In one of my sociology courses we watched a short film on girl wrestlers.
Okay, bear with me here. I'm sure if you've read my posts on feminism in the past, you'll see why I immediately thought of Buffy (okay, maybe you won't because I sometimes make strange, hard to follow connections, but hey, it resonated with me).
This quite awesome girl really wanted to wrestle...so she did. She's in junior high, but there's a severe shortage of other girls for her to wrestle. Fortunately, Title IX allows her at this point to wrestle boys in competition. She does, she wins awards, she kicks some ass, she loses sometimes, she goes to tournaments, she loves the sport, etc etc.
But there's problems looming on the horizon because high school girls are not allowed to wrestle boys.
She's at a tournament and gets to meet a pro wrestler (not the crazy soap opera wrestling on TV, but real wrestling) who's her idol. She asks if he's ever wrestled a girl, and he says he has when he was 10, but he doesn't think girls should wrestle boys when they're teenagers. She's absolutely crushed by what her idol's telling her.
The refs display substantial bias against the girls in competitions. Parents, other wrestlers, coaches, etc say that wrestling is "too brutal" for girls or that in high school it becomes "too sexual" for girls to participate in.
She gets to go to the national's competition in CA, and meets a few other girl wrestlers who are coming up against the same problems: there aren't enough girls to wrestle, so they wrestle boys. But when they reach a certain age, they won't be allowed to anymore.
The girl finally gets to high school and joins the team...and spends a couple years watching on the sidelines. She can't wrestle. There's no other girls for her to wrestle. So she eventually drops out of the sport she loves and is passionate about.
In the meantime, the wrestling organizations are screaming about Title IX because it supposedly cuts men's programs (I don't know the history on this in wrestling, to be honest...just reporting what the film said). In 2002-ish, they actually legally challenge Title IX for discrimination against guys.
While this girl was sitting on the bench becoming disillusioned with the sport that boys were allowed to play but she wasn't, they had the audacity to cry discrimination against guys.
Just a girl, indeed.
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gabrielleabelle- The One Who Isn't Chosen
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I remember people making alarmist cries about boobs getting grabbed.
So ridiculous. I think that's probably the last thing on the kids' minds when competing in a wrestling match. And if it isn't...well then they get distracted and lose. *shrugs* Damn them hormones!
This entire thing kinda puzzled me because the girl is in Austin. And I remember our high school had a girls' wrestling team that was actually the best team in our entire sports' program. I hadn't realized that other areas had such problems getting enough women wrestlers for competition.
I remember hearing about the discrimination in wrestling stuff in junior high. And it was during my first year at Sam that they got the girls wrestling team, and it was BIG news. They also had to spend a lot of time promoting it to get enough girls to join it. Several of my female friends were kinds grossed out by it (what woman would want to wrestle!?) though I thought it was neat. I will say, it was something I liked about Mr. Kemp, he would push for unconventional things in the school. While waiting for class to let out in gym a bunch of kids would start break dancing in the foyer. Rather than banning it, he created a break dance club.
I will say, it was something I liked about Mr. Kemp, he would push for unconventional things in the school. While waiting for class to let out in gym a bunch of kids would start break dancing in the foyer. Rather than banning it, he created a break dance club.
Kemp was cool. I remember the break dance club. They performed at a bunch of different events. Quite awesome.
It could be worse; it could be Greco-Roman wrestling in the nude. :-)
So ridiculous. I think that's probably the last thing on the kids' minds when competing in a wrestling match.
I think you're underestimating the overwhelming power of The Boobies over the teenage male mind. :-) Sure, someone who competes at an advanced level will be interested in winning, and not care about anything else. But your average high school students in gym class being told that "This week, we're learning wrestling"? And "Why yes, that does mean that you'll be stripping down to shorts and a singlet, wrapping your arms and legs around the body of a young woman, and rolling around on the floor with her trying to pin her to the ground."
In oither words, I'm not completely lacking in sympathy for the "It would get sexualised" argument. :-)
How the girls would react to the same scenario ("stripping down to shorts and a singlet, wrapping your arms and legs around the body of a young man, and rolling around on the floor with him trying to pin him to the ground.") is not something I'm qualified to answer, not having ever been a teenage girl.
Although I don't think you're likely to see wrestling happen in a standard gym class. The problem is that the actual wrestling teams (with the actual, serious wrestlers) won't let girls wrestle the boys. Which is a bit different from the scenario you're positing.
There were also objections that guys would be tempted to "go easy" on a girl and would end up losing to which I say...so? Then they'll learn not to go easy on her if they don't wanna keep losing. That's their issue, not the girls'.
As someone who got into a LOT of fights with boys when I was younger I have yet to meet one who wants to go easy. It's a damn fight, you focus or you get the crap smacked out of you.
This is a little off-topic but it reminds me of a couple incidents when I played in my high school jazz band back in the damn. In my eleventh year we ended up at a festival where you preform and then get some important 'mucky-muck' in the biz give you feedback. I was sitting in the lead chair (that's trumpet 1 for those who wondered) and I was beyond thrilled when the first thing out of this adjudicator's mouth (he will remain nameless because he is rather well-known) was "That was some great lead playing! Good job!"
He then steps over to the guy on my right to give him some more congratulations who was confused enough that the clinician realized his mistake and turned to the boy on my left. Oh not him either? The boy further down? No?
Oh crap, it must be the girl STANDING IN THE LEAD SPOT.
I will never forget the look on his face in that moment, he actually looked a little appalled. He then immediately started talking about something else.
That was my first experience with out and out sexism. I always knew that playing lead chair in a jazz band was generally regarded as a male dominated (a "hur! me strong! me good! me quash band!" attitude does kind of come with the territory) but to have that sort of a reaction to a little girl doing the job?
Shame.
I hope this girl eventually finds a way (or found a way) to play the sport she loves. Never let asshats get in your way.
*glares at stupid men*
*pats the nice ones*
*rollseyes*
I hope she found a way to keep going.
And God forbid men have to actually make concessions in order to equal things out! I mean...what if the girl actually beats a boy while wrestling? He'll never be a man again!
Title IX gives us an attempt at "separate but equal" status there...though the "equal" usually isn't very...um...equal (speaking as someone who played high school soccer for three years).
And with wrestling, the matches are apparently done by weight categories, so girls will be matched up with boys their size. And if the boys prove to be of superior physical strength and win all the time...oh well, the girls will just lose. They apparently still want to play, so why not let them?
And then pretty much every other sport, when you're on a level where it's kids playing - you're not really going to see a difference. They have co-ed of many sports on those levels, and also mostly co-ed when it comes to little kids - it can be done.
At high professional levels, there is a consistent difference. But high school wrestling? Yeah, just let them do it, come on.