Cars and Parts Springfield Swap Meet
Carroll Commencement
Fairborn commencement
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > August > 19 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Girls sports revolution bigger in ‘burbs
I never thought I’d live to see a time when, if you see somebody flexing biceps for a photograph, it’s likely to be a female.
People flying from home to office, propelled by backpacks, yes. Women flexing their muscles, no.
As recently as the 1980s, I knew an attractive middle-aged feminist — flaming Berkeley feminist — who was naturally muscular. She took pains at all times to hide her biceps, because she thought they were “ugly.” And nobody thought this was weird. As for the 1950s and 1960s, don’t even ask.
Now, it seems to me, we are actually a little past the peak of interest in female arm peaks. Something like 10 years ago, Goldie Hawn posed for a magazine cover that seemed designed to show that she was not middle-aged in the arms, at least. Katie Couric — before she felt the need to communicate gravitas suitable to a Cronkite heir — apparently got a personal trainer and took to the talk show circuit to show the biceptual results. Brooke Shields bodyslammed Hulk Hogan — and sold it pretty well. In 2009, the novelty value isn’t the same.
All these phases have come in the lifetime of a guy who, as a sports-obsessed kid, couldn’t figure out what girls did for fun. They were never on the playing fields, never on the streets, never on their bikes around town. (There were no organized sports, except Little League, which was for one particular gender.)
This kid once asked a couple of girls the question about fun. They said something about “window shopping.” He could have cried for them.
Now, of course, everything in sports is organized, the girls are right there from the start, and the fun is fully bisexual, right? Not entirely.
The Cincinnati Enquirer did a package of stories over the weekend about girls in high school sports. It said that, although the nation has a law — known as Title IX — mandating equal opportunity for girls in school sports, Ohio has no mechanism for assessing whether schools are complying.
Kentucky requires schools to report how many girls and boys are playing how many sports, but Ohio doesn’t.
So the Enquirer did its own look into the stats at various public schools in the region, up to Springboro. It found basically that, if you’re talking about suburban schools, girls have a lot of opportunities in sports. They often constitute 40 or 45 percent of the athletes at a school, even though football teams dwarf all others in sheer numbers of players.
At Waynesville High, 46 percent of the athletes are girls, and nine out of 19 teams are for girls. Lebanon High said 42 percent of its athletes are girls. Springboro didn’t provide stats as to numbers of female athletes, but said it offered 11 sports for girls, compared to 12 for boys. At Carlisle, 39 percent of the athletes are girls, and seven of the 16 teams are for girls. Middletown had similar numbers. Franklin provided no numbers.
Meanwhile, inner-city schools, if they reported numbers at all, showed girls at such percentages as 27, 31 and 35.
When you figure that the inner-city schools are likely to offer half as many sports for boys as suburban schools, you see that the city girls are way behind their suburban peers.
(Some people note, however, that, in the realm of physical activities at city schools, cheerleading and dance are often very popular for girls.)
Title IX does not flatly require equal numbers in sports. But it does exert pressure on a school to move toward roughly equal numbers or be ready to explain why it hasn’t if somebody complains.
It the stats aren’t even kept, there’s little or no pressure until a specific complaint is filed. But filing a complaint is a tough thing for a kid or a family to do, especially against a school district that is financially strapped.
To know that the numbers are worse in the city isn’t necessarily to know whose fault it is. Some city schools have found, for example, that they can’t interest city girls in softball, because the game isn’t played before high school the way it is in the suburbs.
And city kids are more likely to need after-school jobs. And the school systems have other drains on their money.
Still, it’s worth knowing that the girls-in-sports phenomenon has a class aspect to it.
Many’s the woman who, when she sees a Hollywood star with biceps also sees, in her mind’s eye, a personal trainer at work. Turns out the role of money goes even further than that.
Once upon a time we actually thought that window shopping was more fun for girls than softball; and surely more fun that showing off one’s muscles. But now we know what choices girls will make — when they actually have choices.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Sports and Recreation, Suburban Communities
Comments
By Rob
August 19, 2009 12:16 PM | Link to this
As a Father of Daughters…I fully support the expansion of Women’s sports and physical opportunities. Words cannot fully convey the benefits that my daughters have received from their various sports teams.By Bob540
August 19, 2009 1:28 PM | Link to this
Martin, don’t be too concerned. I’m sure in time that city schools will simply eliminate more boys’ sports so the numbers can be more equal. Happens all the time.