There are a few moments in pop culture history that have “broken the internet”.

Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine cover and Taylor Swift’s “no, it’s Becky” T-shirt in 2014, Beyonce’s surprise release of Lemonade in 2016 and even “The Dress”, which divided Facebook and Instagram users over its colour in 2015.

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For most women’s football fans, there was a moment over the summer that brought its internet community to an absolute standstill.

It was a polaroid picture of a kiss that had been eagerly anticipated by women’s football fans all over the world. In it, Australia’s Sam Kerr and USA’s Kristie Mewis, two of the biggest players in the game, confirmed their romance to a combined Instagram following of one million and ended months of Tumblr speculation.

As someone who grew up watching teen dramas like The OC and One Tree Hill, and still listens to a lot of Swift, this love story provided the perfect drip-feed of intrigue and angst.

It is also a relationship that was born on the internet, beginning as just a few flirty emojis before blossoming into an IRL romance and providing the perfect ammunition to a generation of fans that live online.

The cultural impact of “Kewis’” unveiling was so huge, that it even led to merchandise.

When an iconic image of Mewis and Kerr embracing on the field after USA defeated Australia in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Twitter user @Cabe1Stacey innocently replied and reflected on the “friendship” that was on display from both players.

In response, another user, @prefervoldermort, stepped in to correct her, replying: “They’re lesbians, Stacey”. Stacey then retorted back to say, “So am I what the big deal!!”

Friendship has no boundaries! Win or lose friends are still friends.❤❤💪💪

— Stacey Cabe (@Cabe1Stacey) August 5, 2021

The exchange perfectly represented the beautiful online community that exists in women’s football, one which is unapologetically and proudly queer (queer has become a powerful word for the LGBTQ+ community since being reclaimed in the 1980s. The word carries weight but it also speaks of freedom and diversity).

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The author of the infamous “They’re lesbians, Stacey” tweet was 18-year-old @prefervoldermort (who wishes to be referred to by her username so she can retain anonymity and avoid facing hostility in Iraq), an Iraqi student who fell in love with women’s football during the 2019 Women’s World Cup and has had their life changed by the sport and the visible gay women within it.

“I started watching women’s football when I was 16 and I had just been outed at school, it was terrible”, they tell me on the phone from Iraq.

“I was feeling so small and helpless but then I found this light. At the time, the picture of Magdalena Eriksson and Pernille Harder had just gone viral and they were just so open and unapologetically themselves, not just as gay women, but as women. If it weren’t for them and people like them, not just in sport, I wouldn’t know how to accept myself. I’m very thankful to them.”

For people like @prefervoldermort the women’s football online community is a literal lifeline. They have been harassed and bullied for being who they are, called an “adulterer” and “sexual deviant” but through women’s football, they found a safe space full of acceptance.

As for the tweet itself, they know it was a legendary moment: “Let me set the scene. My exams are in less than a month or two, and I’m revising, my whole day spent revising and the Olympics is the one thing I can do throughout my whole day which is not studying.

“At the time, I saw people commenting on the picture about them being friends or something even though they’re obviously gay. I saw Stacey’s tweet and she looked like the coolest lesbian. So I tweeted her and then everyone started liking and replying to me and I couldn’t get any studying done that day. I had no idea it would be so big. It ended up in an article and then on a T-shirt. Stacey and I are actually friends now.”

Studs, a women’s football content platform, created the T-shirt in partnership with @prefervoldermort, with all profits from sales going to IraQueer, an Iraqi charity supporting LGBTQ youth.

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One of its co-founders Becky Taylor-Gill, was surprised at just how big the reaction was: “We were actually overwhelmed with love for this T-shirt. We had people buying from all over the world.

“The women’s football community is small but powerful. The original tweet only has about 2,500 likes but I would say it’s just become a hilarious WoSo (women’s soccer) phrase that everyone would know. It’s actually a blessing to be part of it.”

The wonderful world of women’s football couple fan and stan accounts is so vast that it includes Instagram and Twitter accounts, Reddit threads, Tumblr pages and YouTube conspiracy videos.

In fact, YouTube couple Sarah and Sara were one of the first to realise the relationship that was brewing between Kerr and Mewis and in April, they released a 20-minute YouTube video detailing the story so far.

This sort of emotional investment and dedication is normally only seen from fans of Sci-Fi series, not sport, but the women’s football community is so strong and so engaged that it’s developed its own online subculture.

One of the most popular women’s football fan content accounts is Lucys Bronzer on Instagram.

Started in 2019, the account has over 16,000 followers and posts memes of players, funny clips from games and just general love for the big names in the game.

Its founder started the account when she was just 16 after being inspired by the Women’s World Cup, Megan Rapinoe and the performances and personalities of England’s Lionesses.

“They were so inspirational”, she says, “breaking down barriers and stereotypes.”

What Lucys Bronzer and many other accounts have in common is the tongue in cheek, playful nature of the content, something which is so unique to women’s football.

“Megan Rapinoe’s attitude to the game really inspired my content. She doesn’t take it too seriously, she fights for equality and combines that with humour and it was something that I had never seen before.”

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“In the men’s games we rarely see the behind-the-scenes but I think in the women’s game you see so much more of that. These players are so relatable and you don’t feel cut off from that as fans, it feels within touching distance.

“When I was younger all I would watch was Liverpool (men) and you would never see the queer side of the game and then Megan Rapinoe showed that to everyone on a global stage.

“I personally realised I was gay through women’s football and lots of people that I know also did. It’s a safe space. There was always a safety barrier, I didn’t need to tell anyone my name, everyone accepted me. These players are connecting with fans and telling them ‘it’s ok to be who you are and you shouldn’t ever think otherwise’.”

The impact of the safe space that Lucys Bronzer found and cultivated has been huge: “In lockdown I came to terms with my sexuality a lot through my account and I tried to eradicate a lot of internalised homophobia.

“Where I live is very conservative and you can’t really show who you are and I still hear homophobic jokes. The account was an outlet of safety. I had been denying it for a couple years but then I came to terms with it.”

Tracy Brown, founder of Chelsea Pride, the London club’s LGBTQ fan group, has also been blown away by the way players like Harder and Eriksson have used their platform: “I’m proud to walk into Kingsmeadow and see two of the most well-known players in the game in a relationship. Their (Harder and Eriksson) openness is breathtaking. Their love for the community is incredible. Their fight for equality in the game is immeasurable and I’m extremely proud that they’re a part of my football club.”

Last year, the Chelsea stars even opened their DMs on National Coming Out Day to invite anyone to have a conversation with them.

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Tracy wishes she had such incredible role models when she was younger: “I grew up with it not being so easy. I would feel much more secure now knowing that some of my favourite footballers in the world are a part of that community. It gives people a safe space to be who they are and there’s a power in being your authentic self.”

The players themselves perhaps don’t even realise the impact they’re having. Lisa Evans, on loan to West Ham from Arsenal and partner to Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema, is humble when discussing the power of her relationship with one of the best players in the world.

She told The Athletic: “I think for me, first and foremost, I just want people to feel like they can be themselves in any environment on and off the football pitch. I think football should be inclusive for everyone and we should enjoy it as much as we can because it can give you so much joy in life.

“I think I don’t really see myself as a role model as such, I just feel lucky to be with such an amazing person and I don’t even see it as me being a role model, it’s just… normal.”

Liz Ward, Director of Programmes at Stonewall, believes the visibility of gay women within football is a powerful educational tool too. She even uses quotes from Eriksson and Harder in her workshops to players and clubs around the country. “They talk about their relationship in such a positive way”, she says. “They’re such great role models and it takes down the taboo of having really visible queer relationships.

“There is this theoretical idea of (queerness) existing as a pair of rainbow laces but when it’s brought to life it can still be really confronting, especially for some young people who are very early on their journey of queerness.

“On a personal level, it’s also just so fun. I love football so much. Football to me is like eating the most delicious cake all of the time. Now I’m at this point in my life where I can not only love football but I can be unashamedly gay in it and see the best players in the game also be gay. It’s like a utopia. It’s this level of unadulterated joy.

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“The character and personality that you get from players like Kristie Mewis is so joyful anyway and then you to have that in a visible LGBTQ, mixed-race relationship is massive, it’s huge. It’s incredibly affirming. It’s one of the things in society that gives me a lot of hope that we’re going in a good direction.”

For Jessy Parker Humphreys, a football journalist and Chelsea fan, the impact has also been extremely personal: “Having visible gay players in the game feels so crazily empowering and normalising that I think it’s sometimes easy to forget what a unique situation it is and how much that’s changed over a short of space of time.

“We now have so many players who are open about their relationships without actually talking about their sexuality, which is even cooler in many ways. For players to happily post their relationships online and be ‘proud’ in so many ways without making a big deal of it is huge.

“As someone who has been out for over a decade it still means a lot to me to see people like me doing cool things, that feels affirming.”

Also, critically, for Jessy, this writer, Liz, and so many others in women’s football, this is about joy. Yes, it’s important to show the struggle that many queer people have faced, but also being queer is a joyful thing and these players are celebrating that.

So often the narrative is defined by negativity and darkness, but these players are showing that you don’t need to hide. They’re unashamedly posting pictures of themselves in love and having fun, that is something we can all relate to and something that we haven’t ever seen in football until now.

In a game that is so toxic, these players are living their best lives and uplifting so many along the way.

(Top photo: Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)