UK has been one of the
biggest pro-football regions in the world. The love for football in the region
is clearly visible as they have never been shy in expressing it. Lingerie
football is something which has been around for a while, but never became
mainstream. Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president has been backing this up
for quite a long time now, and the first ever Lingerie Football League is all
set to begin on Wednesday in the UK. The league, which will begin in less than
seven days, had to face several difficulties in getting the ultimate approval.
Feminist across the
United Kingdom had been expressing their concern over this league and had been
vocal in expressing their disappointment, saying that this is more about
‘objectifying’ women and has less to do with sports than it should be.
Ironically for these protestors, this lingerie football league has been started
by a woman, Gemma Hughes, and her take on this is quite different and fresh
from the age old feminist ideology. She believes that her idea is all set to
promote gender equality in sports.
She understands the
outrage over it, and has the following to say: “We know this is scandalous, we
know it’s controversial, but that media attention is what’s going to sell
tickets.
All the money that this
league is going to make is going to be invested into women’s football and given
to the players. The league is beyond the players looking beautiful or sexy,
it’s about ‘women look like women’, as per Gemma.
Tracy Halpin brings a
feminist point of view to the debate, and she explains why this is not
appropriate: “I think it is sexist for a
number of reasons. Why else would men come and watch women play in their
lingerie? It seems like a crazy, crazy thing. You don’t see any men playing
football in their underwear. I would say it brings it all backwards.”
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