If we are serious for a moment gents, how many of us are of the opinion that most things sport-related are manly and therefore exclusively masculine? If your answer to this question was an unequivocal NOT ME, I salute you, as you are truly liberated from the shackles of chauvinism. You unfortunately also belong to a select group of gentlemen who find themselves vastly outnumbered; yet (surprisingly) chicks seem to dig where they’re coming from.

Sport and the enjoyment thereof has through centuries largely, though unfortunately, been a privilege set aside for men. It would stand to reason that women were excluded at first due to fierce prejudice that stemmed either from anthropological misconceptions (women are weak and will get hurt) or simply general male ignorance (women belong in the kitchen or at least in the part of the cave designated for cooking). We may have come a tremendously long way from the days of hunting, gathering and seeking refuge from dinosaurs in cave dwellings, but regrettably those seemingly extinct reptiles still walk among us today. I refer of course to these relics who cling to the notion of SPORT= MEN ONLY!! These very individuals who stand proud in most societies and claim to be ultra modern in their outlook on worldly aspects such as politics and religion, yet seem to have to bite their tongue when the issue of women in sport arises. Gender equality should be a fairly simple concept to grasp, but it certainly seems to be reminiscent of an island surrounded by shark-infested waters! It would be commercial suicide for male, public figures, who dream of staying in the limelight, to voice reservations relating to the fairer sex and sport.

This is however a direct contrast to what I have understood to be true through out my whole life. Fathers have (for years) been telling their sons to “toughen up” and not “cry like girls” when times were hard. This conservative, conformist dogma seems to have plagued world societies forever and a day, yet I would be less than truthful if I said that I differed in my opinion. I was brought up in a sporting home where we relished any opportunity to enjoy whatever sporting discipline was being broadcast. My mother’s opinion was seen as “acceptable” with regards to her views and stances on sporting debate, seeing as she had two older brothers and they seem to have covered her “sports education” fairly well. Come to think of it, I don’t recall valuing any female’s (other than my mother’s) notions or sentiments pertaining to any particular sport.

Even as recent as two years ago, I found myself instinctively discarding views from female commentators, unless of course they’re calling a hockey or netball game… This is definitely something I know I struggle with and I’m a firm believer in the notion that “the first step to recovery is realizing that you have a problem”, so some light is flickering at the end of my tunnel. However, as with many things in life, some people first need to come down to earth with a crashing thump before you consider a paradigm shift. Another way of bringing about a 180-degree turn and quick-fire way to lose confidence in your beliefs is meeting and being beaten by your nemesis. The person who proudly stands as beacon for all that which you regard as nonsense of useless drivel.

It happened to me about four years ago at a gathering of friends before a televised, international, rugby match. One of my closest friends joined us on this day and was accompanied by his new girlfriend, who he introduced to us for the first time that day. She was a bubbly girl who seemed to want to know everything about everyone as quickly as she could process all the information. It struck me as odd, but I put it down to nerves and gave her the benefit of the doubt. As the pre-match festivities got under way, I started a little customary quiz game everybody else merely liked to play and I LOVED to play. I enjoyed it so much because I ALWAYS WON and seeing as my sports trivia knowledge was unmatched (in our my immediate group of friends at least) I envisaged doing so again on this particular day. Sadly this was not to be my day, not even by a country mile. This girl (her name escapes me) was on a roll and knew the answers to the questions so well, one would have thought she prepared the quiz. Naturally, all the people present (but specially the ladies) felt a certain amount of retribution overwhelm them as I was being punished by this unknown female on my hollowed turf. All this was neatly carried over into the actual rugby game where it seemed NEW GIRL knew even more about the laws, names and quirky behind the scenes anecdotes than the commentators. I had met my match and it felt horrible, but I had to keep my head up and concede that the better (wo)man had won. All men are created equal, but some women were created superior and I found this out the hard way.

Please do not misunderstand me, I’m on my journey to recovery and I fully comprehend that my views were completely overshadowed by what I was taught and what I saw. In my day we were taught not to question why things works as they do and we saw first hand what happened to people who expressed concern or disdain with any form of popular opinion back then.

Today I’m the proud father of a very bright two-year-old girl, who doesn’t and will hopefully never back-down to a male who shares her father’s previous, archaic sentiment about the role of ladies in sport. You go GIRL!