FIL showing himself up - saddened by DH’s reaction

there are 2 things here for me. If i had been there i would have told FIL to fuck the fuck off with his stupid misogynistic attitude, and that i didn't want to see his face around my holiday any more.

I would have been separately incandescent at my DH for not challenging it. And that i don't want to see him either until i have cooled down.

You realise that England's women are European Championship winners? It's not mixed teams! 😂

Your DH could have said this to his father IF it was just his father.

In the presence of his daughter he's a grade A dick and there's no excuses.

I am a pragmatist and understand that sometimes it's just not worth the argument. But with his daughter there who will be sensitive to this he needs to understand his audience and that his dad could suck it up but his daughter needed him to fight her corner

The fact he didn't says a lot and none of it is good.

‘Alright you have a point’?! FFS!

You get that women play sports in separate leagues, right? Youth football is mixed up till under-14 around here, when it splits to single sex. You seem quite confused about how the world works in general.

I really really hope you don't tell your daughters that, or even your sons.

And the only time women try to "compete" with men in the sports you mention is when mediocre men masquerade as women to try and win.

FIL. With his homoerotic Kevin Keegan and Georgie Best posters!

On women's empowerment - stupid things like trying to compete with men in football, boxing, weightlifting, etc. is a road to nowhere. Real empowerment is when you try to compete with men where it counts - most competitive university courses in real subjects (STEM), in a political race for an MP place, in the corporate boardroom, in real life.

So in other words, be a good, little, well-behaved woman and shut up????

There is ALWAYS time to have a feminist view and I would have challenged my FIL if he had come out with that shite. I would also be questioning why my DH was sat in a bar, getting pissed and watching football when he was on holiday and could have been spending time with his daughter (maybe playing football).

Your husband should have spoken up and I'd be hideously disappointed in him, and his FIL. It's especially sad that the children heard this and didn't hear their father sticking up for women's football.

My dad is 81 and says the same. He also watches women’s rugby and cricket. He’s not perfect (he asks me what I’m cooking for dinner even when my brother is doing it - which he does frequently) but has some level,of enlightenment.

Many of the responses on this thread are considerably more alarming than the FIL’s original comment. Still, I suppose the extent of the internalised misogyny explains in part why the bar for male behaviour is often so low on here.

He can't change his dad and there's no point in starting WW III over it. His dad doesn't like women's football. He's missing out, but that's his prerogative.

But in your DH's shoes, I wouldn't have conceded that he had a point. That would have annoyed me, even without a DD who's into football. If I was your DH, I would have said instead at the end, "Well, I like it' and then dropped it. And I would have watched the match.

FIL is of his era and a lost cause, but it's very disappointing that your DH conceded his point. He didn't need to do that.

I don't think I'd say it expecting the FIL to change, although I'd be expecting the father to think on. It was said in front of children (or was it? I just read back)

That’s no excuse, then. My FIL is in his early 80s, from a laddish background and retired from a very laddish work world, and obsessive about football, (as is MIL, and DH), and will definitely watch women’s football with respectful interest. My BIL likes to refer to some elite US women’s team who lost to Wrexham or something, but at least he isn’t labouring under any delusions about their sexuality or appearance.

WTF did I just read?

Yeah, maybe we should just keep quiet for fear of upsetting fucking awful men?
I am not advocating OP shouting and ranting at anyone but she doesn't have to sit there waiting for her H to speak either.
I would have told FIL his attitude and language were disgusting and I didn't want to be in the same room as him and left
Any fall out and awkwardness would be firmly on him

Your FIL is entitled to his opinion. Some sports are not for women, some sports are not for men. Surely those who have eyes, will see it. I was in a local branch of NatWest the other day and they ran adverts of an obese Olympic female athlete weightlifting, GB team. As a woman, I wanted to hug that poor lady and cry and tell her - think of uterine prolapse and hernias!
Equally, I was horrified when I saw male rhythmic gymnastics competitions - they looked as if they were taking the piss of this beautiful discipline.
Horses for courses, as the saying goes.

Mid 60's?
Nope, he's just a misogynistic twat.
My husband is that age and wouldn't dream of denigrating women's sports of any sort.
He has too much respect for women and his daughters who play sports well.
He has taken our daughters to hockey, tennis tournaments, and soccer over the years.

I can kind of understand your husband not being arsed in the moment if he has grown up listening to such views, .......but I wouldn't want such a pig and his views around my children,........ and I certainly wouldn't tolerate such disgusting views being expressed around me or my children and I would be telling my husband that in your shoes.

I absolutely agree.

Your husband saying: 'It's come on quite a bit' is the worst thing about this, frankly.

He's basically saying that women's football was full of 'fat lesbians' previously until - presumably - a load of fat old men told 'the girls' how to play better and let some better looking birds in.

I played football at a relatively high level in the early 90s.

I was making up the numbers - frankly - because I had virtually no skill.

I was just quick. Because, like everyone else I played with, I was athletic, dedicated and committed to the game.

I was just a 1500 metre runner and a swimmer with brothers!

If players were fat and out of condition, they couldn't last 90 minutes.

Do the men in your family fancy a kick about?

The very idea that a player's sexuality is an issue, is awful. In either the men's or women's game.

Do they admire the virulently hetro-sexual Kyle Walker?

Agree

Pretty pointless saying something to a man like that, it wouldn’t sink in and he is unlikely to change
What a horrible creature, I presume You have heard a lot of idiotic nonsense come out of his mouth over the years though?

Women's football has become extremely popular in recent years

OP said in his 60's

I don’t think it’s a generation thing - it’s a mysogeny thing

plenty of men in their 90s wouldn’t refer to women like this