Jezebel 
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New York, 10:55 AM
Wed Nov 25
57 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
It's not an easy pill to make the public swallow but change cannot be dictated by popular opinion 100% of the time. #girlssports
11/06/09
11/06/09
If something needs to change then change it or STFU. #girlssports
11/05/09
My dad was my softball coach for eight years, until I hit high school and realized I made a much better scorekeeper than anything else; my mom was our assistant coach, and we played catch in the backyard almost every night. I am short and round and slow on the basepaths, so it was never about winning... it was about holding the bat in your hands and feeling this awesome power that someday, you might just smash that ball farther than you ever had before. It was about having fun and getting to know girls who weren't in your class, and it was about being outside and running around and feeling like you were part of a team. And none of the boys ever even TRIED to play the "softball isn't as hard as baseball" card, because the girls? Were just plain better.
Even though we rarely won, my parents' team was always the one that filled up the fastest at selection time -- all the other parents wanted their kids on our team since my parents weren't obsessed with winning, and all the girls who (like me) kind of sucked at sports wanted to be there, too. On the other teams, you only got McDonalds soft serve ice cream if you won. On our team, you got ice cream no matter what -- but if we won, we got to go to the ice cream shop and get BETTER ice cream, with toppings and whipped cream and french fries if we wanted.
Moral of the story: My parents are awesome.
Moral of the story, #2: Now I want some damn ice cream. #girlssports
11/05/09
11/05/09
Then again, he also thought women shouldn't have the vote. #girlssports
11/05/09
11/05/09
We went to lunch the other day, and he brought up the Richmond rape case, and went on to talk about how his showed his girls self defense moves and how he became aware of the need nowadays to really tell his boys how to act... I was blown away. #girlssports
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
Title IX was and is a great idea - although at the high school and college level women's teams continue to play in inferior facilities, with lower-quality equipment and uniforms and less institutional support, even at major NCAA Division 1 schools. At my high schools the girls' softball team wasn't even allowed to play on the school field - they had to go to the city park where little kids played in rec leagues.
To this day I wonder if I would have become more athletic and physically confident had some of my early coaches just told a bunch of little boys it was not cool to spit on and try to hurt me because I was a girl. As it was, I found the entire scene pretty hostile and retreated. 8 year olds can't fight battles when adults aren't brave enough to help them. #girlssports
11/05/09
11/05/09
I was a wrestler - technique is much more important than strength, and since everyone is divided out by weight, it makes things more even. #girlssports
11/05/09
11/05/09
Everyone standing that close during the match? Streetshoes on the mat? Full nelson I'll let slide because I was not wrestling when this show was on the air, so it may have been legal then, but... man.
I'm sure other sports get the same treatment, but I just don't know about it. #girlssports
11/05/09
11/05/09
That and the fact that we had a school radio person and anyone other than our parents and the wrestlers' girlfriends at the matches. Totally true. #girlssports
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07/29/09
This isn't nearly as easy as you're implying. ESPN has been trying to train more men to watch soccer for years, and with very little success, and training, for that matter, isn't the word. They'll need to be around for a lot longer than a decade to be part of the larger culture, but the truth is that they'll need to be salient while they wait, and I don't know who's going to make such a long term investment.
07/29/09
Also, the whole family went to see my sister play soccer in large part because we were really, really hoping she'd stick with it.
My neighbor boys all played soccer for so long it was a community--parents could trade off attending games and out-of-town events, knowing the other chaperons were people they trusted and that they wouldn't miss anything life changing.
Anecdotal explanation.