To celebrate the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Glamour UK and VERSUS have joined forces to bring fans a women’s football series that explores the rise (and rise) of the women’s game through features focusing on activism, fashion and beauty.
Last summer, Sarina Wiegman and the Lionesses ended England’s 56-years of hurt when they won the UEFA European Women’s Championship. A moment that sent shivers down the spines of fans up and down the country. The likes of Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone and Alessia Russo became household names overnight, with their historic win inspiring millions of girls (and boys) to pick up a pair of football boots. But what these heroines also did was remind the world: you can have eyelash extensions, acrylics and wear makeup whilst being an elite athlete.
In 1921, the English Football Association announced that football was an “unsuitable” game for women to play as it could be harmful to female participants, and so the federation banned women from playing the sport – in any structured, vaguely organised capacity – until 1971. During those fifty years, the ideal of womanhood and what a woman ‘should’ look and act like, was centred around an archaic definition of femininity.
The FA’s ban contributed to the idea that playing football – getting sweaty and muddy, performing crunching slide tackles and participating in what is often a physical sport – was a man’s activity. In other words, football was not an appropriate environment for those of a delicate disposition i.e. women.
Thankfully, nowadays people aren’t only more accepting of girls and women playing football, but are wanting – more than ever before – to watch it. A 2022 post-EUROs study found that 40% of the general public were now more interested in watching women’s football following the Lionesses’ performances last summer than previously. And although the stigma surrounding women playing football has shifted, in recent years, people seem to be more concerned about how players look whilst kicking a ball and doing their job, than anything else.
During the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Nigeria international Francisca Ordega engaged in an online debate after fans criticised her for wearing makeup and hair extensions during a 3-0 defeat. Fans didn’t just question her beauty choices but even suggested they could have contributed to her team’s loss. “The hair Ordega carries wouldn’t allow her to move freely. It tells on her game.” wrote one Twitter user, @shigobouncing.
Questions like, “why is she wearing a full face of makeup?” and “are her eyelashes false?” were also directed at two-time World Cup winner Alex Morgan as well as World Cup runner-up and the Netherlands international, Shanice van de Sanden. And although there are ‘fans’ who seem to be more preoccupied with judging players for what they look like rather than their skill, there are some who are directly challenging these outdated perceptions of beauty in sport, and proving that women can score a worldie whilst also looking like one; Alisha Lehmann being one of those people.