On gender equality in Trachoria

Sandra Zurbuchen & Corina Wehinger

Sweden recently won the World championships in floorball* for both women and men. Both Swedish national teams beat their Finnish counterparts in final matches that were even and could have ended either way.

For the first time ever, two women were the referees of the men's final: Sandra Zurbuchen and Corina Wehinger from Switzerland. This may be remarkable in itself, but even more remarkable was that I didn't hear a single gender-related comment concerning the referees during or after the match, not from reporters, not from interviewed coaches nor from players. The men's final was an intense and physical match with lots of prestige, played in a packed and loud stadium in the Finnish capital Helsinki – Finland and Sweden being long-time arch enemies in this sport. Still the referees handled it superbly and professionally, even when it meant stepping in between hot players on the verge of a fist fight. They were so professional that nobody simply thought of their gender, even less commented on it.

It struck me that Sandra Z and Corina W did what I have tried to do with gender equality in Trachoria; to make it a non-issue. In Trachoria, men AND women may be generals, heroes, corrupt politicians, assassins, bosses, swine, sluts, business people etc. Favours are not given, predjudice not aired and considerations not made due to gender. This is however not based in ideology, morals or rights. People in Trachoria are not above saying nasty things or screwing each other, literally or figurately, independently of gender. I simply wanted gender equality to be a non-issue. Whether I succeeded or not in doing this is of course another thing. Comments welcome.

* FYI, The war scythes of the RhabdoRana murder league in Trachoria are modelled on floorball sticks.