There are issues that you think, as a feminist, might just go away. Because they seem so ridiculous, outdated. Like, how could that still be a thing? One of them for me is the different distances in which men and women, boys and girls, compete. FOR NO GOOD REASON. I’m reblogging this post from 2015 because it’s still happening and it’s in the news again. See “‘I want to run farther’: 8-year-old wants boys and girls to run the same race length” on CBC news. The story is about Isla Morris, a runner. Here’s an excerpt: “At eight years old, she was taking part in the Participation Nation run, where boys and girls run the same distance. She realized in a couple of years, when she is in Grade 6, she’ll be running a distance of two kilometres while boys the same age as her, will be running for three kilometres.
For senior high those distances change to three and five kilometres, respectively.
“People don’t know that girls can run the same distance as boys,” says Morris when asked why she thinks there is a discrepancy between the distances.
Now, Morris and her mother Kristin Pardy-Morris are asking School Sports NL to change those rules so that boys and girls of the same age are running the same distances in competitions.
“It would make me feel mad, I want to run farther,” said Morris,”
Aargh. So frustrating!! Like tennis too in the majors. WTF?? Teaching us to underestimate ourselves right from the get go.
Track cycling and short track speed skating too!