Sky Sports and BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Kelly Cates has weighed in with her say on Leeds United’s tweet aimed at Karen Carney.
In the aftermath of the tweet, Carney received hundreds of abusive, sexist messages which has resulted in her deactivating her account. The initial tweet from Leeds’ official account also sparked debate as to if the club would have done the same thing if it were a man making the same statement.
Following the Yorkshire club’s impressive 5-0 win away at West Bromwich Albion in late December, the club’s Twitter account directly called out Carney for claiming they got promoted due to Covid-19.
Cates admitted “I do think Leeds would have done it if she wasn’t a woman, I think that’s the personality of Leeds’ Twitter account, but I don’t think they did it because she’s a woman.
“I think that if you run a twitter account that has that many followers and that has that many people that will jump onto what you say you don’t exist in a vacuum and you have to be responsible for what you put out and you have to be responsible for the fallout of that as well.”
Carney had an extremely established professional career, playing 144 times for England and making appearances for Birmingham City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Chicago Red Stars before hanging up her boots in 2019.
Although her comments were controversial, the debate raged on as to whether the tweet was malicious or not. Some have argued that Leeds would do the same for a man and it is a sign of equality. Cates doesn’t think this is true though:
“I think Karen got a lot of abuse directed at her because she’s a woman. They [Leeds’ Twitter account] needed to be aware of the fact that she would be treated differently in terms of the abuse she got off the back of it.
“A man would have got the abuse but it’s the specific type of abuse that is directed at women which means they need to be responsible and aware of what they’re doing.”
Unfortunately, given the volatile nature of social media, the abuse was not just aimed at her footballing opinions. The sexist views expressed by those sending derogatory replies is vile and has no place in football or society.
This is largely why the Leeds’ account has been targeted with the aims of having the tweet removed. Cates explained how having such a large account can influence those that follow it:
“If you run a Twitter account that has that many followers, they will jump onto what you say.
“You don’t exist in a vacuum and you have to be responsible for what you put out and you have to be responsible for the fallout of that as well.”
It is a situation that examples the difference and importance of recognising that equality is not social equity. The Leeds United tweet was not once with malicious intent but their failure to recognise that Carney would be treated differently to a male pundit is perhaps the more pressing issue.
Cates understands this as she said “If I was the Leeds twitter account I can very clearly say I am treating her no differently to how I would treat a man and therefore that’s equality.
“In a sense that’s true, however we don’t live in an equal world, this is a world where men and women are not treated equally on social media.”
Cates raises a good point. The thought that people may not understand this or view it as simply ‘banter’ is a massive concern for society and football. The idea that football can help to eliminate sexism and all forms of discrimination is a nice one, but perhaps still unrealistic.
