From Barbie, Women’s Cup and fools – 07/24/2023 – Sandro Macedo

Like millions of people around the world, this scribe set aside time over the weekend to watch the event film “Barbie.”

To please the child in the house, a dubbed session was chosen on Sunday night. I’m not a fan of dubbed sessions, but we get used to it. My partner and 18-year-old daughter also went, in a rare showing that all four were interested in.

Each in their own way, everyone had fun. I reveled in the jokes involving silly Ken trying to understand and practice patriarchy. At some point he asks a Mattel executive if the men were still in charge, to which he receives the answer: “We are, but now it has to be more on the shrink” (or at least it was something like that in the dub).

Less than 12 hours after the film, the TV was on for the debut of the Brazilian team in the Women’s Cup, against weak Panama. The game was a 4-0 that could have been 7-1 due to the fragility of the rivals. The Brazilian goalkeeper was only mentioned after almost an hour of the ball rolling.

This technical difference was something expected in the first phase of the World Cup, the first with 32 teams — in 2019, there were 24. With many teams playing at this level for the first time, disparity was normal. Morocco took six from Germany; Zambia down five against Japan. Other goals will come in the first phase.

Incidentally, we will see this same difference in the Men’s Cup in 2026, an aberration with 48 teams. There will be a queue of people praying to be in the New Zealand group.

Returning to the feminine, the Cup shows that we still have some fools in football. But the main fools are not on the field.

The biggest of all is the big father, or big mother, FIFA. Just as it did at the Qatar Cup, the organization (an entity that always reminds me of some creepy movies) banned captains from wearing the One Love armband, in rainbow colors, in support of LGBTQIA+ rights. So it is clear that the problem was not exactly Qatar’s restrictive policy.

This Monday, when a reporter tried to ask about homosexuality to the captain of Morocco, a FIFA representative intervened and did not allow the question for “being political”.

The other fools are on the internet. It was just the start of the match, and Twitter pointed out the name of Renata Silveira, the narrator who commanded the game on Globo, as the most commented subject.

Between one and another compliment, most of the comments were derogatory, some even talking badly about the match. They were all men, with some pretty weird nicknames. None of this, of course, undermines the work of Renata, who already has a lot of “the first time on TV” in her resume — as well as Ana Thaís Matos, who commented on the debut.

Women’s football is evolving, not just on the field. Women rightfully occupy space in all sectors, including broadcasting. I’m not a fan of all of them — but the number of men commenting or narrating what I don’t like is much greater, and they are much less mocked on social media.

For Sportv, the duo Bárbara Coelho and Renata Mendonça (former columnist for this Folha) hit a pool when bringing information from Australia. On ESPN, the team in loco has the reinforcement of the great Natalie Gedra, who rocks the Premier League. Fernanda Gentil, who made her name in sports journalism before moving into entertainment, brightens up CazéTV in streaming — the channel that broadcasts more competition games. And there’s so much more.

If Ken shows up to take a look at the sports broadcasts here, he’ll see that patriarchy still dominates the industry (and it’s not shrinking). But surrender is inevitable. Just as they can get used to the dubbed session, they learn to listen to female narration and commentary. One hour even the fools of the internet will tire.

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