Recently the Financial Times released an article talking about female fans within the sport of Ice Hockey. Ice Hockey is the fastest growing sport within Britain. Fans, from old to young, rich to poor and men to women to anything in between. A Financial Times journalist Kitty Drake recently highlighted this rapid growth. Because of this article a debate has started.
Drake opens their article by talking about the cold temperature of the ice rink. They then swiftly move on to talk about the players of each team warming up before the game. Hockey players – like all athletes – need to warm up and stretch before each match; the main difference in hockey is that they do so on the rink in front of everyone before the game. Drake begins to talk about how all the women around them “scream” as these men stretch before playing a professional sports game.
Instantly, the way they discuss the way these men warm up seems somehow “sexual”, talking about how “players lie on their backs with their legs in the air” and how “There is low lighting”. Having been to multiple ice hockey games myself, I’ve seen that players warm up not to ‘make women go wild,’ but ensure they’re properly stretched and ready to play one of the most physically demanding sports played by men and women.
These opinions have formed because of an up in the upcoming subgenre in romance novels. Romance is the best-selling genre of book in the UK. Hannah Grace wrote the best-selling romance book of 2022, “Icebreaker”. This book is about the love story between a figure skater and an ice hockey captain. Drake believes that individuals can read about their favourite fictional players and live out their fantasies at their local ice rink.
This type of ideology is harmful. It is harmful for the future of women in sport. Women have worked hard to be in sports. Narrowing someone’s passion to just a fantasy is disrespectful. The Financial Times article has sexualised women’s passion for sport and reading. Not only that the article has also sexualised ice hockey players who are also enjoying their passion for the sport.
Women have the right to enjoy their passions, and society must stop narrowing them down to mere fantasies. It is clear sexism. Interpersonal sexism happens when people judge others for the sake of it. This type of sexism manifests itself in society through simple day-to-day interactions. In this case, sport. Women would like to live in a world where their hobbies and passions are not simplified.
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