Breathe
By Marilú Acosta
On January 1, 1895 Lady Florence Dixie (Scotland, 1855-1905), writer, war correspondent and advocate of gender equality, chairs the first women's soccer club, British Ladies Football Club, captained by Nettie Honeyball, who explains that she formed the Club to prove to the world that women are not the ornamental, useless creatures that men have painted them to be. In 1920 the first international matches are played. During the fourth and final match of the fundraising campaign, held at Stamford Bridge (London), Alice Kell (England) and Madeline Bracquemond (France) kissed at the end of the match. Controversial as it was for women to play a manly sport, women who had replaced men in the factories, giving economic continuity to the country, the fact that they raised funds for the wounded soldiers of World War I put men at a crossroads: not knowing whether to condemn them or thank them. The kiss, although scandalous and captured in photographs, also had its dose of paradox for men: was it immoral or exciting?
