Weslowski, G. (2006). Girls’ Hockey
or Boys’ Hockey? The choice for girls who play hockey.
Webster Girls Hockey. Retrieved from http://webstergirlshockey.tripod.com/id24.html
The article “Girls’
Hockey or Boys’ Hockey? The choice for girls who play hockey” is about the
struggle for female hockey players to decide whether they want to play on the
boys’ team or the girls’. Like any hard decision, there are there pros and cons
for the girls.
Weslowski
sent out a survey in conjunction with USA Hockey Girls’ and Women’s Section,
and received more than 6,000 responses (2006). They learned that girls, without
a doubt, loved hockey.
In addition,
they learned that girls seemed to like playing on girls’ teams instead of boys’
teams for a myriad of reasons. Girls enjoyed the friendships with fellow girls,
comradery, equality on the team, and enjoyed not being the odd one out as they
would on the boys’ team.
As opposed
to the boys’ team, they felt like the “different” one, felt the coach didn’t
give them a chance, and sometimes didn’t feel accepted. Also, girls who played
on boys’ teams were more likely to say they were quitting when the season was
over.
The key
point this article was stressing was bringing more girls into the sport otherwise
they might lose girls all together. I completely agree. However, I also agree
that if girls want to play with the boys, let them. As someone who wanted to
play hockey but was stopped by social pressure, I can fully get on board with
trying to make girls feel more welcomed into the sport. Like the article said,
girls love hockey, don’t put out their passion because they don’t want to feel
like the odd one out. Don’t stop girls from playing when they are done with Pee
Wee, they have so much more to accomplish from there.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with the point that you and the article are trying to stress that bringing more girls to sport. However, in my opinion, the article’s survey is not really convincing because the questions ignore the contexts that girls are minorities in hockey teams. From the social standpoint, girls mostly hang out with girls and like things different from boys. Therefore, they, of course, might feel belonging if girls play on girl’s teams because they share the same values and behaviors. I think it is not about girls are not welcomed in sport because sport is “dominated by men,” but in certain sports such as hockey, there are rarely girl’s teams, so they have to play on boy’s teams if they want to play. If there are girl’s hockey teams and leagues like boys have, I think it will pretty much solve the problem for being unaccepted and feeling “different.”
ReplyDelete-Haoyan Gu
I agree that males or females should be able to join whatever sport they want to and shouldn’t fall into peer pressure. As a member of the BGSU Equestrian team which is made up of about 40 girls and myself, the only guy. I know that the team isn’t considered a women’s sport but at times it feels as if it is a women’s sport and I am one of the guys wanting to do a girls sport. As a child I grew up around horses and have always shown them very competitively. I was aware that people thought that horses were for girls but actually if you look at the professional seen, majority of the trainers/ exhibitors are males. So when I joined the team I was shocked at how few of guys there were. At are competitions there are probably 10 guys total that compete compared to the 75-100 girls. I never really felt that being on the team was going to be an obstacle until our first show when I noticed that there was only a locker room for the girls to change and get ready for the class. There was no place for the guys, so I just decided to get ready behind our bleachers. I don’t feel disrespected just think they could give another area for guys but it isn’t necessary because the girls have to actually “Change” clothes where guys just throw on another shirt, put chaps over the jeans were already wearing and put our hat on. So its not like we have to hide.
ReplyDeleteBeing a female I think it would be very intimidating to play on a boys hockey team. No matter how much I love the sport I think it would be intimidating and scary to try and join the boys team. Society puts female athletes in a bubble that they can't do what men do, or they can't play mens sports. This creates anxiety and stress for a female athlete wanting to play on a boys team. I think most female athletes would think that the male athletes may just make fun and laugh. This puts a thought in the females head that they aren't good enough and they can't play the sport as well as the male athlete. I can understand why girls would want a girls hockey team. It makes them feel more comfortable as they are playing against other girls.
ReplyDelete-Gina Costanzo
I can totally see why girls would hate playing with boys especially in the hockey world for so many different reasons. I currently play on the mens varsity team here at BGSU and just throughout my playing career thus far I don't think any girl would want to be apart of any of my pasts teams. Like I had mentioned in my other post I just don't think its a very good idea to put girls ad boys on the same sports teams, especially a sport like hockey. If girls would want to be treated equally on the ice it just wouldn't be right because hockey is such a violent sport. In women's hockey there is no hitting or body contact, while in mens its a fast paced collision based sport. So it would put male players in a very awkward position because your taught growing up that you should never hit a girl. I just feel as if this sport especially should not be mixed in terms of boys and girls playing for the same team. There are just too many shades of grey, any where from the on ice no hitting and play style to the locker room situations after the game where boys and girls would have to be in separate rooms. It just wouldn't work. I feel as if the team bonding of the team is built through the locker room chats and bonding after and before games. And if boys and girls can't get dressed in the same room then there will always be that aspect missing from boys and girls playing together. So overall, I don't think it would work.
ReplyDelete