Rick, you are unquestionably one of the best, if not the best, sportswriters of our day. I enjoy your column for its humor, poignancy and occasional provocativeness.
However, you have somehow missed it with this one. As a father of four children (two boys, two girls) who are close in age, I regularly have to remind my sons that boys and girls are different, and that there are certain things they can do with each other (like wrestle) that they can't do with their sisters. I try to teach them that there is a certain way to treat women, a way that honors, respects and protects them.
I have to believe that you have taught your sons similar things -- or am I mistaken there?
If we teach teenage boys that there isn't any difference between male and female, and that it is fine to treat a girl just like they would a boy, than they will -- not only on the wrestling mat, but in the real world as well. And is that what we want?
I, for one, don't want my daughters treated the way that my friends treated me, in high school, college, or yesterday for that matter.
You see, when we do recognize that there is a difference we are actually honoring womanhood. When we try to make everything the same we do just the opposite.
You take some shots at Joel Northrup's parents here -- but why? Because they are trying to teach him to honor and respect females? Come on, Rick, you can do better than that.
And oh, by the way, the magazine that you used to write for (SI) makes a lot of money every February by showing the world that there is a big difference between male and female.
I also read his column today I didn't like it for the same reason. I wrote him a comment as well that was similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting!