Is The BBC Sexist For Giving An (Men's) FA Cup Round 1 Game A Better Billing Than The England Women's Team?
Tonight the BBC will broadcast live from Doncaster the international friendly game between England and France on the Red Button. In two weeks they'll show non-league Eastleigh host League One's Swindon Town in the first round of the FA Cup live on BBC2. Both games are on a Friday night at 8pm. Is this fair? Is this right? I don't believe it is. I see very clear gender discrimination from a public service broadcaster that we supposedly own.
On the whole, women's sport is not shown enough on our TV screens, despite it's popularity growing at an astonishing rate. Women are consistently more successful in sport than men yet, it's the men that get top billing. Women's football is the single largest women's sport in Britain, and now the second biggest team sport of both genders. To see that our national side is hidden away on the Red Button where it doesn't even get a TV guide, where you can't set a reminder on your box, you can't record the match if you're out for all or part of the game, is outrageous. It's even more outrageous to think this is being done to the national team then, in the men's game, they're adjusting their schedule to fit an FA Cup Round 1 game between to teams in the South West of the England. A game of local interest trumps one of national interest.
This is very deliberate. It may seem a small matter but, it has the potential to have a large impact. Getting the women's game into the mainstream is a goal of mine, and this is a backwards step from the BBC, pushing the game away from the public's view.
Please use social media to put the word out as much as possible that the match is on, where it can be watched, and when. Post, like, share, tweet, and retweet until everyone in the UK knows to press the Red Button at 8pm this evening, and give the #Lionesses your support.
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Tonight the BBC will broadcast live from Doncaster the international friendly game between England and France on the Red Button. In two weeks they'll show non-league Eastleigh host League One's Swindon Town in the first round of the FA Cup live on BBC2. Both games are on a Friday night at 8pm. Is this fair? Is this right? I don't believe it is. I see very clear gender discrimination from a public service broadcaster that we supposedly own.
On the whole, women's sport is not shown enough on our TV screens, despite it's popularity growing at an astonishing rate. Women are consistently more successful in sport than men yet, it's the men that get top billing. Women's football is the single largest women's sport in Britain, and now the second biggest team sport of both genders. To see that our national side is hidden away on the Red Button where it doesn't even get a TV guide, where you can't set a reminder on your box, you can't record the match if you're out for all or part of the game, is outrageous. It's even more outrageous to think this is being done to the national team then, in the men's game, they're adjusting their schedule to fit an FA Cup Round 1 game between to teams in the South West of the England. A game of local interest trumps one of national interest.
This is very deliberate. It may seem a small matter but, it has the potential to have a large impact. Getting the women's game into the mainstream is a goal of mine, and this is a backwards step from the BBC, pushing the game away from the public's view.
Please use social media to put the word out as much as possible that the match is on, where it can be watched, and when. Post, like, share, tweet, and retweet until everyone in the UK knows to press the Red Button at 8pm this evening, and give the #Lionesses your support.
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