Curling Canada calls for end to double standards, misogynistic comments levelled at women curlers

Team Canada skip Kerri Einarson's volume increased with each of three times she belted out "clean" after throwing her final rock in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last month in B.C., clinching a record-tying fourth straight Canadian women's championship title.

The shouting comes with the territory in curling, regardless of the gender of the person tossing the rock, but a small segment of spectators seems particularly bothered by the sounds when they come from women curlers.

That's according to Curling Canada, which says during big tournaments like the Scotties, it sees comments from fans online complaining women on the ice are too loud. Einarson has received some of those comments on social media as well. 

"We have higher-pitched voices, it's just how it is," she said. "I can't help that. I'm an athlete and I just show my intensity out there.... I don't understand what the fans want from us."

On Wednesday, for International Women's Day, Curling Canada's media relations manager Al Cameron reposted a copy of a column he wrote that ran in the Scotties program handed out in Kamloops last month.

Six days into the Brier and not a single emailed fan complaint about players screaming too loud. Truly wish I could say the same during the Scotties. But, of course, I can't. It's International Women's Day, and you should read this column about why that crap needs to stop. <a href="https://t.co/7IqsSYGTbA">pic.twitter.com/7IqsSYGTbA</a>

In it, he describes a double standard that's unfolded, with some fans lodging misogynistic complaints either with Curling Canada or directly to women curlers over social media, by email and elsewhere online.

The comments have been finding their way to Curling Canada's inbox and social media accounts