From a young age we are taught that in sports boys are suppose to be better than girls. Genetically boys are bigger, stronger, and faster but in no way does that make them better. Society tells us that boys and girls are not to mix in the sporting world, and if they do it is simply not normal. Women have been fighting for respect from men when it comes to sports for many years, and to this day the battle is still going. Women sports are not as respected as male sports, they don't get nearly as much media press as men, we hardly ever see any female sports being played in primetime, and the ones that are, are normally women's volleyball. The inequality of women sports is a big issue in the sporting world. For example this year in the Olympics the women's basketball team had won 4 consecutive Gold medals going into it. They were picked to win their 5th, making history because no other team men or women had ever done what the women's basketball team had done. The mens team had so much talent, they were blowing out team's by 50 points. Game after game they continued to dominate as well as the women's team. Yet all we heard or saw was the male games being televised and how they had so much to prove from when they only won the bronze in 2008. Even after the women won the Gold we still didn't hear anything about them, and Diana Taurasi had been quoted in the paper saying that women's sports, no matter how successful they were still didn't get the respect they desereved. I have always wondered why this was the way it was. If a women could prove that she could play the game and play it well why wasn't that sport socially popular among men. I will admit that I prefer mens sports over women's sports, because they may be a little more exciting. But I have never thought that mens sports should be more respected over women's sports. If anything women's sports should be more highly respected then mens due to everything women have had to overcome. The film Kick Like A Girl shows perfect examples of how girls can succeed in a "boys world." The girls go from an all girls division to a boys division to get more competition. They prove that they can compete and they succeed. From my personal experiences I can relate to the movie in that I played on an all women's team in a mens basketball league. We were told that we shouldn't play in this league, that girls couldn't compete in a man's sport, that we would get hurt, we would lose every game. I think for us we took it as motivation and we ended up winning 2 consecutive league championships. After the first season the attitude towards us in the league changed. The men respected us more, realized that just because they might have been bigger and stronger didn't mean they had more skill then us. I wish that more people in society would learn to see that women can play sports just as well as any man can, and hope to see more positive change in the progression of women sports in years to come.
-J'Nay Almaguer Hawthorne
Kin 332I 12:30-1:45 PM T-Th
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