While millions of viewers across all continents religiously follow the FIFA World Cup 2026™, the women's decisive matches don't garner nearly as much attention. Beyond the limited media coverage of women's competitions, some men believe the players aren't "pretty enough" to be watched. In a video, a content creator speaks out against those who still judge women's appearance before their performance.
Reducing a player to her appearance: a persistent habit.
During this World Cup season, men judge the players' actions or missed goals, but they almost never notice the dark circles under one player's eyes or the pimples on another's. While men criticize women for watching matches solely to visually assess the circumference of Ronaldo's buttocks or compliment Mbappé's physique, they are, in reality, engaging in the same anatomical dissection. Instead of praise, they subject women who earn ten times less than their male counterparts to a beauty trial.
While they might offer a few comments on stepovers and off-target shots during men's matches, they completely ignore the game itself during women's matches. Far from fantasizing about these athletes as they do about the players' wives in the stands, they appoint themselves judges of appearance. They assign scores to the women's looks as if they were casting for the next Fashion Week. According to some of them, the players don't offer enough of a dream to be seen on screen. This, they claim, explains the poor ratings.
The photo of Aitana Bonmati , in the midst of a strenuous effort, relentlessly resurfaces in this image debate. It goes without saying that she has won the Ballon d'Or three times. Although on television, female footballers appear minuscule compared to the vastness of the pitch, men feel entitled to criticize their faces as if that were the primary selection criterion. On Instagram, the content creator @hkfoot_ rails against those who downplay the achievements of female footballers to focus on their appearance after a grueling sprint. "We really need to stop reducing a player's level to their style," he exclaims.
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"Too much makeup," "not feminine enough"... the comments are flying.
When female soccer players appear with a bare face, without a drop of makeup, they are accused of "letting themselves go," and press articles focus more on their supposed fatigue than on their prowess in front of goal. Conversely, when they deign to dress up or combine their numbered bib with eyeshadow, they are unhesitatingly labeled "superficial." The moral of the story: whether they forgo beauty treatments or embrace coquettishness, the players are subjected to constant pressure and never seem to live up to expectations.
Alisha Lehmann, a striker for Leicester City Women's Football Club, has faced considerable criticism for her style, deemed "excessive" and even "out of place." The young woman, who boasts over 15 million Instagram followers, has her share of detractors. Considered a mere extra simply because she wears false eyelashes and plays with manicured fingers, she stirs up hatred where footballers' wives and girlfriends usually win hearts. "Influencer or footballer?" the most skeptical even claim, suggesting a career misstep, a fraud.
Fortunately, under @hkfoot_'s video, internet users are restoring the reputation of these players, who endure aesthetic pressure in addition to other athletic demands. "Personally, I prefer watching women's football 10,000 times over men's football; at least they actually play and don't fall to the ground for nothing," one person commented. "Because it's men who are only interested in women to 'consume' them, because they consider them objects," another attempted to explain through an almost sociological analysis.
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Female footballers, rarely appreciated for their game
This video is a stark illustration of a societal phenomenon that extends far beyond the sports arena. It highlights the unfortunate tendency to constantly overshadow women's talents, focusing instead on their beauty routines, guessing their moisturizer brands, speculating about their romantic relationships, or uncovering their workout routines. Studies even document the perceived physical inequality among women, suggesting they lack the physique to compete on the same level as their male counterparts.
However, while everyone notices Alisha Lehmann's meticulous contouring and enjoys ranking the "most beautiful players of all time" like a trophy collection, no one seems to know that the world's top scorer is a woman named Christine Sinclair. Or that Carli Lloyd scored a hat trick in the 2015 Women's World Cup final in just 16 minutes.
Women's football attracted 44.7 million viewers last year, a record high. This should silence the men who see female footballers as a fantasy to fulfill rather than figures to applaud.
