It’s fascinating being a parent of a child of a sex “invading” the environs of a single-sex sport — in this case, it’s a boy, playing high school netball, which until last year was all-girl (primary age was mixed, and social adult teams can be mixed, and the state body was wanted the local comps to get more men playing…but if you cut boys out of the sport for 5 years 🤷)
At a tournament where the all-boys team was thrashed by every girls teams, I overheard some pretty snide comments along “these arrogant boys, thinking they can come along and beat our girls” lines — the organisers of your girls comp were so scared untrained boys could beat skilled girls that they forced them to play up in both age and skill. You should be insulted, not smug.
And last night my partner had to sit through “this shouldn’t be allowed, it’s too unfair” comments from a grandmother at the domestic comp, who was watching her granddaughter’s team get trounced by our son’s team.
At this local, amateur, level, though, it doesn’t matter. The only thing, the *only* thing he does that the girls don’t do is jump for rebounds. He can do a fast chest pass? So can the girls. He can lob the ball as far as it’s allowed to go? So can the girls. He can catch pretty much any pass? So can the girls. They sure as hell outrun him and know much more about positioning!
The reason our 13 year old boy is a better player than your 12 year old girl is that it’s his second year in this age group. He was as outmatched as your granddaughter his first year too!
Anyway, it reminded me of that girls basketball team being banned from a boys comp in case (/because) they beat the boys. And of course the viciousness aimed at trans kids. I’m sure there’s a different psychology behind each case, but the underlying mechanism seems to be fear. And a sexism, often unconscious, that assumes the magic of XY can and should automatically beat anything XX.
#sport #KidsSport #netball
winstone
Wendy Palmer
Rpsu (326 ppm)
Marian (she/her)