Curling Canada calls for end to double standards, misogynistic comments levelled at women curlers
CBC
Team Canada skip Kerri Einarson's volume increased with each of three times she belted out "clean" after throwing her final rock in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last month in B.C., clinching a record-tying fourth straight Canadian women's championship title.
The shouting comes with the territory in curling, regardless of the gender of the person tossing the rock, but a small segment of spectators seems particularly bothered by the sounds when they come from women curlers.
That's according to Curling Canada, which says during big tournaments like the Scotties, it sees comments from fans online complaining women on the ice are too loud. Einarson has received some of those comments on social media as well.
"We have higher-pitched voices, it's just how it is," she said. "I can't help that. I'm an athlete and I just show my intensity out there.... I don't understand what the fans want from us."
On Wednesday, for International Women's Day, Curling Canada's media relations manager Al Cameron reposted a copy of a column he wrote that ran in the Scotties program handed out in Kamloops last month.
In it, he describes a double standard that's unfolded, with some fans lodging misogynistic complaints either with Curling Canada or directly to women curlers over social media, by email and elsewhere online.
The comments have been finding their way to Curling Canada's inbox and social media accounts for some time now and "it's got to stop," Cameron said.
"That double standard is ridiculous and it's just so minimizing to what our female athletes do out there," he said.
"The men yell loudly too, just as loud if not louder, but I don't get emails about those."
The complaints to Curling Canada spike around events like the Scotties, and the most common one coming in is about women shouting or screaming too loudly.
But they also have people messaging or emailing them complaining about women curlers with tattoos, among other gripes, said Cameron.
"When someone says this stuff to me in person, I'll always challenge, 'Would you ever say that to a man? Have you ever said that about a man?' And inevitably the answer is 'no,'" said Cameron.
Katherine Henderson, CEO of Curling Canada, said much of the mail and email she receives from women's curling fans is positive. She also receives complaints about the makeup they wear or how they do their hair.
"I think maybe there's a feeling out there that for some reason that women athletes, when they're frustrated or when they're excited or when they're being highly competitive in some way, should behave a little bit differently than male athletes, which we think is wrong," said Henderson
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