After reading over “Gender equity and geography bees” in the TitleIX blog, I became a bit irritated. Beverly Sandness stated that “Maybe it has something to do with the performance aspect of the event, specifically what it means to perform your intelligence in front of both peers and stranger.” After reading over the response I felt like she nailed it 100 %. Being the daily target growing up as the girl in the pop bottle glasses, it is extremely hard to go up in front of people and try to compete with others with a bull’s eye on your forehead that distinguishes you as different.
In today’s society women are going out and making a name for themselves in a male dominant society in the sports field. This isn’t the 1940’s anymore, women don’t have to have the perception of the June Cleaver persona, and they can have their cake and eat it too. Reading over the article about Mildred “Babe” Didrickson I found her to be that contradiction in the 1940’s society as the perfect housewife. Sadly up until this class I didn’t realize who Babe was. It made me aggravated thatI had never heard of her. She is an icon for women in sports. She excelled in everything that she did. She was viewed as a masculine woman, instead of her phenomenal athleticism. She was still being questioned about her feminine qualities. Instead of being asked about her medals, she was asked about her domesticated duties in the home.
This brings me to another article discussed in our reading this week, “All American Girls Professional Baseball League Rules of Conduct, 1943-1954”. Growing up playing softball, A League of Their Own, hands down was one of my favorite movies. Looking over the rules that the women had to follow was just unrealistic. They were caged animals. Like Babe, they weren’t being noticed for their outstanding performances on the field but their feminine appearance. Women’s sport has came a long way from the 1940’s, but why is it that today women still have to have the persona of being feminine? The South African track star Caster Semenya, was on the chopping block for her gender identity, people were questioning her being a female. Why is it that this phenomenal athlete is being questioned about her ability, because she isn’t feminine enough? But now that she has had her “makeover” she is considered to be feminine now.
Why is it that society even at a young age has to instill the fact that girls have to be these precious flowers and competition isn’t something of their nature?
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