Wednesday, November 30, 2011

My Realistic Passion

Combining sports and school is my dream. I was raised as that girl with a dad who loves sports and a brother who played every sport out there. By the time I could remember I was throwing around a ball. I was playing with with harbors and cooking sets that they sell but my interest was in active sports. I was playing catch with my dad at the age of 5 and since then I have had an outstanding interest in sports... And more broadly competition. At age 11 the genre difference took control of my life. When I played on an all boys team until age 11, people were confused as to why I could "keep up". Honest to God, I've neve been more confused in my life. I didn't understand why, as a girl, I had to leave a team evacuee I was becoming a pre-pubescent age. As I grow older I get that society wanted us to be separate... But why would we have to separate if I was "keeping up".

In the readings it talked a lot about if all people, men and women, we're trained equally our differences would be so minuscule. For 6 years I was trained on the same pace as "the boys" and was equal and beyond the standards of a competitive athlete. I regularly out-shown boys of my same age it it was insisted that we were separated.

I've been through it all as a collegiate female athlete. I get the lesbian talk, the "you're too good to be a girl", the "why are you stronger than me?!", but at the en of the day no matter how strong I am physically

4 comments:

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  3. This is what the post was supposed to be but I had some technical difficulties.

    Combining sports and school is my dream. I was raised as that girl with a dad who loves sports and a brother who played every sport out there. By the time I could remember I was throwing around a ball. I was playing with Barbie’s and cooking sets that they sell but my interest was in active sports. I was playing catch with my dad at the age of 5 and since then I have had an outstanding interest in sports... And more broadly competition. At age 11 the gender difference took control of my life. When I played on an all boys team until age 11, people were confused as to why I could "keep up". Honest to God, I've never been more confused in my life. I didn't understand why, as a girl, I had to leave a team because I was becoming a pre-pubescent age. As I grow older I get that society wanted us to be separate... But why would we have to separate if I was "keeping up"?

    In the readings it talked a lot about if all people, men and women, we're trained equally our differences would be so minuscule. For 6 years I was trained on the same pace as "the boys" and was equal and beyond the standards of a competitive athlete. I regularly out-shown boys of my same age and it was insisted that we were separated.

    I've been through it all as a collegiate female athlete. I get the lesbian talk, the "you're too good to be a girl", the "why are you stronger than me?!", but at the end of the day, no matter how strong I am physically, why is that over shadowed by who I am sexually? Even my accomplishments can be undermined in comparison to a male, because female athletic accomplishment is challenged. Take for instance Serena Williams. Her sexuality is constantly challenged because of her excelling in tennis. Im sorry, I am confused… Why must a girl be a “manly” athlete when she is a stand out? On the other hand, why when do guys “play like a girl” it’s a insult? Also, I don’t “throw like a girl, I throw like a strong woman athlete, probably harder than the average male. Is the problem that we are in different spheres and still are not equal? I understand women wanting to enter the men's sports worlds but I don't think it's logical. I think it'd be better if we would work on making the spheres more open an equal but not completely different... It's hard to imagine but I would like some different opinions, how do you guys feel?

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  4. I agree that we should make the spheres more open and equal but not completely different. I think that we should have the availability to play whatever sports we want to play, even if they are “too rough” for us feeble ladies, I think we should broaden the sphere of the sports we are allowed in.

    I think that people were shocked at why you could “keep up” is because sports has been for such a long time a man’s game, and women have only recently begun to come into play. I think by redefining what it means to be a woman as we have been trying to do, is what it will take for us to be seen as more than a docile body. And maybe with this redefined image it won’t be shocking that Jane can throw farther than John, but a welcomed competition...but I think that’s still far off.

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