Curling Canada calls for end to double standards, misogynistic comments levelled at women curlers

After winning the record-tying fourth consecutive Canadian women’s championship title last month in B.C. with her final rock throw in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Team Canada skip Kerri Einarson’s volume climbed with each of her three “clean” belt outs. Regardless of the gender of the person throwing the rock, yelling is a natural aspect of curling, but some spectators appear more offended when it comes from female curlers. Curling Canada claims it receives internet complaints from spectators that women on the ice are too noisy at major tournaments like the Scotties. Some of such remarks have also been made to Einarson on social media.

It’s just the way that we have higher-pitched voices,” she added. “I am powerless to stop that. As an athlete, I simply put my all into what I do; I have no idea what the audience are hoping for from us.” In honour of International Women’s Day on Wednesday, Al Cameron, the media relations manager of Curling Canada, reshared a piece he wrote that appeared in the Scotties program distributed in Kamloops earlier this month. In it, he details the emergence of a double standard, whereby certain fans have expressed misogynistic grievances to Curling Canada or to female curlers directly via email, social media, and other online channels. For a while now, the remarks have been arriving in Curling Canada’s social media accounts and email, and Cameron says, “It has to stop.”