Today I will watch live television coverage of women playing rugby in the Six Nations. On Monday there will be a great documentary profiling a female Welsh football icon. But just 10 years ago I was being told: “For f**k’s sake luv go and do the dishes” for daring to be a woman who wrote about sport.
I was reminded of this as a Facebook memory popped up this week in which I was laughing off the rants of this anonymous keyboard warrior back in 2012. Laughing off in public that is. In private the taunts stung. Even though they were always so unimaginative – when not being told to wield the Fairy Liquid, Dave91648723 and his ilk would always be telling you to Make the Tea. These guys didn’t want us to leave the kitchen, let alone sit in a stadium.
It’s hard to counter criticism about the one thing you can’t change – your biological sex. And that’s what they were objecting to, a female encroaching on what they considered to be a male domain.
