What is to blame?

After all the media attention last week pertaining to the female athletes that had made it to the state-wrestling tournament in Des Moines, I felt proud to be from Iowa. A female athlete in a male dominant sport hadn’t made it to the state tournament in years. I was disappointed to hear and also read about all the attention that was being focused on the controversial topic of Joel Northrup defaulting to Cassy Hekelman in the beginning rounds of the tournament. Reading over the post “Default was not “consequence” of Title IX”, I was with out words. The post discusses how Kirk Mango blames Title IX for Joel Northrup defaulting to Cassy Hekelman. Title IX is quite a controversial subject, and I myself am not exactly clear on what it fully entails. But after reading over “Title IX Media Helper”, I feel I have the basis understanding that, Title IX is to “prohibit any sex discrimination in any sort of educational program and activity at any educational institution,”(WSUS 327). On that note I don’t see how Kirk Mango can justify the fact that Title IX, in any shape was the reason for Joel to default his match. Title IX is to promote gender equality to any person in the US and shouldn’t be excluded based on sex. Joel didn’t default his match due to Title IX, but to religious morals and values. In his eyes being involved in a contact sport with a female isn’t seen acceptable. Growing up in a community where wrestling is considerable to Friday night football, it is still questioned when a female athlete is seen wrestling on the mat. The development of Title IX has allowed female athletes to not be discriminated in any educational surroundings due to sex. Thought Title IX has developed so much in the last 30 years it still has some tuning to be done, especially with women in the collegiate and professional field. The progress of Title IX has allowed Cassy to compete in a male dominant sport, for instance 30 years ago, she might haven’t been able to do so. I hope to see in future come that eventually there will be more equality for women in collegiate and professional sport.