A very subjective look into AWFC

My guess is that you all have seen that gif and/or video of Foord essentially pushing and shoving the South Korean GK. It’s not a good look. Many would say “waaaaaay worse things happen any given match day” and they would be correct, so I’m definitely not here to judge her or mention anything related to HER as a person or a player, and I’ll barely talk about this “incident” to be fair.

People seem to think there is a pattern and this incident is “one more” in a series of poor behavior and I totally reject that. I don’t think she’s a violent player nor do I think that this reflects on her as a professional or a player. The beef that I have with this whole thing is not her at all, as I champion her and wish her only good things on and off the pitch. What bothers me the most is the absurd, subjective and slanted “support” arsenal fans are expressing online.

As much as I hate to do this, I have to say it: if Ruesha did that to a keeper, all hell would break loose. This has nothing to do with her or even Caitlin truly, this is only about what I perceive to be hypocrisy by the people who spend their time and energy to post/comment about the situation and a perfect example is whomever posted the most watched clip and the comments she made. You couldn’t ask chatGPT to create a more perfect example of bias and lack of objectivity. Not too different than when I talk about DvD, Beth and Viv to be totally self aware.

You don’t have to justify every single thing someone you’re a fan of does. That behavior is normally reserved for children and a lot of grown “men.” Which is a great reminder that most vocal fans online and just kids doing what kids do and a lot of times is not nefarious and they’re just being silly. That is not lost in me.

We need to be better as a fan base, no matter what videos the club puts out to make us think we’re “the best.” Attendance is one thing and another thing is just being honest with ourselves. And I need to hear that more than anyone.

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d

Hope you all had a great week!

I had mentioned that I would write about the Oranjeleeuwinnen but I got caught up in not wanting to write about it. Just kidding, I legit had a lot of recording to do this week and didn’t want to stare at a screen unless I absolutely had to.

I wanted to share an amazing article that my friend Jamie posted. It resonated a lot with me and I am positive you’ll find it interesting.

Click HERE to read it

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d

Los Angeles is too damn hot today… I know most of you are reading this from the UK and Europe where it’s most likely cold and rainy but if I were to walk outside my house I would be greeted by a toasty 84°F which is basically 29°C… and even though we can get above 100°F here in the summer, today feel like one of those days.

But that’s not what I mean when I say that it feels like the summer. I saw this because it is absolute torture being mid season and there being no club matches until March 15th as far I can tell. That feels like it’s very far away even if it’s just basically 2 weeks away but damn, I miss those anxiety inducing match-days.

I wish this lack of AWFC activity was actually because they all had a break, such as an extended winter break which I would be 100% behind, yet as we know, the lack of club matches is due to the international break. Still, I welcome the other anxiety inducing INTERNATIONAL match days as there’s never a dull day in the life of an oranjeleeuwinnen fan.

I will write more about The Netherlands tomorrow or the day after but if I had to mention the one thing (not oranje related) that I’m mostly excited about in this window would be the fact that our Leah Williamson has been called up and will most likely play next week against Ukraine. To be fair, after the euros I haven’t really kept up with the lionesses and I don’t really know who Sarina’s CB preferred partnership but I would like to see Leah and Maya play together or give Leah a break and have Maya with Alex, I have no idea really, just saying random things at this point.

One thing I’ll chat about another about too is regarding how Sam Coffey mentioned during a presser how AWFC were interested in signing her but that Man City were much more professional. That is very worrisome if what she says is true.

I can understand and excuse different levels of “interest” and how that can manifest… it’s very complex but when it comes to professionalism we simply cannot have that be low. No matter what, the club has to be professional. Again, this is a she said situation so we don’t know the rest but I have no reason to doubt her and I have plenty of reasons to doubt the board.

Yes, I said that.

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d

I don’t mean that in a dismissive way nor am I trying to disrespect whatever initiative this is (or isn’t) but it just feels like suddenly my algorithm is filled with people reacting to whatever that is and I’m so confused.

Admittedly I do not consume all Arsenal Women content. I only follow a handful of players (Beth, Steph, Katie and Leah) and don’t have any notifications etc. I miss a lot of info and I’m sure lots of clothing lines go by and I don’t even know about them wink wink. To be honest I haven’t even watched the documentary about the Champions League yet but that’s because I think I’ll get way too emotional and I don’t know if I have the minerals to deal with that right now.

Anywaaaaaaaaaay, from what I gathered many people are saying it’s a fan’s initiative, organic and spontaneous and others say it is something more artificial and planned by the club. Either way I don’t really have an opinion about where it comes from…

Whatever needs to happen for the girls to have as loud and voluminous support at home or away is something that I support. I don’t really care how it starts as long as they are happy and they feel like its something special that sets our club apart from any other one and at the same time it empowers the players to do their jobs better and make every away match feel like a home one. For that reason I’m super proud of our fan base.

I do have to say that I have some apprehension surrounding these type of planned things such as North London Forever, and if you’ve read this blog before you’ll know how much I dislike that song in many ways and how good I think is in others.

I did watch this video that I think helped me understand some stuff but I don’t really know how accurate this is and if any of you would like to share your thoughts and opinions please do so

thoughts?

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d

At one point WOSO was just about the most welcoming and beautiful environment. Precisely because of this is why I embraced it, why invested in it literally and figuratively, and why I kept creating content. By and large most fans are incredible, kind, supportive but as with many things, the louder ones are usually the most vitriolic and that is antithetical to what women’s football, women’s sport and women in general should be. There is no room for hatred and abuse in this space but sadly it has become the norm.

You have seen it in person when footballers get yelled at or insulted for not giving someone their shirt… we’ve seen the disgusting rise in racist incidents and body shaming is not far behind. Nothing of the sort is ever warranted, never ever. There has never been or will ever be a missed penalty, a bad performance, an offside, a handball, etc nothing will warrant abuse or hatred.

Unless you’re a child or a very immature person, you can appreciate there’s a difference between criticism and hatred. Professional players can take criticism and some of them live for it, not because they wanna hear what they did wrong but essentially because it means their sport is getting the attention necessary for that criticism to exist. And because we all know what criticism is like, we can identify when hatred is just that… hatred. We gotta call it out. We gotta get it out of the game.

Now, it’s not lost in me that I am a man and as such I am partially responsible for toxic masculinity, if nothing else because of being man. I have said time and time again than men are going to be the end of women’s football in that for the sport to grow we need money, most money means business aka men in business aka no scrupels aka dark money aka toxic masculinity aka misogyny etc etc etc.

However, what I have seen lately on social media, not just about Ruesha but essentially any and all players its fucking horrific. How did this ever happen? How did these fans get so toxic and hateful? Who hurt them? Where are the parents?

One thing I’ll say is if you’re one of those fans that insults players and spews hate, is that Taylor Swift would absolutely be ashamed of you. All the people you love and admire would be absolutely sick to their stomach and feel extremely sorry for you and your behavior. And so would any and all of the artists you love. It’s just pathetic behavior.

There is something very interesting that happens in societies and it mostly applies to politics or at least that’s how it manifests itself a lot, and that is the paradox of tolerance… and this is basically what it means: if we tolerate abuse, abuse grows; and when abuse grows unchecked, genuine freedom and diversity shrink. Applied to women’s football, this means that allowing sexist, homophobic, or dehumanizing comments to go unchallenged in the name of “free speech” doesn’t protect the game… it poisons it. To preserve an open, inclusive fan culture, we have to draw a firm line against harassment and refuse to normalize it.

I really don’t know what should be done or how. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve criticized players before, a lot actually. I raise my hand and admit I could be seen as being harsh towards LWM and Pelova, but abusive? Absolutely not. I would fight a pack of wolves for them knowing I would die.

I have for sure criticized other podcasters and bloggers a fair bit and even though I think they absolutely deserve criticism, myself included!!!! I’m not perfect but I can assure you I sleep at night knowing I have done what I can to build women up, as much as I can on this space.

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d