Do we really have to get our football kit on for the lads?
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Version 0 of 1. Manchester United unveiled its new fan kit for the season this week, including a top that has been designed especially for female supporters. While the men’s replica shirt is cut straight and boxy, the women’s version narrows at the waist and flares at the hip. Because this is what women’s bodies are meant to do. This is also what men’s bodies are meant to do, but Adidas, the kit manufacturer, has decided to overrule biology in the case of men, presumably because it believes that men who like football want to be comfortable, while women who like football want to look fit. Related: 'I was never motivated by money': meet the new stars of English football The clearest proof of this arises – actually, let’s say plunges – at the neck. Here, the modest V of the men’s shirt, which grazes the Adam’s apple of the players who model it, has been yanked right down, deepened and widened so that it carves out a space between the wearer’s breasts. The V is an oversized arrow that points to the chest. The signage is clear: she likes football, but you can still appreciate her for her tits. It is a shirt for fans who want to affirm their femininity. Now, why would a woman who likes football want to do that? Adidas says that the shirt is part of its “lifestyle range of products” although it is listed as replica kit for women on the club’s website, and the regular shirt is indexed as menswear. Other clubs do this too. Chelsea, for instance, whose kit is also made by Adidas, offers a more fitted version of the men’s shirt with a scooped-out neck. Arsenal’s and Tottenham’s kit also come in a fitted version for women, but overall are faithful to the men’s design. Adidas says that the Manchester United top is merely providing fans with a choice, and no doubt plenty of women will buy it. But it feels so disappointing. None of the women who played in the World Cup in Canada last month looked as if they were being ill-served by their kit. In fact, the power of that tournament was that it normalised the sight of female footballers. It put them on television and in the newspapers, looking just like footballers. Their kit was normal football kit. And the visual and emotional lexicon of their matches – the pre-game huddles, goal celebrations and so on – were remarkably familiar from the men’s game. Their sport was simply football, played by women. This prejudice has informed all kinds of deplorable sporting costume designs for women I realise that the Manchester United shirt is designed for fans rather than players. That’s good, because I’m pretty sure a sports bra would ruin the effect of that V. But the sad truth is that the moment women’s bodies enter the sporting arena – whether as participants or spectators – they are seen as something to be addressed, taken care of, repackaged or explained. The reason the Adidas shirt is shapely in a way that women’s bodies are shapely is because its makers are enacting the standardised view that women who like sport require modification; a correction in favour of femininity to compensate for the fact that they are interested in sport in the first place. This prejudice has informed all kinds of deplorable sporting costume designs for women. In 2004 the Football Association itself produced a brochure of its England women footballers, in which they wore kit with kitten heels. Also that year, Sepp Blatter suggested female players should wear tighter shorts. The film Bend It Like Beckham reached out to thousands of young girls, but its wardrobe department kept things sexy by making sure the players combined football shorts with cropped tops. The Manchester United shirt will appeal to some women, and good luck to them. In fashion terms, the shirt is calamitous. I hope they enjoy wearing it and I hope they enjoy watching sport in it. But most of all I hope they choose the shirt because it fits their style, and not because they feel they have something to prove. |