexist abuse at games, or anywhere else for that matter.
Football's come a long way in this respect as it has in others. But I do wonder just how much further it's possible to go in reality.
Well-meaning attempts at redefining (some might say social re-engineering) the 'working man's ballet' is unlikely to have the full desired effects.
This is why both the women's game and the Qatar World Cup is so different. The key traditional demographic is missing, so a different experience is had.
Anyway, here's the transcript of the part of the conversation that was around chanting:
Baddiel: "Alison, as a singer...as a proper singer...I mean, do you chant and sing at football?"
Moyet: "All the time. I love it."
Baddiel: "But do people look round and say, 'God, that's nice!'?
Moyet: (laughs) "I just think everybody does sing at football matches like they do who come from Millwall. One incredible song which really appeals to me goes, "Oh my Southend is wonderful, oh my Southend is wonderful, it's full of tits, fanny and United..." (laughs)
Baker: "Yes, I know that one."
Skinner: "Well it is wonderful, isn't it?"
Moyet: "It's just the way everyone peters off towards the end."
Baddiel: "What's the tune of that, Alison? Or don't you want to sing it?"
Moyet: (sings in an exaggerated neanderthal way) "Oh my Sarfend... (laughs)
Baker: (finishes off the song)
Baddiel: (deadpans) "What a lovely song." (everyone laughs)
No-one set out to offend. No-one offended. Just football fan bandinage and repartee.
The video's terrible quality, but watch/listen from 17:06 onwards and make up your own mind.
As much as genuine abuse should be called out, let's hope this kind of thing isn't cancelled in the future for fear of offence.
With the matchday experience having changed dramatically in recent years, especially in the Premier League, football can't afford to lose more of its edgy soul that made us fall in love with the game in the first place.
Going back to the original BBC article, here's a quote from Sarah Aitchison, Sutton United's Her Game Too club ambassador.
'Sarah also highlights how hard it is tackling a football culture which "has misogyny ingrained deeply into it".
"There's a particular chant where it talks about how wonderful the town or city is, because it's full of female body parts," she says. "To a lot of men, that would just seem like a harmless bit of banter.
"But actually, when you're a woman and you hear a lot of men chanting something that basically reduces you to a list of sexualized body parts, it feels quite intimidating."'
The last time I heard that particular chant sung was by Southend United fan Alison Moyet in 1996 on Fantasy Football League with Baddiel, Skinner and Millwall's Danny Baker there.
Now FFL was clearly of its laddish mid-90s time and the Jason Lee blacking up / 'he's got a pineapple on his head' has been rightly apologised for.
No-one would or should put up with that now. And Alison Moyet (who I love as a singer) may or may not have revised her opinion.
Clearly no woman should have to suffer threats of violence, unwanted touching or sexist abuse at games, or anywhere else for that matter.
Football's come a long way in this respect as it has in others. But I do wonder just how much further it's possible to go in reality.
Well-meaning attempts at redefining (some might say social re-engineering) the 'working man's ballet' is unlikely to have the full desired effects.
This is why both the women's game and the Qatar World Cup is so different. The key traditional demographic is missing, so a different experience is had.
Anyway, here's the transcript of the part of the conversation that was around chanting:
Baddiel: "Alison, as a singer...as a proper singer...I mean, do you chant and sing at football?"
Moyet: "All the time. I love it."
Baddiel: "But do people look round and say, 'God, that's nice!'?
Moyet: (laughs) "I just think everybody does sing at football matches like they do who come from Millwall. One incredible song which really appeals to me goes, "Oh my Southend is wonderful, oh my Southend is wonderful, it's full of tits, fanny and United..." (laughs)
Baker: "Yes, I know that one."
Skinner: "Well it is wonderful, isn't it?"
Moyet: "It's just the way everyone peters off towards the end."
Baddiel: "What's the tune of that, Alison? Or don't you want to sing it?"
Moyet: (sings in an exaggerated neanderthal way) "Oh my Sarfend... (laughs)
Baker: (finishes off the song)
Baddiel: (deadpans) "What a lovely song." (everyone laughs)
No-one set out to offend. No-one offended. Just football fan bandinage and repartee.
The video's terrible quality, but watch/listen from 17:06 onwards and make up your own mind.
As much as genuine abuse should be called out, let's hope this kind of thing isn't cancelled in the future for fear of offence.
With the matchday experience having changed dramatically in recent years, especially in the Premier League, football can't afford to lose more of its edgy soul that made us fall in love with the game in the first place.
Worried Man Blues
Well-known member
Definitely women only zones, corral them all together safety in numbers.................but where?
really shit thread, @crodonilson. get a grip.
This is worthy of a serious discussion and not a third rate attempt at humour.
Football is only a mirror to society and it tends to lag a little behind wider society when it comes to progressive attitudes, for example racism and homophobia were fairly common until recently. I don't for a minute imagine Brighton fans are amongst the worst but I do cringe when you turn up in a town or city by train (in the days when that was possible) and you get gangs of young men chanting '<insert location> is a sh*(*(le, we wanna go home' in front of shoppers and children. Do it in and around the ground by all means but not around people who might have no interest in football.
Football is only a mirror to society and it tends to lag a little behind wider society when it comes to progressive attitudes, for example racism and homophobia were fairly common until recently. I don't for a minute imagine Brighton fans are amongst the worst but I do cringe when you turn up in a town or city by train (in the days when that was possible) and you get gangs of young men chanting '<insert location> is a sh*(*(le, we wanna go home' in front of shoppers and children. Do it in and around the ground by all means but not around people who might have no interest in football.
The Merry Prankster
Pactum serva
A woman is murdered by a man every 3 days in this country. Over 500 000 reported cases of DV by men annually. 1 in 4 women raped or sexually assaulted. 97% sexually harassed. I guess it depends on your view
point, geezer.
Yup, it does. The "1 in 4" usually quoted number is based on one flawed survey afaik. But regardless most murders and other severe attacks against women doesn't happen the way it is often portrayed in movies etc. Statistically speaking the unsafest place for a woman is to be home with her boyfriend/husband. Yet many fear to go out and do stuff or take a walk after dark, which is a result of blowing up the risks while failing to mention that 99.99% who takes a walk in a park or go to some event will come home unscathered.