This time my blog is not a task I have been set by a teacher, or anything to do with my investigation, yet it is sort of English related, it's not an English topic related issue. Although it is an issue in my opinion. My boyfriend is extremely into American football, he used to play it and when it's the football season, he watches every match. So, being interested in what it's about, I went investigating and tried to learn about the men's league and how the game works so I could impress him. Although i can across what I'm now going to talk about. The Legends Football League (LFL) is a women's 7-on-7 tackle American football league, with games played in the spring and summer at NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS arenas and stadiums. The league was founded in 2009 as the Lingerie Football League and was re-branded as the Legends Football League in 2013. It may be encouraging young girls to get into sport, but not really showing any respect towards the actual skill of game play, rather just how it looks. My boyfriend made the assumption the male viewers watch it for the, and I quote, "booty". Is that an okay thing? To have a sport based around the feminine characteristics of a team, when it should be about how accurate their passes are, how fast they can run, how good they can tackle and all their tactics and behaviour - not how tight their hot pants are. Click here for a clip of a match
The LFL is not the only American football league which involves women, it is the one most popular, most broadcast, and most come across. Here is a list of Football Leagues in America
- Legends Football League (LFL)
- Icon Women's Football Association-Texas (IWFA-Texas)
- New Mexico Adult Football League Women's Division (NMAFL-W)
- Ladies American Football League 8's (LAFL)
- Women's Premier Football League (WPFL)
- Women's Xtreme Football League-Oklahoma (WXFL)
- Ladies Indoor Football League (LIFL
The games are broadcast on television and the internet around the world - Fuse TV is a channel in which supports and shows matches of the Legends of Football League. There has been much uproar about how this demeaning act of sexism still appears on the televesion in 2016. If there was an equal game in which men played in small, tight shorts and just some shoulder protectors, then okay, atleast it would be equal. However it doesn't account for the issue that the women cover themselves in makeup and have to have their hair perfect before the match in order to gain even more attention their appearance instead of their ball skills.
A quote from an article by Emily Kaplan
"It’s an incongruous crew of 20 that would likely never mingle if not for football, which some say feels like a full-time job but is treated as a glorified hobby. LFL players aren’t paid (in fact, they pay an annual $45 registration fee to play), nor are they provided any medical coverage by the league—two issues that have led to ongoing lawsuits."
Talking about medical - the outfits are so tiny and highly less protective than the male clothes. Some sources have quoted that the LFL players used to be paid before 2012 however now many articles say they are not. A quote from another article - "In the Grantland article, Mortaza made the following claim. “If we paid a dime to a player, we wouldn’t sustain a season of play.”" Yet, unlike the other football leagues for women, the game is broadcast on Fuse TV edited down after the week's games have finished. And the crowd pays admission to watch. Why is it that the players don't get any of this?
Moreover the founder/chairman seems a bit of a ****. From quotes "Players say that Mortaza has a presence in the locker room... where multiple women say the commissioner has told them to trash-talk opponents and devise elaborate touchdown celebrations." "He’s also been known to deny a player from joining the league if they don’t meet his aesthetic standards, or for getting involved enough to bench a player if he feels they have gained weight."
A player quotes “... The crowd [size] is just sad,” she says. “You have a friend show up, and maybe your mom, and that’s it. It’s nothing like this.”
Another quote from a player - “It’s the only professional women’s league that gets attention. You can play real football in front of real fans.” However are they fans of you for the play and skill or just the body and looks?
However things could be getting better in the background of these issues. With more recognition of the problems with sexism in the area of sports there are improvements. Beyond the LFL, there’s been more progress for women in football. In summer 2015 Sarah Thomas became an NFL official and Jen Welter, the first woman to play in a men’s pro football league, was a coaching intern with the Arizona Cardinals. Women have a strong appetite for football, and not just as viewers (though 2014 data has women accounting for 45% of the NFL’s 150 million fans). And in the UK 7.01 million females aged 16 years or over (31.2%) played sport once a week, an increase of 703,800 since 2005/06 according to a survey in 2015. There's more interest in the other leagues of football mentioned above and hopefully in the future we can create an equal environment in which men and women can play in similar clothes, which similar pay, similar coaching and similar interest and crowd numbers.
Personally, I hope that the apparent 'legends' of this league actually do something legendary to change the opinions on women in sport. If they all throw away those skimpy hot pants and sports bras and get some proper uniforms and join one of the other football leagues, hopefully, maybe there will be enough women and men that will be able to support their choice to be able to be fully padded and play the game, broadcast on TV, earning a proper wage. Then maybe the world will be a better place.
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