“What about decency?”
Sayings against DFB women “shock” Olympic champion
08/08/2023 11:42 am
The German soccer women present themselves weakly at the World Cup. That makes for justified criticism – and a lot of derogatory comments. That shocks a top athlete.
Olympic luge champion Natalie Geisenberger was “shocked” by the misogynist comments made against the German soccer team after the national team’s early World Cup exit. “Of course it’s okay to criticize now. Every competitive athlete has to deal with it, criticism is part of it and is right and important. But everything that’s written on social networks: that really shocks me!” Wrote the 35-year-old in the social networks.
In addition to her comment, the luger shared a snippet of misogynist slogans on Instagram and asked: “What about humanity? What about decency? What about respect?” Addressing the DFB team, Geisenberger wrote: “Cheer up, straighten your crown and don’t get annoyed.” At the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the selection had already been eliminated in the preliminary round and thus earlier than ever before.
“She’s really hot too, isn’t she?”
A report by NDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” showed last summer that sexist and derogatory comments are still part of everyday life in German women’s football. In a report by the ARD magazine “Panorama”, former world goalkeeper Almuth Schult, among others, complained about lewd remarks from spectators and even from coaches and supervisors, as well as sexist behavior.
Schult also reported on a journalist’s question about how it feels “when you’re one of the few in the team who loves a man and not a woman?” Women are also often denied competence in football. They felt ignored and ridiculed.
Ex-national player Tabea Kemme, who traveled through the host country for ZDF before the EM in England, heard this sentence about a teammate: “She’s really hot too, isn’t she? I’d also like to iron her out.”