I have a cousin who is quite the women's libber. Actually, she will get up on the soapbox for just about anything. She and her husband are dual know-it-alls and it can be very difficult
having a conversation with either of them as they feel it is their duty to "enlighten" everyone
to their way of thinking. They have 2 young daughters. They put their older daughter in football and wrestling. Yes, with the boys. Now, I have no problem with letting your daughter do what she wants but I'm pretty sure they steered her in the direction of these sports. Now, apparently,
she really loves football but her father just posted a video of her wrestling match this past weekend on Facebook. I didn't want to watch, but I had to. I certainly think girls should be taught self defense. Boys too, for that matter, but I am not a fan of violent sports where people
beat each other up or dominate each other physically for fun. I think ultimate fighting is horrible and sports like boxing are the same thing with different rules. Anyway, I watched this 7 minute video and almost had to turn it off several times. I gotta give Jordan credit. She's a gutsy little thing and she definitely held her own with this boy. I'm not even sure who won but it was a very close match.
I just don't know how her parents watch their 8 year old daughter get pinned and wrestled like that though. At one point, someone threw a towel on the mat to stop the match as the boy had his arm around her throat. She was visibly upset. Throughout the match, her face had a worried,
knit browed look, and she looked about to cry several times when she was having a hard time.
Towards the end of the match, she stalled several times before starting again to catch her breath and she was touching her throat. At the end, he started to really make a few points and when the match ended, she was on the mat, holding her ribs and burst out crying as the boy walked away,
looking worried that he did something wrong. Painful to watch. If you knew my cousin, you'd know why I'd like to call her and tell her this is ridiculous making your daughter do this so you can brag about it to everyone(they do) and make some kind of "equality between the sexes" point. I think my cousin Sue should go wrestle a man if she so desires and leave her poor kid out of it. Just my opinion.
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I'm 100% in agreement with you... I was a tomboy growing up and a tough kid, but all it took was one wrestling match with one of my brother's friends to make me realize that boys play very rough!
And I am all for women pushing the envelope, but on their terms, not on Mama's or Papa's terms. There are some wonderfully skilled women pilots, compassionate police officers, highly trained military women and other fields normally identified as "boy's club" arenas. My hat is definitely off to those women who probably fought their way to their positions.
But 'making' a kid take part in sports - boy OR girl - to serve a parent's hidden agenda is totally wrong!
I just had to comment on my perspective. I have had four sons wrestle and my husband was a high school coach for several years. This is nothing like professional wrestling. Students are taught skills to keep from hurting themselves or there opponent. But it is a tough sport. It teaches some valuable lessons of work ethics, not giving up. Respect to coaches and opponents, etc. But I wonder if these parents of daughters have ever looked it from my side. Two of my sons 14 and 16 have had to wrestle girls. They did not want to. If they loseWW it is humiliating, if they win, they may have had to wrestle extra tough and hurtj the girl. And I hate the idea of my sons being so physically near a girl. I have the same question, "what were they thinking?! BTW how is TIM and your family doing.? I hope you are recooperated from you rough holiday. Living life as it comes, Kris
Hi Kris,
My family has gotten back up to "snuff" after our holiday illnesses. Thanks for asking. I really don't mind wrestling. It's the violent sports I mentioned that I don't like but I did not know this little girl was wrestling boys and I can understand exactly what you say about boy/girl wrestling. It turns out, this match was a tie.
I can see where this boy was probably holding back though, and I can't even imagine how hard it would be with a teen girl where the boy is concentrating on trying not to grab her in the wrong place and not hurt her, yet not get beat either. Kinda unfair and knowing the positions and moves that are common in the sport, WOW, I can't see a teenage boy being comfortable with that,not in front of an audience especially. If I saw that little Jordan was enjoying this for one second, I might feel differently, but she looked miserable the whole time. I'm all for women's lib but this kid's parents are living it out through her and I'm quite sure my cousin Sue never played football or wrestled.
When I didn't vote when I could at 18 my Dad told me that women had died to get me that vote, knowing full well that I would have been quite happy to be a sufferagete. (we never argued he was just stating his opinion) I said that they died to give me the choice to vote or not.
Women/girls should be able to compete/vote/work/learn or not - it should be their choice.
That said, mixed gender contact sports!?!?!? I too was a tomboy and know that physically the vast majority of boys are just naturally stronger than girls. And I'm not even venturing into the whole embarrassment issue!
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