You hit like a girl!
Did that offend you?
Well it should not.
By that standard, I have been throwing like a boy my whole life. Those who play slo-pitch with me know this.
Gendering has always happened. Girls clothes. Boys clothes. Boys toys. Girls toys.
As someone who is a sports loving, pink hating, tomboy, growing up I felt special playing, catching, and throwing with the boys. However, I did question many things at times wondering if I was “normal” because of it.
I took offense, and made my offense known, whenever I heard the phrase, ‘you hit/throw/kick like a girl.’
I have seen many campaigns recently that are trying to counter this and good for them.
The Always brand’s, #likeagirl campaign brought men, young boys, and women into a studio and started off by asking them one simple question: ‘what does it mean to do something like a girl?’
Everyone shown did what they were asked in ridiculous, stereotypically female fashion.
They ran slowly, wildly swinging their arms and legs, some complaining about their hair.
They fought with tiny slaps.
They threw with weak and bent arms.
Then they asked young girls the same question.
They did none of these things.
They ran as fast as they could.
They threw hard.
They fought hard.
Turning around, they asked the young boys, men, and women, whether they were insulting a female member of their family.
One young boy, when asked if he was insulting his sister, he says, “no, well yes, I was insulting girls but not my sister.”
One girl says she does not know what ‘like a girl’ is supposed to imply.
“It sounds like you are trying to humiliate them,” she says.
I know plenty of women and girls who the statement, ‘like a girl’ does not apply to.
I know plenty of men who are amazing cooks, and dancers.
I also know a lot of women who still have to deal with the negative side of ‘like a girl’ comments.
For the women that I have come to know playing sports and from playing sports myself, we have to play harder, throw harder, and prove ourselves way more than men because we have to shake off this ‘like a girl’ stereotype.
We do not even have to be watched before we obtain that label.
We should be getting to the point of our existence that this is not an insult.
So my question today is, what does being good at something have to be specified to a gender?
This goes both ways.
One does not have to cook like a woman to be a good cook.
One does not have to be feminine to be a good dancer.
Good parenting is not just designated to women.
Let us not hold back people just because we do not think their gender allows for it.
Let us celebrate people’s strengths even if they are “women in a man’s world” or “men in a woman’s world.”
