Keeping Score
THIRTY years after the passage of Title IX, the myths, misconceptions and even stereotyping persist. No more skirting the issue
A good example came when we began looking for graphics to accompany this series on Title IX. The Associated Press created a chart with a female surrounded by different athletic balls, holding a field hockey stick and wearing a field hockey skirt.
What's wrong with this picture?
The NCAA offers 19 championship sports for women and another seven under the "emerging sport" category. In only two of these sports -- field hockey and tennis -- do women wear skirts as part of their uniforms.
Only 75 of the 321 Division I schools offer field hockey, with 1,665 participants. It ranks 13th out of 19 on the championship list as far as the number of teams participating and, yet, this is the uniform the graphic artist chose to depict female athletes.
Consider that the number of women in field hockey and tennis combined (4,560) is less than the total for the most popular sport: Women's basketball (4,677).
The number of indoor track participants is nearly double that of basketball (9,076). The last time I saw a female running in a skirt -- actually a pareau -- was in the 1981 Commonwealth Games on Moen, Chuk. The women on that Pacific island were prohibited from being in public with bare thighs. It did make for interesting low hurdles races; think about the timing and coordination involved.
The point is, the majority of women competing in college athletics wear shorts. The AP graphic was incredibly outdated, among other things.
But it's typical of some of the outdated thinking regarding women in athletics. There are still many people -- male and female -- who feel women do not belong on the playing fields. Heck, there are still folks who think I have no business being in the business I'm in.
I think back to my first run-in with the Title IX issue. It was spring break of my senior year in high school (1973) and I was covering a prep Easter baseball tournament as a reporter for the North Shore Sentinel, a small tri-weekly. The reporter from the San Diego Union asked me my thoughts on Title IX, and we had a lengthy discussion about the merits of girls playing sports.
I still remember how embarrassed I was when his article came out a few days later and the only quotes he used from me were concerning the dangers of boys and girls playing sports together -- this from my admission that my wrist was broken during a coed P.E. volleyball class when my arm and a male friend's jaw collided.
The reporter had ignored my excitement over perhaps being able to play more sports in college. Or how, when my all-girls high school had merged with the all-boys school, our basketball team that had a longer winning streak than UCLA's, was suddenly relegated to 5 a.m. practice times and wearing numbered T-shirts over P.E. jumpsuits as uniforms.
We've come a long way but not far enough. A way needs to be found to treat all student-athletes -- female and male -- the same. Title IX is about fair play for everyone.
Cindy Luis is Star-Bulletin sports editor.
Her column appears periodically.
Email Cindy: cluis@starbulletin.com