Chiquita on Battle of the Sexes

These days I would say it’s pretty even as far as how much women are valued in society compared to men. Our principal is a woman, a lot of our public officials are women, and Oprah is a pretty influential woman in today’s society. It’s taken a lot of time – centuries really- for women to get where we are today. Women weren’t even allowed to vote in the United States until 1920. That was only 89 years ago, and Women’s suffrage did not become international law until 1948. That was only 61 years ago! That being said, I’d like to discuss a situation that arose last weekend, what was said, and my reaction to it. There’s this group of guys I know, they’re really into pickup games of football. They play in several different areas, mostly in schoolyards or at parks. Anyways, I’m not much of a tomboy, but I was hanging out with a few of the guys when game time came around. Rather than have them drop me off at home, I decided to tag along. When we got there, it just happened to be my luck that one of the guys bailed at the last minute and they needed one more “guy” to make two teams. One of the players says to me, “You know anybody you could call that’d be down to play, right now?” I said no, but I’d like to play. Another of the players then informed me that, “This is tackle football, honey, we don’t play with girls”. This is when I got a little angry. None of these guys are all that big, they’re mostly soccer player types, shorter guys. I said coolly, “I’m not afraid of being tackled, first of all, and second, I really don’t think you could catch me anyways”. Well, they let me play. I don’t mean to brag, but I did a pretty amazing job. I played the position where you run way out and catch the ball (wide receiver?) I scored four touchdowns. I only let them catch me once, and I got right back up after the tackle like it was nothing even though it hurt like hell. Afterwards we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings. The whole time we were there, all they could talk about was what a “beast” I am, and they kept saying how I really played like “one of the guys”. The more they made me out to look like a guy, the more I wanted to tell them they had it totally wrong. It was like the personification of an inanimate object. I really don’t understand it. I’m not one of the guys. I’m just a girl who happens to be good at a “man’s game”. I just think its kind of stupid that in order for them to think that I have any skill, I have to be “one of the guys”. I don’t understand why football is a man’s sport, or why any sport has to be a man’s sport or a woman’s sport. These guys aren’t much for intellectual conversations and I was outnumbered 20-some to one, so I didn’t bother bringing it up in the conversation. I haven’t really reached a conclusion on this topic just yet, so perhaps I’ll come back to it after further investigation or whatever.