Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sports Issue
This weekend I went to a lacrosse tournament in Nashville. As I was telling some of my guy friends about it they gave me a the usual response "girls lacrosse is not even a sport." I've heard men say this so many times that I usually just shrug it off, but this time it sank in a little bit deeper. What is it about women's lacrosse that makes people say this? Most would answer that because it is not a contact sport. However, I don't think that they would have the same opinion about tennis, swimming, baseball, and softball. I think that sometimes this comment goes deeper than contact vs. non contact sports but rather mens. vs. women's sports. As an athlete, I have swam, played soccer, lacrosse, and tennis. I can safely say that I have experienced some sort of sexism in every one of those sports. Women do not receive the same support financially or psychologically as male athletes. Men usually make a lot more money than their female counterparts and this is most likely because mens sports have more media exposure, higher attendance, and more sponsorship money. What about our society makes it like this?Women are breaking ground at universities everywhere, and programs are being expanded. Title IX was a huge leap and promotes fair gender representation in athletics, but I think its obvious that women still have a long way to go to have equal compensation.
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Hmm, well let me start by saying I don't disagree with you. Fair is fair and sports are sports, regardless of who is playing.
ReplyDeleteAs for women's lacrosse, I've only seen a couple of matches (are they games or matches? I forget) live but I don't recall thinking "non-contact", now maybe the girls I watched were all in a bad mood about something, who knows. But, I thought of basketball, it's technically a non-contact sport but that did not keep me from often leaving the court bruised and battered when I used to play.
All that being said, the simple fact of the matter is that women will probably not make the same amount of money at sports for some time and it's not because of style of play, athletic ability or anything like that. The very simple truth is that we live in a capitalistic society and that money goes to the people that the general public pay to see.
My basic point is until you have millions of girls clamoring to buy jersey's, sneakers, and every other product that athletes peddle, like the boys do, there will be no equality.
Is it fair? Certainly not. But it is the society that we live in and we choose to continue to live in.