Peterborough Women star Tara Mae Kirk has shed light on the flood of unwanted attention she receives online against the backdrop of her footballing career.
The 22-year-old joined Posh from Leicester City in 2022 but found herself under an unexpected spotlight a season later when the club shared scoring successes in back-to-back fixtures on social media.
Kirk and team-mate Keir Perkins saw their goalscoring graphics inundated with messages from ‘fans’ which later forced the club to delete some in a bid protect player welfare.
Two years on, and the striker reflected on social media attention and her realisation that she was being targeted specifically with supporters at times ‘being sexist and sexualising’ her.
‘I never imagined the reactions that I’ve got from scoring goals,’ Kirk told talkSPORT’s The Kick Back after saying that she ‘absolutely’ felt that attention had ‘crossed the line’. ‘That’s my position. That’s what you’re meant to do.
‘There’s always so much, I guess, spotlight on strikers. But I think when everything hit me was when the first week I’d get five million views, and then the second week I got five million. And then the third week, I got five million.
Tara Mae Kirk has opened up on the feeling of receiving a barrage of unwanted attention
In 2023 the striker went viral after Peterborough Women shared her goalscoring graphic
‘I think it was five, six consecutive weeks where I got five million views in a row. And I didn’t, in the moment, understand the hype or whatever.
‘As it went on, I thought it was all just kind of a fluke, or have they got the right person? Like, what’s all these comments about? And I thought, “Oh, it’s just one week. It’s not gonna happen again.”
‘It’s just hype. Everything dies so quickly on social media. And then it just kept happening. I was going through the comments and trying to understand what all this hype is.
‘I understood quickly that it was positive, but also crossing the line of borderline being sexist and sexualizing me. So, yeah, it’s kind of balancing the good with the bad. That’s what I’ve had to learn.’
Kirk is not alone at being targeted for her looks, with trolls online at times focusing solely on players’ appearances rather than their aptitude on the pitch.
Last summer, pundits and former footballers were forced to rally around 16-year-old star Skye Stout after the newly minted Kilmarnock signing was set upon by users mocking her teenage acne.
Kirk went on to stress that being a woman in football had led her to develop a ‘thicker skin’.
‘I think I have thick skin, but I’ve had to get even thicker skin being online,’ Kirk, who also works as a content creator and presenter for a range of media channels, continued.
‘It’s my own choice that I’ve wanted to grow my brand and my platforms. But that comes with a thick skin and just having to bat it off.
The 22-year-old joined Posh in 2022 from Leicester City and has since scored 52 goals
As well as maintaining her playing career Kirk is also building her personal brand online and working as a presenter
‘And if you want to wear make-up or do your hair a certain way because that’s how you feel good, then you should be able to.’
Kirk stressed that she had ‘fallen into’ presenting alongside her playing career and was keen to balance time on the pitch with growing the women’s game in front of the camera.
‘I never planned to go viral, or I never planned to have a following,’ she added. ‘I love posting pictures and getting dressed up and playing football, but I never thought that it was going to break out the way it did.
‘I could either run with it or completely ignore it. And I think run with it because of the opportunities and then the money side of it.
‘I’m just let, let’s have the whole thing. Anything that comes my way, I’ll go for it – as long as it fits in the reputation, obviously.’
Kirk has made 89 appearances for Peterborough since joining the club, netting 52 goals and earning three Player of the Match awards.
