Quote:
Originally posted by BktBallRef
Quote:
Originally posted by PSU213
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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That's about as stupid as anything I've read lately.
There are plenty of girls who are wrestling on the HIGH SCHOOL level.
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First, who ever restricted this to the high school level??? Certainly not the original poster. At the high school level a girl is old enough to make her own decisions on the matter, and if she wants to try out for a boy's team, then I believe that to be her prerogative. I cannot accept, however, the argument that because something is permitted at the high school level, it is automatically justified at lower levels, yet that is what your post seems to imply.
Our society cannot afford to speak in terms of absolutes. Not even our Constitution guarantees absolute rights: there is no absolute right to free speech, there is no absolute right to own a gun, and there is no absolute right to vote, and in each case the lack of an absolute is quite necessary. On the same line of reasoning, there should not be an absolute "right" for EVERY girl to try out for ANY boy's team, particulary in youth athletics. At the age when the girl can make an informed decision on the matter, allow her to do as she pleases, but before that time some restrictions need to be set.
In addition, your position cannot be upheld by example alone. As TXMike has reminded us, just because something is so does not mean it should be so. How many times through our history have we held a practice to be an acceptable "norm" for society, only to come to the realization that the practice is morally and ethically deplorable? Yes, we need to eliminate gender discrimination, but we need to remember that participation in athletics comes with real consequences. We cannot overlook practical considerations (injury among them) only in the name of widening the scope of gender equity.
Sun Aug 10, 2003, 05:09pm
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