This post or as I have deemed it; The Call for the Burqa-ization of Girl’s in Hockey hit a nerve. Letting two sister’s try out for their high school boys’ hockey team and try to win a spot based on merit will not end the world as we know it.
Nor will there suddenly be an increase in teenage pregnancies or sex in the locker room because two sisters made the grade on the boys’ team. Nor do I see a stampede of girls suddenly “ruining” the boys’ teams or vice versa. Furthermore, even the suggestion that the girls will be cutting off their opportunities for sport scholarships to university is simply bollocks. Not limiting opportunities based on genitals, or lack thereof; is one of the primary things that distinguish us as a society from the Taliban.
Ironically, this all reminds me of the up roar that was raised by the panty-waster Athenians when a Spartan woman disguised herself as a man in order to watch her son compete in the Olympics who she personally trained. The sons of Sparta were proud and rejoiced over her initiative while the Athenians cried foul. But then again, the Athenians demanded their women be cloistered, or fully covered in public, ignorant and untitled, rendered physically unfit and were to be considered only another form of chattel much like a goat or a cow. Let’s not even bring up what bad grace the Athenians displayed when a Sparta woman won the chariot races.
I am not a radical feminist nor have I ever been, and in 2006, I had hoped we as a society had moved beyond allowing one’s ability, talent, merit or opportunities to be limited by one’s sex. My bad, and for those that missed this post the first time, let me go on record again:
Ka-ching, Ka-ching
The Last Amazon called me at work today as soon as she arrived home from school. She was breathless with excitement and it took several minutes for my normally articulate daughter to express herself. I was expecting her wanting to discuss a new math theory or a science experiment but no, it was about – HOCKEY.
In gym class she played her first game of hockey. She had skates but has never played hockey before. She had to borrow a helmet and a stick but once she got on the ice she was good to go. Now she is talking about wanting to join a league and finally finding her true sport……
I admit I was a little taken back last spring when she and her brothers wanted to take up golf but I understood the appeal factor. You get weapon and a ball and the goal is to hit the ball with the weapon and get it in the hole. I understand the appeal but HOCKEY?
I don’t like hockey, I didn’t start out that way but I learned to loathe hockey with a passion that has never left me. When I was a young girl I even played hockey back in the day when the schools let you play hockey and every elementary playground had an outdoor rink made by the school janitor with old planks and water as soon as the first snow fell. I played in the morning before school, at recess and lunch, after school and I was always ready for a game on weekends too.
I admit I didn’t play hockey with many girls, most didn’t seem to like it and if I really was going to be a ballet dancer skating was a no-no, but I didn’t care. I loved hockey. I loved racing down the ice and literally giving the shoulder to anyone that got in my way. In those days we didn’t play with helmets or padding. It was a tough, fast game and you had to be prepared to take your licks and get your butt in gear, no matter what.
That all changed when I got to grade 7. Suddenly, I was no longer allowed to play hockey in school. Girls played Ringette. You were not allowed to body check in ringette. You played with broken hockey sticks – and not because you busted it over someone’s head and were forced to finish the game that way - it was really meant to be broken so that no one would get hurt. There wasn’t even a puck but a stupid soft rubber ring so no one would get hurt. Girls played Ringette because it was not as tough as hockey.
Furthermore, real girls didn’t play hockey with boys because the boys were too big and rough or so I was told over and over. Years later I met Wayne Gretzky by accident and couldn’t stop smirking because I figured I could take him out in less than 10 seconds with either my chair or a bottle; so much for big and tough. I grew angry and frustrated that what I loved was being taken away from me; not because I could not compete or that I wasn’t good enough but because I was female and females didn’t play hockey.
It didn’t matter how I begged to be allowed to try out for the boys’ intramural teams. It cut no ice with the teachers that I could out skate or out stick any of my male contemporaries. It didn’t matter that in pick-up games I was always picked first by any of the boys for their team. It didn’t matter that the guys wanted to me to play. This was 1974 and girls played ringette. I wasn't demanding to use the same change room as the boys. I'd have been happy with a broom closet by myself to change in. I hated ringette and if I wasn’t allowed to play hockey, f**k hockey and the stick you rode in on.
I was never able to get over my apathy towards hockey and could come up a long litany on why I wouldn’t sign either the Last Amazon or her brothers for hockey. It also helped that my husband was a Chinese-Jamaican immigrant. Jamaicans don’t do hockey; cricket, basketball, rugby, soccer, boxing, football, the odd bobsledding but no hockey. The schools today made it easy for me to ignore hockey; they don’t teach the sport and they no longer allow rinks to be made outside - even floor hockey is banned. It promotes aggression and competition. Yes, things were working out just grand until the Last Amazon won a scholarship to a private prep school where not only does everyone play hockey but the school has its own indoor rink.
One thing I have learned running this home is where the Last Amazon dares to tread; the Spartans will want to follow. All I can think of now is ka-ching, ka-ching and I have to fight the urge to close my wallet. I will probably have to look around and see if I can’t come up with a part-time job to help her and her brothers play. And now you know why, when I grow up I want to be my daughter.
One final note, I find myself standing with Alan at Gen X at 40 on this one. Call it the inner MacGregor DNA struggling to assert itself in my being but every once and while Alan is right and thank the heavens for small mercies because he might be a red but at least he’s not a Campbell.
8 comments:
I agree with you to some extent Kateland. Team positions should be awarded without gender bias, however I do not believe the adjudicator has clearly thought out the ramifications of her decision.
The fact that her decision is being applied only to hockey screams hypocrisy. Had she truly been defining her ruling on the basis of eliminating gender stereotyping, it would have covered the whole spectrum of sports that the MHSAA sanctions. The fact that it doesn't tells me there is an alterior motive somewhere in here, I haven't an inkling of what it is. In hockey, the players are equipped like gladiators, so the chances of the the girls receiving a career ending injury is infantecimal, at best.
I also highly doubt the rates of teen pregnancies with skyrocket as a result of this decision (haha, I gotta kick out of that comment, that was good ;-) ) - kids will find a place and a time for that "extra-curricular activity" that is less supervised where the chances of getting busted are far more reduced.
Here are my questions. In an education / community centre system that is already so fiscally overburdened it is becoming impossible to provide quality resources for study or modern community facilities, how do you seperate the genders in the change rooms? You are not going to have the money (or space) to add more locker rooms, and in a competition event you obviously can't split the group into boys and girls.
Next, and I know this sounds sexist, I don't believe kids at a high school level have evolved beyond the point of any team that adopts more than one gender becoming ridiculed by an opposing team that doesn't. I hope these girls are as emotionally strong as they are physically, I didn't get that impression from watching their interviews.
They will be targets on the ice. I can pretty much guarantee it. With all the publicity this has generated, it can't be avoided. I have to admit, if they were my kids, I would be more than a little concerned. While your Gretzky analogy may be a good point, also remember he didn't get to that pinacle alone. Yes, he possesed a great deal of talent, but without the brick wall blue liners backing him up, I not sure he would have been as successfull as he was. The Oilers invented the neutral zone trap. The girls may be hard pressed to find that commaradirie on a boy's team.
Physical education classes at the high school level have already eliminated (in most instances) gender stereotyping, that has come a long way . Co-ed classes happen day in and day out. That is a good thing. When it comes to extra-curricular sports though, you simply can not dispute basic human physiology.
I wish these girls the best of luck, they are going to need it. Their road is gonna be excruciating.
1)The ruling was on the merits of the girls case, the scope of the court cannot go beyond the merit of the claim the sister's made.
2)The point you failed to make was the girl's originally had tried and did in fact made the boys team, and played with the boys team. It was only once a girls team was created that they lost their place.
3)You have two courses. Be a Spartan and fall on your sword or be a Athenian and fall under your sword.
100% in agreement with you, kateland. If the coaches figure they should make the team, then why not let them play? And boys shouldn't play on girls teams because many of those teams exist to allow for the multitude of biological factors which do not allow for many women to compete physically with men in many sports. Any boys who fail to make the cut to the boys team because of girls being present should be given the opportunity to play at a level more suitable to their skill set.
If there is no lower-level boys team, well, maybe then we can start considering those weaker skilled boys the opportunity to play on the next best thing - the top-level girls team.
IF we want our children to grow up and prosper in a meritocracy, then we should insist upon it in our schools and recreational programs.
C'mon girls, get over yourselves. First, I find it beyond ridiculous that our courts are dealing with cases of girls wanting to play on boys teams. Putting that aside, you know full well this has dick (pardon the expresion girls) to do with equality or fairness. The proof will come if the boys decide to get together and form a team of their own, boys only, outside of school, on their own dime. Another lawsuit would be in the works in a heartbeat, to force them to allow women to participate. Take this nonsene to its logical conclusion; all the boys will quit playing, and then voilà, back to an all girls team. Two minutes for hair-pulling!
Keith, on this one you need to get over yourself. The Blainey decision was handed down in 1985 in Ontario. The world did not end and if the Pasternak girls play on a boys team in Manitoba it won't cause the world to end either. The entire decision has to do with allowing two girls to rise and fall on their own merits.
Jessie Pasternak speaks for herself at the Broom. Go read.
http://www.dustmybroom.com/?p=4547#comment-31821
I don't believe there is any question of the world ending or not. I look forward to the soon-to-arrive court decisions on gendre quotas in school sports. Then, we will be able to revisit the issues of merit-based access to sports teams. I also look forward with great anticipation to the assault charges against some lad who puts an elbow in a girls face and destroys her dental work, not because she's a girl, but because she is playing hockey with the boys, and that is what boys do when they play hockey. "Be careful what you wish for" is a fine old addage.
Don't hold your breathe Keith, as its been, what 21 years or so since the Blainey decision and girls in Ontario have been playing hockey with the boys and the courts have yet to be overwhelmed by the lawsuits. The Pasternak decision concerned Manitoba.
Keith, I had a girl friend that played as a defensive lineman for three years on her high school football team (all males but her), 2 years she was awarded MVP for her team. When she hit you, you saw God, and she took a hit as well as the next guy and often better. As for myself there were a number of boys I played hockey that took a shot from my elbow and cried all the way but I never left the rink crying.
Most girls don't want to play hockey or football with guys, some do, some don't, but those that do aren't the shrinking violet kind of girls.
But what I am saying is those than can make the grade, and want to play - don't deny them the opportunity just because they don't have a dick.
My High-School team played against another team that was co-ed back in '75, it was a bit awkward for some of the guys, but we didn't beat them as easily either - it was a Water-polo match.
I do believe we played a "cleaner" game than usual, with less underwater nastiness. But this was a team that normally played clean anyhow, some other schools were always dirty players, you could count on it. One of my team-mates was Mark Allen, who went on to big things in Triathlons.
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