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May 09, 2005
Sorry, I'm with the 'religious whackos' on this one ...
Girls who wrestled for several Puget Sound-area middle schools this year easily won their matches against boys from two private schools.And why not go to court? I mean, if you can't get your way because people reasonably disagree with you, hit 'em over the head with a judge!The girls stepped onto the mat. Their opponents from Tacoma Baptist and Cascade Christian stayed in their seats. The referee then raised the girls' hands to signal they'd won by forfeit.
But the easy victories didn't sit well with the girls, including Meaghan Connors, a seventh-grader at McMurray Middle School on Vashon Island. Her father, Jerry, is prepared to go to court over what he considers a clear case of sex discrimination.
For years, schools in the Rainier Valley League, including McMurray, have honored the ability of the two private schools to forfeit matches rather than have a boy wrestle one of the handful of girls on the public-school teams. ...Imagine that. In a world of secular gender-feminism that automatically deems all males potential rapists and studies their every word/joke/hand gesture for all crimes and misdemeanors of sexism, here comes the women-hating, keep-em-barefoot-and-pregnant brigade Xtians demonstrating they actually try sending a consistent message on how males should respect females and they are going to get sued for it.Tacoma Baptist's superintendent did not return phone calls about the policy and the reasons for it. At Cascade Christian in Puyallup, Superintendent Don Johnson said the school "does not want to put our young men in a situation where they would be inappropriately touching a young lady."
Bizzarro world, indeed.
Posted by Darleen at May 9, 2005 11:00 AM
Comments
So do these boys see the male/male contact as sexual too? Really, wouldn't they have to forfeit every match, since I'm guessing they wouldn't want to "be inappropriately touching a young" man either?
Seems silly to go to court though. Let the kids decide who they want to wrestle, for whatever reason!
/Mike
Posted by: Mike at May 9, 2005 11:44 AM
I don't understand what they could honestly sue for. The rules of wrestling clearly dictate that a person can forfeit. Moreover... what relief could a judge provide? I don't think any judge would order someone to wrestle someone else unwillingly (even really liberal judges)... I don't think that even they would cross the line of involuntary servitude (which is basically what that would be). Maybe I'm wrong.
Posted by: Nick at May 9, 2005 01:36 PM
Nick
Supposedly under Fed Title IX if Jerry could prevail the schools who allow their boys to forfeit to girls would be forced to withdraw themselves from the league completely.
Mike
I assume you were a boy once. The vast majority of boys are not going to get a sexual thrill wrestling other boys. And I don't think I'm wrong to assume most teen boys finding themselves in a position where they are going to get more contact with a willing female teen body then they might on a first or second date ARE going to find it sexually titilating.
Girls don't belong on boys wrestling teams. Period.
Posted by: Darleen at May 9, 2005 02:16 PM
I believe this story is outrageous. Guys at TBS believe it is morally wrong to wrestle
girls. I totally agree. It is disgusting. I am not against girls in sports but they should not be allowed to wrestle. The young lady, Sylvie Shiosaki, upset about the issue says, quote: "When you walk on the mat, you're not a girl; you're not a guy anymore. You're just
there to wrestle." If they are not a guy or a girl then how can you call it sex discrimination? What are you then? I know, personally, TBS
wrestlers and they believe they are guys and they are still guys on the mat. If Tacoma Baptist believes it is wrong to wrestle girls and
they want to forfeit then they have that right. The girl gets the points for the match anyways. The father (Jerry Connors) says his
daughter isn't getting experience and basically is being deprived of her rights. This is outrageous! She can go practice elsewhere, find some girls league, or have more non-league meets with other public schools. To Connors, I say, don't go attacking the religious freedom of private schools that have done nothing to harm female wrestlers, but on the contrary have tried to protect them. Tacoma Baptist and Cascade Christian have upheld solid morals and have protected both our young ladies and young men.
Posted by: Jason at May 10, 2005 07:05 PM
I'm absolutely for the rights of the boys not to wrestle the girls. Hey, their choice. I'm also all for the boys to LOSE. As in You forfeit, you lost, zippo points for you. Screw court.
How long do you honestly think that will go on before a coach either says "wrestle or yer off the team"? If not, then they'll either bail from the competitions (ie: quitting themselves) or they will field their own girls to wrestle. If you really believe in what you're doing, rock on, stand your morals and lose. Easy moral stands mean nothing.
The girls father needs to "butt out", and he needs to make sure his daughter understand that the folks are making a stand they believe in. Oh, and that she wins every time one of them does that. Oh and that it's THEIR problem.
And Darleen, seriously, have you ever had an..well, you know... in a athletic protection device? (I know, I'm being rhetorical here, you haven't) It hurts! Worrying about sexual titillation? C'mon.... maybe beforehand, but when she's trying to shove your face into a sweaty mat, that's gonna go away pretty fast.
Posted by: W. Ian Blanton at May 10, 2005 08:52 PM
I wrestled my pals in high school. I mean real wrestling; this was long before girls were allowed to. We had a cool coach in 8th grade and he let me learn and wrestle. Mike is right, once you're on the mat, there's very little time, especially if the girl your wrestling is good, to get excited. I had to stop by the end of the season of ninth grade, the boys were getting much stronger, my technique was good, but I was getting beat more than I was winning and that sucked.
Posted by: Mieke at May 14, 2005 07:00 PM
Ihave been wrestling for two seasons, both in a public high school. In my experience, and from what I have heard from coaches, teammates, and spectators as well as our head offical, boys wrestling me try harder to pin me so they won't lose to a girl. They put more effort into that then with another boy. Even when I am at practice (I am the only girl on our team) the other kids on my team are more sensitive talking about things to do with sex, and I know my partner has gotten questions concerning practicing against me and he says that we are both wrestlers, not a boy and a girl. He said to me that he respects me alot and would never and has never thought of it in any sexual manner. I'm a lesbian, so I obiously have no problems wrestling guys, but even agaisnt girls I don't think about sexual things, I think about techniques and ways to score points or pin the other wrestler. If the boys and thier families are against wrestling a girl, then he can forfeit, but the school should not be making that decision for all of them.
Posted by: ellen at May 24, 2005 04:00 PM
Boys wrestling girls?
It's a bad idea for several reasons. For the last
millenium boys have been brought up to never push or punch a girl. How can you expect boys to suddenly put their forearm on a girls breasts and pin her to the mat. It is easy for girls to say they don't care if boys touch them, but this has not been the social rule for the last hundred years.
Usually girl wrestlers are the daughters of coaches who wished the had had a son and these morons are out to show that there daughter can whip the boys.
The girls involved say that there is nothing sexual about wrestling a boy and yet when they win against a boy they tell all their friends how great is was to pin a boy.
Something tells me that no matter what happens the boy loses. Is this the state of Title IX.
Posted by: DC at July 25, 2005 10:18 PM
Question: Will girls against boys in contact sports
change the way we raise our children? Knowing that my two small boys will probably wrestle some day, should I start bringing them up to settle scores with girls the same as with boys???
Posted by: DC at July 30, 2005 10:21 AM