Thank you JK Rowling for exposing the BBC’s rampant hypocrisy
Jaguar Land Rover, Bud Light and now the BBC: despite a widespread disquiet with culture wars issues, big corporations can’t seem to avoid controversy. The beeb has just announced Barbra Banda as its women’s footballer of the year, perhaps because, or in spite of, Banda’s failure to qualify for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 on gender eligibility grounds.
In the same vein as other sporting figures like Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, there is little clear evidence about Banda’s background. Is she a biological woman – and therefore eligible to compete fairly with other women? While originally chosen for her national team in Zambia in 2022, the Zambian FA stopped Banda from taking part in the tournament as she had allegedly “undergone a gender verification test and had not met the criteria for the competition”.
The BBC is quick to point out that “details of that decision have never been made fully clear”, but fails to mention that there is no evidence of Banda undergoing a sex screening – a test which many sporting experts say would clear up the matter once and for all.
But if Banda’s eligibility is unclear, one thing is for sure – the BBC knows what it is doing with this announcement. Rather defensively, Auntie assures us that Banda was chosen by public vote (who?) and shortlisted by experts (again, who?) rather than being appointed by some BBC directive. It all feels a bit like one of Sadiq Khan’s consultations – the public was asked what it thinks, honest, but you just weren’t home at the time.
That most of us hadn’t heard about Banda until now perhaps negates the argument that her footballing career earned her the award rather than her trials with gender eligibility. Previous winners include huge names like Ada Hegerberg, Mary Earps and Asisat Oshoala – who won African Women’s Footballer of the Year six times. Indeed, in response to Banda’s win, some football fans are sharing Earps’ viral “f*** off” clip from last year’s World Cup final.
The BBC can’t quite seem to make up its mind. One minute it’s telling us that women’s sport needs our national attention, the next it’s naming someone whose sex is at the very least under scrutiny as woman of the year. For some this is too much – JK Rowling has not been a fan of the BBC for some time, and showed it by tweeting: “presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women’s faces.” Other sportswomen like Sharron Davies and Tracy Edwards have also come out and criticised the BBC for “actively cheering this unfairness on”.
Someone needs to tell the bods at the BBC that they can’t ride two horses at the same time. Either women’s sport is different to men’s because we are, well, different to men, or we’re all the same and there’s no need for special treatment. I’m no football fan – my interest in the beautiful game is proportional to the beautiful men playing it. I’m as much a fan of Jack Grealish as I am of England, and only pretended to be an Arsenal fan to nab my first boyfriend in secondary school.
And I, like many fraudulent fans, felt the pressure to support the Lionesses because of the hype generated around women’s football. Saying you’re not that into women’s sport has become one of the greatest social taboos. If you can’t name five women from the England squad, you must be a misogynist. But if we’re now being told that women don’t really matter, what’s the point?
You don’t need to be a football enthusiast to know that this stuff does matter. We’re a nation of hypocrites. Remember the This Girl Can adverts, run by Sporting England and the National Lottery, featuring patronising footage of girls like me who can barely run for the bus, pulling up their bootstraps and giving it a go?
As women we’re constantly being told that the world is set against us – that we need special help and support and funding to get on a level playing field both literally and metaphorically with our male peers. And we’re supposed to believe all of that at the same time that the BBC couldn’t pick one clear-cut woman out of all our sporting heroines?
Two weeks ago I gave birth to a baby girl. Maybe – even hopefully – she’ll buck my genetic trend and become interested in sports. But until we get our messaging straight, young girls who have hopes of breaking records kicking or swimming or running will see a confused and unfair road ahead of them. It’s not Banda’s fault that sport is unfair, it’s the BBCs.