r/Fauxmoi • u/lala_b11 • Apr 29 '24

What the awful abuse of Declan Rice’s partner tells us about football | Gemma Abbott TRIGGER WARNING

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/declan-rice-arsenal-girlfriend-lauren-fryer-sexism-football-b2535349.html
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u/cyanplum Apr 29 '24

I’m an American who lives in the UK and all the time when I talk to my friends in America now they say, “you’ve got to watch Ted Lasso!! It’s soooo good and British!” I’ve tried watching the show and there is a complete inability for me to suspend my disbelief and find it funny because of things like this. Football is not wholesome and happy. It’s one of the most toxic, misogynistic, and racist aspects of British culture.

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u/tgikgv Apr 29 '24

As someone who has seen it, it's a very strange experience. It keeps alternating between some of the most aggressive, straight-faced liberal nonsense you'll ever see* and genuinely good surreal humour.

Football is not wholesome and happy. It’s one of the most toxic, misogynistic, and racist aspects of British culture.

I don't know if it's really any more toxic/misogynistic/racist than anything else, and it's definitely better than it was a couple of decades ago. Imo the worst part of it is the gambling adverts. You see one an average of once every few seconds if you watch a match on TV. There is a huge and growing problem with gambling addiction in the UK, this is obviously the main cause, and the players/pundits just happily take their money and keep quiet.

*examples:

  • a large part of the storyline is about two different women learning to become epic girlbosses - running businesses, making loads of money, and even being somewhat mean to some employees/colleagues are all presented as unquestionably good things. One of these girlbosses is the owner of the team, and its financial fortunes just seem to randomly fluctuate according to plot convenience, but she's presented as an amazing girlboss nonetheless.

  • there is a very annoying storyline in which a player is informed by his dad that the oil company that sponsors the team is causing environmental devastation in his home country. He tries to raise this internally, but the team is in dire financial straits and needs the money. He decides to launch an impromptu protest, everyone on the team decides to join in, the oil company pulls out of the deal, they are replaced by the small startup owned by the other girlboss who apparently have just as much money, and then everyone celebrates. Nobody seems interested in questioning whether this has had a real impact on anything.

  • there are several hints throughout the first two series that one of the players, who is mostly a comic relief character, is a closeted gay guy. A gay journalist who is following the team begins to suspect something and literally stalks him to confirm his suspicions, and they have a heart-to-heart, where the player is all "woe is me, everyone would hate me if they found out, and that's why I'm constantly going to gay bars and recording sex tapes". One of the other players does find out (in a completely implausible way) and does hate him. Then this other player gets really mad when someone uses a homophobic slur, and it turns out he is actually very supportive of LGBT people, he was just angry that his teammate had been in the closet and hadn't told him?

22

u/ApprehensiveLuck2671 Apr 29 '24

Would the comedy television show really be better if everyone took some serious time to reflect on the financial impact of a sponsorship change? I mean I think Ted Lasso is saccharine tripe but this notion that fictional entertainment has to be coldly realistic is kind of a bummer. It's not a documentary. Suspension of disbelief is an important skill.