Thread by @monaeltahawy

It is time for men to learn from women how to play football.
1/ #ItsComingHome #EURO2020 #CopaAmerica

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1413489112863023113

In 2015, I went to the quarter final and the semi final of the women's World Cup in Montreal and saw the US beat France in the former and beat Germany in the latter.

If queer is the opposite of heteronormativity, it was the queerest--and joyously so--sporting environment.

The stands were full of outsiders: women with babies, teenage girls-- a demographic I rarely see in televised men’s games--with their faces painted in the colors of their teams and men there alone. #ItsComingHome #Euros2021 #CopaAmerica2021 📷 @rerutled

All of us were unburdened by the need to imitate a form of masculinity that the men’s game insists on as the price of admission.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-when-f… #ItsComingHome #EURO2020 #CopaAmerica

There were no reports of abuse going home after the matches; no campaigns that warned that “If England is beaten, so is he,”; and the players on the pitch were there to play, not engage in bombastic flops and fake injuries.

Consider that as you ponder these awful statistics:

-When #England lose, domestic abuse of women rises by 38%.
-After a match in England, domestic abuse starts increasing & peaks 10hrs after the game,
-After England match, domestic abuse is 11% higher next day
#itsnotcominghome

During the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, cases of intimate-partner violence against women rose by an average of 38% and 25% respectively when #Colombia played.

And by nearly 50% during the 2015 Copa America, compared to days when Colombia did not play.

Let’s be clear though: it is not football that makes cisgender men abuse women and children.

It is not alcohol that makes them hurt women and children.

And win, lose or draw, the score doesn’t make a man beat a woman.

Patriarchy does.

Patriarchy enables and protects abusers. It socializes them to believe they are entitled to our time, attention, and bodies.

Football tournaments exacerbate pre-existing abusive behaviours. #ItsComingHome #EURO2020 #CopaAmerica soundcloud.com/mona-eltahawy-…

And patriarchy is the reason that there not a single out player in the men’s top leagues while the women’s game has a long history of openly gay and bisexual players.

In the 2019 Women's World Cup, the two teams with the most out athletes were in the final.

The #USA and #NED women’s teams each had five out lesbian and bisexual players apiece. #LGBTQ #Euro2020Final #CopaAmerica outsports.com/2019/7/5/20683…

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