YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES
From an early age Jade, 20, is the victim of sexist remarks and prejudices. Attitudes that she suffered during her schooling during sports lessons but also in the playground when the urge took him to hit the ball with his fellow boys. At the age of 18, when she decides to play rugby, she feels this discrimination even more. Tuesday, at the microphone of Olivier Delacroix on Europe 1, she tells how sexism permeates society when it comes to sports and how it struggles to overcome.
"Sexism in sport is something I've known for a long time, and already in the school playground you had to get the ball when the boys were playing football, they never passed it to me. It was the same in sports classes, but teachers generally believe that boys are necessarily strong and girls are not so good and it is necessary to prove oneself.
For many years, I did gymnastics and athletics. I have never been questioned in my legitimacy to practice these sports because they are perceived as mixed. On the other hand, it was very different when I started playing rugby at the age of 18. Often with my team we made remarks when we took the metro because we were in shorts, we had crampons, mud on our knees. Often we heard: 'You play rugby, but it's not a women's sport, it's going to distort your body' ... It was pretty violent.
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One day, we were celebrating a third half and we were drinking beers with my teammates, we were singing and a woman was annoyed to see us like this: "Women now they do just like boys, they play at rugby, they drink beers, "she said. At that time, I felt like a woman who was playing sports and not just as a sportswoman. And I realized that I needed to raise awareness all the time. I often remember that we do not need to weigh 120 kg to play rugby, that we can both put skirts and play rugby. It's a fight off the field.
Jade then decided to engage in an association that promotes women's rugby, "Go off" ...
This association brings each year a team from Latin America to play international tournaments and women's rugby in Europe. With this project, we trust the women, they are told that they deserve to be represented internationally, they can play internationally, they have the right to be visible and recognized everywhere. I think that this kind of association contributes enormously to the development of women's sport but also to the confidence of women in society more generally.