I woke up at 6:30am yesterday morning so I could go on down to the pub for the Liverpool vs Wolves match. Imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that one of the assistant referees was a woman! Surprise because I didn’t know there were any in the EPL and joy because, hey, that’s awesome!
But, of course, not everyone thinks this is awesome. Before the game started the Sky Sports commentators, Richard Keys and Andy Gray, were caught with their microphone on* (audio) making disparagingly sexist remarks about Sian Massey, the offending female linesman (linesperson?), prior to the start of the match:
Richard Keys: Well, somebody better get down there and explain offside to her.
Andy Gray: Yeah, I know. Can you believe that? Female linesman. Forget what I said – they probably don’t know the offside rule.
RK: Course they don’t.
AG: Why is there a female linesman? Somebody’s fucked up big.
RK: I can guarantee you there’ll be a big one today. Kenny [Dalglish, Liverpool's manager] will go potty. This is not the first time. Didn’t we have one before?
AG: Yeah.
RK: Wendy Toms.
AG: Wendy Toms, something like that. She was fucking hopeless as well.
RK: [exasperated groan]
AG: [inaudible]
RK: No, no, it’s got to be done, it’s good. The game’s gone mad. See charming Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Yeah. Do me a favour, love.
Keys was clairvoyant, as the first goal of the game involved a very tight is-he-offside-or-not call. Massey’s verdict was that there was not an offside; video replay afterwards only confirmed that she made the correct decision. The ESPN commentators on the feed I was watching were rather condescendingly pleased about this; you can tell they were trying to be happy and supportive for a female linesman proving people wrong by being, you know, competent but in doing so their surprise kind of made clear their own doubts that a woman was capable of understanding the offside rule.
I’m actually re-watching the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands right now and as everyone on the planet knows, it was filled with all sorts of poor refereeing calls, culminating with everyone’s favourite moment where Nigel de Jong karate kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest and only got a yellow card. Howard Webb, referee extraordinaire and Dutch national hero. But, you know, he must have made such a poor call because of his uterus. He can’t help it. He’s biologically incapable of calling the game correctly.
In case it’s not already clear, whether or not Massey makes the correct call is not the point; it’s the horrific attitude towards her even attempting to participate in the great sport of soccer that is uncalled for, inappropriate, and demonstrably misogynistic. So much rage.
* The comments were recorded but not broadcast, which means we’re seeing the true attitudes of the commentators rather than the “professional” version of their opinions that they share with millions of TV viewers.