Posted on 02/18/2011 10:36:48 AM PST by BenLurkin
I still remember the last JV tournament of my freshman year.
My teammate Deborah Kavalar was down a few points in the third period. I don't recall the exact move, but I remember her flipping her opponent, the excitement and the pin.
More than that, I remember the reaction.
The ultra-masculine 145-pounder threw his headgear across the gym and stormed out the door as Deborah stood there awaiting a handshake.
It was embarrassing. Not because the guy lost to a girl -- Deborah had crumpled plenty of overconfident XY chromosomes over her three years on the mat. But because I was the same gender as the guy who couldn't handle a loss to a girl.
I don't bring this up as a slight to Joel Northrup, the Iowa high school wrestler who defaulted in his state wrestling match rather than wrestle a girl. Beliefs, religion -- whatever. I get it.
Aside from that, boys mostly view wrestling girls as a lose-lose situation. If you win, well, obviously you should have. She's a girl. If you lose, well, then you just lost to a girl.
My take: get over it.
Three ladies rolled around with the 2001 Nicolet Knights in Fox Point, Wis. I was a tiny tike at the time, only reaching 100 pounds by the end of the year. Our wrestling squad featured six 103-pounders. Of those six, two were girls.
I'd like to say it was never weird wrapping my arms around equally miniature members of the opposite sex during practice. I can't. It was a bit, oh, "interesting" at times. Still, it was no more awkward grabbing and jostling a girl at times than it was a guy.
But the guys weren't alone in their awkwardness; the ladies had to deal with the gender difference, too. They changed in different locker rooms, they weighed in after everybody else and they had to pretend they didn't notice the disdain on their male opponent's face who was entering a lose-lose situation.
Despite all this, I never once felt our ladies wanted to be treated differently or winners by forfeit. They did all the same drills and workouts and, most of the time, lost just as pitifully as I did.
Part of Cassy Herkelman likely was excited about receiving her first win in the state tournament. It was not the first time she's had her hand raised without a fight. I can also guarantee that she left with mixed emotions. Three years from now, when she is likely placing in the state tournament on her own accord, I bet she'll have wished she could have taken her freshman lumps.
Everybody else does.
“My take: get over it.”
My take of your take: shut up. It will always and forever be a lose-lose situation, no matter how you pretend to feel about it.
Oh, and also grappling with girls is unseemly.
Feminism. Pure and simple.
This whole girl wrestling gimmick is yet another ploy that feminists have been using to “prove” equality between the sexes.
Correction. I mean “prove” superiority over men.
It is. My son wrestled in high school. He had to wrestle a couple of ladies. The girls are good in the lower weight classes and at the freshman level with their lower bodies. Once the guys start to mature and gain upper body strength it is over for the girls.
I watched a good hockey player in 9th grade get beat by a girl. Well you know how that went.
I always told my son. She is stepping on the mat knowing full well what is going to happen. Now BEAT her. Period.
“Oh, and also grappling with girls is unseemly.”
My take also. I would not want my boys wrestling with girls, or vice versa. And the parents of this girl? I don’t care who they are. I would not want my daughter participating in a sport where men’s hands were all over her.
Years ago I had a neighbor who had a beautiful daughter, who was perfect for modeling. She did not go for it, because “everyone’s hands are always all over your body”.
You forgot the “Projectile Vomit Alert”.
My son played freshman football last year. One of the other local teams had a girl on their team. She did not start or play until the last quarter.
When she finally came it, it changed the game since the boys had problems with more then shoves or tripping her.
I think it is dad’s living via their children and having them do sports traditionally for one sex or the other - I’d guess she does not have a brother and dad focused her into this sport - or, it is a lack of respect for others in that they have to live by their rules regardless of the game or others players feelings.
The author does seem to have relished losing....
Just my opinion of course.
I would hang my head in shame if my son agreed to wrestle a girl.
I can understand what you say. But wrestling is a one on one sport with very little politics. That is what I liked about it.
Basically I would say boy vs. girl; tennis yes, wrestling Hell no!
My take: He did the right thing.
We shouldn’t normalize that it’s ok to hit women, ever.
If you want to know the sad truth, here it is.
They count the number of boy sports and the number of girl sports, if they are not equal, a boy’s sport has to go.
Making it coed is probably the only way they can keep it at all. Many colleges have dropped wrestling for this particular reason.
I’m just glad I didn’t have to make this choice when I wrestled in HS. I pummeled enough guys and had been pummeled enough myself when I first started. IMHO, they should just take the mat with them and make quick work of it in a sportsman like way. The sport can be brutal even when done cleanly. I don’t remember too many moves where a person’s genitals would get in the way and if I encountered an opponent that wanted to use this socalled finger up the butt thing, I’D MAKE THEM PAY! Dearly.
“In theory it should be an even contest. It is one sport where the contestants are matched by general size and weight — but as another poster pointed out, the upper body strength differential probably puts most young women at a disadvantage.”
It’s not just the “upper body strength differential.” Men are more densely packed with muscle all around. Also, there’s that whole testosterone thing.
Not that training, technique, and talent can’t bridge the gap—up to a certain weight/maturity limit. But that brings us back to other problems (i.e. unseemliness and lose-lose).
The writer comes across as a metrosexual.
Great advice, If a female steps into the ring, treat her no different than any other wrestler...
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