Is Title IX to Blame?

Title IX, in the United States, primarily forbids any sex discrimination in activities and educational programs that are given federal funds. After hearing about the male wrestler, Joel Northrup, from Iowa who forfeited his match at state wrestling against his female opponent, Cassy Hekelman, I didn’t know what to think. I wondered if I should feel outraged being in the female view of this situation or if I should understand where the boy was coming from. But, after reading the Title IX blog it made me think about a lot of things relating to this issue that I hadn’t thought about before. It discusses Kirk Mango’s article in the Chicago Tribune titled, “The Unforeseen Consequences of Title IX”. Clearly the writer of this blog is in total disagreement with the idea that title IX is the issue here, and it made me question this as well. It made me ask myself, is title IX to blame for this event occurring in the first place, or is the event of male wrestlers sometimes forfeiting, in the event of wrestling a female, a result of issues outside of this? Throughout reading the whole blog several times I realized that I was in agreement with the author. It made me realize how often title IX is misunderstood and used in the wrong context. In the article “Title IX Media Helper” in the book “Women and Sports in the United States”, it states that title IX requires that the athletic programs meet the interests and abilities of each gender. Title IX was fulfilling it’s purpose by allowing the girl to wrestle at state with the same abilities given to the male wrestlers. In no way does was the act of title IX forcing the male wrestler to compete against the female therefore, I see it irrelevant in this situation. This blog made me understand more than ever the misconceptions that come along with acts such as title IX. I feel that before people, such as Mango, go about blaming these situations as a result of title IX or any other act, that they should have a full understanding of what the act entails and what their purposes are.