Last year I was sitting with a good friend of mine
watching television when the coca cola advertisement about the world cup came
up. I noticed that the advertisement was making her angry so I proceeded to ask
her what the problem was. She told me that she thought the advertisement portrayed
females in a bad light when it came to football games. She said it portrayed
them as people who are clueless about football and as people who just watch the
game to see handsome footballers with good muscular chests which some of them
tend to famously show when celebrating after scoring a goal.
She went on to tell me how some men irritate her by
stereotyping women as people who do not anything about the game or cannot sit
down to watch a full match. Suggesting it was high time for those men who
stereotype women that way to understand that there are women out there who love
the game and understand its dynamics. It got me thinking of the number of times
I have received weird stares from some guys after overhearing me discussing
something related to football. Luckily for me I stopped getting irritated long
time ago and I brush them off as I have loved football from an early age in my
life.
It got me remembering my childhood days when I
started knowing about football. My big brother who is almost my age mate used
to go with my small sister and I to play around the neighborhood and we got to
play. I used to particularly love being a goalkeeper as I used to find it easy.
At the end of the day we would go home very dirty but very satisfied.
I started watching football when I was twelve years
old back in primary school. I must admit I started watching it for wrong
reasons but in due time I got to develop a genuine interest in watching the
game. I had seen a photo of Cristiano Ronaldo when he was in Manchester united
and I was totally smitten. I started watching the Barclays premiere league particularly
Manchester united so that I could watch him play and my interest developed from
there. My overzealous father and my two big brothers also contributed majorly
to my interest. After developing a genuine interest, I asked one of my brothers
to explain the basics of a game, how the teams play and I got to know other
teams too. Those were the good old days when Manchester united playing arsenal
was a big deal and the rivalry was strong.
Back in high school my interest started to go down
as I was in an all-girls high school and not many of them were fans. By good
chance I found out some girls shared my interest and appreciated the game. We
became fast friends and frequent discussions of the game were the norm for us.
We used to ask our math’s teacher Mr. Thumbi for the scores of the Barclay's
premiere league which is played during the weekend or run for the newspapers in
the library so as to know the scores. We even ended up convincing our principal
to let us watch the world cup final 2010 between Spain and Netherlands and it
was on a weekday.
After finishing high school my interest was back in
full force as I was back home with my father and brothers as diehard fans. I
used to ask my brother to tag along during the weekends in restaurants and pubs
to watch the Barclay's premiere league. I used to find myself in situations
where I was the only female in a sea of men watching a game while accompanying
my brother. I used to endure the weird stares and had to curtail my talk when
it came to commenting about the team I was supporting. I have sat in pubs
patiently with my brother enduring the smell of beer which I do not like at all
and drunkards for the sake of not missing a game.
I particularly loved last year as the world cup was
in Brazil and I wasn’t locked up in high school and I could watch the game. My
father had also installed a DSTV decoder so I could watch the games from the
comforts of my home. I used to hurry up from my judicial attachment, refrain
from making any detours so that by seven o’clock am seated comfortably watching
the game which would be on. I earned myself a lot of scolding from my mother
who expected me to cook supper but I refused to watch the interesting games. As
I continue with my love for football I have gotten used to some men stereotyping
females as incapable of loving and knowing about football with their weird
stares when I discuss about the game. I have learnt to deal with that as I
would rather spend my weekends watching the Barclay's premiere league rather
than do anything else.
I might not be a fanatic like some people out there,
still get confused when free kicks are awarded or when a player is offside but
I can still follow a game with ease. I am still learning things when it comes
to clubs but all in all football is my favorite sport. To all the stereotypes
out there who think females are incapable of watching a football game due to loving
the game its high time u change your mindsets. There are females out there who
watch the game for the fact that they love it and it’s their favorite sport.
