1/16/89

Perspective:

Mud Wrestling

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. Former Lady Cobber basketball great Jessica Beachy was honored as the nation's Division III Athlete of the Year. And the much-improved men's basketball team picked up a few important wins.

But the Lady Cobber basketball team lost a road game to a very good St. Ben's team in a brutally physical game that was symptomatic of a sick sexism in sports. The game was refereed by two men. Nothing inherently wrong there. But there IS something wrong with the attitude that "It's just a women's game."

Refereeing did not cost the Lady Cobbers the game. It was awful both ways. But the way it was awful was in letting a game that was so rich in potential for grace and speed and artistry turn into a virtual mud-wrestling contest, a game which, from my view, could only be enjoyed by men with a sick need to watch women claw on each other.

Yes, it's wrong to whine about referees and it sounds like making excuses when it's done. In fact, the Lady Cobbers, with their strong inside game, maybe benefit from the disgusting trend in the MIAC to let women's games get so rough. But that's not the point here. The point is that women's sports, for all it has done in freeing women to find their own vehicles for athletic expression, still lives under the cloud of "It's just women."

A lot of sportscasters and newspapers give the "college basketball" scores and then they give the "women's college basketball" scores, sometimes. Yes, mediocre college men's teams draw more fans and sell more tickets than nationally-ranked women's teams. The men's game is faster and higher and stronger. But it isn't always more graceful or unselfish or tenacious. Over the years people will come to see that reality.

But sportscasters and newspaper people are way ahead of the rest of the sports world in not treating women's sports as just a side show. And a lot of referees are way behind almost everyone.

Referees lobby to get games in women's leagues to get the money and, they hope, "move up" to refereeing men's games. And it is pretty tempting for them to just let the action go and watch women beat on each other. The amount they get paid does not correlate with the length of the game. That's one theory why male refs are so lax in letting hacking and slapping and pushing go on in area college women's games.

But it seems that the "It's just women" mentality of men also plays a big part. It is a shame to watch talented women, who have worked thousands of hours to perfect their skills, have their showcase events turn into roller-derby-type fiascos where men stand and gawk at women fighting for a ball or a position in the lane.

Maybe it's just a case of some insecure men feeling threatened by women playing the game better than most men ever could. Letting a game get rough makes the greatest athletes look clumsy. But maybe it's even sicker than that.

Men have a long history of fantasizing about women fighting for their approval and favor. Or just fighting. It gives them a perverted sense of control over women. And women get justifiably tired of it. Those men who are honored with the opportunity to referee women's sporting events, or, for that matter, supervise women's endeavors in any way, should either learn to respect women for all their strength of character, or get the hell out of such a roll.

Women are going to prevail in their struggle to get treated with respect and dignity. Men can either accept that tide of history or be left in the gutter with their narrow puberty-riddled mindsets.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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