Radio NZ and other mainstream media are referring to ‘The Rugby World Cup’ final being held this weekend. Actually, it’s the Women’s Rugby World Cup, but that qualification is now deliberately avoided to try to elevate the significance of this tournament as equal to or greater than the established Rugby World Cup.

It’s all part of a sustained media campaign over recent years to provide free promotion for women’s sports. That campaign started after women complained bitterly that their sporting efforts were being discriminated against in both media coverage and in the money female players were being paid.

The resulting hype and emphasis on women’s sports is now paying off, with ‘The Rugby World Cup’ attracting a lot of attention and selling all seats for its final. This popularity has been manufactured almost entirely through media promotion, unlike men’s sports including rugby that developed their audiences through decades or centuries of captivating competition and encouragement of national pride.

Sporting codes that were traditionally female such as netball have evolved similarly to men’s sports but never achieved the same massive following. It’s hard to know why but it may have something to do with the fact that men are faster, stronger, braver and more impressive in their athletic performances and records. Never mind, in this feminist era women only need to cry foul and the masses will ride to their rescue, this sympathy vote likely being another factor in the sudden popularity of women’s rugby. Well actually, special compassion and protection towards females has long been the norm, probably based on fundamental biology and evolution. It’s just that women in the past didn’t think it fair or reasonable to demand equal money and attention for their sports despite having established nothing like equal audience and earning power. Feminist ideology has now provided them with the audacity and creative reasoning to do so.

Our local pub band perhaps should go to the media and complain they are not paid the same or given the same media attention as the Rolling Stones; hey, it’s working for women so maybe it will work for our pub band. Endless free media coverage pretending our band is important may well increase their audiences so much that Western Springs will become their next venue. According to feminist reasoning, they should be paid heaps regardless of their popularity or audience size because after all they are skilled and work as hard in their shows as do big-name bands. They are obviously being discriminated against if they don’t get the several millions each of the Rolling Stones get per show.

Although we recognize the proverb ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, the Ministry of Men’s Affairs would prefer women to stop muscling in on men’s domains including men’s sports. We would prefer them to build their own marques and audiences as men have done. We find it boring to see females prancing around on rugby fields and we expect that the current interest in women’s rugby will go the same way as other fads that relied almost entirely on marketing, such as the ‘pet rock’ that briefly sold well in 1975.