YOUR VIEWS: 'Giving it Stick' presses mute on women’s shinty

The talented players were filmed. The women that help run the sport were there. But in Greg Clark’s new documentary focused on celebrating the people who keep shinty alive, women were nowhere to be found.

Let me preface this by saying this is the reality of women’s sports which continue to be almost entirely excluded from television news and sport highlight shows.

Growing up in a shinty family in Kingussie, I spent my weekends watching my father, uncles, and cousins play.

But from a young age I never saw people who looked like me when shinty featured on the telly, and in Clark’s new documentary I was left wondering how many young girls left with the same feeling.

As I think about women’s shinty 15 years ago, I try to live in this healthy tension of being really thankful for how far we’ve come while also trying to remain a relentless fighter to improve funding, access, and equal opportunity to the sport.

However, as I sat down to watch 'Giving it Stick', a documentary focused on Kingussie Camanachd Club’s historic 2022 season, I’m reminded that the level of thinking that allows me to be grateful has placated women’s sport for decades.

What I mean by this is the level of thinking that the 'bare minimum' will suffice for women in sport, because they’ve had such little access to sport previously.

This kind of thinking is detrimental to women’s sport because not only can it never achieve equity, it threatens to widen the gender gap in sport by confirming the myth that women aren’t good at sport.

Shinty, at its time of creation, was and is a reflection of a male dominated society and unless deliberately designed, it will continue to exclude women.

It is not immune to – and unfortunately reflects – wider social trends and evolutions, especially in small rural villages where changes and access to gender equal sport seem to be developing slowly.

What Clark’s documentary confirmed to me is that the root of the problem is the lack of foundation women’s sports have to build from to capitalize on their talent.

When we make access the central part of the conversation by asking 'is there a team for women to play in?', we miss all the smaller things that enable a system that hurts women’s advancement in sports and their opportunity to generate equal revenue, and in return warrant equal access.

And when the marketing isn’t there like Clark’s documentary, it gives ammo to the usual critics who say: 'See? They just don’t generate enough interest'.

What some have called blistering half-time scenes where Lovat manager yells utter nonsense at his 12 players for their first half performance, I have to ask Clark, is this what you choose to edit in above clips about women’s competitive shinty?

I’ve seen a few complaints, stating that the documentary depicts shinty as a barbaric sport with toxic levels of masculinity.

Clark stated in the Scottish Sun on the production that “It’s a man’s game but not in a toxic way.”

Don’t get me wrong, I bloody love shinty but whether Clark intends it or not, he depicts it as it is.

Shinty culture is a mess; ingrained in small communities is this level of masculinity that is upheld throughout the documentary.

Getting swept up in the game is part of what makes shinty great. For me, it’s my eyes brimming, playing or standing with my closest friends from home.

But once the game is over, I take a breath and everything goes back to normal.

I’ve never physically attacked someone. I’ve never verbally attacked someone. That’s humiliating behaviour, right?

But it’s also very real behaviour and blatantly visible in Clark’s documentary.

The documentary is a visual representation of what continues to happen in sports journalism when those who talk and write about sport remain predominantly men.

The tone set by the documentary begs the question: does the wider communities impacted by shinty value gender equity?

Its actions provide the answer. Clark leaves me thinking that it does not matter at what level, professional or amateur, old-school mindsets about the difference between men and women, and opportunities to sport continue to exist.

Some of my friends have said to me, at least the documentary is not a case of ‘one and done’ - a single women’s sport story partially eclipsed by a cluster of men’s stories that precede it, follow it and are longer in length.

However, I have to question Clark’s editorial decisions. Knowing that women’s shinty was featured in segments of filming prior to the documentary, I feel disheartened to see it replaced with behaviour that fails to even depict the real skill and talent involved in the sport.

These omissions help paint women’s sport with a more one-dimensional, gender brush.

There’s a lot of catching up to do, and this represents a tremendous opportunity for those interested in the development of women’s sport.

However, there is no substitute for increased visibility if women’s sport is to reach its full potential.

The mindset that top-tier men’s shinty upholds must be applied to women’s sport.

Not only in terms of marketing and communications but in terms of delivery standards in the media, representation at organising body level, and funding.

But until all of this happens, despite seeing childhood friends play in one of the greatest teams I’ve seen in my lifetime, I have no interest in 'Giving it Stick'.

Not if it means upholding men’s sporting culture over representation of women’s sport.

Rachael Borthwick

Croila View

Kingussie.

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This is not what the United Kingdom was promised in 2014

With the Supreme Court’s ruling and the blocking of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) along with bypassing Holyrood with UK cash going directly to Green Freeports and levelling up projects, chosen by Westminster, the UK is now systematically undermining the authority of the democratically elected Scottish Parliament.

It seems Rishi Sunak’s government of integrity and accountability is falling apart as Westminster ignores devolved administrations.

For example the GRA, after years of discussion and debate, was passed by 86 votes to 39 by MSPs from all parties at Holyrood.

As a purely devolved matter this was a lawful Act.

It is preposterous that the UK Government should now disregard the Scottish right to make Scottish laws for the people of Scotland.

As the Tory and Unionist mantra has changed from ‘now is not the time’ to ‘never’ for Indyref 2, there is a growing realisation that the people of Scotland are trapped within a once mutually agreed Union.

This certainly is not a ‘Union of Equals’, as only rampant English nationalism seems to function in an insular Brexit Britain.

Scotland exists in a near bankrupt UK with food and fuel poverty, workers strikes in a cost of living crisis.

Tory administrations, fantasising as global Britain, ignore Europe with a Trident system they can’t afford, an aircraft carrier with no aircraft, more admirals than ships, following the USA on doomed ventures into Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

In truth, with the folly of Brexit, a deadly mismanaged pandemic and ruled by dysfunctional Tory governments, Scotland did not vote for, a future of low wages, unemployment and insecurity awaits Scotland.

With little or no say in it all, this is not the UK that was promised to the people of Scotland in 2014.

Grant Frazer

Newtonmore.

Reach out for grant support for disabled children in Scotland

Families on a low income in Scotland, raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people, have the chance to receive timely help with higher costs of living.

We are urging those with children up to the age of 18 to reach out for support to help ease winter pressures and sky-high prices.

It costs three times as much to raise a disabled child and families often face severely reduced income as they provide the round-the-clock care their children need.

Family Fund, the UK’s largest grant-making charity for families with disabled and seriously ill children and young people, provides essential grants for items ranging from clothing and bedding; white goods, furniture and appliances to sensory and play equipment and digital devices.

We have provided over 8,000 families in Scotland with grants and services in the past year.

Families are asked to apply as soon as possible to gain support whilst it is available, thanks to ongoing funding from the Scottish Government.

They can do this by visiting https://www.familyfund.org.uk/grants or calling 01904 550055.

Cheryl Ward

Chief Executive of Family Fund

Alpha Court

Monks Cross Drive

York.

Smoke and mirrors

The Scottish Government has announced plans for an urgent review into the environmental impact of disposable vapes and could result in an outright ban.

But it won’t ban them.

Instead it will introduce a vape deposit return scheme, which like the proposed unnecessary and mega-expensive bottle return scheme will be delayed for years and then fizzle out.

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow.

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