Paige Sultzbach: the Phoenix girl who made boys indignant.

Oh Chris Norby, aren’t your balls in a bunch!

I understand. You hate women’s sports. They’re terribly boring to watch… women’s basketball, women’s softball, women’s table tennis, hell… the only woman-dominated sport that gets much ESPN action is ‘Cheerleading’ and that’s only when it’s the Nationals.

I know it’s been a week, I hope you’re really thinking about what you said on Monday’s CA assembly to recognize the 40th Anniversary of Title XI.

I too am a fan of those male sports that keep getting the axe due to school budgets: tennis, wrestling, gymnastics, swimming! (Who doesn’t love SWIMMING!?!) But you see, Mr. Norby, I am a fan of those sports because I want to do those sports TOO. But since I’m a girl, it’s rare that they’ll keep the female equivalent of those sports if they can’t afford the male program, because let’s face it, girls’ programs are usually the first to go.

And the sad thing is, I’m used to it. I’m used to my programs being cut, I’m used to having funding reduced for my programs, and I’m used to having crappier equipment than the guys’. And in the physical work out world, I’m used to being last chosen for a team, I’m used to having guys wanting to beat my scores ‘cuz you can’t be beaten by a girl’, and I’m used to people saying, “You might not be fast, but at least you’re pretty while you’re doing it.”

Because I’m a GIRL.

And even with Title IX being 40 years old, even now when athletic female bodies are now exalted as opposed to ridiculed, even now when they had to add a “Sporty Spice” to even out the “Rape Me Spice”/”Materialistic Spice”/”Virgin Spice”/”Gotta-throw-in-an-Ethnic Spice”, even now that REI gets half of all their profits from women, and even now when women who’ve played sports can use the skills of problem solving/team building/self-reliance/will power that comes with conquering an athletic goal… it is NOT an even playing field and that’s why we are RECOGNIZING the effects of Title IX… because there is still so much more to do.

It's the year 1999: the year we discovered that 'Sporty Spice' is not the name for a male deodorant.

I understand you are just voicing your thoughts and opinions, and that is your right to own that. And you are right, some male sports are getting ‘budgeted out’. And that sucks. It sucks balls. But join the gang. Learn to share. It’s not just your world.