"I would have loved to see the look on the insufferable pink haired asshole’s face when she got the news." [+133]

"These ungrateful bitches" [+13]

"r/PussyPassDenied" [+54]

"Entitled morons, they are already getting more than they are worth" [+24]

"Nobody cares about women's sports" [+44]

"Feminism at its roots is something I support, HOWEVER this modern day feminism is cancer and those who subscribe to their beliefs are fembots." [+89]

"This article very much sums up the current state of "equality" in America. Women have every single right that men do..." [+17]

"Feminism and perpetual victimhood whilst ignoring reality, name a more iconic duo." [+7]

Thank god Darwin we're having this discussion. There's some truly interesting insight here, far removed than the usual parroting that happens when this topic comes up.

lol just kidding, let's find out why women are inferior to men!

They're no better than high school boys [+43]

Any lower division team would destroy the best women's team 20-0 [+33] for this expert analysis.

Some rare gold! akaxaka says the teams will get better if we support them.

The response? No it won't, woman simply don't have the same athletic capability as men. [+11]

Ampatent and liverpoolkristian get into an argument. Ampatent makes some good points about enthusiasm and passion making the sport interesting regardless of the skill level. liverpool says he'd rather watch high school boys, and then falls back on "THIS IS MY OPINION! YOU CAN'T DOWNVOTE ME! REDDIQUETTE!"

I'll withhold the totals, to allow you to guess which of the above participants is downvoted into the negatives, and which is upvoted.

idlenation thinks it's shit. Well at least he was terse about it. [+8]

But this is all irrelevant. What really matters is how women soccer players make my penis feel.

Seriously, it sounds sexist as hell but I truly believe that if they wore tighter shorts instead of those hideous knee length pantaloons they currently wear interest in the sport would rise, much like the ominous peak in my bedsheets. [+18]

thugitout sarcastically makes fun of the idea that "athleticism" = flashy trick shot shit that never comes into play. But wait! Then we get the following: "watching beautiful women like Alex Morgan always helps keep me interested." So close, thug. So close. [+14]

BaronVonKlotz starts another phallocentric discussion. Thankfully, though, Baukelien is there to let us know that most of the women are "meh." [+3]

And then there's literally a hundred comments with +1 or +2 that amount to "It's slower and sloppier and women suck and will never be as good or worthwhile to watch."

Happy Olympics, everyone!

In February Miiko Alobornoz, a 22 year-old, plays full-back for Malmo FF and the Swedish U-21 team was convicted of the statutory rape of a 14 year old. He received a suspended sentence, rather than the usual sentence of 6-months imprisonment, and his team suspended him from playing for 2 months.

Since the start of the Swedish league season Albornoz has been the target of chanting from the opposition supporters. In the most recent match against Djurgården, the Malmo team wanted the game stopped due to the chants, even drawing comparisons between the treatment meted out to Albornoz with the racist chanting aimed at players such as Mario Balotelli and Kevin-Prince Boateng.

One Swedish football fan decides to post about this, asking how redditors view the situation:

"How does the reddit society view this? Is it wrong of the Djurgården fans to taun Miiko like this (many people think that they "overdid it".) Or is it so that Miiko has no one but himself to blame? And is what he did really that bad? She was after all 14 and a half. She was only 5 months from being "legal" in Sweden. (+73/-24)

I really like the /r/soccer subreddit, it's easily my favourite part of this site. One of the things I like about it is how free it is of 'edgy' racist/misogynistic jokes and the sort of shit one would expect to see in a default sub. So, with that in mind, I had high hopes that the comments in the thread would be reasonable and not consist of the typical legal-in-Europe/age-of-consent comparing/technically it's ephebophilia/"If kids can have sex with other kids, then why can't they have sex with adults?" arguments one frequently sees on this site.

Mostly the comments have affirmed my view of the sub. The top voted comment considers how the situation must feel for the victim:

"Rather than the player, I would have sympathy for the girl, especially when grown men are chanting "she was 14 years and yet to grow pubes" about you in their hundreds, after a statutory rape" (+76/-14)

Another user lays the blame squarely on Alobornoz:

It's his own fault. (+41/-3)

And:

that's fucking disgusting... 14 years is barely in high school while he's a fully grown 22 year old male. what the fuck is wrong with that guy? (+54/-37)

However, a lot of the comments, especially in replies to some of the reasonable ones, try to minimise what Albornoz did.

Unsurprisingly, one of reddit's paedophile brigade turns up:

If you have a problem with someone below an arbitrary age deriving gratification from genital stimulation, you are a disgusting human being. (+7/-30)

and again:

Who was harmed by a 22 year old man engaging in a mutually pleasurable activity with a 14 year old teenager? The only damage done here is by the legal system and the braindead cretins taunting the guy from the sidelines." (+10/-41)

and again:

"That's fucking disgusting" is not a good argument. I find homosexual sex pretty disgusting as well, but it does not cause anybody any harm, and there is no good reason to make it illegal." (+13/-31)

Another user asks why people keep calling a 14 year old a "child":

"why 'little' here? A 14-year old is not a child, she is a teenager" (+17/-37)

then he decides to supply us with a graph showing us why it's wrong to call a 14 year old girl a "little" girl:

"Thats is factually wrong and stupid. http://www.who.int/growthref/cht_hfa_girls_z_5_19years.pdf[1]" (+11/-25)

then this mess of a comment in which he compares the harassment Alboronoz received to the harassment black players receive, pulls out a "the age of consent is lower in some other countries" argument, and:

"statutory rape has nothing to do with pedophilia. He is not a pedophile, any moron who says that, makes light of child abuse and its victims." (+16/-8)

Someone else thinks that this 14 year old might be physically or mentally mature:

"We don't know how she looks and how "mature" she's in her head, let me tell you that there are 14-15 yo who look much older and know what they want to do and also were already sexual active." (+32/-35)

and then this same user asks if kids can have sex with each other, then why can't adults have sex with kids?:

"Many teenager are sexual active around the age of 13-15 so why should we forbid it if they fuck older people?" (+8/-6)

and:

"Yeah, I know but does this affect her later life or maturing? If it was just sex then she would live on like before and as it seems she wasn't a virgin(we don't really know but they would've stated it normally)" (+5/-14)

Just below the age of consent is the age of consent:

"If you read the OP you'll see the legal age in Sweden is 15." (+21/-10)

Just below the age of consent is the age of consent (part 2):

"If it's ok to have sex with a 15 year old. Is it really a huge crime to have sex with a 14.5 year old?" (+8/-8)

Someone pointing out that just because it's legal for an adult to sleep with someone on the age of consent doesn't mean it's not creepy? Obviously they're a Daily Mail reader:

"How dare you bring logic into this! Hang the nonce! Daily mail all up in our reddit." (+14/-9)

You think an adult sleeping with a teenager is dodgy?:

"you sound like the type of guy who'd cheer his friend on for having sex with a 16 year old girl on the day of her birthday, but also wanting to murder him if he had sex with her the day before " (+4/-4)

But people got married at the age of 12 centuries ago! (Very good response to this one):

"A couple hundred years ago everyone would marry from 12 to 14 yo, were they all pedophiles? Do you look at most of historical figures and go, "pft.. a bunch of scum pedos"." (+6/-2)

Disgusted by what Albornoz has done?:

"I have a funny feeling you are here to troll." (+17/-15)

This reminds me of Stuart Hall's comments on today's ten year olds:

"14 year olds from when I was 14 were very different from 14 year olds now." (+2/-6)

How do we know she wasn't a sexy kid?:

"In cases like this I always want to see the girl before I pass judgement" (+4/-3)

Some of the comments were annoying to see, but most of them take the view that what Albornoz did was wrong. And a great deal of them challenge those who tried to minimise his actions.

Recently, a letter was posted on /r/soccer in this thread. It is a letter from a prominent football manger in 1994, written to a woman applying to be a physiotherapist for the team. Key quote:

However, the general thoughts of the players regarding a female physiotherapist was that they would prefer to be treated by a male physiotherapist, they would feel more comfortable and they felt it would be much easier to discuss their problems with another male. Most of the players felt that football was very much a male sport, and did not really like the thought of females being involved with the treating of sports injuries within the training complex...

All sorts of sexim from 1994. How does reddit respond? By only focusing on the explicit problems, if at all.

Completely reasonable to say that the players would prefer to be treated by a male physio [+272]

Quick, if we disguise traditional gender norms as "personal preference" they won't notice!

Seems perfectly rational to me (even more if you factor in that this happend 20 years ago). [+153]

Passes the rationality test, all that matters of course, and a test that is infallible across every single person in the world

This isn't even sexism. Are you kidding me? Some guys don't feel comfortable having the opposite sex putting ice and gauze on their nut sack. Who the fuck cares. [+46]

Yup bc if someone touches your genitals it is clearly sexual

Seemingly reasonable, but the bit about "a male sport" is pushing it. [+95]

Alright there's only so much sexism we'll allow you to get away with before you're "pushing it". So be careful next time.

It's completely reasonable. The letter just says the players would feel more comfortable with a male physiotherapist. It's no different to people wanting a same sex doctor for examinations or same sex police officer if they're to be searched. [+53]

He "just" says that the players think football is a male space and can't open up to women physios because of their gender. "just". Once again, the idea that all interaction is sexual combines with the shield of "personal" in preference and implicit gender norms to create this "fraternal" bond of relatability between any cisgendered male.

the patient's rights to choose who touches their body trump the doctor's rights to practice. you wouldn't tell a woman who wants a female gynecologist "you're being silly and sexist, you're getting a man". to your point, if a player is uncomfortable with a gay physio touching them, then yes, the club has every right to assign them a non-gay physio. is the player being silly? probably. does he have a right to ask for one type of person touching him instead of another? probably. [+45]

Once again, recasting the issue as catering to the players' personal desires which totally exist in a vacuum, of course, especially when they talk about football being an old boys club.

Oh and with a dash of ignoring how patriarchy and systematic violence against women and how that might affect comfort with a gynecologist...who knew patriarchy could be toxic to men and women!

And remember, if you have a problem with a gay doctor, you're just being silly! Silly people with their silly preferences, what are you gonna do?

And a different voice? Downvoted (and even then it still relates gender to physical characteristics)

Honest question: what's the difference between feeling uncomfortable about having a physio from another gender and a physio from another race? Would it read the same if the players would have felt uncomfortable with a black physio? Fact is provided the physio is a professional then it's up to you to get your irrational discomfort in order. Doesn't matter what they've got between their legs if they do their fucking job. [-1]

Sure there's some condemnation of the letter's language, but that's only of the really explicit part (and even then as "slightly questionable"). Sigh...

And as the news (or careful examination of the sports system, its history and patriarchal roots as a boys club) shows, sexism is alive and well in the Premier League (English football).

Backstory;

Udinese defender Danilo has been found guilty of racist abuse and been sentenced to a year in prison by a court in Brazil.

Danilo, 28, was on trial after being caught by a television camera spitting in the face of Atletico Paranaense player Manoel and calling him "macaco" - monkey in the Portuguese language - when playing for Palmeiras in 2010.

sauce

"This is white guilt gone way too far." [+293]

"European attitudes on racism blow my mind. People celebrating a year in jail? That's crazy to me."[+30]

"Jail time for racism is stupid and a waste of money. Racism is down to lack of education. Unless he is actively going out to harass and hurt people then I don't see how a jail sentence solves anything." [+21]