Quote:
Originally Posted by CherylNYC
Before Title IX, girls in my school could either be cheerleaders or play field hockey. We also had a strange thing called 'Red and Blue', (school colours), which was some sort of thing where the participating girls were divided up into competing teams where they were graded in weird, non-sporty events. That's what passed for girl's sports. I'm not making this up! Besides cheerleading, field hockey and Red and Blue, there was no other funding for girl's sports.
A few other bold girls and I ran on 'the track team'. That is, the boy's track team. It was the only team, and I was fast enough to compete. All eyes were on me all the time, which was especially harsh for me while my body was changing and I was having trouble handling an ever increasing level of unwanted sexual attention from men. As bad as that was, it was worse to be so unsettled about how to handle my level of competitiveness. When I beat boys, they were subject to extreme shaming. If I didn't, I proved what all the boys thought, which was that I didn't really belong there. It was excruciating, but I stuck with it. I loved the feeling of physical power, and I really loved to run and win, but I hated the pressure. Interestingly, I didn't even know I was under pressure. It's just what my life looked like. Young people often don't know that the trials they're experiencing are unusual. They accept the situation as given. I certainly did.
Because of Title IX, we suddenly had a girl's track team. It was awesome! I found myself competing against my peers, not testosterone driven, somewhat menacing creatures who were rapidly growing to be twice my size. I could relax into a supportive, relatively fair competitive environment. I was welcome to be there! I never stopped feeling relieved about that.
I found out some time ago that one of my HS records was retired unbroken when the event was changed to a different length.
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Thanks, Cheryl. That's a fascinating post. The "red and blue" competition can hardly be believed to happen in our lifetimes, right?!
I also remember the change from playing on boys sports teams to girls teams. The level of play was so much lower than what I was used to, but I was glad to have girl teammates anyway. I had to do a lot of teaching because the coaches we had either were women who had never played sports, or men who just took the coaching jobs for the money and didnt take girls sports seriously.
We also need to talk some evening soon about sexism, and how our excellent skills were not just taken for this own merits-- they were to be viewed through the lens of how they made boys feel. Those days of witnessing boys be shamed because I was a better athlete, and also being aware that my abilities were not welcome, are the embodied roots of my feminism.