I was very disturbed to see so many boys say no to girls hunting.
At the Greenwing event last week, Dave Atamanchuk with Ducks Unlimited asked the crowd of children if girls and women should hunt. I was shocked to see a substantial amount of boys put their hands up.
This also shocked Atamanchuk’s 13-year-old daughter, Morgan.
She did a clay shooting demonstration with her brother, Dawson, and saw the number of hands that shot up.
“Seeing the show of hands today before I shot, when my dad asked who think girls shouldn’t hunt, I did not like that. I was actually really surprised,” she said.
Morgan, who says she has been hunting all her life, says she wants to work to break those stereotypes.
She wasn’t fazed by this negative opinion on something that she obviously loves to do but who’s to say how this affected the 40 plus girls in the audience?
These girls dipped for critters and shot .22s right alongside the same boys who said it was wrong for girls to do so.
Seeing all the hands took me back to a time when I was having the same arguments with boys from my class about girls doing “boy stuff.” For years, I was the only one going out with the boys at recess to play 500 up with them. I remember how shocked they were the one time I did get 500 and got to go up to bat.
At the age of 27, I decided to try women’s tackle football. It’s not fun to constantly have to explain to people that no, it’s not flag or touch, it is tackle, yes, we wear full gear to do it and no, I wasn’t afriad I was going to get hurt.
To answer one gentleman’s inquiry, yes, we did get “dolled up” to play.
I don’t think I’m putting too much stock in the opinions of 10-year-old boys.
Right now, these are the same 10-year-old boys influencing girls on whether they should play sports or not - maybe even a “boy’s sport.”
There are many reasons why girls are dropping out. For children of both sexes, things like distance to clubs and activities and lack of money for sports affects them both.
Other reasons like peer pressure, negative body image, gender stereotyping and low self-esteem are still causing girls to drop out of sports.
According to the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, Canadian teenage boys are twice as likely to reach the international guidelines for physical activity than girls of the same age.
You hear stories all the time about the reasons girls don’t want to play sports, everything from being self concious of their bodies to being teased and bullied for wanting to play.
Girls are starting to drop out of sports by the age of six and if girls don’t participate by the age of 10, they are less likely to remain physically active by the age of 25.
To get them started early is the making of physically active and healthier adults. In 2009, 35 per cent of Canadian men participate in sports while only 19 percent of women participate.
In a population where girls are twice as likely than boys to have mental health problems, getting girls active and involved in sports and physical activity can boost their confidence and self worth.
According to the World Health Organization, girls who do participate in physical activity are less likely to have problems with depression, low self-esteem, diabetes, osteoporosis and problems with drugs, alcohol and teen pregnancy.
Creating stronger girls starts with cheering them on when they want to take on a more challenging sport that they might grow to love. Let’s give them a boost instead of tearing them down.
