Thread: why cant.......
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Old Sun Aug 10, 2003, 01:17pm
PSU213 PSU213 is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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For the record, I am all for a girl trying out for the football team. I do have a problem with saying or implying, as some on this thread are, that any girl should be able to try out for any boy's team.

In the early 90's my brother was on his grade school wrestling team. A third grade girl decided she wanted to be on the wresting team, and the school refused to allow her to participate, so her mother sent out letters to every parent who had a child in the school decrying the school's decision as "discriminatory" towards her daughter because they were not letting her participate "just because she's a girl." The fact is the school did not want her to participate because wrestling involves two participants in skin tight outfits grabbing each other, often times in the groin, and the school felt it was not appropriate for an 8 year old to be engaged in such an activity with the opposite sex and have the school sponsor it. They also felt that if the girl's parents perceived something sexually inappropiate was happening in a competition or in practice, then the school would be an easy target for a lawsuit.

While in general I am in favor of breaking down some gender barriers in sports, I think it is as dangerous to say "girls can't play on this team just because they are girls" as it is to say "any girl should be able to try out for any boy's team, no matter what the mitigating circumstances are."
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