This is a post of RAGE. You have been warned.

[laliandra]

Today I went to a football match with my boyfriend. I've done this quite a few times and always have a great time. I love football, I love live sport, I love people being FANS and PASSIONATE. I even love the stupid songs. 

It is in no way a perfect experience. Although things are much improved in English football there is stuff you have to be prepared for, lots of swearing and people calling the referee a wanker and so on. Some violent language in the songs. That kind of thing. I've never seen a fight.

But, today. Oh, today.

The horribleness starts with a player called Marlon King. He was tried and convicted for rape. Recently he tried to get his conviction overturned. The judge said that the evidence against him was "damning". Coventry City still signed him. Which. I don't even know where to start with that. My boyfriend has supported Coventry all his life, pretty much, and was telling me about how the new chairman was talking about making it a family club and so on. Which. God. It's so fucking hypocritical I can't even comprehend it.

Anyway, so today, every time King got the ball all of the opposition supporters booed. Which frankly I support. But then they started singing (to the tune of Kumbyyah) "She said no, Marlon, she said no" etcetc. Which. Ugh. That's trivialising a horrific crime, right there. 

And then, because all that wasn't bad enough, and I'm sure there are people who can see where this is going but I did not, a group of Coventry supporters started singing "she said yes" back.

Really.

That really happened.

And I was sitting there shaking and, I didn't know what to do, I still don't. I don't know who to start with. WHo to yell at. Because maybe some of those people were doing ironically but that's terrible. That's disgusting. That's taking something that should never be trivialised and turning it into a joke. That's perpetuating the kind of thought process that makes juries not convict rapists because maybe the girl was drunk, maybe she went home with him, maybe she was wearing a short skirt. Maybe she wanted it.

Because I would money on some people not being so ironic. That they believe that consciously, not just in a subconscious conditioned way. That it doesn't matter that he raped some girl. Because he's a footballer, their best player, and so some girl is immaterial. Because women say no, but really they mean yes. 

I would put money on it.

Or maybe I want to yell at whatever person thought that Marlon King was a good deal because he's a talented player going cheap because no club with any kind of morals would hire him. That the possibility of winning a GAME was more important than a horrific and violent and most likely life destroying crime. 

That's genuinely disgusting. And I hope someone breaks both of his fucking legs, frankly, because he should never get a single clap or cheer. No kid should ever have a poster of him on their bedroom wall. He's not sorry, guys, he's still trying to get away with it. And I don't know what to do with all this rage I have. This is the atmosphere in football that means that footballers think it's okay to cheat on their pregnant wives. To beat people up. This is the climate in the sport that means that there are currently no openly gay footballers. Not a single one. And it make me SO ANGRY and UPSET. And I'm really sorry for unloading this on you guys, because I don't think there's much you can do about it either, and now you will be angry and upset too. So I'm sorry. 

It's just not good enough, and I don't know what to do to make it better. And I hope everyone involved learns to be ashamed of what they've done, because they should be. They really should be.

I am going to go read some soothing fic now. 

Comments

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

Don't be sorry for the post.

It's terrible, and half of what's terrible is that it isn't even sneaky, it isn't even a KKK meeting in some dark field somewhere because they don't want to admit to what they are. It is people in public, in a crowd, being so comfortable and okay with their bullshit harmful attitudes towards women that they make a fun little song out of it. And how do you fight back against that? You can't just expose them, because they are doing it in public and NOBODY IS EVEN TRYING TO STOP THEM. And it just makes you feel, so hard, how far away we are from something that should be so simple. Because when you're like "hey, who thinks women should be treated worse than men?" nobody raises their hand, and then they all sit around and feel great about living in a post-sexist world, and meanwhile there is this ugliness RIGHT IN THEIR FACES and they are laughing and smiling about it, and how do you FIGHT something that's INVISIBLE.

You should absolutely post about it. You should absolutely talk about your rage, and your disgust. Because that makes at least one person who was there today who saw it for what it is and who is not going to be silent about it. And that has to at least be better than zero.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I am thinking about it like this. Now no one can say, what have women got to complain about. Because now I have this, and I will mention to anyone who will listen, and no one will be able to say a fucking WORD. Because here it is, here is the example of the world we really live in, and it won't be invisible, it will be a target.