Marty Sheargold’s attitude about The Matildas is why girls quit sport
Sure, jokes are jokes – but the broader impact of Marty Sheargold’s recent on-air comments about the Matildas is no laughing matter.
Sarah Greenaway is the founder and CEO of Eltee Sydney, a company that makes functional periodwear for young sportswomen. She explains how thoughtless comments like those from Sheargold can lead to lasting, generational damage.
Marty Sheargold’s recent comments on the Matildas have sparked some serious reflection about the narrative we create around women’s sport.
While humour is subjective and everyone is entitled to their opinion, we need to recognise when “jokes” cross the line into harmful stereotypes. Comparing the Matildas—a team of highly skilled, hardworking professional athletes—to squabbling teenagers not only dismisses their professionalism but also reinforces the outdated trope that women’s sports don’t deserve the same respect as men’s.
It’s disheartening because we’ve come so far in celebrating women in sport, yet comments like these remind us how fragile that progress can be. “Language matters,” I’ve often told my daughters. Whether you’re on the field or in a boardroom, what people say has power. When public figures choose language that belittles and undermines, it fuels the attitude that women’s sport is somehow laughable or less important.
Oh please. Grow a spine. It was comedy. And he’s not wrong. The entertainment value of Matildas is hardly worth wasting good money on. People are asking men to lie. You are asking us to place the same value on your competition although it bores the pants off us. Your asking men to set aside their long time experiences , joys and adrenalin that comes from male sport and somehow, manufacture the same enthusiasm for the girls game. It’s never going to happen. That’s just life. You might as well ask us to stop seeing that girl who is amazing in bed and go back to an ex that was a disappointment.
There are a lot of reasons women and boys quit sport. This simplistic narrative is devisive and serves no purpose.
Marty sheargold was the best thing in Australia, it was a joke that the woke got him cancelled. no one cares about women’s sports
Women say that about men’s sport all the time. It’s pathetic ,I’m with Marty Sheergold
Granted – maybe we could also address the unfettered misandry by female commentators in the media about male teams . I would have thought equality goes both ways . Language counts and demeaning male athletes diminishes boys in sport .
What hides in the bathroom and goes “Thump, Thump, Scream ?”
Marty Sheargold doing his nails.