I was struck by the headline of a London news bulletin announcing three London football teams celebrating trophy wins. It was referring to Tottenham’s Europa League victory, Arsenal women winning the women’s Champions League and Crystal Palace lifting the FA cup.
Now this isn’t just the musings of the mum of a heartbroken Arsenal (men’s team) fan with no prizes for coming second (with salt in the wounds from the gloating Spurs fans at school) but rather a middle-aged woman who cannot remember a time previously when women’s football was given this kind of equal footing. I am really impressed by how far we have come, yet it provides an important lesson.
The media had to get behind the sport in order to change the national narrative. Once it started talking about women’s football in the same way as men’s, people took it seriously. They didn’t start reporting on it because people were taking an interest, they started reporting on it to create interest. Only in that way did tens of thousands come to fill the stadiums to watch, and due to encouraging news items the hoards came to witness the trophy’s homecoming.
So if the media can change the dialogue around women in sport, kicking out the misogyny and validating the game, getting it on an equal footing with men, what other cultural narratives are they creating or encouraging and is there anything we can do?
There is another far more sinister narrative the media is manipulating. There are those who say Netanyahu has blood on his hands and has to find a way to end the war in Gaza, however the international media who are creating an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian agenda also has blood on its hands.
The murdered Israeli embassy staff in Washington, those injured in Colorado, and the vandalism in France are all examples, sadly among many, of the tragic events which follow specific narratives being stirred up. It is only a matter of time before such an event takes lives here in the UK, although I feel reassured to know that the CST will do everything they can to avoid that becoming a reality. The horrific suffering of the Palestinians is most certainly something media outlets have the obligation to report and yet they also have to take their responsibility seriously. Every person harmed in the diaspora in a deliberate demonstration of support for Palestinians is a result of the way the war in Israel and Gaza is being manipulated by the press.
When you find yourself glued to the UEFA Women’s Euros this summer and smile when you think how far we’ve come in the world of sporting gender equality, take a moment to think about how much society is conditioned to respond to the way we are presented any situation. What is being said and what is being implied? Where is this narrative coming from and to what end? Who is being vilified and why? And most importantly, how do I find my voice to amplify my truth in this moment?
Rabbi Miriam Berger is Rabbi Emerita of Finchley Reform Synagogue and founder director of Wellspring UK
