On girls/boys school sports teams.

[backtoblue]

In my rural town of about 2,000 people, the 1998 girl's basketball team one the state championship. It was an amazing victory that no one thought possible. Neither the boys' football or basketball programs have come even close to a championship.

The boys have a new football house and warm-up suits. The girls have to use the gym early in the morning and on Saturdays and use hand-me-down uniforms from at least 3 years prior.

In order for the girls' teams to get any sort of funding, they must organize fundraisers and beg for money just for necessities.

Why is this fair? In my opinion this is an early form of sexual discrimination. It doesn't matter that the boys' team might bring in larger crowds - students should have the same opportunities no matter their gender.

[ejpoeta]

1. i thought there were laws about this?? i thought there were laws to make sure they both

got the same!! that's bullshit.

[FSogol]

2. Title IX is for college sports. No such protection for high school sports. n/t

[LostinVA]

38. Title IX also covers high school, as do many state and local laws

[backtoblue]

4. not for high school kiddies.

Yes, it is definitely bullshit.

[ejpoeta]

10. it's like girls having to fight to play on the football team or hockey or anything else.

granted, when I was a kid it was just a normal thing and you expected to be treated differently and i had never heard of girls playing football or anything else except volleyball and softball and girl's basketball. and what did it matter, because girl's aren't going to get a scholarship to college or play in the NHL or NFL or NBA or anything. it's like they just want to make sure we women know right from the start that we are just girls and therefore we are going to get screwed and discriminated against. I want that if any of my daughters were to want to play sports that they would be treated equally and have the same funding and the same opportunities as the boys do. emily is still only 10, and doesn't really show an interest in sports so... my experience with how our school system is is limited right now. i hope they aren't like you describe some schools as being.

[backtoblue]

14. I wanted to play football when I was in the 7th grade.

Granted, I was a puny little girl, but I played football on the playground so I couldn't understand why I wasn't allowed to play once it was on a school team.

The excuse was that they didn't make the necessary padding for girls.

[ejpoeta]

16. i'm surprised they didn't say your delicate body would get hurt by the rough boys.

uggh.

[paulsby]

22. or boys fighting to play on the field hockey team

it's a lot easier for a girl to get play on a team than a boy to get play on a girls' only team.

of course that's because women aren't able to compete against men, so we discriminate.

but you get my point.

[PM Martin]

3. Is not Football an "American Tradition" or some other

sort of nonsense?

Women are still treated as second class citizens.

[Captain Hilts]

27. High school really reinforces the 2nd class status of women and girls. nt

[MineralMan]

5. Yah, and the local newspaper had photos of the losing boys' team,

and a three paragraph story about the girl's win, no doubt.

[tomreedtoon]

6. There is no fairness about high school sports.

Mind you, I'd love to see football and all other high school sports programs shut down completely, and have the football players taught numbers, colors and how to read.

But as long as we have to let the Neanderthals be treated like they were real human beings, we should allow females to participate equally in sports. But girls' sports don't make money. (The WNBA had lots of 1/3 full arenas, most of them lesbians, which weren't enough of a market to make the big bucks.)

It's not specifically sexism - that is, the opposition isn't completely sexist. It's who makes the freaking money for the franchise owners.

[PM Martin]

7. Academics need to be given priority.

[MineralMan]

9. Indeed (he said, pointing at your title and chuckling)...

"Acedemics need to be given priority."

[tomreedtoon]

11. "Ace demics?" Don't worry, I won't rag on your spelling.

However, I will point out that studying academic subjects will do them no good either. What kind of "high paying job" will they get in America now? Unless they drop their standards and go to India, where all our jobs are now?

I believe in learning and knowledge. But how can you expect people to study it if there is no practical end to it? Without a job and a life at the end of the long, black tunnel of high school, what's the reason for students to push forward? Because the light at the end of the tunnel is a gorilla with a torch, setting fire to the people he's already killed. Keeping them lit with Wal-Mart barbecue lighter fluid.

[backtoblue]

21. ::smiling::

:pals:

[MineralMan]

8. Don't forget shapes. Shapes are real important.

"Mind you, I'd love to see football and all other high school sports programs shut down completely, and have the football players taught numbers, colors and how to read.
"

:bounce:

[backtoblue]

18. Yeah, the shape of your genetalia..sorry, had to say it

:hi:

[MineralMan]

19. Well, there is that.

The outies get all the attention and the innies get none. Such has it ever been. I hope that changes some day.

[backtoblue]

20. Check out this discussion.

It's scary (kind of off subject but completely and utterly relevant)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5743986&mesg_id=5743986

[MineralMan]

30. I saw that thread. Very disturbing.

[paulsby]

23. spare me the pernicious myth

that the athletically inclined are less intelligent than others.

the "dumb jock" myth.

sure there are some dumb jocks. there are also plenty of dumb non-athletes.

i have only seen one study that addresses this, and a positive correlation was shown between athleticism and intelligence. it was in an old milo, iirc.

anyway, my point is that i know it makes people feel all superior to pick on jocks and call them dumb.

it's a form of bigotry, just like any other.

[Captain Hilts]

28. Thank you. nt

[paulsby]

24. if we allowed females to participate "equally"

we wouldn't segregate sports by gender.

however, we DO so because we recognize they CAN'T compete equally.

marion jones wouldn't even be an elite level (let alone olympic level) sprinter if she had to compete agaisnt men (even with the drugs!).

i also take offense to athletes being referred to as "neanderthals"

i am a nationally competitive strength athlete. i am sure plenty here would see muscles and think "neanderthal"

it's bigotry, just like any other

[tomreedtoon]

31. Guess you haven't been assaulted by a football player, then.

I was. I have nothing but contempt for their species. Even the ones that didn't do things just proved to be giant blobs of egotism and sleazy sexuality.

Women athletes will never be equivalent until they start packing pistols in public, shoot up bars and run over people in their Maseratis.

[paulsby]

32. well at least you are honest about your prejudice

having contempt for a person because of their chosen sport.

[TellTheTruth82]

33. Neanderthals

Please don't stereotype - isn't that one of the things we are fighting against? When my father has his knee replaced a few years back, I met the orthopedic surgeon who performed the operation. He went into medicine after playing offensive lineman for the Chicago bears. Neanderthal? I think not!

[Captain Hilts]

26. All football players are by no means "Neanderthals." Some are smart.

WNBA audiences were full of KIDS.

[Journeyman]

12. Can't argue with any of your points, but there's an unfortunate hierarchy in school sports. . .

that will probably continue to generate inequality no matter what advances are made in funding.

And it's not just boys vs girls. My daughter's high school field hockey team won league championships all four years she was there, and consistently advanced two or more games through the playoffs. They never won State, but they did very well. Each year, though, they had to practice and play their games on the practice fields the football teams had used and torn up just a few short weeks before. This despite the presence of a pristine field easily big enough to accommodate the team right next to them. That field was reserved for the girl's softball team, a sport which didn't begin practice until after field hockey finished for the year, but which was accorded complete control of the field solely because they were the softball team. They hadn't finished better than third in their league for years, but the athletic department accorded them greater respect because of the nature of their sport.

So the field hockey team played on a pitted, pockmarked field, risking injury, the quality of their play definitely diminished, all so softball could have an unblemished field on which to play. Probably some politics involved, no doubt, but it seemed more an issue of attitude than protectionism. Some sports were considered more important, no matter who played them. And of course, the baseball field was nicer yet, and had a locked fence surrounding it to boot, so there was definitely sexism at play as well. But even there, baseball was given greater respect than soccer, basketball was favored over volleyball, and the greatest accord -- both financial and accommodations -- was given to football, a team whose only element of consistency each year was the ability to finish at the bottom of the league.

[Captain Hilts]

29. Let girls play baseball rather than 'slow/soft'ball. Ugh! nt

[Name removed]

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[backtoblue]

15. The point is that the revenue should be split equally between the two teams.

It's not the little girls' fault that some assholes don't want to watch them play.

[ejpoeta]

17. in high school it isn't supposed to be about revenue. they get a budget for sports

paid for by taxpayers of that school system. the budget should be equally distributed between all the teams, not just the boys teams and girls can go screw themselves. this is not a private enterprise... it is a school. the funds and the equipment and the place of practices and games should be equally available to the girls and the boys teams. period. end of discussion.

[IDFbunny]

34. Boys teams are supplemented by boosters and tickets

Public funding and opportunities should be split evenly. I think sports are important for social development and physical fitness. Based on how the kids look now, mostly fat and pasty, not nearly enough emphasis has been placed on physical fitness in schools.

[Captain Hilts]

25. A lot more people pay to see football, no matter how lousy. Both basketball teams should be treated

the same.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

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[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. Awesome.

A new sexist troll.

[LostinVA]

39. Are you really this bored?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

37. That is actually breaking Federal law -- it's against Title IX

If you want to try to rectify that, you can: call yor Congresscritters' offices and your local NOW. NOW espcially should tell you how to proceed.

100% illegal, and has been since the 70's, when Title IX passed -- oddly enough, with help and pressure from Nixon!

[backtoblue]

41. thanks

It looks like I'm going to have my work cut out for me to find out HOW to enforce the laws.

[donco6]

40. The school has to show a proportionate support for girls and boys teams.

It doesn't sound like it's in compliance. A letter to the Office of Civil Rights could fix this.