Two of the men involved in the abusive incident have been identified, with one being a military police officer and the other an airline carrier staffer; and now they both face losing jobs in wake of what is commonly perceived as a case of sexism, according to The Daily Mail, citing their employers.
Twitter users have naturally also touched upon the sensitive issue:
@scottbaldwin2 As a fan you do not have the right to abuse other fans or players. Songs, chants, banter yes. That's different. Mike Brown is well within his rights to tell the guy to shut up.
— Stephen Vallance (@Bretwalda5) 20 июня 2018 г.
Such a beautiful sport where the fans routinely make racist and sexist chants, and where fans of opposing teams need to be separated.
— CatrionaMDW (@CatrionaMDW) 18 июня 2018 г.
It’s not just the fans who lose out when men lose in sport. It’s the women who suffer increased attacks of rape, abuse, domestic violence when sportsmen lose. Men take out sport frustrations on women and abuse them more. Especially now with the men’s football World Cup underway
— cheryl roberts (@cherylroberts00) 17 июня 2018 г.
Notably, it is not the first video to be posted online demonstrating Latin American males engaging Russian women with abhorrent chants: an array of similar videos have emerged previously. In one of them, Colombian football fans encourage a woman to repeat offensive things about herself in Spanish, prompting the country’s foreign ministry to tweet Tuesday that such behavior not solely offends the fairer sex, but "insults other cultures, our language and our country." The authorities chose to prioritize the post in the feed, thereby highlighting the importance of the matter.
Despite sexist behavior and offensive fads being considered, according to social networks, almost inevitable during major tournaments, with millions of fans visiting them, recent reports covering sexist issues in light of the MeToo movement and other related events seem to have increased public awareness and significantly reduced tolerance for it. Most prominently, FIFA opened an inquiry and targeted Mexican fans with disciplinary measures, such as fines, after they used anti-gay rhetoric during the team’s World Cup triumph over Germany.
Commenting on the instance involving Brazilian fans, Leandro Cruz, the Latin American country’s minister of sports, claimed the men were "doing an immense disservice to Brazil."
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The outrage prompted one of the Brazilian men captured in the video to apologize for his actions when the UOL news agency reached out to him for comment. He concluded by saying that the incident was more likely a joke gone awry due to excessive alcohol, among other things.
Earlier, there emerged reports of Brazilian fans attacking a Russian flight attendant with their chants and thereby causing her to blush and feel awkward as she was giving obligatory and at all times crucially important safety instructions.
The World Cup is due to last till July 15, with Brazil, the five-time World Cup winners, scheduled to face Costa Rica on June 22, days before ending its group stage, playing Serbia on June 27. Colombia first plays Poland on June 24 and subsequently squares off with Senegal.
