hot girls watch football
on the revival of wag culture and the social-mediafication of sports
As a child, I loved going to the football. As an Australian, that meant AFL - the rough-and-tumble, aggressive sport with an excessively strange scoring system. At the age of four, I’d take the train with my grandpa, juice box in hand, and watch from a seat not too close and not too far from the goals. But if AFL has one thing in common with traditional football, it’s rowdy spectators. I learnt my first swear words from the crowd that surrounded me. At the time, it was mostly middle-aged men, who were decidedly unhappy about our team’s performance. I still love Aussie Rules today. But watching matches recently, I noticed a shift. Gradually, my row of seats filled with women in their 20s with cropped jerseys, and the drunken yelling faded to a chatter. This was the point I realised - it was becoming cool to watch sport.
I cannot state this enough, there have always been women who enjoy watching sport. As a girl myself, I’ve watched a host of sports my entire life. But as a kid, the adults around did not view watching sports as a “cool” activity for women to be doing. Then, it was seen as pick-me behaviour. Oh, so you watch football? You’re “one of the boys”? The stereotype said that women into sports were masculine, and rarely had female friends. In the last couple of years, that narrative has shifted. It’s becoming hot to watch sports, and those sports that were traditionally dominated by masculine culture are suddenly being integrated into social media and fashion.
First of all, WAGs are in. In case you’re not aware, WAG stands for Wives and Girlfriends - a catch-all title for the partners of sportspeople. And the girls LOVE them. Suddenly, watching these women show up to the track, pitch or court is part of the attraction. They’re dressed fashionably, they’re dating decidedly attractive men, they’re everything people want to be. In the way Victoria Beckham was popular in the 2000s, Morgan Riddle, the girlfriend of tennis star Taylor Fritz, is now. Alexandra Saint-Meleux, girlfriend of Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, is gracing the pages of Vogue.
top to bottom: morgan riddle (@moorrgs), alexandra saint-meleux (vogue australia)
There are pros and cons to this revival. It’s in a whole new context - instead of being the cover stars of gossip magazines and tabloids, these women are going viral on Instagram. This virality is positive in many ways - it’s promoting sports to the mainstream in a way that attracts women. But simultaneously, it’s reducing these WAGs to just that - Wives and Girlfriends. Despite being journalists, influencers and art history experts in their own right, they’re famous for who they date, not their intellect or opinions. Their outfits are going viral, not their words or actions. Regardless, slowly and steadily, WAG culture is making a serious comeback.
In addition to this, sports itself is becoming more catered to social media. Funny player interviews, edits posted by the teams themselves, social media challenges, they all add up to one thing - viewership. Sports are gracing the For You page of a wider audience. Players are required to be more than athletes - they need to be celebrities. It’s not enough to be stronger, faster and better than almost every human on this planet. They need to be media-trained too. As social media accounts grow, so does attendance of matches. It’s a good tactic to grow an audience, and particularly a female one.
Social media shows the personality of a sport. It can summarise a race or a match to a few dramatic moments, until people who weren’t previously interested can appreciate the story. Social media can be used to present sport like a movie. A whole season can be simplified to a few key storylines and characters. And the story attracts a whole new audience, ones who might not have been able to appreciate a sport when it just appeared to be a crowd of men running around in the dirt.
zendaya, a hollywood it-girl, at wimbledon 2024 (via getty images)
As a result of these factors and more, sports is in. Your local It Girl is being spotted at a tennis match. The worlds of Hollywood and Formula 1 are colliding with a film that made $140 million on its opening weekend. Football teams and fashion houses are teaming up to create stunning kits. The world of sports is changing. It’s becoming more female. As women become more integrated into sports, it’s shifting the way we view sports fandom and culture. And while there are people mad about it, this trend isn’t going to stop anytime soon. It’s hot to break into male-dominated spaces. It’s cool to watch sport. The game is changing, and this time, everyone’s invited to play.