Playing Sports with the Boys

Behind every great man there is a woman. In the United States, it says that there is fair and equal opportunity for all. The land of the free and the home of the brave. I believe if a woman has the ability to hold a “man’s job” of being president then women should also be able to play sports against men. Women and men should be able to do whatever the other one can do. It is only fair that both are given an equal chance.

Men and women have their own sport leagues, separate for each gender. There is the NBA for men and the WNBA or women. I think that there should be no barrier between these leagues. If a girl wanted to play with the boys, I think that she should be able to. There are some girls who are better at their sports than men. Brittney Griner of Baylor University can dunk a basketball. That is an amazing accomplishment as a girl. She has the attributes and the talent to hang with the boys on the court. She is 6’8 and dominated in college. I think that she could stand head to head with some NBA players. I’m not talking about someone like Kobe Bryant. But I think she could put up a fight against some players who sit on NBA benches and are just there collect their paychecks. We will never know though!

Danica Patrick is a woman who is defying all of the odds against the men. She holds the finish by a woman at the Indianapolis 500 race, coming in 3rd place. You can not take away from any of her accomplishments because she is breaking boundaries for women and showing that they can hang with the men.

My problem with Danica Patrick is what she does away from the track.  She is a model and a spokesperson for Go Daddy. By becoming a model and appearing in risqué Go Daddy commercials it takes away from her accomplishments on the track taken seriously. As much she is setting an example for why women should be able to play men’s sports, she is also hurting it the same time. She is becoming the stereotype of just another pretty face. Something that women have been fighting  against for hundreds of years. Patrick is using her looks to cash in rather than setting the standard of  what women should strive for.

Stop trying to be a model. Start trying to be a role model.

The same can be said for Hope Solo.

She was an outstanding goalie for the U.S girls soccer team. She has the same talent, if not more than some guys. But once again, instead of setting an example for female sport figures, she cashes in on her looks just like Danica Patrick. Posing half-naked in magazines trying to become popular and gain attention off the field.

Many female athletes aren’t like Patrick and Solo, that is the problem. These two athletes happen to be two of the most popular and they are the two who are abusing their popularity and setting a bad reputation for other female athletes. It is a shame too because many female athletes carry themselves off the field as role models, but there are still a few who continue to set a bad name.

There was a girls football league called the lingerie league and now there is a new bikini hockey league that was recently announced.  This is pretty much just an insult to girls who play professional sports. It’s just a bunch of half-naked girls running around playing sports. It is an easy cash in and a way to degrade women athletics and bring in easy money. It is so hard to break stereotypes when there is women who go out and play in this. If they really wanted to make a change, they would not participate, but I guess it’s easy money for them as well.

I understand that there are athletes who like to play against their same gender because it is an equal level of competition. I also think if there is a women who has the ability to play against the men, then let her play. We broke the barriers of race in sports over a hundred of years ago and I think it is time to break the barrier of gender as well.