Why is the bbc shoving the women game down our throats?

[LeSoupeKitchen]

They did have a bad one earlier this year..."Scorchers win BBL semi final" which made me happy. Turns out it was the women's team that won and the men's had lost. Don't think it was too malicious as some english players had starred in the womens but still pretty gutting.

 

['O Zio]

I just don't see what the issue is. Do you really think that the BBC is trying to trick you into paying attention to women's football? I'd say its more to do with the shift of televised football to pay services, so the BBC are promoting the few sports they can still provide coverage for. Channel4 are doing the same with the Paralympics, is that 'political correctness' as well? To most people its just good quality sport.

I admit I was being facetious with the initial comment but I'm mystified as to why this is an issue to anyone. I don't watch WSL myself but I happy for the BBC to cover it, for the people who enjoy watching it and it can't hurt for young girls to have female role models getting them into football and exercising in general.

If you're going to be facetious and criticise a post then at least have the common decency to read it properly first

First of all, I'm talking about an article in the Guardian so whether or not the BBC provides free coverage of anything is completely irrelevant to anything I've said.

Secondly, I'm not complaining about them covering it. I have no issue with that. My issue is twofold:

1. The way it's given artificially high weighting on the pages in relation to how much interest there is. The amount of interest in WSL articles does not warrant the placement of said articles by any normal conventions. They don't have non-league articles front and centre at the top of the page (exceptions being an unusually huge story that's of national interest) for the simple reason that it appeals to far fewer of the readers. The WSL has an interest level comparable to that and yet over the past couple of years there has been a growing trend to stick WSL articles at the top of the page with all the top stories from the PL etc. There is no practical reason for that other than overplaying political correctness in the sense of women and men are equal therefore we have to have equal weighting for men's and women's football. Alternatively they could do it to try and help raise awareness of the WSL in a hope to win over more interest, which is absolutely fair enough if that's what they want to do, HOWEVER that leads me to my next point:
2. The way numerous WSL articles are given intentionally misleading headlines to "disguise" the fact that they're about women's football until you click on them. If the idea is to help promote women's football, why not do that? If you want to have an article about Man City women's team then just be up front about it. As I've said, I've no issue with them covering it if that's what they want to do, but then why try and "trick" people into thinking it's about the men's team to get them to click on it? It's quite obvious that they're doing it deliberately which only goes to prove the point that people aren't genuinely interested in it if they have to resort to that sort of click-bait style thing.

Cover the WSL all you like, but either have a separate section for men's vs women's football, or alternatively just give the articles proper headlines rather than intentionally making it sound like it's about the men's team when it isn't. There's no way they wrote "Man City could be the victims of their own success" and had no idea that people would assume it was about Pep etc.

 

[SelbYido]

So your issue is with journalists misleading the public?. It probably happens because journalists have to produce stories, even when nothing is happening so they can keep their jobs. I just don't see why its even worth talking about, you aren't the first person to be mislead in such a way, many a time I've clicked on something I saw online and thought "Well, that was disappointing". It seems like such a trivial thing to worry about.

And knowing the Guardian, they probably omitted "Ladies" so no-one could accuse them of assuming their gender, its the Guardian...

 

['O Zio]

So your issue is with journalists misleading the public?. It probably happens because journalists have to produce stories, even when nothing is happening so they can keep their jobs. I just don't see why its even worth talking about, you aren't the first person to be mislead in such a way, many a time I've clicked on something I saw online and thought "Well, that was disappointing". It seems like such a trivial thing to worry about.

And knowing the Guardian, they probably omitted "Ladies" so no-one could accuse them of assuming their gender, its the Guardian...

Not really an issue with "misleading the public", it's not that dramatic. But when I'm scrolling through thinking "What's going on in the world today" it's irritating being tricked into clicking on a story that I have zero interest in. I understand the reasons for having "clickbait" stories in general, but if that's all it is then fair enough but people seem to defend it as some kind of equal rights thing and if you don't like it you're sexist, which is just completely incorrect. If they want to cover women's football, cover it by all means, but don't cover it under this weird sneaky guise of men's football. Like I say, if they feel they need to resort to all that to get people to look at it then surely that's a sign that it's not worth featuring on the front page in the first place.

I know it's trivial and I'm not "worried" about it obviously. It's just a source of mild irritation like most things in life

 

[Maxtremist]

Not really an issue with "misleading the public", it's not that dramatic. But when I'm scrolling through thinking "What's going on in the world today" it's irritating being tricked into clicking on a story that I have zero interest in. I understand the reasons for having "clickbait" stories in general, but if that's all it is then fair enough but people seem to defend it as some kind of equal rights thing and if you don't like it you're sexist, which is just completely incorrect. If they want to cover women's football, cover it by all means, but don't cover it under this weird sneaky guise of men's football. Like I say, if they feel they need to resort to all that to get people to look at it then surely that's a sign that it's not worth featuring on the front page in the first place.

I know it's trivial and I'm not "worried" about it obviously. It's just a source of mild irritation like most things in life

The counter to that and I think the point of them 'pushing' all this is... how do you get attention drawn to it? There's good things and progress happening in the Women's game so I don't see how there's anything wrong with them every now and then 'pushing' news about it or highlighting articles they find interesting.

As for the defence of equal rights side of things, I think a lot of it boils down to the fact that there's been so little coverage and attention brought to the women's game over the years and it seems society as a whole is working on changing a lot of attitudes. So you look at the area's that are affected or suffering the most and in this case you're looking at the women's game, it's lack of exposure etc... so you chose to help that by promoting a few articles a little higher up on the page. Worst case... as you have experienced, someone clicks on it by accident and isn't a fan. In other cases someone clicks on it by accident and stays there and finds out more and gets interested in it (suffering being a dramatic word I know).

End of the day though I really don't see how it's all that big a deal. Oh no, you clicked on an article you thought was one thing but weren't that interested in... so what? Like you said, it's just a simple minor irritation.

 

[SelbYido]

Not really an issue with "misleading the public", it's not that dramatic. But when I'm scrolling through thinking "What's going on in the world today" it's irritating being tricked into clicking on a story that I have zero interest in. I understand the reasons for having "clickbait" stories in general, but if that's all it is then fair enough but people seem to defend it as some kind of equal rights thing and if you don't like it you're sexist, which is just completely incorrect. If they want to cover women's football, cover it by all means, but don't cover it under this weird sneaky guise of men's football. Like I say, if they feel they need to resort to all that to get people to look at it then surely that's a sign that it's not worth featuring on the front page in the first place.

I know it's trivial and I'm not "worried" about it obviously. It's just a source of mild irritation like most things in life

Fair enough. I'm equally complicit in talking about something trivial by continuing to talk about it, so I'll stop.

 

[hughy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45550697

That fucking keeper is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

 

[Dougal]

Not one attempt to actually dive for the ball. Was she the only one who the gloves fitted?

 

[rossdapep]

Not one attempt to actually dive for the ball. Was she the only one who the gloves fitted?

Looks like it. Mind you, the entire defence look like they've been picked off the street too.

 

[worcestersauce]

I'm not overly fussed about the quality of the women's game, it is what it is and what it is is no better than Sunday morning football in my opinion, however if people want to take it seriously all well and good. I do think that we are looking at it from football fans' perspective but think about it from the point of view of other sports. The BBC does give a higher profile to women's football than other probably more popular sports that never get a mention. As for wage equality I have no problem with women earning as much when they draw the same level of support, tennis is a good example, women aren't as good as the men and don't play five sets like the men but I prefer watching the women to the men.

 

['O Zio]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45550697

That fucking keeper is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

I was wondering what had happened to Karius

 

[talkshowhost86]

I love some of the 'offside traps' in among all of that hilarity.

 

[Jgplk1]

Thought this was quite interesting, but didn't want to start a whole new thread on it, so posted it here

 

[alexis]

Thought this was quite interesting, but didn't want to start a whole new thread on it, so posted it here

Still shit football

 

[aliyid]

Thought this was quite interesting, but didn't want to start a whole new thread on it, so posted it here

Suggests the problem is awareness when in this country (and the title of this thread suggests) it’s quite the opposite.

 

[Amo]

Suggests the problem is awareness when in this country (and the title of this thread suggests) it’s quite the opposite.

Unawareness?

 

[Keith Morris]

I think it’s about accessibility which in essence is equality

 

[alexis]

Still shit football

Cmon then @Amo prove your point. It’s getting a lot of push because of gender not quality. I watch a lot of women’s tennis as I find it entertaining whereas Id prefer youth football to have more of an airing than women’s as the quality just isn’t there

 

[punky]

Suggests the problem is awareness when in this country (and the title of this thread suggests) it’s quite the opposite.

It's worse than that, it's effectively sabotaging the men's game to coerce fans to attend women's games.

You could just take it further and say you can only sell the same/double the amount of tickets for the men's game that was sold for the last women's game. Yes the women's game will now be full (assuming people don't just buy the ticket with no intention of showing up), but is that people want? You want fans that *want* to be there, not just obligated for the sake of equality.

 

[faymantaray]

Cmon then @Amo prove your point. It’s getting a lot of push because of gender not quality. I watch a lot of women’s tennis as I find it entertaining whereas Id prefer youth football to have more of an airing than women’s as the quality just isn’t there

If it inspires more young women to play, the quality will improve over time.