Women have always been treated differently, especially in the work force. It is still so shocking that today, even though women take up half the work force, they are still paid less than men for doing the same job.
As a woman, this worries me about my future.
To most of my peers, it may be shocking to find out I love all sports. When people look at me they might view me as a girly-girl. I love to wear dresses, high heels and make up.
Growing up with two older brothers, who are my best friends, is the best thing thing in my life.
They taught me everything I know about sports, and I remember them teaching me how to dribble a basketball on our driveway, to kick soccer balls against the curb, and how to throw a football.
Sports were something that entertained me, whether I was watching It on ESPN or playing it.
I remember wanting to play with the boys during middle school recess, but all they could say is “but she’s a girl.”
I normally never responded, but my thoughts always began with “so what?” I was just a girl who wanted to enjoy the art of soccer.
This is how it has always been for girls. We have to prove our ability to play a sport over and over again. We have to have thick skin in order to get to where we want to go. It’s 2017, and one would think things would have changed from centuries ago.
Recently in my Entertainment Media class, my professor showed an episode of the television show Pitch. Pitch is about a talented female baseball pitcher who becomes the first woman to play in Major League Baseball.
The protagonist Ginny Baker, played by Kylie Bunbury, has to prove to her male teammates on the San Diego’s Padres baseball team that just because she is a woman, doesn’t mean she cannot play just as well as them.
The show does a great job showing how the male species feel vulnerable when a female steps foot into their comfort zone. Once a woman changes the social norm, men tend to feel the need to protect themselves; they want to be the alpha dog.
When the team captain and catcher Mike Lawson hits her butt, Baker gets angry. Lawson said that slapping butts was his thing, and that if she was going to be a part of the team, then she would have to get used to that.
Even though the rest of the team was giving her the cold shoulder, in some weird way he was trying to make her feel part of the team.
Women are constantly being treated differently in the sports world. I hope to one day be a sideline reporter for the NFL, and although women are currently doing it, some men feel it isn’t right. For example, The New York Mets announcer Keith Hernandez once said that he “won’t say women belong in the kitchen, but they don’t belong in front of a camera talking about sports.”
Comments like these are degrading, and I know that women from all over the world, like myself, will prove to men like Hernandez that we are just as talented, professional, and knowledgeable as men. No one can tell us what we can and cannot do.
Even thought the show isn’t new, if you need a good pick me up, watch Pitch!