As a child, I never played competitive organized sports with
females. This was until middle school when I was on the same baseball team with
a girl for the first time in my life. At first I was a little confused but then
after seeing how good she was I really did not care. She was a great pitcher
and was basically our ace. It was always fun seeing boys on other teams quietly
laugh at her in the dugout and then quickly finding out how good she really
was. I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to be the only girl in a
baseball league. If I was born as a girl I honestly do not know if I would have
played sports. It seems like girls are limited to only a few sports because of
the norms we have in our society. However, if I was born a girl and I did play
sports, I would probably play volleyball or softball. These sports have always
interested me however; many fast pitch softball leagues are exclusively for
girls. Volleyball has always interested me as well unfortunately I felt like I
was always too short to play it. If I was born a girl I would probably have
never played baseball. It is so rare for a girl to play baseball that I
probably would have just settled for playing softball if I did have the desire
to play sports as a girl. Playing baseball in a league filled with only boys is
difficult and I know this from my recollection of my middle school team. It
takes a special kind of person to be able to handle people openly laughing at
you for being different. I feel like many people think that we have youth
sports leagues that are only for girls or only for boys but do not realize that
some of them are actually open to both sexes. There is that stereotype that
some sports are only open to boys such as baseball. This is not the case at all;
at least back in my hometown youth baseball leagues are open to both sexes.
-Corey Krupa
I definitely agree with the idea that there is a stereotype against girls playing softball. The ingrained social concept is that boys should play baseball and girls play softball when at the youth level girls can perform all of the same physical abilities as boys. When I was growing up there was a girl that played in our baseball league and she was just as good as any of us. In fact she was on my 10 year old championship team and played a key role in helping us win. Another interesting thing about the gender identity of baseball and softball is that most men only play baseball when they’re young and play softball when they get older despite the possible more feminine reputation of the game.
ReplyDeleteMax Perry
Corey,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I never played competitive sport with a female neither. But I like how you explained about have a female on your team. You said that you were confused at first, I would’ve been too. But then you say after seeing how good she was, you really didn’t care. My question for you is, if she wasn’t that good and just was out there for participation, would you have looked at her differently? But having a girl on a men’s team is something I seen throughout my senior year in high school. I didn’t play baseball for my school but I did watch them. They had two girls on the team that were pretty average and raised a couple eyebrows. I wonder if they weren’t decent players, how the newspapers would have taken it. I also agree with you on the sports you said you would’ve played if you were a girl. Even though volleyball is majority a women’s sport, it looks like a lot of fun.
Anthony Cornwell, Jr.
Corey,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that women get scrutinized and stereotyped for being different. At my high school we had a girl wrestler. It is very uncommon to see a girl in that sport. So if the girl is bad at the sport does she get looked at differently than she would if she was good at it? To me, for girls it seems unwinnable, because even if they are winning and doing well they are stereotyped; if they are not then people come down even harder on them. Women can be dominant in male sports but are forever looked at as unequal’s. So if a women tried out for a baseball team and was really good would you have a problem with that? Do you think that would bother her teammates or even coaches, depending on their gender? If I would have been a girl I think I would have done volleyball. It looks like fun and it seems like a norm for a lot of girls to play volleyball growing up.
Tyler Crellin
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent question, because of my age at the time (I was 13 years old) I probably would have treated her differently if her talent level wasn't up to par. I probably would not have given her the respect that she deserved. I do not think I would have openly mocked her, but rather simply ignored her. I was a competitive player and wanted to win. Looking back on my experience, I am glad that I treated her no differently than my other teammates. I was always friendly to her and made her feel at home. She was honestly one of our best players and I am glad to have been on teammates with her.
Corey Krupa
Corey,
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting that you never played competitive sports with females. Although boys and girls usually only compete together at very young ages, it seems as though most people at some point have belonged to a boys and girls league. For instance, I remember playing soccer and tee ball with girls in elementary school. But once I moved to Hicksville in 5th grade, the school I eventually graduated from, all boys’ and girls’ sport leagues were separated. As far as the hypothetical situation relating to if I had been born a girl goes, that is a very tough question to answer and I have never really though about it before. I can only imagine that I would have been very similar to my sister, who played softball in elementary school and was a cheerleader throughout high school.
-Evan Sechler