Female High School Wrestlers

We talked about the girl who made it into the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament a few weeks ago in class, but I've been thinking more about it lately and tried to take different perspectives the issue as a whole rather than this individual case.  In this case, Joel Northrup defaulted instead of wrestling against Cassy Herkelman.  Northrup explained that it is against his religion for a boy and a girl to engage in that type of activity. Northrup is definitely justified for sticking to his religious beliefs, especially on a stage like the Iowa State Wrestling Tournament. Herkelman understood Northrup's decision, so no harm no foul. But there are still many complex factors in the issue of intersex competition, especially in a contact sport like wrestling.  I believe girls should be able to wrestle against boys if there is not a girls wrestling team for them to participate in. However, many males feel uncomfortable wrestling against girls. I think peer pressure has a lot to do with this. If a male beat a female in wrestling, most people would not think much of it because they expect the male to win.  If a female beats a male in wrestling, the male becomes known as they guy who lost to a girl. I want to just point out that this most likely is not how everyone thinks about this situation, but I have heard a lot of stories about a girl beating a guy in wrestling and every one of these stories is followed up by how weak or girly the male is. On the flip side, girls should have equal opportunity in sports and if there is not a girls team, they have no choice but to wrestle boys. I think people should be more open to females wrestling and they should focus on the accomplishment of females progressing in a male dominant sport rather than how bad the guy who loses to a girl is. I was glad to see two females make it to the state tournament this year, and I hope that more female wrestlers succeed and maybe inspire more females to feel comfortable participating in any sport that they like. Maybe one day females will even have their own wrestling teams where there are enough female wrestlers that they can compete with each other.