Yesterday a boy at the Iowa state wrestling tournament defaulted because he refused to wrestle a girl.
I'm not mad at him for defaulting, I'm annoyed at his reason. He said in a statement that, "Wrestling is a combat sport and can be violent at times. As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner." To me this reads a little as, I don't want to hurt the little lady. I think I would have been more on his side if he had mentioned the inevitable inappropriate touching that would result in wrestling a girl. If you've ever watched a wrestling match you know their hands go Every. Where. and it would be impossible to wrestle competitively without some inappropriate touching. His dad says they believe in respecting women, but again goes back to the brutality of the sport rather than the contact. Either way I suppose, I am impressed that this high school sophomore (who had a decent shot at winning the state title) is sticking to his convictions when the pressure is on.
Steve wrestled in high school and he would really like it if Levi wrestled. When we saw on the news that two girls were going to be wrestling at the Iowa state tournament we had a discussion about it. He was very quickly in favor of the girls wrestling. If that is what those girls are passionate about they should be allowed to do it, was the first thing out of his mouth. I can't decide how I feel about it. The women's libber. in me thinks, of course girls should be able to wrestle and good for them. The mommy in me can't stand the thought of that being my baby girl on the mat. I'm secretly hoping that I don't ever have to make this decision.
Just airing out my thoughts.
If you want to read the story on ESPN you can find it here.
Thanks for reading.
3 comments:
I've been trying to decide what I think of all this, too. I agree with you on the physical contact, but figured I (he?) would be seen as a prude for thinking about that.
I'll tell you what really gets me about it--the double standard. For instance, men can't play women's volleyball. No one complains about that, and no men try to enter that sport. But the girls fight for their 'right' to wrestle. . .hmmmmm. . .
Shonya- I figure there are always boy equivalents to the girls sports. I mean, there is men's volleyball after all. The only example I can think of that doesn't have a boys counterpart is cheerleading and boys are free to try out for that. I think having a girls wrestling team would be a great solution. And I know in 4 states they have girls only wrestling, but I'm guessing there isn't enough interest around here. The two girls in IA would just have to wrestle each other, over and over.....
Yeah, good thoughts. Although do high schools have men's volleyball? I don't think they did in IA--but it's been a few (ahem, 20! gasp) years for me. . .
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