LOOSE ARTICLES

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MISOGYNY IN FOOTBALL...

Specialising in discord, repetition, tails of boozy nights out and radical politics Loose Articles are a Punk quartet hailing from Manchester. Self-described as ‘Feminine & Threatening, Their music speaks to all those determined to get through the age of austerity with tongue in cheek, pint in hand and two feet firmly on the dancefloor.

Their new single ‘Kick Like A Girl' takes its title from the misogynistic slur often used towards male players who're not performing as well as they perhaps should be. “It suggests that women can’t play football,” explain the band, “but we’re reclaiming that slur and throwing it back in people’s faces. We want to take these stereotypes in football and turn them on their head.”

Commenting on the single, vocalist Natalie Wardle says: “‘Kick Like A Girl’ tackles the narrow mindset of some men towards women and football, as well as a sprinkle of footballing references ranging from Duncan Ferguson to Beckham's Mohican. With our music, we like to raise awareness on issues like misogynistic slurs and attitudes towards women in sports. With this said we still make the tunes fun and comical to grab the attention of people first, before they then realise the tune is making more of a statement on a deeper subject.”

The band's drummer Louise Rivett has been playing football since the age of 10 and held a season ticket for all of David Moyes’s managerial career at Everton. A fantastic decade for the blues.

"Back when I was in school I played in all the sports teams but there was never an option to play football. Not even in PE—the lads had the luxury of getting to play that in lesson time. I loved going to watch Everton

and think I gained a great understanding and passion for the sport from a young age. I was so lucky to go and watch a premiership club every other week. I thought it was really unfair the lads got to play it in PE lessons and we got stuck with netball and hockey. I was desperate to try out all the new skills I had watched over the weekend. Instead, I joined a team about 30mins drive away as there weren’t many local girl’s teams to join. Once again I was so lucky, my parents drove me to practice in the week and Sunday matches—it meant I could play the game I loved so much."

"Football definitely wasn’t as popular then for girls because it simply wasn’t made available to us and schools just didn’t give girls an option to play it. This was only 15 years ago. When I speak to people now who have kids and hear how heavily girl’s football is being pushed and made available from such a young age, I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Shame it wasn’t sooner, but great changes have been made and hopefully, it will help kick out all these stereotypes of women and football as it will become the norm instead of a little bit alien to people. If someone saw me kicking a ball about they would comment they were shocked how good I was, then most of the time followed with a '…for a girl' as well! They didn’t even mean to be patronising, it was just not what they were used to."

"I’m so excited to see how the younger generation will change football in the next 10-20 years, it’s so exciting. The quality is already going up. It’s also starting to become more of a realistic full-time career like the men's game has been for so long! Who knows, maybe the leagues will merge one day! How interesting would that be?"

The band’s new single 'Kick Like A Girl' arrives just in time to slot into the soundtrack accompanying the fever-pitch excitement of the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022 this July.

Words by Loose Articles

The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming second EP, titled Chaos and set for release on 16th September. 2022 on Alcopop! Records.

Photograph by Andrew Benge