A largely contested conversation topic at the best of times, women’s sport has recently been drawn back into the limelight with the release and subsequent removal of the Sky Sports TikTok channel Halo. The page was made to ostensibly highlight the role of women in sport, promising a channel which would value, celebrate, and support female voices. For many fans, this suggestion was seen, at first, as a step in the right direction, encouraging rather than diminishing the role of women in sport, where they have historically been silenced. For example, with women’s football being banned by the FA in 1921 until 1971, this page alleged hope that women were being not only included but celebrated within sports. This therefore emphasises how utterly disgraceful the Halo page was, as it promoted a rampant degree of sexual prejudice which is simply hateful, ignorant, and stupid, as women have every possibility of being successful in the world of sport, just like men. So, where the role of women is often critiqued, mocked, and discouraged, Halo is yet another nail in the coffin for the media’s disgusting portrayal of female sport.
The branding of the page was blatantly stupid, as the channel referred to itself as “the lil sis” of Sky Sports. Whilst this may have been meant as a cute joke, it instead appears to be condescending and arguably promotes the infantilisation of women, implying that women are lesser than men. This absurdity was exacerbated by the pink and peach colour theme that the page adopted—this ridiculous perpetuation of historic gender stereotypes has yet again placed women into a particular category from which we have spent decades trying to break free.
Yet, the aesthetic of the page is only the beginning of the Halo’s issues, as the content itself was even worse—the page which was supposed to celebrate female voices ultimately failed to post anything about women in sport. Instead, the clip that caught public attention and catalysed outrage was of two male Manchester City players scoring a goal with the caption: “how the matcha + hot girl walk combo hits.” At base level, this is insulting because it suggests that this online stereotype is the primary interest of women as a whole, when many have probably never even had a matcha. Furthermore, this negates the entire purpose of the channel and instead fosters the insulting suggestion that women are only interested in sport for its trivial aspects. The site also implied that women watch sport because they are attracted to male athletes, as opposed to an actual appreciation or interest. Frankly, the page was the online embodiment of the scenario wherein a middle-aged man approaches a group of women watching the Euros at a pub and tells them to explain the offside rule or else they don’t deserve to watch the game. This rule, like valuing female voices, is really not that complex at all, and yet time and time again is made to look like one of the most difficult things in the world.
After all of these faults were stressed online by fans, the account has rightfully deleted all its misogynistic posts and comments, with a solemn apology posted in their place. It is truly incomprehensible and disgraceful Halo was greenlit by focus groups to the point of publication. However, the consequent public solidarity does evoke a sense of hope that not everyone has a damaging outlook towards the role of women in sport.
Image credits: Image by Joppe Spaa on Unsplash