Girls and Sports and Literature. Just About Perfect.

Maybe it's just that time of year; all the rain is 'gone' and the local high schools can get on with their track meets.  Yes, they're out there running just about every day thanks to the no-good weather we've had the past few weeks.  I thought it very odd at first, but I guess it's better late than never?  Maybe?


Anywho, so driving by and seeing all the kids in their uniforms made me nostalgic and think of all my time in high school sports.  Also, it got me thinking about the girls in sports books I've read (one of the best so far being Catherine Murdock's Dairy Queen.  I love when characters are real!).  One I read, oh, a millenia ago, was about a girl who wanted to play hockey but her school had lacrosse for girls (yay for Title IX).  As I searched the web for it (unsuccessfully.  I really wanted to re-read that book!) I stumbled across several blogs dedicated to girls who love sports.  


This one was interesting as it included an interview between the Australian blogger and an American blogger regarding sport and gender.  At one point, the American mentioned Title IX (hey! There it is again!) and the host asked her to explain as most of the readership is not from the U.S.  She did a wonderful job of it (read it yourself, I was impressed), but she left out a key element that explains so much for readers today who may not be familiar with the Title but enjoy contemporary sports literature.  Title IX states that schools and sporting programs funded federally must give equally to boys and girls, whether it be on the field/court/arena/what have you, or in the classroom.  However, the key conflict maker here is that donations made to specific sports/extracurriculars do not have to be shared with the rest of the school or with the corresponding opposite gender teams.  That is why there are still huge discrepancies between male and female sports funding today.  Except with cheerleading (down kids, it is a sport.  Yes, it's often used by schools to justify their lack of girls' football teams, but that doesn't lessen the amount of physicality, coordination, and dedication those girls go through to be good at what they do).


Our society is still not quite ready to be totally equal, and that translates into a lot of YA fiction out there.  So, any of you english speakers out there not from the U.S. who have heard of Title IX and by random happenstance stumble on this post, don't go thinking those books are/were unrealistic.  They were.  And don't go thinking we're cavemen out here.  You've got your gender equality issues, too.  We all do.  And isn't it great that we all have something so silly in common?  Maybe we should bring that up at the next potluck for an ice breaker.