You're probably quite familiar with that phrase just as I'm sure you are familiar with what he stood for; equals rights and social change. Now, King specifically spoke out for racial change, but throughout American history women have been discriminated against to almost the same extent as people of different races, and just as with racial discrimination, we still struggle with gender discrimination to this day.
It might seem that the sports world could be different, that race and gender would seem so much less important when measuring one person's success. In some ways, sports has been a wonderful medium for the emergence of this idea of a female champion or the groundbreaking success of an athlete of a different color. However, sports still has a long way to go, and after the anniversary of MLK day yesterday, it seemed fitting to me to discuss and point out some of the shortcomings I see in the world of sport today for a female athlete.
As young children, there aren't a whole lot of differences that exist between girls and boys. Physical stature is rarely different, and any gains in size will more than likely be in the girls' favor first, before the boys. At this age, boys and girls unify together to play a sport for fun, and exercise. Winning and losing are present, but are somewhat of an afterthought compared to the pure joy of playing with other children. Here, on the playgrounds and inside the gyms of American schools, is one of the last places that boys and girls will ever have a level playing field for sports and one of the last times they may play on the same team and have no issues with that idea.
Lets look at the high schools. When most people think of high school sports, men's basketball and men's football will probably come to mind, depending on where you live. In some areas of the country, prep football is so worshipped that I'm surprised they even bother having other teams. High school football games are the thing to do on Friday nights, and basketball games always have the largest student sections, people with painted chests and school colors showing proudly. Now here is where the disparity shows. At most high schools, what I described does not happen at any girls sporting event. Women's sports events got so little attention at my school it almost seemed like they were an underground organization. Perhaps this has changed, perhaps it was different where you grew up, and I definitely hope it has and was, because it needs too. I see an awful pattern of submission in the sports world, a trend that surrounds women in sports where they ought to depreciate their efforts to idolize and showcase the men's. I see women and men in sports situations together where confident and skilled young women will essentially close up and default to the men on the team, simply to not offend or "let the better player get the ball".
Now I understand the anatomical differences between men and women as they pertain to sport. Men will almost always be bigger, stronger and faster than their female counterparts. A 6'3" female is considered a forward or even a center on most basketball teams, but a 6'3" male could just as easily be the point guard, the shortest player on a men's starting five. Some sports are easier for men to excel at, some easier for women. However, for someone to think that they are an inferior player to someone else simply because of race is more than just absurd, its appalling. I just don't buy that idea. Women should be considered equals to men in all aspects of life, and they themselves should realize and embrace this principle. Given the chance and opportunity, I believe, no, I know that a confident, focused female player will have no trouble playing as an equal to men. In this day and age, the sports world does not put too much focus on any particular woman's sport, nor do they focus on developing women's sports careers after college sports. All different levels of professional sports leagues exist for women just as they do for men, but you'll never see a WNBA mock draft making the premiere show times for Sportscenter.
When it comes to finding and realizing a practical solution for this disparity, the responsibility lies amongst all of us. Female athletes at all levels should relish the opportunity to challenge men and focus on not giving excuses as to why their performance should be lesser. Male athletes should learn to not take being beaten by a female athlete to be an insult, just as they not insulted by losing to another male. The college sports world needs to change their priorities and stop pushing their two big moneymakers, mens' college basketball and football, while leaving other sports teams struggling to even stay afloat. Respect is hard enough to earn from sports fans in a world with so many teams, we should not give women's sports a harder climb simply because they are played by females.
Martin Luther King's dream was not about sports. It wasn't specifically about women playing sports and being treated fairly doing it, but it was a dream about everyone being equal and having equal rights, and that is a dream I can respect.
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"Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people." -Martina Navratilova |
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