Put me in, coach

Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation near Logansport, Ind., denied one of its students the right to try out for the football team because “girls are not allowed to join.”

Ah, the sweet smell of gender discrimination in the morning.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit again Eastern Pulaski, saying that denying the unnamed seventh-grader the opportunity to try out for a male-dominated sport was unconstitutional.

More than that, the idea that a young girl cannot do something simply because she is a girl is flagrant gender discrimination.

Objectively, it’s easy to see where the school’s concerns are. She’ll get beat up or hurt, boys are bigger than she is, she can’t run as fast, etc.

But then again, by denying a girl something because we are afraid she will be hurt in the process due to the build or limitations of her body, we show our hesitance to let women out of the house to begin with.  

Why play football when you can practice something safe like needlepoint?

Yes, she will likely suffer injuries, but no more than her male teammates.

Gender equality means everyone is on the same plane, and everyone has the chance to attempt the same things no matter the limitations of their gender or physicality.

Besides, the girls in middle school tend to be bigger than the boys.

Men are allowed equal opportunity in the fields dominated by women and/or inspired by the female gender. Because they are more gentle? Hardly.

We don’t argue that male ballerinas will break their feet, or male volleyball players will hurt their knees or elbows.

We don’t argue that male poets can’t write because they are men and aren’t as attuned to their emotions as women. We don’t say male designers will prick their fingers with needles or have nervous breakdowns from stress.

But when women try to break into male-dominated spheres, they are automatically reduced by their needs for “protection,” or lack of ability.

Women cannot succeed in business because they do not have drive. Women cannot be politicians because they cannot think logically.

And women cannot play sports because they are delicate, so let’s relegate them to different, same-sex arenas where they are not a distraction, or else let’s not let them in at all.

When Eastern Pulaski didn’t allow its student to try out, it made a statement against the female gender.

It was so afraid of the potential limitations of this seventh-grade girl, it didn’t allow her to prove her worth on an equal playing field with the boys.

And they demonstrated to her just how hard it still is to be a woman in what men believe to be a man’s world.

­— opinion@idsnews.com
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