Sports Editor Hannah Gale feels female athletes are often treated worse than their male counterparts because of their gender, and hopes to see this culture of sexism and misogyny in sports end. Photo illustration by Paulina Hafer.
By HANNAH GALE – Print Sports Editor
Women are underrepresented and underpaid in the sports industry, let alone faced with harassment from male athletes even at the high school level.
In 2012, the Harvard University men’s soccer team produced a “scouting report” on the female recruits coming to Harvard that year. They labeled each new female recruit with a demeaning nickname along with a sexual position to go along with their field position.
As a female athlete, I am infuriated.
As a female athlete, not only can I expect to be underrepresented and paid less in sports. I know whatever I play and wherever I go, I will also have to face harassment from male athletes. Unsurprisingly, this ruins their sport for many female athletes.
There has not been a known case of a “scouting report” at Clarke Central High School, and I hope there never is.
However, that doesn’t mean students don’t make comments such as the ones written in the Harvard “report” all the time.
During the Region 8-AAAAA volleyball tournament hosted at CCHS, male students aimed to provoke a Flowery Branch High School volleyball player who was serving, by commenting on her body and her uniform. It got to the point where the referee had to stop the game and ask them to stop talking, or to leave.
It is quite clear that young women are not being adequately protected at our school from these derogatory comments and young men are not being taught how to respect women. You can hear it walking the hallways, in classrooms, over social media and on the field.
The “locker room talk” needs to stop. Coaches need to talk to their players and not ignore, or even partake in their hateful, sexist speech. Something needs to change, because sexual harassment should not, and will not be the “norm” in this community.
