My generation grew up with the idea that things for men and for women were well differentiated. Colors, spaces, games, housework, toys… many, many things had a masculine and feminine stamp that prevented girls and boys from crossing the barrier from pink to blue or from blue to pink.

We grew up with the idea that household chores were for girls, that dark and discreet colors were for men, that boys played with trucks and girls with dolls and kitchens.

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Those of us who studied in girls’ schools had vocational subjects such as sewing, knitting and embroidery and, as for sports, we took volleyball and athletics classes. The boys’ schools, on the other hand, taught vocational subjects such as electronics, played soccer and practiced wrestling.

Times have changed, but not as much as they should, because unfortunately absurd practices persist that continue to promote that discourse that arbitrarily assigns particular characteristics, trades and activities to the feminine or the masculine and that assume that there are only two options for being.

The meteoric career of the Colombian women’s national soccer team has reawakened in Colombia the patriotic passions that until very recently were dedicated exclusively to male athletes, who had been leaving in their wake a long trail of disillusionment. Then, slowly, a group of young women began to stand out nationally and internationally in soccer, a sport that for many was the epitome of testosterone.

It has not been easy for them. Managers belittled them, subjected them to the glass ceiling and even publicly questioned their sexual preferences; fans said that watching women’s soccer “was never the same” and the media infantilized them, but against all odds, the women of the Women’s National Soccer Team have imposed their courage and integrity in local tournaments and, now, in the World Cup that is taking place these days in Australia and New Zealand.

In addition to increasing the sales of yellow jerseys and unleashing a new fashion that led the news to hire journalists and sports commentators, what is really important is that the women of the National Team are breaking with stereotypes and publicly demonstrating what so many Colombian women have been doing privately for a long time: work without gender labels; sorority, commitment, courage, strength and dedication.

Thanks to our women of the Colombian National Team for their goals and for the joy they bring to this suffering country, but, above all, thanks for making visible the role of so many of us who continue to fight in the shadows for a better country.

https://mascolombia.com/en/columnist/victoria-gonzalez/