Everton's Emily Westwood and teammates after the final of Euro 2009
England’s women’s national team win the unofficial World Cups in 1978 and 1984, but since they have had an ignominious string of failures at major international tournaments. They’ve only qualified for two of the five official World Cups, never advancing beyond the quarterfinals. They made it to the semifinals of the 1995 European Championships, but before this year, that was the last time England had gotten beyond group stage.
Despite a lopsided loss in the final, England posted its best finished in a major international two weeks ago in Helsinki, finishing runner-up to a juggernaut Germany squad despite barely making it out of their group. It was an accomplishment to rejoice – a potential turning point for the program. Unfortunately, it is unclear the English media feels the same way.
In all fairness, I’m basing that conclusion on one “photo essay” the Guardian published today. The slideshow, this week’s addition of The Gallery, is introduced by with “Gazza gets breasts and Robbie Savage undergoes a sex change in this week’s slightly small – and definitely deformed – collection of efforts.”
The ensuing six photographs, doctored by users, start innocently enough – Arsène Wenger and two women’s national team players evoking the Eduardo incident – but quickly descends to Robbie Savage’s face in the team photo, Paul Gascoigne with breasts “speaking” on a football panel, and John Terry with makeup.
It’s all harmless, except implicit in the slideshow is the idea that women’s soccer should always be portrayed in a certain light, at least compared to men’s football. Men’s footy is the real business, while the women’s game is a lark.
It’s too bad. England had a great tournament in Finland. Perhaps there have been features on the players and staff, but this slideshow is what came through my RSS feed.