{"id":46770,"date":"2025-08-06T02:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46770\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T02:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T02:31:08","slug":"why-is-dave-from-egham-so-wound-up-by-womens-football-womens-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46770\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is \u2018Dave from Egham\u2019 so wound up by women\u2019s football? | Women’s football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barney Ronay\u2019s article, inspired by the radio rant by \u201cDave from Egham\u201d about being unable to stand women\u2019s voices talking about football and having women\u2019s football \u201cthrown down our throats\u201d during Euro 2025, was refreshing and entertaining (The soundtrack of the women\u2019s Euros was happiness \u2026 and some men can\u2019t cope, 2 August<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At a recent family gathering, some of the men started talking about the same thing \u2013 how there were so many women presenters and commentators talking about football and not just women\u2019s football, no, but, God forbid, men\u2019s football, and actually sport in general! What is the world coming to? How dare these women speak knowledgably in articulate sentences and joyful tones? And like \u201cMrs Dave\u201d, my sister joined in and supported the patriarchal point!<\/p>\n

The conversation continued along this vein for some time, eventually arriving at the well-worn waffle about \u201cwomen can\u2019t play football as well as men and shouldn\u2019t be paid the same, blah blah blah\u2026\u201d
Helen Johnson
Nottingham <\/p>\n

I ask myself why some men are so\u00a0antagonistic to women\u2019s football, why they feel it is being \u201cthrown down our throats\u201d, and why\u00a0they can become so wound up\u00a0by women\u2019s voices and generally be so misogynistic and so open about their poisonous beliefs. My guess would be that they feel jealous and\u00a0under threat.<\/p>\n

Not since the heady days of women\u2019s football attracting large crowds (like Dick, Kerr Ladies<\/a>, who\u00a0drew a crowd of 53,000 at Goodison Park on Boxing Day 1920) has women\u2019s football been so popular. But the men were back from war, and it was time for them to have their game back. So, obligingly, the FA disallowed women from playing on affiliated pitches for half a century.<\/p>\n

In men\u2019s football, England has led the way with the formation of the Premier League<\/a>, attracting players and fans from around the world \u2013 even if, internationally, we always fall at the last hurdle, or before. Then along came the women\u2019s troops, gaining attention after much ridicule and playing good football \u2013 and not rolling around on the floor and berating the referee. There are plenty of sports on TV, to watch or not. The \u201cDave from Egham\u201d types\u00a0should get on with their own lives and stop being such haters \u2013 it\u2019s bad for their health.
Laura Farningham
Vejer de La Frontera, Spain<\/p>\n

What Barney Ronay describes as the happiness of the Euros is, to my mind, just what sport should be. The sport was competitive, exciting and skilful, but there was still a sense of proportion. It was sport, not life, and the people playing it went back to homes that were something like those of their fans. Sport is a game, chaps. You can still celebrate endeavour and skill, but just stop taking it all so seriously. The\u00a0Lionesses showed us, again, that sport can be pure joy.
Kathryn Streatfield
Richmond, North Yorkshire<\/p>\n

I arrived in the British Isles in 1968 and was completely mystified by the warfare between football fans. I\u2019d support whatever team appealed at the time and could never drum up any hatred for the other side. I hadn\u2019t realised that I was watching, and enjoying, the women\u2019s football\u00a0because that anger\u00a0and threat of violence was missing. I would like to thank Barney Ronay\u00a0for the explanation.
Beth Bolton
Southam, Warwickshire<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barney Ronay\u2019s article, inspired by the radio rant by \u201cDave from Egham\u201d about being unable to stand women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-46770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}