girly thoughts

I've been mulling this over since our game last Sunday, but I've always been okay with the concept of coed IM football. (There must be a minimum of 3 girls on the field at all times, and a girl must be involved in every other consecutive play with positive yardage.) On the one hand, these rules are utterly ridiculous-- they don't just even the playing field but give the girls a hefty advantage. In accordance with the rules, there technically could be an all-girl's team playing in the coed league, which seems blatantly contradictory.

On the other hand, I have distinct memories from elementary school when guys would trash talk in my face or not pass me the ball just because I was a girl. In first grade, I remember only getting one pass the whole season. The sad part is that I was too young to fully realize what happened. I suppose it's possible, as JSM insinuated the other day, that I just wasn't good enough. I'm not sure what hurts more: the thought of being discriminated against just for being a girl or the thought of being a horrible player. I'll admit, I'm no MP, but I can hold my own fairly well.

But I've digressed and switched from football to basketball... The point is, I know that I can run into any guy at full speed on Sundays and few refs would call a penalty. And I'm not sure whether I find this more horrifying or amusing. Nobody, even guys, deserves to be bowled over (or almost anyhow), yet a large part of me revels in the fact that I can get away with it and that guys are supposed to "take it like a man."

I'm not sure what to think anymore about gender stereotypes, but they amuse the heck out of me.

You can't always get what you want.
But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.