Killie starlet Stout the latest example of constant abuse sports women continue to face on social media
Signing a professional sports’ contract should be a time of pure, unadulterated joy. A reward for hard work, endeavour, resilience, and talent.
For Kilmarnock Women’s player Skye Stout, however, that moment was cruelly stripped away from her after mindless morons abused her on social media for her appearance.
Stout wasn’t performing on the pitch or doing anything remotely controversial. She was merely sitting there, beaming from ear to ear, without a care in the world.
An image of the 16-year-old had been posted on social media by her club, who were clearly thrilled to have her sign a contract. It was supposed to be a moment the youngster would never forget, but now that will be for all the wrong reasons.
The pile-on didn’t take long to start. Men, with zero regard for the welfare of a teenager, laid into Stout due to a skin condition evident on her face.
The abuse was so horrendous that the club made the decision to remove the post to protect their young talent from any further harm.
Skye Stout was subjected to vile abuse from social media trolls after signing with Kilmarnock
A post published on X by Grassroots Football has been viewed by over 3 million people
Former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher was one of many big names to offer their support
Now, let’s be frank. Anyone who has suffered from acne or even spots, knows just how demoralising it can be. I know kids who suffer, who won’t leave their bedrooms, won’t join family gatherings, because they’re terrified about what people will think of them.
I can’t imagine for a second how that poor kid is now feeling. Thankfully, Stout appears to have come out fighting, saying she will ‘do her talking on the pitch’.
This is exactly the right attitude to take, to shoot down the goons who choose to hide behind a keyboard and throw cheap shots at those who achieve even a modicum of success.
What concerns me, however, is that abuse of female sports people seems to continue unabated.
We saw this recently with tennis player Katie Boulter, who revealed she’d been regularly abused by online trolls with death threats and even calls for her to ‘get cancer’.
Fellow Brit Jodie Burrage admitted she too had been abused, this time after her Wimbledon first round exit, while Eilish McColgan, Jess Carter, Kirsty Gilmour, and many others have also spoken out about the abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of numbskulls online.
Then there was fellow teenager, Ava Easdon, last year. A 17-year-old goalkeeper for Partick Thistle women’s team, who was hideously targeted by former player Joey Barton for her performance between the sticks.
One has to seriously question the motives of those who think it’s okay to denigrate young women who play sport — and, indeed, those who focus in on their appearances.
British tennis star Katie Boulter has spoke ant length over the abuse she has received online
Yes, many men are also hit with derogatory comments — but women bear the brunt of it. A case in point is the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where a whopping 87 per cent of all abusive posts on Twitter were directed towards females.
On the plus side, it’s heartening to see the huge groundswell of support for Skye Stout since the image on Killie’s page was pulled down.
At the time of writing this, a post from ‘Grassroots Football’ — asking for folk to send Stout their love — has been viewed over 3million times on X. More than 72,000 people have ‘liked’ it.
Other sport stars, such as cricketer Kevin Pietersen and former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher, have given her their backing.
Stout will hopefully see how many people, football clubs, and organisations have now rallied behind her.
She’s not in this alone. Who knows, it may even fire the fuel in her belly because just when we thought that women’s football was reaching a new level of fandom, commercial viability and support, this came along to remind both her and us that it still has a heck of a long way to go in the fight for respect and equality.
