By Ilaria Mastio
Social media can be quite challenging for women in sports. Make just one comment or post just one photo that your followers don’t like, and your feed will be full of hate and insults.
This is what happened to Misa Rodríguez, Real Madrid Femenino goalkeeper, when she posted a picture comparing her celebration to Marco Asensio‘s during a football game. It all happened last week during the Real Madrid – Liverpool game, when Asensio scored a goal for the Blancos.
Rodríguez used the hashtag #MismaPasión which means “same passion”, because as an athlete, she understands the joy of that moment more than everyone else.
“As a woman who has been playing football for my entire life, I feel angry but not surprised by this,” said Georgia Rose, 26, a part-time footballer who was astounded by the angry reaction to Rodríguez’s hashtag.
“I received comments from male friends and people I barely know just because I do what I love.
“I’m not famous, and I still received these comments. I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be in the spotlight all the time. I’m just happy famous players backed her up.”
The Real Madrid goalkeeper eventually decided to delete her tweet after receiving misogynist and sexist comments under her post. She didn’t make a scene; she didn’t respond to these people; she just wanted to delete the hate, probably wondering why people can be so mean over nothing.
As a football player, she might have received these comments in the past just because she’s a woman in a man’s world. These things usually get unnoticed – but not this time.
Marco Asensio, the footballer of Real Madrid and the tweet’s subject, noticed what happened and decided to back up his teammate and start a domino effect. He published a post on Twitter saying, “Misma Pasion. Que nada ni nadie te impida decir lo que piensas.” which means “Same passion. Let nothing and no one prevent you from saying what you think.”
With almost 13 million followers on Instagram, Asensio inspired big and small teams to do the same. In the next few days, not only players from Real Madrid used the hashtag, but it also became a proper movement worldwide to support women in sports.
Michael Byfield, 32, said: “I have two young sons, and I wish one day they’ll play football as I used to when I was younger. I know how hard it might be for women, and I’ll try to teach them to behave and respect everyone no matter what. I’m hoping their generation will be better than ours.”
Women in sports have to deal with these behaviours daily just for daring to leave a comment or an opinion in a world that is often seen as male-dominant. It’s so common that sometimes it goes unnoticed, almost as an effect of being a woman in a man’s world.
After seeing the support of thousands of people on social media, Maia Rodriguez re-posted the same pictures on Twitter with the hashtag #MismaPasión.
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