Unladylike Behaviour
Tags: bisexual, gay, Katie Taylor, lesbian, Queer, Sport, Transgender, transsexual, Women, Women in Sport, Women's Rugby World Cup I am on a rant. Feel free to click away, but my ardour is up and my goat has well and truly been gotten. I’m so angry that I just allowed a very badly-constructed sentence to pass my editor radar. Why? Where the HELL are the Irish women in sport? Not on the effing telly anyway!
A couple of weeks ago, we all celebrated along with swimmer Grainne Murphy as she won a silver medal, shredding the Irish record…twice…in the 1500 metres freestyle at the European Swimming Championships. But was it on the telly? 
Of course not! OK, neither was Barry Murphy so maybe it was just on at a bad time.
However, and I know I’ve said this before, but RTE, have you any idea that we have the best pound-for-pound amateur boxer in the world? Oh, you’ll be all over her for the Olympics, but she’s winning everything at the moment and nadda. No coverage. Zip. Can you imagine if Katie Taylor (right) was a man? They’d be all over her. We’d be sick of the sight of her on billboards and on the telly.
We all know just how starved Ireland is of sporting heroes and here she is, a boxing sensation, and we never get to see her. Did you know that, just three weeks ago, she retained her European Amateur Championship title, for the fifth year in a row? Or that she’ll be fighting to retain her World Amateur title in September? Sure how would you know?
Don’t get me started on the Women’s Rugby World Cup. If it hadn’t been for Click Here’s coverage, would you even know it’s on? Sky have the rights to show the matches and are only showing the big games, ie. when England and any of the Southern Hemisphere teams are playing. We got to see Ireland last week, but only because we were playing England. We beat the US and now need to beat Kazakhstan on Saturday to be in with a chance of going through to the next round, something we’ve never done before. Do RTE care? If this was soccer (men’s soccer that is) we’d have delayed coverage on RTE. But they just don’t give a damn about women’s sport. And you can be sure that next year’s Rugby World Cup will be everywhere.
I have Sky Sports (I love my Leinster Rugby) and was looking forward to seeing some women play the game I love, in the green I love. On Saturday, there are four matches. Why not shove them on to Sky Sports 4 and let us enjoy ourselves?
Sky Sports 1 – Cricket from 10.30am until 6pm
Sky Sports 2 – Soccer from 12.30pm until 3pm, followed by WWE
Sky Sports 3 – WWE from 10am to 12, followed by golf
Sky Sports 4 – OMG! Women’s rugby! One match at 1.30 and then the real rugby, South African v Austrailan men, followed by Speedway
Or, RTE and Setanta, how about some delayed coverage? It’s not like anyone will ruin the result for us.
RTE 1 – Ocean’s 11, followed by Midsommer Murders and then, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. I kid you not.
RTE 2 – Kidnapped, followed by Everest ER.
Setanta – French Top 14 rugby. French! Where are the bloody Irish eh?
Is there something misogynistic going on here? Is the problem the fact that these are seen as masculine sports? Sonia O’Sullivan was hounded by the Irish media and can you imagine if we had some woman in Wimbledon for example? We’d be experts on backspin and cross-court lobs in no time.
Rugby and boxing, though. Men’s sports and not for the girls. Sure they could hurt their little selves.
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I also like to watch sport – it’s much easier than actually participating – and I often wonder why there is so little women’s sport on tv – I also wonder if the general health of women would be improved if we had more sporting role models – would the drop out rate of tenneage girls be lower if they heard about successful sportswomen every time they turned on the radio or tv? Wouldn’t it be healthier to have fit sportswomen all over the teen mags than anorexic super models. And then we could have BAHs (Boyfriends & Husbands) too!
My dad is an A&E doctor and once treated Katie for a broken nose. He told her that boxing was a very dangerous sport and he wouldn’t recommend her keeping it up. A few months later he found out who she was, scarleh!
The rugby thing in particular pisses me off because I love rugby, and rugby professionals think highly of the standard of women’s rugby, yet none of us get to fecking see it. I think if they’d show it, it’d get viewers, my brother will watch any rugby match that’s on the telly.
Yeah, it’s funny you say that about the rugby, Shikei. When we were in the pub, watching the match against England, the manager was all, “Ohh.. You mean the women’s world cup” (as in, “That’s why I haven’t heard about it/advertised it/etc.”). And other punters near the screen where it was being shown were at first all cackling away, thinking it was all very amusing.
But then when the game started and they saw how the teams were playing – especially Ireland and what they were up against, but still really going for it – they shut up pretty bloody quickly.
@HAL – Thank you so much for the post, by the way – you have no idea of the rants that go through my head on a regular basis. Especially about the neglect of Katie Taylor by the Irish mainstream media. Basically, she’s one of the best boxers in the world – FACT – and she’s virtually ignored.
Talk about your glass ceilings. BLOODY HELL!
I agree Sinead, if girls could see women on telly looking fit and doing us proud, they would be much more likely to see that as an option. All sport is local, and once you see it done you want to get involved.
Shikei – I love that your Dad was scarleh! LOL!!!
Irish people love to watch sport and there no armchair expert like an Irish armchair commentator, but narry a woman in sight.
At last TG4 shows the Women’s GAA. I love the commentary in Irish. My favourite of the moment – “Féach ar an scill! (pronounced schkill)”