Women's Day

Cherry

By Ewan

Wed, 08 Mar 2023
  • 783 reads
5 comments
 

Butch is holding forth. He does that a lot, three beers in. Butch used to be… Well, you know a Butch. Probably a sportsman, not necessarily a pro. If yours is a footballer he’ll have had trials at Preston North End, but they didn’t work out and he’ll have played for a local non-league side until well after his legs went.

Our Butch is a rugby player. In pre-professional days he played for some of the top clubs. You know the ones, the ones that flounder along in “community” rugby running a quarter as many teams as they did in amateur days. Like Waterloo, or Preston Grasshoppers. Professionalism in rugby came too late for Butch. If he’d been ten years younger he’d have made good money and probably have wangled an England cap. That’s what he says. I played against him “back in the day” as they say – and maybe he would have.

Our Butch doesn’t like women’s rugby, or football. He says it’s not proper rugby, or football. We’ve had conversations about this. Sometimes, when Butch isn’t holding forth, we have a real conversation. I say it’s not men’s rugby; it’s not men’s football. It’s played by people with different physical attributes. Then I say, sometimes it’s better. This is where the conversation stops and Butch will go off to talk with someone who’ll agree with him. I don’t know about cricket or hockey, but I do know that in the WSL and the TikTok 6 Nations there is less cheating. I watched The Lionesses – and yes, they won – but in women’s soccer they pass the ball forward: they try things that, in men’s football, the coach would stamp out on the training ground. There is the same joy in women’s rugby, I watch them getting all the things I got out of that beautiful game: the ones I know that today’s men in the professional game don’t. Unless they are an utter maverick, of course, and that will have an impact on how successful they are.

Butch isn’t married, although I know he has been. We are friends, there is too much shared history; service in the RAF, a similar age. He would be horrified, if someone called him a misogynist, unless he didn’t know the word. But who doesn’t now? He still wouldn’t see it as a word that applied to him.

I think that’s the problem.

Butch is still holding forth. He’s bemoaning today being International Women’s Day. Why should they get a day? He says.

I’ve told him before, it’s because people like him have all the others.

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Comments

Submitted by marandina on

Appropriately named Butch. I thing a lot changed with the Lionesses in the Euros. You are right, the football was joyous to watch. Things have moved on such a great deal with equality across the sexes but, as with many other things, there is still work to do. I come from a generation where, at one time, only men went into pubs. First match I ever attended aged 9, my uncle left me standing outside a boozer close to the ground for an hour while he drank inside with the rest of the lads. Not a woman to be seen. Times change; they have changed. 

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

My Butch was a guy I worked with when I went to Austalia, he was quite a bit older than me and passed away in 2017. He was on the board of an AFL club in Melbourne. I have to laugh at the thought of the look on his face and the accompanying string of expletives when the idea of forming an AFLW league was mentioned.

My best friend at school who played in our first 15, like me, feels rugby isn't the same as it used to be and watching the game played by women is refreshing as is watching women's football. Much cleaner. 

I have to admit I prefer watching men play cricket (at the moment) since its not really a physical game and the "machoism" is more subtle. However, I think the lady cricketers are still in a learning curve and will soon be as entertaining as the men.

 

Submitted by celticman on

funnily enough me and my mate (Rat) had much the same conversation. Neither of us watch women's fitba. Don't give a toss about the lions. But I get it that girls want to play fitba. Wendy and Wilman played when we were younger, but  then, of course, they stopped. Girls at high school didnt't. I'm apathetic. 

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Thanks for this, Ewan. Yes indeed, we all know at least one Butch. The only sport I'm remotely interested in is tennis, but the women's Euros were just a generally joyous event. It felt like quite a sombre IWD this year, so many backward steps in so many countries, but good to hear from the allies!

Submitted by Nolan on

Friend of mine coaches the university women's rugby team. Great guy he really enjoys it I've met some very nice people. They do it just for the love of the game they play their hearts out. In general our girl's teams perform much better than the guys also cricket too and soccer. It is becoming more and more popular and given increasing recognition with financial backing and that. That's South Africa.

They said Thursday, the 14th was world mathematics day. So work it out 3.14 ...

C for serious.

All the best & Nolan