There’s a popular stereotype that women who look like Gabriella Howell can’t play sports, but the Sutton United soccer star wants her critics to know that’s a bunch of bullsh*t.
Gabby recently spoke out about the social media trolls who have been coming at her for quite some time due to the fact that she’s an attractive female playing a sport like soccer. According to Howell, she believes she’s being targeted because of the fact that she plays sports but also likes to get all dressed up and have some fun.
“You can be both – you can play football and like wearing high heels,” Howell told The Mirror.
Gabby shared some of the sexist messages she’s received from men on her TikTok, Instagram and Twitter accounts, where she has over 300,000 followers combined.
Under one video, someone commented: “Gabby how come you’re out of the kitchen?”
Another said: “Always s***! It’s a woman trying to play a man’s sport.”
One even said: “That’s the trouble with women’s football, I think players are picked on looks rather than talent.”
Gabby also has to put up with men saying women “can’t compete” with men.
As well as the sexist comments, she also receives derogatory messages on Instagram from men who don’t take her seriously.
“Men will say they’re horny underneath my photos of me playing football – and if I tag my club in the post it’s embarrassing,” she said.
Howell says that while the trolls were able to break her once, she hasn’t allowed it to happen again. She also chooses to leave the hateful comments in her posts, rather than delete them, as she feels it’ll teach young people that being an influencer on social media isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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“Young girls think they want to be an influencer but they don’t see the downsides. I like to make people aware,” Gabby told The Mirror. I think we can all agree that it’s a valuable lesson for today’s youth.
