I have a new gig teaching a class of swim-to survive-students. It is offered by a local school board to third graders in at least some of their schools. The program recently restarted after being stopped during the COVID lockdowns.
Students get three one-hour lessons. There are about 12 kids per instructor. That’s a very high ratio to supervise. My regular learn to swim classes have between five and eight students, depending on the age and skills.
My group all needs lifejackets because none can swim even half a length of the pool. Some of them are afraid to put their faces in the water.
It’s not enough! We live in a country with a lot of lakes and rivers. Even if these kids never leave the city, there are plenty of opportunities to get into trouble in one of our rivers or ponds, or the canal. Many of these kids are newer immigrants, or from low-income families. Private swimming lessons may not be an option for them.
I’m happy I can give these kids the basics of a few survival skills, but what happens if they don’t have access to a lifejacket except during these lessons?
I feel like we are failing these students, as we have failed to provide equitable access and opportunities for water safety and sport so many poor and visible minority kids for generations.
Three children in red lifejackets in a swimming pool. Adobe stock photo.
April is almost here, and I’m in need of a refresh. Since January 20, I’ve felt angry, heartsick, afraid, overwhelmed, and oh so tired. And I see these same feelings in the faces and actions of my friends, family and community. Waiting around for others to do something about it isn’t helping. So, I’ve decided to take a page from the self-care playbooks and do something. Here are a few tips, along with the ways I’m following them. Feel free to join me or pick your own set of tips and invent a plan. And let us know what you’re up to, if you’re so inclined.
Tip #1:Get physical– plan some exercise, with friends or on your own.
One plan I have is to get a lot of steps in on Saturday, April 5 at the Hands Off! Massachusetts Protest Rally in Boston. It’s part of nationwide protests in the US. You can find more info here. I’ll either take public transport or ride my bike with my friend Norah to meet others and gather on the Boston Common. Then we march to City Hall Plaza for speakers. It’ll feel good to stretch my legs and work on taking back our democracy.
Tip #2: Get creative– try something new or familiar that stimulates your imagination, like art or crafts or poetry.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper protest rally without some good signs. I’m definitely planning on making some of my own. The Hands Off folks have provided lots of signs to print, like these:
Hands Off Science!Hands Off LGBTQ+ Rights!Hands Off Cancer Research!
These are great. But I also love ones that reflect our own individuality and perspective in the face of greed and cruelty.
IKEA has better cabinetsFOR SALE: DemocracyThe classic: It’s so bad, even introverts are here!
Someone has even gone to the trouble of creating a google spreadsheet with sign slogan ideas. My current favorite is “Does this Ass Make My Country Look Small (with pic of Trump). Check them add and feel free to add your own spin.
Tip #3: Get social– join friends or family or your community in some common endeavor, whether it is for entertainment or activism.
Lots of people I know are posting about going to these rallies in their hometowns. I’ll be amplifying this message on my social media, and also talking it up in my friend and community groups. And come Saturday, I’ll be meeting thousands of new friends in my town, with whom I have a very important purpose in common: saving our country from fascism. Not that one protest will do the trick, but it’s a step (or in this case, thousands of steps) in the right direction.
Tip #4: Get outside– take some time to immerse yourself in nature; this can include anything from urban parks to local woods.
We’ll be meeting at the Boston Common on Saturday morning around 11am, which is located outside. The Parkman Bandstand, our meeting point, is surrounded by lovely trees bushes and grasses. Honestly, it won’t look like this in April, but here’s a nice summery pic:
Parkman Bandstand on te Boston Common in summer. Worth visiting this week, too.
Tip #5: Get clear about boundaries– say no to the demands or conditions that you know are harmful to your well-being and that of others.
Oh, there will be lots of saying no in my future, and in all our futures.
No to illegal firings of federal and state employees working to support health, education, safety, and all the crucial everyday functions of our government.
No to bellicose threats to other countries with whom we’ve shared supportive and beneficial relationships with for decades and decades.
No to shutting down HIV clinics around the world, cancer clinical trials, measles and other vaccine education, the department o frigging education, and oh, the federal court system.
No to kidnapping students and holding them illegally, for no reason other than hate and intimidation.
Just no. Hands off, you bozos!
You know what? I already feel a little bit better. See, my self-care plan is starting to work. Of course, there’s actual work to do, and a lot of it, and for a sustained period. But I’ve got a plan. And I hope you’ll make one, too.
Cate’s great post from a couple of weeks ago, combined with the latest over-the-top reaction to a trans athlete who hasn’t even competed since 2022 (aren’t all reactions over the top when people are complying with the rules?) led me down a rabbit hole of the harms gendered sports do more generally.
University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas competing in 2022. On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump suspended about $175 million US in funding for the university over the participation of Thomas in its swimming program back in 2022. (John Bazemore/The Associated Press)
I have written about it before, here, and about Lia Thomas and other trans athletes. As a good analyst should, I am putting my biases on the table: I have trans friends, both men and women, who have gone from being suicidal and afraid to use a public washroom or change-room, to being happy and physically active. But as Cate said, and the “punishment” of the University of Pennsylvania shows, the whole trans athlete garbage isn’t really about trans athletes, especially at the elite level.
So what if we were to fight back by refusing to play along? What if we developed more all-gender sports, like we have already done for ultimate frisbee, mixed curling and many other new team sports, and which has been the standard in equestrian sport for decades? What if we changed the rules so that sports valued artistic merit, endurance and flexibility as much as they do upper body strength? What if women could do throws in figure skating, or compete in pommel horse? What if we then changed uniform rules so that men could wear sequins and women could wear pants (or at least shorts that covered more than most of the crotch)?
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong competing during the Winter Olympics at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images
What if we simply stopped having men’s and women’s categories for things like shooting or fencing, where gender seems completely irrelevant? What if people like Katie Ledecky could compete against male swimmers? It is entirely possible she doesn’t know for sure just how much she is capable of because she races at different distances than men, and so outstrips many of her competitors that she may never have pushed herself to her absolute limits.
What if these rule changes led to much more equitable funding for sports traditionally segregated to women, or seen as too feminine (gymnastics, figure skating)?
There will undoubtedly be pushback, just like what we are seeing now against the LGBTQ+ community, from men who think they are losing something when women gain something. We will need to keep up the fight for fairness in sport. It’s a fight worth having for men, women, everyone.
We at Fit is a Feminist Issue devote a lot of copy to documenting discrimination and lack of parity between men’s and women’s sports. Sadly, we’re never at a loss for topics, as the inequities abound. They range from lack of funding for girls’ sports to barriers to participation to inadequate training and facilities in college, Olympic and pro women’s sports.
And then there’s the issue of inequitable compensation. It took years and a lot of work by a lot of people to reach an equal pay agreement for the US women’s and men’s soccer teams in 2022. You can read more about the agreement and history behind it here and here.
But it’s not just pay at issue; it’s prize money, too. And the disparities persist not just for the pros, but also for competitors at all levels. Okay, you might be thinking: offering bigger cash prizes to men’s fields in say, amateur sports might just be a function of greater participation, so larger pools of money are available.
No. Uh-uh. Not so. In fact, not. Nope.
What Unsplash gave me when I searched “nope”.What Unsplash gave me in response to my “NO”search. I like this better, frankly.
Way back when in 2019, I reported here on the inexplicable decision by a local Spanish squash organization to gift the winner of the women’s tournament with a vibrator, and the second and third-place finishers with their choice of hair removal kit or electric foot file. Of course, once news got out, the local, regional and national Spanish squash organizations expressed their shock and dismay, attempting to foist blame upon anyone but themselves.
Then, in 2023, at a big Mother’s Day 7K race in Madrid, the winner received a food processor, and all the participants got 0% fat food products. I wrote about this event here. The promoters again were unwilling to acknowledge any responsibility.
“We understand that seen from a biased perspective, it can generate some controversy and we apologize if this has been the case and if any woman may have felt offended, but it is a product that we believe does not have a sexist character and that it is ideal for any athlete who wants to improve their nutritional habits.”
The organizers promised to “take measures” to avoid similar incidents in the future. I’m not sure what “taking measures” means here. In my view, they could just look to see what sorts of prizes men’s running races offer, and provide those. There you go– measures taken.
I wish… Fast forward to last week. Location: Germany. The event: ski jumping competition. There were prizes in the men’s and women’s divisions for those winning qualifying rounds, and then prizes for the winners of the divisions. Men who won qualifying rounds received 3200 Euros.
And then there were the women’s qualifying rounds. Olympic ski jumper Selina Freitag won her round, and received (drum roll please): a bag containing shampoo, shower gel–duschgel!– and four (count ’em!) hand towels.
Freitag confirming that yes, the duschgel and towels were in her gift bag.
Once again, the sports authorities in charge ducked and dodged.
They said the gift also included a voucher for a weekend of wellness treatments and “was certainly well intentioned, but it is understandable that it may have generated frustration and given a bad impression if seen as formal compensation for the victory. This was not the case.”
Oh, well that makes it all better. Seriously, how about “man, that was a bone-headed move on our part. Hans here is writing her a check for 3200 Euros right now. We are sorry.” Yeah, that didn’t happen. CNN reports more details about their non-apology responses.
Her Sport, an advocacy group for gender equality in sports, responded to the often-cited rationalization among promoters that women’s sports don’t generate enough revenue to merit equal prize money (or equal pay, or equal anything):
“We often hear the argument that it comes down to revenue generation, but … revenue doesn’t grow in a vacuum,” the group added. “It starts with investment & commitment to bridging the gap.”
Yes to this. And also, the revenue gap argument simply doesn’t hold across the board anymore. Women’s sports are popular and are generating lots of revenue. The time for equal pay is a long time ago, but now will do. And we can buy our own duschgel, thank you.
She was a busy person this week 8 years ago, and despite some admitted hardships (including the harbinger of a sore knee) she decided to focus on “the good stuff”: children graduating from a program for LGBTIQ2S youth; a Pride run with her daughter in Toronto, Canada; and FIFI bloggers running together with her.
According to Sam, the 2015 Pride and Remembrance Run event included some great fundraising, colourful confetti, a glitter canon, Muppets music, bright costumes, closed roads, and the presence of the province’s Premier. The descriptions and pictures make a #TBT re-visit to Sam’s post worthwhile!
This year, on Saturday, June 24, FIFI bloggers were mostly out doing other fun things during the day of the Pride and Remembrance Run. I was in the backyard of Marnie and Sheila, two awesome people who were celebrating their recent marriage with 35 other friends and loved ones. (They had a food truck!) So while I was nowhere near the Pride Run, I was still out in the world celebrating queer love, inclusion, and community spirit. However, I did sneak a peek at the Run’s photo gallery, and it seemed like an amazing day for participants, even with the periodic rain.
But 2015 and 2023 has its differences. This year, increased concerns about safety due to homophobia and transphobia were reported by the CBC to have led to potential programming cuts for the Run. Commercial “ally ship” (in the form of sponsorship) was also threatened to wane, according to Opinion writer Rob Csernyik in the Globe and Mail, following backlash/boycott responses to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney earlier that year.
As well, Ontario has had a different provincial leader since Sam’s post in 2015. Doug Ford, since his first Premiership in 2018 (and re-election in 2020), has been critiqued often for failing to support 2SLGBTQIA+ education, health and wellness, and visibility.
So, the Toronto Pride and Remembrance Run remains a popular a day-long event that incorporates physical activity to celebrate people for who they are. But, by comparing then and now, I am reminded that such events have an important, grounding message: equal rights and equitable treatment for all people must be supported actively, and all year round as well. Because things can change (and not always for the better).
Intersex inclusive pride flag is Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
This post has a lot of different things crammed into it, kind of like an average December day. I tried to make them into a somewhat coherent whole but I’m not sure it worked. Let’s roll with it anyway.
On Day 3 of her 2020 Wellness Calendar, Martha telling us to Remember to Eat. This is another one of the basic that we often let slide during this busy month. We don’t feel like we have time to sit down for a proper meal so we just grab a snack and the next thing we’re cranky and running on empty. While I get that this kind of thing will happen from time to time, please do what you can to prepare in advance. That might look like making a plan about when you will take downtime for meals or it might look like planning for something quick to eat while you are on the run.
Speaking of all the busyness of the month ahead, one of the ways I’d like you to create space for yourself today is by ditching something from your to do list.
I know that sounds like heresy when there is SoVeryMuch to do but that’s exactly why it is a good idea.
Have a look at your to do list -whether that is on paper, on a screen, or in your head and turn your attention either to the list of stuff that you will do ‘if I have time’ or to anything on your list that you are absolutely dreading.
I would like you to ditch (or at least change) one of those things.
Yes, decide right now that you are not going to do it.
If it is something on your ‘if I have time’ list, then you will be able to create a little extra quiet in your brain. You will have one less thing that can float up to fill any downtime you are trying to create for yourself. And you will feel better about not doing it if it is a decision instead of a lack of time.
If it is something that you are dreading but that you really feel needs to be done, I’m wondering if you might be able to pass it on to someone else. Could there be someone in your life who would happily take that on – maybe not exactly in the same way you do but that’s fine too. Perhaps there’s someone you can pay to do it. Maybe you can trade disagreeable tasks with someone else. Or, maybe the task itself can be changed, reduced, or reshaped to make it less dreadful.
And, I realize that in one of the paragraphs above I told you to add something to your to do list (plan for your meals) and then immediately afterwards I told you to ditch something from your list. I stand by that apparent contradiction.
Adding things to your to do list that increase your well-being and your ability to take good care of yourself are more likely to reduce your stress than increase it. Taking good care of yourself increases your capacity to enjoy the rest of the preparations that you choose to include in your month and to keep the things you *must* do in perspective.
When I prepared last year’s Making Space posts I tried to include videos of people with a range of body types and abilities. I was moderately successful but I am determined to improve things for this year.
Since today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities I wanted to be sure to be open about my intention to be inclusive and to invite anyone who reads this to share any videos that they find useful. I don’t always know what search terms to use and I may be missing excellent videos because my vocabulary is limited.
These Making Space posts are not exactly the forum for an in-depth discussion of these issues but since I have your attention, I wanted you to know that the theme for this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world.”
I don’t think that my posts here are at all part of that sort of broad change but hopefully I can at least raise some awareness about today and give some of my readers something to think about.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about disability activism but some things things I do know are 1) every person on earth has the right to live with dignity 2) change depends on listening to those with lived experience 3) any practice, policy, or accommodation that increases accessibility, diversity, and inclusion is a good thing for everyone who makes use of the service/visits the building/ participates in the activity – an inclusive world is a better world 4) inclusive practices are not about catering to anyone or providing special treatment, they are about creating a more just world.
And I think we can all be part of that change by seeking more just and equitable practices in our organizations, workplaces, and daily lives.
Okay, back to the stated purpose of the Making Space 2022 posts: short workouts and meditations to help create space for yourself on your to do list!
A video entitled ‘7 Minute – No Equipment Workout – Ella’s Wheelchair Workout- Video 40’ from Ella Beaumont, she is wearing a orange tank top, has her hair pulled back in a ponytail and she is in her wheelchair in her living room. Behind her is a couch lined with multi-coloured pillows and a bookshelf filled with books and knick-knacks.
If you’re not feeling up to a workout today, perhaps this meditation from Headspace might be just the thing.
A video from the Headspace YouTube channel called ‘Feeling Overwhelmed? Try This Quick Meditation.’ The still image shows an orange rectangle in the upper left corner that encloses the word ‘Meditation:’ in white and blue text below that reads ‘Feeling Overwhelmed SOS’ on the right side of the screen is a cartoon image of an orange bucket that is overflowing with drops of blue liquid falling from the side into a blue puddle below.
However you choose to take good care of yourself today, I wish you ease in the process.
For decades, families in southwestern Ontario have cooled off in the summertime heat at the St. Marys Quarry, formerly a limestone quarry that was converted to a public swimming area in the 1940s.
Thank to a recent addition to the quarry—the Super Splash Waterpark—there are two different swimming experiences for quarry goers. I share about my one experience, which was shaped in part by the other that I did not have.
Basic and Super
Before the coming of the Super Splash Waterpark (SSW), with an admission ticket guests could swim around freely to about the middle of the quarry. The basic park now includes play features like a few rafts, a slide, and a trampoline.
The Super Splash Waterpark website explains that for this added option guests pay general admission and then 3x more to access to a giant inflatable on-the-water playground. Only a limited number of tickets are available for 2-hour time slots. Reservations are made through an online portal.
With one of the hundred spots reserved for SSW, at the quarry get a wristband, a fitted yellow life jacket, and a safety primer. SSW guests must access the inflatable playground by swimming through the “basic” swim area, now limited to the front quarter of the quarry.
The SSW park has a large set of access and safety rules. Few if any of the quarry’s water features are fully accessible, but the SSW definitely isn’t. Here’s a view of the quarry from land.
The St Mary’s Quarry, featuring the roped off Super Splash WaterPark behind the general admission section. Pic by me.
A Super Time at the Basic End
You might predict where my story of goes next. Some friends and I decide to go to the quarry, but due to the limited number of SSW tickets only half of us get access to the inflatable park. The rest of us—basic access only.
Let me tell you—there is nothing that makes an inflatable water park look like more fun than when your friends can go but you can’t (even if you are an otherwise mature, mid-life, child-free cis-woman). I sat on the grass in my suit, grumpily contemplating whether I would go in the water at all. Take that, quarry!
I asked a friend (who had walked away from her computer mid-reservation so was similarly relegated to the basic quarry area) how a 10 year-old kid might feel seeing but not being able to access the SSW. She recited some parenting wisdom about how making one’s own fun on the basic quarry side is better because it builds character. But I already had character, my 10 year-old self whined—what I wanted was the fun-looking waterpark!
My gaze could not even escape the inflatable obstacles that filled the quarry horizon, a constant reminder of where I could not go, the fun I could not have. Even my once-greater swimming freedom was reduced to a quarter of the quarry by that blow up monstrosity!
My friends eventually came back from the inflatable side—removing their special wrist bands and yellow life jackets—to spend time with the rest of us. And, as the oldest ladies on the trampoline on the “basic” side of the quarry, we did indeed make our own fun.
Next Time at the Quarry
Aside from my poutiness, it all seemed some sort of microcosm of the inequalities besetting some exercise activities in a capitalist society: only a percentage of people get access to what looks like a bigger and better time if they plan in advance, have the added money to spend, and are physically able to participate. Those with less info/tech savvy, disposable cash, and/or differences in ability are more likely to be excluded but must also watch from the sidelines.
My friends reported that the SSW part of the quarry was harder and more tiring than they had expected, and they probably wouldn’t pay for it again.
If I went back, would I choose to plan further ahead to reserve a limited SSW ticket, even if the park is less accessible, I have to pay 3 times as much, and I may not even have that much more fun?
Sadly, my answer is probably yes—because I know that the real privilege of privilege (in a capitalist society or a two-tiered Waterpark) is having the freedom to choose.
Fitness has many visible and invisible costs, whether it’s for equipment, space, or training. Of course walking and running are free, but even then many folks purchase footwear specifically for those activities. (Throughout the world people run without shoes, but in Canada most need shoes, at least during below-freezing weather).
As I hiked with my friends a few weeks ago, and we chatted about topics like when to buy new hiking boots and where the money goes from the conservation area parking, I wondered to myself: What would happen if all basic fitness activities were free? Would it motivate people to exercise more, or at least try different sports and activities?How might paid-for exercise change people’s fitness habits?
In my thought experiment, I thought that exercise is free could mean that people have no-cost access to standard equipment, (like shoes and balls) and spaces (like courts) for the activities typically available in their climate and geographic location. Free also includes basic required training and/or certification for safety.
People would still have to get to and from activities at their own cost. To try to keep this idea from getting too fanciful, I figured that activities requiring expensive vehicles, like Formula 1 race cars or planes, wouldn’t count. Also excluded are the world’s most expensive mainstream sports.
How Free Fitness Might Change My Habits
I looked at this ranked list of exercise activities to see what I would do if cost was no longer a factor. Dodgeball, yes. More yoga, yes! I would try scuba diving, though I am afraid of getting “the bends.” I would definitely take dance lessons. I don’t think I’d be any good at fencing, but I would feel cool. I’ve never played cricket, but I’m not terrible at baseball, so I’d do that. I would maybe even try…cheerleading.
I feel like free fitness would change my fitness habits substantially. What would change for me is that I would diversify my activities. At the same time, I realized as I scanned the ranked list of exercise activities that many are yet untried by me not because of cost but because I don’t know where to pick up a fencing foil or who might play cricket with me. It’s time and opportunity, not affordability, that seems to be my main barriers.
It is critical to note that as a North American, middle-class, child-less white cis-woman I have the means and lifestyle to try most regular sports and fitness activities typically available in my geographic region. This is not the case for many.
Would Free Change Other People’s Habits?
I would like to think that with free access to all kinds of physical activities people’s physical and mental health would substantially improve. With a wider scope of activities in common, people could also connect more with each other. Free exercise would benefit communities and families with limited or no ability to pay for sports and fitness activities. Free could increase the diversity of folks engaging in those activities as well.
Logistics aside (i.e., who would pay for all this, how would it be coordinated), who would argue that making basic exercise free for everyone is a bad idea?
But when I consulted my friends enthusiastically about my daydream idea, they brought me back to reality by saying that free exercise would probably NOT dramatically change most people’s fitness habits. If humans are naturally energy-conserving creatures (read “lazy”), then even more readily available fitness options would not be enough to make everyone exercise, or diversify their exercise, more. Rather, free exercise would most benefit only those who already valued fitness and exercise.
Why Exercises Costs
Of course, free exercise is economically and logistically impossible. In many parts of the world, where basic necessities for remain unaffordable, free dodgeball or cheerleading is not a priority. And in reality there would have to be a hard line about where “free” ends–should the internet be free because so many exercise programs are available there?
Here in Canada, imagining how to make sports and physical activities free for everyone actually reinforced to me how deeply tied physical fitness is to money:
Exercise is a huge industry, and many people make their livings through exercise training, coaching, equipment sales, etc.
Pay-to-play gives some people real and perceived social status (e.g., celebrity-endorsed brand name gear).
Some people rely on the cost transaction, such as paying for a gym pass, to commit them to exercise.
It may be precisely the cost of a specialty sport–including the travel–that makes activities like heli-skiing or deep sea diving memorable and worthwhile.
Starting Small and With What You Value
Elan (the daydreamer) and her friends (the realists) did agree that the world might improve if we started small and everyone got at least a free pair of running shoes every few years. This idea to make basic exercise slightly more affordable could help with getting kids outside more and perhaps reduce people’s exercise-related foot and back ailments in later years.
But it seems that resources must go to not only making fitness more affordable but also continuing to shift how folks might better understand and value physical exercise activities in the first place.
And for my own situation, if I really wanted to try playing dodgeball or cricket, I just need a plan and the will to get started.
If all exercise were free, what would you try? Would your fitness habits change?
These days, news travels fast and turns on a dime. Here’s an important and fast-developing story of discriminatory treatment of women athletes, from yesterday to today:
The NCAA March Madness 2021 college basketball tournament is happening this year, inside bubbles in Indianapolis (for the men) and San Antonio (for the women). They are being housed and fed, and are training in facilities set up for them. The men’s and women’s training facilities are separate. But boy are they not equal. Check out this twitter comparison pic of their weight training facilities:
Split screen of NCAA men’s weight room, large and well-stocked, vs. women’s space, consisting of one small tower of little hand weights and a few yoga mats on a table.
Some twitter users were skeptical that this was true, while others chalked it up to their beliefs that men’s teams made money, performed better and were more popular, so it didn’t matter that the women had less to work with than most of us have in our homes.
In service of settling any peripheral disputes, here are some stills from the Tiktok video feed of Sedona Prince, Oregon Ducks team member on the scene.
Left is the women’s little hand weight tower, and middle and right are the men’s standard weight training gym setup.
Of course this really made the NCAA’s face red. However, they rallied and offered this explanation:
An NCAA spokesperson told The Washington Post that officials initially thought there was not enough square footage for a weight training facilities at the convention center playing host to the women’s tournament. They later found the space, the spokesperson said.
Yeah, that’s not true. How do I know this? Because of Sedona Prince, who on Friday (the same day this story was reported) posted this picture on TikTok:
A large, empty space for the women’s basketball teams at the NCAA, with nothing in it but a few chairs.
So either the NCAA people were lying or they hadn’t bothered to check whether what they were saying was true.
After a large outcry, mainly from women professional and college athletes and coaches, the NCAA apparently found some gym and weights set ups for the women’s teams. Sedona shows it to you live:
Turns out, lack of standard weight training facilities wasn’t the only way the NCAA treated women’s basketball teams less well than the men’s teams.
Geno Auriemma, coach of the Connecticut women’s team, told reporters at a news conference Friday that his team was receiving different daily coronavirus tests than men’s teams. The rapid antigen tests given to women are faster than PCR tests given to men but “have a higher chance of missing an active infection,” according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The NCAA is using a cheaper and less accurate COVID test for the women than it is for the men. Again, the NCAA responded:
In a statement, the NCAA said that its medical advisory group had determined that both tests were “were equally effective models for basketball championships”…
Hmmm. Here’s a question: if they’re equally effective, then why use one test for the men and another for the women? And if it’s an issue of supply, why didn’t you plan for that at the women’s location as well as you did for the men’s location?
Again, please refer to my earlier comment about the NCAA either lying or not caring whether what they say is true.
Other documented differences between how the men’s and women’s teams are treated includes the food served (Sedona documented an especially unfortunately Salisbury Steak event here), and skimpier swag bags for the women. Seriously, NCAA? You’re leaving no stone unturned in your quest to make 100% clear your lack of respect for women’s collegiate sports.
And then there are those who are listening and following the lead of the NCAA, turning its disdain for women’s teams into threats to shut down women’s sports altogether.
A tweet (unaltered) threatening that women’s sports will be shut down if women don’t stop complaining about their unequal treatment. This was one of many such tweets.
This tweet is revealing in that it’s a common and threatening reaction to women’s sports players, coaches and advocates’ calls for more equitable treatment, in accordance with Title IX legal requirements in the US. I’m happy to say that these threats haven’t gone answered.
Dawn Staley, a championship award-winning basketball player and coach, former Olympian and current Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, said this (I’m including the whole statement here):
Statement by Dawn Staley. See links below for text.
You can read a Sports Illustrated article about her statements and a letter from the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics here and here. They’re not playing about the barriers to playing that women and girl athletes face all day, every day. Hey, NCAA president Mark Emmert– you can throw some jump ropes, treadmills and weight bench sets at the problem, and say things like “we fell short” (ya think?), but you’re not getting out of it that easily.
I’m happy that Sedona Prince, her teammates, and all the women’s NCAA basketball teams now have an actual weight room for training. And yes, it would be nice for them to get buffet meals rather than prepackaged ones (the NCAA says they’re working on it). But it’s clear that the battle for respect and equity in women’s athletics is still in its early stages.
Thank you, Sedona Prince. Thank you, Dawn Staley. Thank you, players and coaches of women’s and girls’ athletics everywhere for standing up and speaking out.
But, wouldn’t it have been nice if men’s basketball coaches, players, team owners, and athletic directors spoke up and spoke loudly in support of women’s athletics now? Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry both posted criticism of the NCAA, and both got the same scornful, dismissive pushback. But there’s strength in numbers.
Hey male players, coaches, trainers, administrators, athletic directors– where are your voices? I can’t hear you…
Readers, if you’ve seen any recent tweets or other social media posts by male sports figures (players, coaches, business, academic, children’s leagues, anything) in support of women’s sports on the occasion of this latest discriminatory debacle, post them in the comments. It’s good to know who’s on the ball and who’s dropped it. Any other thoughts or ideas you want to share? I’m listening.
Cue scene: It’s a Thursday afternoon and I’ve finished teaching for the day. I’m looking online for ice-gripper/traction thingamies for my boots. I go to the site of my favorite national outdoorsy merchant– let’s call them REYIYI– and look up popular brands. Quickly settling on two different models, I begin the consumer cogitation process. To give you a picture of this, here are some pictures.
Base model ice traction thingamy. $29 USD. Rubber straps with metal coils.
Upgraded model ice traction thingamy. $59 USD. Rubber straps with metal bits and chain.
Next step: look at reviews. Both score decently, with more expensive ones rated more highly. To be expected. But how to choose? Which one is better for ME?
Enter the promotional/instructional videos. First, the $29 model.
Please watch this. But if you don’t want to, here are the highlights:
Opening shot: intrepid little yellow-and-white flowers in early spring, off a slushy nature trail. Very subtle music playing in background. A woman is hiking, then one foot slides a little on slush. She puts on her ice traction thingamies. There’s lots of ad copy, pointing out they are packable, lightweight, with a removable strap, blah blah blah. Then, she moves confidently through ice and snow, beginning her trail run. She stops to admire nature. Yay woman! Yay $29 ice traction thingamies!
And then there’s the video for the $59 model.
Here are the highlights for this one:
Right away we hear loud music, like you might hear in this Ford F-150 truck ad. There is ad copy, featuring the words “steel”,”bite” and “aircraft grade steel”. Steel seems to be an important part of the messaging here. We see a man walking in the snow, ice traction thingamies already on. He also shovels snow while wearing them. Then he takes them off to a resounding guitar riff, his large truck in the background. Rock on, man! Rock on, $59 ice traction thingamies!
Here’s what I think.
Angry orangy-yellow face saying Grrr.
Really? All I wanted was to figure out if I wanted the base or upgraded model of the ice traction thingamies. Instead I got treated to throwback SuperBowl truck and beer ad stereotypes.
For the record, I want stability while shoveling snow, walking around my neighborhood and also hiking. It looks like both models do that, but the more expensive model has fancier and sturdier components. That was useful information. Oh, also FYI: both come in sizes that reflect the entire range that men and women wear.
But it’s not useful or nice or even accurate to gender the crap out of otherwise-unsuspecting ice traction systems through dopey and stereotyping ads.
Can advertisers and merchandisers and stores and vendors just stop?
I’d really appreciate it.
Penguin says “STAHP!”
Readers, have you run into any seriously-gendered advertising of items lately? Care to share? Penguin and I will give them the stink eye on your behalf.
