In an age where women should be encouraged to go for gold and have it all in a very much male-dominated world of sport, you’d think women’s sports would be given the attention they deserve from the channels that promote the men. Instead, we have been left with the creation of separate accounts just for the girls. Fun, right?
Meet ‘Halo’ – Sky Sports’ attempt at providing women with a channel where they are able to learn more about women in sports. Described as the ‘lil sis’ to Sky Sports itself, the page was designed for championing female athletes, which, to certain people, really must have seemed like a way to make women feel more included in the conversation of sport. In reality, the patronising nature of the page only serves to make women feel as though they’re not taken seriously at all.
For a page that is supposed to be all about women, it sure has a lot of male-focused posts, sparking controversy regarding the true intention behind the page. Just from taking one look at the page it immediately became clear that this is Sky’s way of dumbing down sports by using trendy brainrot terms such as ‘rizz’, ‘hot girl summer’ and ‘bromance’ so that women are able to understand.
In reality, the patronising nature of the page only serves to make women feel as though they’re not taken seriously at all
What the people behind this account need to realise is that women don’t need things to be explained to them in a way that will make us understand sport. We understand just fine. Besides, no amount of captions in pink glowing writing can hide the fact that a ‘hot girl matcha walk’ has literally zero relevance to anything sports related. And last I checked no one was seen blushing after being so called ‘rizzed up’ by an American politician.
It became the belief of many that it’s as if Sky Sports thinks that women are incapable of understanding sports in the same way as men so easily can and, therefore, we need it to be simplified for us in what is honestly the most tone deaf and frankly condescending manner available.
Due to the overwhelming amount of backlash that the page received, Sky Sports have subsequently officially stopped all activity on the account after only a small number of days. While it’s a relief that the brand has realised its mistake in creating such a page, maybe this should be taken as a sign to simply broadcast more about the remarkable women in sport on their main channel, rather than resorting to more misguided attempts at inclusivity.
