Football season.
A time that many women look forward to, but also dread.
Feeling the crisp air on your skin as you wear your team's colors is probably the most fall thing you can do other than prepare for Halloween. Whether we go to a game or simply watch it from home, you can bet your sweet ass we'll be sipping on our PSL's rooting for our favorite team.
Unfortunately, there are many factors that make being a female football fan difficult, to say the least.
First, there are the insulting assumptions we have to hear every season about how women can't possibly understand football.
Newsflash: just because we weren't an "all-star" on the middle school football team doesn't mean we aren't capable of knowing the game.
Many of us grew up watching the sport with our dads, moms, siblings, or friends. Football is entertaining. Surprised? We don't just watch The Bachelor (even though some of us do love it) and have pillow fights all day every day to fulfill our entertainment needs, as you may so wrongly believe.
Yes, football is entertaining. Not just to you, boys.
It is now the sport of our country, the new American sport. In the NFL there are teams to choose from that are located all over the country. You can show your pride for your city or state, or simply root for a team that you have always been loyal to, even if they are not from your hometown. And let's not forget the college teams that provide us with school spirit not only while we're students, but also well after we have graduated.
Then there's the endless domestic violence.
As if players/coaches being accused of abusing their significant other and/or child isn't bad enough, they get to keep their job. Even worse than that, people still root for them as if they are outstanding citizens. They're cheered on as heroes while their loved ones are broken, or in some cases, dead.
It doesn't get more "anti-woman" than the fact that people simply pretend like their favorite player didn't beat the woman in his life, just because he's a good player and he provides them with entertainment on their TV screen every Saturday/Sunday.
The security for games has gotten a little out of control for women too.
The NFL bag policy that states that fans have to buy their clear bags or carry their belongings in a baggie simply to make security checks go faster is a violation of privacy for women. Yes, women. When was the last time you saw a man carry any sort of bag into a game?
You're told not to ever look through a woman's purse, but I guess it's ok to force them to flaunt all of their personal belongings, including their personal hygiene products, for all of you men to see.
Even when I was 15 years old going to a college football game, I got stopped by a police officer because I had my gloves shoved into my boots so I wouldn't have to carry them.
Not that I'm bitter about it anymore, but he thought I, a 15-year-old girl going to a game with her dad, was sneaking in alcohol. Then when we went to sit down in our seats, the men behind us actually did sneak in alcohol and were dropping their mini liquor bottles all around our feet.
Ok, maybe I am still bitter.
The football industry isn't fooling anyone when they proudly sport their pink attire in October for breast cancer awareness and act like they care about women for a couple of games out of the season.
It's time football fans, players, and the industry in general actually start showing respect to us women. It's a shame that we women have to be so conflicted every year about looking forward to football season simply because there are so many arrogant boys who have no problem treating us like second class citizens.
For once, I'd like to feel like the game I've cheered for all my life would root for me too.
