As a photographer for the school’s news station, I have been to multiple sports’ games. Even when I was in high school I would attend games, especially basketball games, working concessions. In both events, I have noticed that the men’s games always had a bigger turnout than the women’s, which pissed me off. Plus, hearing people, especially grown men, saying that they would much rather see a men’s game than the women’s made me even angrier. I believe that all genders should get the same amount of support from the crowd and here’s why.
The main reason some people have said they prefer the men over the women is because the “men are rougher than the women.” Well, I can say this is 100% bullshit. In physical contact sports, the women are just as rough as the men. Just recently I attended a women’s hockey game against Potsdam and let me just say, they were super rough with each other! Each time a Potsdam girl would leave the penalty box, she would make the effort to shove one of our girls. They would purposely trip each other, shove each other, almost start multiple fights, etc. It’s the same crap the men do! It’s annoying that people try to come up with excuses about women’s sports without even going to one.
In most cases, the women usually do better than the men. This was especially the case in high school with the girl’s varsity basketball team. The girls made it to sectionals after having a great season and meanwhile the boys did absolutely horrible that season. But guess who still had the bigger crowd? The boys. Even while our girls were playing the other team there was a decent crowd, but nothing compared to the mens’ game. It constantly broke my heart while talking to my friends on the team and hearing how mad it got the team with the lack of support from the crowds. Luckily for bowling, I never experienced that personally. I did see it happen with my school, though, and it was aggravating to experience. Honestly, how do people expect women to participate in sports if classmates and strangers are not there to support?
Now I’m not trying to take credit away from the men who play sports, all I’m trying to say is everyone should get the same attention for the sports they play. I’m only scratching a minor surface of the gender inequality of sports. The USA Women’s soccer team is fighting for equal pay when they found out that the men’s team made a significant difference in pay both for making the team and actually playing. I really do pray that one day women will get the same amount of support at games as the men’s teams do.