For once, Ajax has decided to tone down the festivities — for women, though, not men.
When it comes to gender, the Netherlands probably strikes you as an equal opportunities kind of country. After all, “going Dutch” is literally named after them, the decreasing gender pay gap seems optimistic enough. And that’s not all:
The Amsterdam Football Club Ajax have had an ass-kicking team of vrouwen for over a decade. Earlier this month, they claimed the national title they’d spent the past five years fighting for.
Naturally, supporters of the team were all set to party out the victory in Leidseplein, Amsterdam next Monday.
Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is
That is, until their plans were brought to an unexpected halt.
Ajax decided to cancel the festivities honouring the women’s team’s image because… well, because it would be bad for their “image”? *eyetwitch*
Yep, you read that correctly: Ajax has deemed a celebration of women “unwise”, because the “momentum” of their win has supposedly died down since the championship (which happened on May 7) and people are just over it.
A men’s team, on the other hand…
“Unwise”, they say. As opposed to the oh-so-wise “Feyenoord fever” from May 12, which saw a mob of sweaty hooligans blocking trains, belly flopping into the Hofplein fountain, setting random objects on fire, or possibly sacrificing animals, all in celebration of the Rotterdam men’s team winning.
@jordivdam could barely breathe and see anything but it was worth it #feyenoord #rotterdam #coolsingel #huldiging ♬ original sound – Jordi
But hey, a bit of chaos is needed sometimes — and shouldn’t the women’s team at least be given the chance to be celebrated in the same way?
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Cancelled by Ajax, not Amsterdam
According to the NOS, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, and Sofyan Mbarki of Sport were all set to give the Ajax vrouwenteam official, public recognition — that is, until Ajax butted in and the mayor and alderman were forced to cancel the ceremony without the club’s support.
Turns out, men are also partly to blame for the overall “lack of joyful mood” surrounding Ajax, the club said. Due to the failings of Ajax men 1 this spring, venerating the success of the women’s team is decidedly “not a good signal” to put out.
Heaven forbid we uplift women in any way if it means hurting some widdle egos. 🙃
Does this reasoning make sense to anyone out there — Ajax included? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Ajax thinks it is still living in the 19th Century when women considered second class citizens.