PING!
Posted on 09/29/2006 8:11:51 AM PDT by GMMAC
Let boys be boys
Calgary Sun
Fri, September 29, 2006
By JOSE RODRIGUEZ
For the love of God, turn off the gender blender.
No man in his right mind would argue that women don't deserve equal pay, equal respect and equal status.
But mandating that girls have the right to play on boys' teams has nothing to do with advancing women's rights, and if anything, it will only end up hurting both sexes.
Back in 1992, Canadian goalie Manon Rheaume made history as the first woman to lace up for an NHL team.
She gave up two goals on nine shots during her pre-season game as part of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The world treated the event as little more than a mild curiosity, the kind that attracts rubberneckers at car accidents.
It was a feel-good spectacle that made for interesting headlines and locker room debate, but it was hardly a giant leap for womankind.
Not a single woman has played in the NHL since.
Today, her accomplishment is a footnote in sports history and a five-point answer on trivia night.
The league, and indeed the entire hockey world, has moved on.
In golf, Michelle Wie is creating a similar sideshow playing with the men and stinking up the course.
Sadly, the sport-meets-gender debate has reared its ugly head closer to home and this time it may carry troubling ramifications for an entire generation of young athletes in this country.
Under the guise of human rights, a rather disturbing blow to equality is playing out in Manitoba.
A pair of twin girls who didn't want to play for their high school girls' team won a human rights challenge that allowed them to try out for the boys' squad.
The Manitoba Human Rights Commission concluded that by denying the girls the right to try out, the province's high schools athletic association was guilty of gender discrimination.
In ruling in the twins' favour last week, an adjudicator awarded each of them $3,500 in damages and or-dered the athletic association to pay for a hockey camp and one-on-one coaching for the twins.
They were also ordered to let them try out for the boys' squad, where they failed to make the cut earlier this week.
If that were the end of this story, there would be no reason to sacrifice a single tree for this column. But it isn't.
Now, Manitoba boys want to try out for collegiate girls' teams. What's good for the gander is good for the goose.
And you don't have to be a lawyer to know that by using the same rationale the twins used to win their case, it'd be hard to argue that in an equal-opportunity world, the boys wouldn't be entitled to the same.
For its part, the Manitoba High School Athletic Association says it will hold off on allowing boys to play on girls' teams until it reviews the entire high school sports system at an Oct. 12 board meeting.
But if one boy chooses to challenge for the right to try out for a girls' squad, this whole non-sensical issue could snowball.
Simple biology would dictate many of the boys trying out for the girls teams, won't be cut. It's not sexist to say so, it's a fact.
Creating gender-blender leagues in high school athletics is unfair to both boys and girls.
This isn't a battle for equality. It's a capricious tantrum with horrible consequences.
Let boys be boys and girls be girls.
PING!
You mean the BC government did something right for once... must have been a magnetic pole shift or an eclipse that day!.. LOL
I am going to have this author brought up on hate crime charges. How dare he suggest that boys can't be girls if they wish???? What kind of bigot is this guy??? Hate speech is a crime in Canada!
When I was on the wrestling team at school, we had to accept a girl onto the team. Thankfully she wasn't near my weight class. I felt sorry for the guys who had to wrestler her - it was lose-lose for them. Physically rough up a girl and beat her, or take it easy and get beat by a girl - either way was no good.
Well, as a guy, I would also have to demand that I not be segregated from my all-female team, even in the locker room. After all, it could be a damaging blow to team camaraderie.
That's better than Stars goalie Marty Turco has performed in the playoffs in recent years.
WOOHOOOO.....this is GREAT......and I'm a woman!!!
I believe it was an Army General that said;
"Any system that seeks to force the integration of the sexes can only shortchange one and victimize the other."
Or something like that.
An excellent, easy read...
Many insights to the masculine soul
A great book for those who raise and love rowdy little boys of all ages...
My humble opine..recommended on the merits...
(No beneficial connection to this poster)
"Wild At Heart"
by John Eldredge
An excellent, easy read...
Many insights to the masculine soul
A great book for those who raise and love rowdy little boys of all ages...
My humble opine..recommended on the merits...
(No beneficial connection to this poster)
Yes, awesome book....
And let them all play hockey!!!
"When I was on the wrestling team at school, we had to accept a girl onto the team. Thankfully she wasn't near my weight class. I felt sorry for the guys who had to wrestler her - it was lose-lose for them. Physically rough up a girl and beat her, or take it easy and get beat by a girl - either way was no good."
Same situation with my oldest son. At a football game a while back, the other team had a girl who played receiver and he plays cornerback so he had to cover her. He said, "Mom, what do I do? Can I even tackle her? How do I cover her without looking like I am taking on a girl on or do I get beat by her and let her score?" He ended up getting two interceptions in that game. It bugged me that someone would let their daughter play football at all. Too much tesosterone out there on the field.
Turco...Turco...Turco.
Less than a week now.
This idiocy reached its ultimate tragic conclusion in New Jersey a few years ago, when a female police recruit died in the academy during a training session for hand-to-hand combat.
Turco better show up in the playoffs this year!
BTW, did you see they took the "C" away from Modano and gave it to Brendan Morrow this morning?
Here's a novel idea: have government schools stop sponsoring "bread and circuses" sports entertainment. It shifts too much priority away from the educational mission.
Let parents and athletes decide for themselves which private clubs and leagues to join.
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