You should read the piece you're linking too more closely if you think it backs up your angry venting.
The question of whether women athletes should be criticised in the same manner as the men assumes that the two are equal to begin with.
Criticism can be healthy, but criticism of women’s sport is also too often rooted in misogyny, or as we have seen in the case of the USWNT this week, used as a pretext for making hollow political points.
If Will Jordan is beaten by his man on the outside to let in a try, it can be chalked up as a defensive lapse without critics emerging to suggest that maybe men aren’t suited to rugby.
Sure she says that. She doesn’t want to be accused of not supporting the Ferns!
She also says:
Nearby local football writers, who have dutifully covered the Ferns’ matches long before the women’s football bandwagon careened into town, listened in, brows furrowed.
Some of them had been fighting internal battles in their own newsrooms for years to cover women’s football. They’d written countless profiles on the team’s characters, brought attention to the injustices and ill-treatment players have faced, provided analysis of their games, and yes, offered criticism when they felt it warranted.
The Ferns had gone into their hometown tournament with a record of four wins in 24 matches since Jitka Klimkova took charge in 2021 - how do you hype up a team with a record like that? the football writers reasoned.
I personally haven’t seen misogyny, butI have seen A LOT of very valid football based criticism from the fans and tactfully stated notes from football scribes.
Perhaps you also should read the whole article?
If she was making a general point about women in sport perhaps I’d agree with her. But I think the football press in almost any of the country would have been much much more savage of the situation the Ferns have been in than the NZ football press has. Are you saying we should go easy in criticising their performance as they’re only women? It comes with professional sport, no? If you’re not good you will get journos analyising and saying what they think?
I personally haven’t seen misogyny, butI have seen A LOT of very valid football based criticism from the fans and tactfully stated notes from football scribes.
Perhaps you also should read the whole article?
If she was making a general point about women in sport perhaps I’d agree with her. But I think the football press in almost any of the country would have been much much more savage of the situation the Ferns have been in than the NZ football press has. Are you saying we should go easy in criticising their performance as they’re only women? It comes with professional sport, no? If you’re not good you will get journos analyising and saying what they think?