Melbourne came alive 2 nights ago as the Matilda’s turned around their World Cup by defeating Canada 4-0 in their final group stage match). As exciting as it is to see Australia progressing and finding form, there was another different story making news this afternoon from the Soccer World Cup. 

The Herald Sun is reporting that a significant number of professional women’s soccer players have missed the World Cup due to knee injuries or have sustained injuries during the early parts of the competition. It is not just the numbers that are concerning but the fact that the numbers reflect a failure to recognise the difference between men and women athletes.

The paper quotes this interesting observation from England’s Captain Leah Williamson. She says, 

“There’s so many things (different between men and women). Our hips are aligned slightly differently, hormones and stress all contribute.”

In one sense, Williamson hasn’t said anything outrageous or controversial, but in another way, she has just kicked a goal against a big social heresy: she’s admitted that men and women are not identical. Contrary, to the mass verbiage that seeks to downplay and even deny difference, sometimes reality spills out and scores on the counterattack. 

We are conditioned to believe there are no differences between men and women. Men and women are identical and even interchangeable. Try suggesting at work that that’s not the case and see how long it is before the HR Department invites you in for a special meeting. If there is ever any difference that can be admitted, it’s that Ken is bad and Barbie is good.

Built into many of these conversations is a flawed premise. These days ‘difference’ has become a trigger word, a slur implying inferiority or lesser status.  Of course, that’s not the case. Genesis, for example, declares an inherent goodness in the distinction between male and female, and together they share the imago dei. Different bodies and different hormones and psychological differences in no way indicate degrees of worth, but rather, a beautiful complementarity (yes, I did use that word!). 

A sense of equality between men and women doesn’t derive from chasing the evolutionary wheel of the strongest and fittest, or from the imaginings of Greek myths, but in those ancient words which Jesus upheld and which remain powerful today,  informing and providing Divine meaning for men and women alike,

“So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.”

The Herald Sun story goes on to point out,

“The little research there is suggests that female players are at least three times more likely to do an ACL than men.

Williamson wants to see an immediate improvement for how young female talent is prepared before professional to ensure their bodies are not shocked by dramatic changes in training regimens.

“The women’s game, my generation; one day we’re a kid playing football and the next we’re a professional,” she said.

“We got form training a few times a week to training every day, playing Champions League, World Cups, European Cups etc.

“Until it changes to be more like the boys where they’re literally bred for it from day one of being signed at six years old, this will happen more.

“We’re not ready for that. There’s so much now that we need to make more focused to women or this will happen over and over again. Our bodies are completely different, the studies around professional sports women are few and far between.”

None of this comes as a surprise to me, having 3 children who have played a lot of sports over the years, including a daughter. I hope Football Associations and medicos take note of these players pleas. But I suspect like a harmonic clash, we’ll keep preaching one message and practicing another.

It is possible that we overplay differences between men and women (let’s be honest, this can sometimes leads to harmful outcomes), but as these professional footballers are informing us, rejecting difference also produces injurious outcomes.

There is something good and vital about valuing the substantive overlap between men and women, and there is something good about respecting and honouring where difference exists. Instead of playing foosball with sex and gender, in the real world biology does matter and does shape our physical and psychological activities. 

As women and men take note of important differences, there will be frustration. Sometimes it’s because there is lurking misogyny. Sometimes it’s moral or intellectual laziness. The cause is just as likely to be something else: We live in a highly defensive culture. Our sexular age doesn’t score many goals but its fervour for defending dangerous tackles and throwing out creational rules is second to none. You can receive a yellow card for admitting any gender difference, and be disqualified from the tournament altogether. The problem is, who suffers? Women do.

It may not be today, and probably not tomorrow, but a time will come when we can say without hesitation, embarrassment or  fear of repercussion, 

“There’s so many things (different between men and women”…so praise God for we are wonderfully made.