Why I feel like a hypocrite

So it's no secret I love football. I love to play, and I love to watch. I get up in the middle of the night to watch European matches, I scour the internet on Saturdays for streams of EPL matches, and I could talk for hours on end about the game, the players, the managers and so on.

But sometimes I feel like a hypocrite in loving the game so much. Because like it or not, European football is an inherently sexist institution, a realm exclusively run by and for men, and the only space for women is as objects to be admired and lusted after.

Check out this video. Great footage of skills from the Euro Cup 2008. I love highlight reels like that. But what I despise about this video is that it makes women look like dumb bimbos who are just there to be admired for looking good and dressing in really skimpy clothes. On the one hand, it's just sexist. Men are allowed to be skillful and creative and score wonder goals for their country. But women are simply objects for visual admiration. God forbid a woman should have football skill or creativity, and horror of all horrors should she actually show it off in public.

And on the other hand, it makes it that much harder for women who actually know a little something about the game to be treated with any kind of respect when trying to discuss the game with men. I mean, in some really screwed up way, I kind of understand why a lot of guys think women don't know anything about football, because so many women just like the game for the hot guys and don't know the difference between offsides and a corner flag.

But seriously. At times I seriously question why I should support any football club, let alone a big one like Liverpool, if all it does is lend my tacit consent to an institution that reinforces such degrading stereotypes.