Women in England Said to Like Their Sport Rough

Lake County Mail, Issue 21, 15 October 1947, Page 9

Women in England Said to Like Their Sport Rough

The influence of women has generally been accepted as being restraining and. possibly ennobling, but whether this is correct is becoming a subject for doubt. Feminine influence as a cause for good was widely noted during the suffragette movement. It was then said that when women had the vote politics would be clean and there would be no mud-slinging. Since women have had the vote there has been a growing suspicion that politicians have remained completely imperv ions to feminine influence Now a sports authority has run through the same gamut of emotion from hope to disillusionment to despair r 'garding women and their influence on sport. Feminine Element Blamed After watching throughout his lifetune all types of spdrts contests in various countries, John Macadam, in-ternationally-known sports columnist for the London Daily Express believes that games and contests are becoming increasingly brutal and the public — especially the feminine element —arc to blame. Following a particularly gory footI)all game Macadam spoke -to one of the players who admitted: “Sure, there was a lot of stuff there that had no ■place in football at all. But did you notice how the croAvd liked it f ” And who are the crowd? Macadam contends that in Britain more than 50 per cent, of those clamouring for blood are women. “They appear to be creeping into all sporting contests,” he says, and in my opinion their influence is bad.” Trend Towards Sadism “ Watch them beside the prize ring,” he said. “For every knowledgable fan round the ringside at any fight there are. 20 of them screaming, for a kill—for anything but the science of the game.” Macadam maintains that it. is all part of the same public trend towards sadism. “ The movies, the stage and the booksellers are cashing in on this tendency,” he says, “ but, unfortunately women are turning their attention more and more to spOrt as an emotional outlet.”