What a moment for women! In an age where our very existence is being denied, the Lionesses’ glorious show of bold femininity is truly iconic, writes JULIE BURCHILL

Honestly, I can’t bear sport. I remember being ordered off the athletics field as a teenager after attempting to do the long jump in four-inch fake snakeskin platform boots (‘You’re a liability, Burchill!’), and that was fine by me.

But yesterday even I woke with a dart of joy. The Lionesses had won!

Why such happiness? Where do I start? In an age when women’s very existence is being denied and we’re being robbed of our hard-won gains – from toilets to trophies – by angry trans activists; at a time when our bodies are commodified and picked apart like never before thanks to social media, these bold young women have clawed out new territory. Their spirit signifies new freedoms, new potential for women everywhere.

Nowhere was this more apparent when listening to the poignant words of the so-called ‘Lost Lionesses’ of the 1971 Women’s World Cup. They were the first unofficial England women’s team in the days after a 50-year ban on women’s football was lifted.

They played before an adoring crowd of 90,000 in Mexico City. Despite not qualifying for the knock-out stage, they came home optimistic for the future of women’s football in the UK. Not long after their return, however, the team disbanded due to the Football Association’s restrictions on women playing professional football.

Honestly, I can’t bear sport. I remember being ordered off the athletics field as a teenager after attempting to do the long jump in four-inch fake snakeskin platform boots (‘You’re a liability, Burchill!’), and that was fine by me. But yesterday even I woke with a dart of joy.

‘To have the Euros in your own country, and for your own country to play so well, and for all the teams to showcase what the women’s game can do: it’s like a dream come true,’ said one of those players this week. Isn’t it incredible to think that, until recently, women’s football was as good as illegal?!

The FA will be all over women’s football now, of course, sensing the vast amounts of money to be made from ‘merch’ [merchandising] but, considering their historical attempts to destroy the women’s game, this feels like much too little, much too late. Consider the glorious Alex Scott – the former footballer, now such a passionate presenter and pundit – recalling how she once had to take a job in the Arsenal laundry, washing the men’s kit, to top up her own modest pay, from £50 to £200 a match. ‘I was basically Dot Cotton,’ she said, referring to EastEnders’ elderly mistress of the local launderette.

Well, Cinderella has officially left the scullery, not in a ball gown but in a shirt with three lions on it. What a moment for women! No boy can ever accuse his mate of ‘kicking like a girl’ any more, unless he’s seeking to praise him. It’s nice to have a snarky moment and reflect that alongside the thousands of fans who are genuinely rejoicing with the Lionesses today, a few people will be seeking to clamber aboard the victory bus who previously will have mocked ordinary girls like these as ‘chavs’ with their ‘Croydon face-lift’ ponytails. But at a time when Labour MPs who claim to be feminist are fine with putting male rapists in a women’s prison if they change their name to Trixie, theirs is the kind of spirit we need to push our embattled sex forward. Though these are a pride of ordinary girls – without privilege, treated with prejudice – they are exemplary role models (and I’ve never liked that phrase, especially when applied to women, with its overtones of primness).

Because being a sportswoman takes a certain type of dedication that few of us possess – all that self-denial when your friends are just starting to have fun. Still wonderfully untainted by stupidly large salaries and brand deals, the England women have paid for their pleasure with endless early mornings and nights when they left the party first.

Why such happiness? Where do I start? In an age when women’s very existence is being denied and we’re being robbed of our hard-won gains – from toilets to trophies – by angry trans activists

And now they face a glorious dawn and a party that will continue for quite some time. In a society which sexualises female bodies from an increasingly young age, sport is one of the few ways girls can enjoy their physicality without being objectified by lechers. No matter how hard a certain sort of inadequate little man may try – I’m sure that the barely-human Frankie Boyle is already thinking up despicable ‘jokes’ about them – no male gaze will ever cut these girls down to size. The iconic photo of winning goalscorer Chloe Kelly sprinting ecstatically around the pitch in her sports bra showed girls that our bodies are us; they don’t need starving, supplementing, punishing or altering.

I wonder how many ‘tomboys’ will now be stopped from taking the journey to the surgeon’s scalpel, searching for a way to excise their shameful femininity, now that femininity has shown us such a bold new way of being?

In the future, anyone who is against women sports won’t just look bad – they’ll look mad. Because, as the crowds in Trafalgar Square and Wembley last night attest, the ladies’ game is so attractive to those thousands turned off by the ugliness of the male game, which, let’s face it, has more than its fair share of spouse-beaters, cat-kickers and drunks. And, surely now, girls will be scouted from their school football teams, the way boys are.

Nowhere was this more apparent when listening to the poignant words of the so-called ‘Lost Lionesses’ of the 1971 Women’s World Cup. They were the first unofficial England women’s team in the days after a 50-year ban on women’s football was lifted

Of course, the usual Greek chorus of carpers have started; the Guardian, chief mourner at every wedding, moaned in one headline earlier in the tournament that ‘lack of diversity in England women squad will stop many girls from dreaming’. The BBC had already received more than 200 complaints over comments made by TV presenter Eilidh Barbour, about the apparent unbearable whiteness of the team which beat Norway 8-0. ‘All starting 11 players and the five substitutes that came on to the pitch were all white. And that does point towards a lack of diversity in the women’s game in England,’ she opined.

Yes, let’s make women’s football as ‘diverse’ as the Premier League, but let’s not do so conveniently forgetting the grafting working-class black women Nikita Parris, from Toxteth, who plays forward, and defender Demi Stokes, from Dudley, who earned their place in this great team, fair and square. In the meantime, the Lionesses should consider giving their future matches to a commercial station – then the poor noble BBC won’t have that awful lack of diversity on their conscience. And they can devote themselves to their imminent coverage of the World Cup in Qatar – a lousy place to be a woman, or gay (unlike male football, the female game isn’t toxic for gay players).

There is such overwhelming goodwill to the Lionesses right now, from the congratulations of the Queen to the pre-teen girls I saw yelling the players’ names, like a war-cry, while kicking a ball in the park today. But while this is an occasion of merriment, it should also prompt a moment of sombre reflection. Though, on paper, the situation of women lucky enough to live in the West should be one of unparalleled freedom and equality, it often feels that woke misogyny is sending us backwards.

The police harass us for ‘misgendering’ biological males who declare themselves to be women, when they might be better employed investigating rapes – convictions of which are at an all-time low, to the extent that Dame Vera Baird, the Victims’ Commissioner, stated that rape is now effectively ‘decriminalised’.

And porn culture – from the playground to the police station – has made life more miserable for females of all ages. Self-harming, body dysmorphia and eating disorders are affecting young women as never before. So, let’s hope that, as they step into this maelstrom of sorrow, that the Lionesses, with their gloriously carefree confidence, can give a new generation a new focus on what can be achieved through hard work, team spirit and grit.

No false modesty for this team either: ‘We have changed society,’ their manager Sarina Wiegman said matter-of-factly after their win. So many female icons – think Marilyn Monroe, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Amy Winehouse – are ‘vulnerable’ and ‘damaged’. But suddenly, being tough and capable seems far cooler.

Let’s hope young women everywhere seize on this message and join in what Alex Scott referred to as just the start of a truly magical journey – one that can change the world.

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