Feminism: chat
Why Lionesses?
EhatBow · 01/08/2022 08:25
I'll admit I haven't been a fan of women's football. Until recently it's been a lot like watching schoolboys. I felt they needed to develop their own game, like the female tennis player have. In tennis, rather than the same play slower it's a different game and I think the female footballers have achieved that in this competition.
However, we don't have manageresses or actresses anymore, so why Lionesses? Or am I over thinking?
Aposterhasnoname · 01/08/2022 08:36
MbatataOwl · 01/08/2022 08:34
Because lionesses is the name given to female lions. Do you want them to be named after the males? Do you see lionesses as lessser? Do you feel the same about 'bull' and 'cow'?
This. Very telling that people still want the male terms to be the default. They are lionesses because they are female.
SucculentSunshine · 01/08/2022 08:37
I think at this point in time it’s important to make that distinction because this is a huge turning point in the history of football and womens sport in general. The nation is celebrating women winning the Euros. Monumental.
in years to come hopefully it’ll be our norm and womens football will be assumed under the umbrella football rather than a sub genre.
purpleme12 · 01/08/2022 08:38
I read about it yesterday.
It was a few years back when the men and women were both playing football in big tournaments but the same hash tag was used for both so the women's got lost because the attention on the men's was bigger. So someone decided to give them their own hashtag the lionesses so they could stand out more and be found more easily for people to follow and then it caught on so that's now how they're known
EhatBow · 01/08/2022 08:39
MbatataOwl · 01/08/2022 08:34
Because lionesses is the name given to female lions. Do you want them to be named after the males? Do you see lionesses as lessser? Do you feel the same about 'bull' and 'cow'?
By that reckoning Actress is a name given to female Actors.
Tsandjdarethrbest · 01/08/2022 08:39
Lots of actresses still prefer to be known as such. I like the fact the national team are called the lionesses. It marks them out as spectacularly female. Lionesses are truly exceptional animals so to have adopted them as the nickname is pretty cool.
Namenic · 01/08/2022 08:51
I think u are overthinking it. Lioness is a female lion - if the squad are fine with it, It’s fine. I’m fine with actress but if someone wants to be referred to as actor, then it is ok too. Lioness behaviour in nature is different from lions and there are definitely features that make it a cool name for a football team (not everything obviously though).
faffadoodledo · 01/08/2022 08:58
Totally overthinking. The men aren't even informally known as 'The Lions'. So I'd say calling the women 'Lionesses' gives them one over the men. And female lions are the hunters. Male lions just kind of lie around (or that's their pubic image anyway!) waiting for a shag.
JosephineGH · 01/08/2022 09:12
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Alexandra2001 · 01/08/2022 09:15
SucculentSunshine · 01/08/2022 08:37
I think at this point in time it’s important to make that distinction because this is a huge turning point in the history of football and womens sport in general. The nation is celebrating women winning the Euros. Monumental.
in years to come hopefully it’ll be our norm and womens football will be assumed under the umbrella football rather than a sub genre.
I don't know, i had to pop out to shops yesterday evening (i don't follow football normally) i was amazed at the number of people using the convenience store, lots of cars on the roads too, mostly men in the shop, no one talking about the match.
Euro's final last year and the roads were empty.
I personally don't think men will accept that this amazing win is on par with the mens competitions, just as most football clubs make the women play their matches at the training grounds, miles from anywhere.
Germany has won euro's 8 x but the women still aren't accepted as equals over there.
Love to be proved wrong but my sport is cycling and it doesn't seem to matter what a women achieves in that sport, some dick will come out and have a go.
Headbandheart · 01/08/2022 09:17
Not a football fan at all, but I assume it is becuase The males teams are known as British lions . The heraldic symbols of britain are 3 lions. Dates to 1066 at it was William conquerors 2 lions. King Henry II added the 3rd one when he married Eleanor of Aquitaine. So England squads have been emblem on mens tops I think since mid 20th century.
I am not into sexists diminutives but given lionesses do all the hard slog work in prides of lions, and lazy males just make a lot of noise, have sex and steal female food..? Female lions work amazingly as a team, courageous in taking down large animals that could kill them, have strategic thinking and defined roles to do that. On balance I think it is an apt title. But as a superior term to the lions
SuperCamp · 01/08/2022 09:17
I am irritated by the fact that ‘lioness’ is a qualification of the word ‘lion’. Lion = Default, adjusted to lioness for female lion. Same with words ending in ‘ette’.
However I see the branding sense, and there is the fact that female lions are fiercer and better hunters than males.
VikingVolva · 01/08/2022 09:27
I think it has to be that because if you see 'lion' as a job description for anyone wearing the Three Lions shirt, then you'd need to qualify with male/female of women's/men's when you needed to specify (a bit like acting awards specify)
I think it's boosted the game, because despite the name being lexically derived from 'lion' it's been taken and owned by the women's team and their supporters. And that's good.
It's also considerably catchier than say Diamonds, which is quite well known but doesn't have anything like the same recognition
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