Who would have thought, a few years ago, that the scowling, brilliant but bad-tempered Andy Murray could become a feminist hero? I’ve always been a fan of Murray. I like his aggression and his refusal to play the media game. I like that he can lose hopelessly and then bounce back.
But this week, in particular, I like his strong defence of moving to a female coach, Amélie Mauresmo. “A lot of people criticise me for working with her and I think so far this week we have shown women can be very good coaches as well … I would say it was a brave choice from her, and hopefully I can repay her in a few days,” he said after his semi-final victory in the Australian Open. Murray’s defence of the former world number one provoked a storm of admiring comments on social media.
Women can be great coaches as well as great players because, as we all privately know, women can be at least as aggressive and determined to win as men. Go and look at women’s football, now breaking through as a spectator sport. Think of Martina Navratilova in full, flaming form. I have friends who play hockey, and you wouldn’t want to get between them, the stick and the ball.
Murray has a phalanx of female supporters now, including Mauresmo, his mother – the indefatigable Judy Murray – and his fiancee, Kim Sears. While I don’t condone foul language, if Sears, caught on film apparently abusing Murray’s semi-final opponent, Tomas Berdych (“Fucking have it, you Czech flash fuck,” according to some lip readers), wants to abandon the bland-but-beautiful partner image so common among sportsmen’s spouses, then good for her. And, well, it’s sport. It gets people worked up.
Yup, the language seems pretty fruity. But it’s only what you would hear every Saturday at any football ground. And have you never overheard two women competing for the last parking space outside Sainsbury’s?
Murray’s endorsement is all the more important given that only 18% of all qualified sports coaches are female. That’s not helped by the recent news from Sport England of the sharp drop in the number of people playing sport for at least half an hour a week. There are fewer working-class people, and far fewer women, taking part: 1.8 million more men than women currently take part in any sport once a week.
Sport England says around 455,000 women have given up swimming over the past decade, 181,000 of them in the past year alone. Those are astonishing figures. We are surrounded by media telling us of the health benefits of sport. Even after government cuts, we still have many excellent local authority swimming pools; there’s a fashion for free swimming and sea swimming. And yet the numbers are plunging.
Nick Bitel, Sport England’s chairman, is in no doubt as to why: women are embarrassed about their bodies: “They are worried about being judged about how they look, how fit they are and whether they are ignoring their caring responsibilities.” I find that pretty shocking: “You shouldn’t be swimming, dear. You should be looking after the kids/your old dad.” It sounds so old fashioned.
What’s ironic about the timing is that, in other areas, these are good times. I’ve been a trustee of Women in Sport, which strongly supports the This Girl Can campaign bespattering social media, TV and bus stops near you: the overflowing bikini bottom heading for the swimming pool; the wobbly thighs jogging up a hill, “I jiggle therefore I am”; women footballers announcing “I kick balls – deal with it”; the woman in the spinning class with the slogan, “Damn right I look hot”; and the boxing, the zumba and the rowing.
Inevitably, the use of “girl” rather than “woman” has annoyed some people, but it’s a damn fine campaign. It’s undoubtedly eyecatching, and has already had 12m hits on YouTube and Facebook. Being hot, sweaty and aggressive is not unfeminine. It increases self-confidence and it lifts depression.
Sport benefits everyone, even those of us who don’t have a lithe, size 10 figure – indeed, us most of all. These are exactly the right messages to get out there, and we know from other social campaigns on everything from cigarette smoking to healthy eating that well-crafted, eyecatching advertising really can change attitudes.
However, we also all know that they are never enough by themselves. The drop-off in people participating is particularly disappointing after all the high hopes around the 2012 Olympics. The Amateur Swimming Association promises that “we will be putting all our resources” into reversing the decline. But what, beyond hard-punching adverts, can be done?
Even in these straitened times, local authorities need to offer more women-only swimming sessions. Commercial gyms could do themselves a lot of good by offering women-only evenings and mornings. Schools could do much more by providing decent showers in the changing rooms along with mirrors and hairdryers. And in the upper ranges of sport, the more commercial areas, we also need a lot more support for women.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of indulging in homophobia, misogyny and the odd bit of rape, professional footballers would mobilise themselves to speak up for their sisters in the game, scandalously underpaid and still under-regarded? The male stars of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool could do the image of the game a lot of good by speaking out for the excitement and skill of British women’s football.
And what about prize money? At the top level of all sport, from tennis to football, golf and athletics, men’s prize money is on average 30% higher than women’s.
Is all this a political issue? It certainly is. We are becoming a much fatter, less healthy country. Diabetes and heart disease, linked to obesity, are putting huge pressure on the NHS. Eating disorders among young women, and indeed young men, are on the rise. Body image remains a huge issue for many young women. More sport is a significant part of the answer.
So tomorrow I will be cheering Andy Murray on as he plays in the final. It would be great to have another title for our “homegrown” star. It would also be great to prove all those critics of women coaches wrong.
