Hergametoo

Like majority of our fans. Maybe we should do more to try to include others. Oh … wait … then people spout this bullshit :joy:

The post was clearly, plainly and obviously attuned to the poorly judged and vehement ‘woke bollocks of the highest order’, although dismissive input from others also invited a response - speaking of which, it hardly damned you and yours unto the Nth generation.

You’re entitled to your opinion, one that I very much more often agree with. Not sure you were either patronised or belittled after that combustible opening, or the strange ‘progressive outlook’ quip, as if allowing women unfettered access to the National game is anathema, input which I reserve the right to equally consider in turn ‘absolute bollocks of the first water.’

Can’t really cry foul when you set the tone.

Stop moaning and get behind the ladies! :grinning:

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There are a few around me, all being abused and made to feel like second class supporters :wink:

No foxy bingo types though :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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Totally understand the clubs support of this. As others have said, it in no way reflects us as a fanbase, its just a national scheme to raise awareness.

Eitherway, my little girl enjoyed being shown on the big screen :grin:

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Isn’t the point not that women are being abused or discriminated against if they go to games, but that not enough of them go to start with?

I don’t think we’re at a point yet where women players/teams could compete on an equal par with men at this level of the professional game (not so sure about the lower reaches of the pyramid, and certainly at county, youth and school level I think it could be more even - there were quite a few girls in the family stand today wearing full kit), but that doesn’t explain why there aren’t more in the stands watching, officiating, or involved with both the coaching/team and business side of clubs.

Obviously there are some, but it’s nowhere near the male/female ratio across the rest of society. Probably never going to be a 50/50 split, but it should be a lot higher than it is. Partly that is due due to an attitudinal problem - if we all perpetuate the view that it’s a male preserve then that is what it is going to remain.

So anything that encourages more women and girls to get involved in the game in any way (especially if it helps get our own crowd figures up) ought to be something to be applauded not ridiculed.

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We hope that women and girls local to the Walsall area will see the important messaging from the club and feel encouraged to attend future Walsall matches, knowing that the Banks’s Stadium is a safe space for women.

This is a quote taken from the article and the last sentence is what I was referring to in my original post, that I have always felt that the Banks’s and Fellows Park was a safe space for me as a female. That sentence just seems a bit over the top for me suggesting some might think it isn’t a safe space for women.

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Nothing to see here lads. Move on.

Some of the comments under the video are also enlightening. An intimation that the ref “brought it on herself”.

There is undoubtedly a spectrum and a world of individual tolerance to stuff. But let’s please not allow this courageous young woman’s experience be brushed away by the “pc gone mad/ woke nonsense” broom.

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My wife comes to every home game with me, not once has she ever said that she felt uncomfortable…

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Which is ace.

My sister and wife (very) occasionally come too. And their experience has also always been very positive too. But evidently my experience isn’t everybody’s experience. And it never could be.

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Ye I take my daughters also come at times, never once have they been offended. Although we do sit in the upper tier where it can be empty.

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And it was brilliant to see so many mom’s and kids there yesterday. Some great interaction with the players too. More of this please!

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That was interesting to see, thanks for putting it on. Obviously in the sparsely populated family stand, I never heard anything like this lady did. Unfortunately, due to unpopular decisions made by refs, they will be in the firing line of fan’s annoyance but it seems that the comments directed at this ref were vile and unacceptable so I can imagine females listening to it, surrounded by shouting, angry men, would feel uncomfortable.

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It is my experience too, and seems to be the experience of everyone that has posted on this thread. My missus has almost zero interest in football, like the vast majority of her friends and female relatives, but has attended many Walsall games with me over the years, mainly away games. Never felt unsafe or unwelcome anywhere.

I think the point is that just because it hasn’t been experienced personally it doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue for others.

I’ve not seen it personally in the ground either but I’ve heard of instances from others and it doesn’t have to just be the ground but also spaces connected to the club like forums and social media.

The same goes for racism and homophobia too.
It’s great that for the majority there isn’t an issue but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. At the end of the day we can only speak for our little area of the ground. We don’t know what’s going on elsewhere.

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Kitty Lyons what a supporter. Used to bash fans with her bag if they got out of order.

I have no problem with this initiative at all.

My wife & girls have often been to games they only reason they don’t now, is the football, ambition, toilets and catering.

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My wife and daughter are Season Ticket holders and have been for years. They haven’t encountered any issues at all. I am sure there are some misogynists within our support as there are in society. I have no time for them and think that in its worst form it is equivalent to racism .

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It is the point, yes, but so far, no-one on here is saying that they are / have experienced it, so it sounds like it isn’t the same, or anything like racism / homophobia (certainly at our club), which we all know is still there under the surface and have discussed incidents on here in the recent past.

Where is the evidence that professional football grounds are not safe for female supporters?

If it is there, my position will change on the matter

Why is the sole parameter violence, or feeling safe?

What about inclusion, tactic exclusion, peer pressure and the host of other features that we, largely a group of middle-aged blokes can’t begin to fathom. Not because we are deliberately obtuse in the most part, simply because we are not and cannot live in the mind and experiences of another person. Let alone through a different gender.

Way more to this than simply feeling safe and that being enough.

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So the video I posted of a woman’s experience at our ground only a month or two ago hasn’t changed your view that #hergametoo is checks notes “woke bollocks”.

She couldn’t have used the word “uncomfortable” more. Are you suggesting that the fact she wasn’t physically assaulted mean that there isn’t really an issue? A definition of “safe space” that is restricted to “if you don’t get battered it’s safe”?

I just want everybody to be able to come and watch the football and feel at home and comfortable in that space.

I really don’t want a section of our support who sit in certain parts of the ground to feel an uncomfortable knot in their stomach the next time there is a female official.

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The referee in the Newport game got abuse because her decisions were rubbish, not because she was female.

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