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Powerful new Amazon Prime documentary film tackles sexism in sport

Rugby player, Victoria Rush, directs new documentary that looks at gender, ethnicity and sexism in sport. (Supplied)
Rugby player, Victoria Rush, directs new documentary film for Amazon Prime that looks at gender, ethnicity and sexism in sport. (Supplied)

The moment rugby player Victoria Rush knew things had to change came back in 2020. Scrolling through her social media feed, Rush saw a photograph promoting the new kit for the Irish men’s and women’s rugby team. Little did she know this image would spark a major new campaign about sexism in sport – one of many issues International Women's Day aims to highlight.

In the shot, male players Bundee Aki, Robert Henshaw and Conor Murray beamed in their striking emerald green tops. But to her dismay, alongside them, wearing the female kit were three women Victoria didn’t even recognise. Rather than use the real female players from the actual rugby team, the clothing brand had superimposed the kit on models.

“I was really disappointed to see it because although they’re not the first company to do this – and probably won’t be the last – I couldn’t believe that we were going to have to fight this fight all over again,” says Rush, 29, from London.

“As a player myself, I wondered how the women’s team must have felt seeing that picture.

“What were the people making those decisions at the top saying about women’s involvement in the sport? That they were not as good as the men who appeared in the picture?

“Not good enough to be role models to other women and girls? I was horrified that they could do this.”

Watch: Rush's documentary trailer, No Woman No Try

Rush contacted the company and although they apologised and removed the advert, she was determined to take action to shift the balance of inequality in the sport she’d loved all her life.

“I was walking to the gym and thinking about how I would have felt if I’d been one of the women players,” she recalls. “I suddenly thought: ‘I am enough’. I’ve every right to model the kit for the team or country I play for and so have all the other female players.

“I spoke to a couple of friends who play rugby too and asked them how they felt. They agreed that this was an opportunity to stand up for ourselves.

“We decided that we would all post pictures on social media of whatever picture we felt represented us the most and we’d use the hashtag #IAmEnough.

“I sent messages to loads of people asking them to participate and the response was really positive.”

In fact, in August 2020, the hashtag #IAmEnough trended worldwide on social media, accompanied by photographs of women’s rugby players and teams – who make up a quarter of all players – from grassroots to professional.

“I posted three pictures of myself dressed in kit from my old club,” says Rush. “An enormous number of people got involved and the messages seemed to spread really quickly.

“We had messages from the USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand and all over Europe and the UK. Some were really touching. Players from grassroots level to club and international level were getting involved.

“Female players were fed up feeling inadequate. Women’s sport is already further behind men’s when it comes to funding, access and participation and girls drop out of sport four times more than boys but it’s no wonder when there are fewer visible role models.”

Inspired by the global #IAmEnough movement, Rush's documentary tackling sexism in sport will premiere on Amazon's Prime Video on March 25. (Supplied)
Inspired by the global #IAmEnough movement, Rush's documentary tackling sexism in sport will premiere on Amazon's Prime Video on March 25. (Supplied)

The pandemic hasn’t helped with the gender gap in sport either.

“It’s thought that during the Covid lockdowns, women lost 200 days more of sport compared to men, yet we know that women’s sport is popular when it’s televised.”

After the success of the campaign, Rush decided she needed to keep up momentum.

“Creating the movement was the first step but I needed to take that message of empowering women and girls into the mainstream so I’ve developed a film centring around the inequality of sport,” she says.

This year, to coincide with International Women’s Day, she has created a feature length documentary, No Women, No Try featuring several sports stars including Shaunagh Brown (England and Harlequins star), Stef Evans of Worcester Warriers and British and Irish Lions’ Ugo Monye.

(Supplied)
Rush interviewed numerous women in sport of the documentary including rugby trailblazer Zainab Alema. (Supplied)

Rush's new film has been bought by Amazon and will be released worldwide in March.

“I hope women find it inspiring but I’d also like as many men to watch it as possible because this is their fight too," she says. "When I first started tweeting about this issue, we had a few negative messages from men who said women weren’t ‘good enough’ to be in the advert. But it was a minority."

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Rush speaking to Stef Evans of Worcester Warriers. (Supplied)

“There are plenty of men who want women involved in the sport and think we ARE good enough and we deserve more," she adds. "They have daughters, nieces or wives and we need men as allies if we are going to influence the people at the top who make decisions about sport.

“Doing this campaign means that no one feels isolated anymore. Rugby player Alice Soper tweeted the phrase that 2021 was the ‘year that women’s rugby found her voice’ and that sums it up perfectly for me.”

No Woman No Try, Rush’s new Documentary will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video Worldwide on 25 March.