"Title IX cuts two ways"

A boy in D.C. finds no opportunities to play on a boys' lacrosse team. So Ralph Chittams joined his school's girls' team. Everyone's happy -- more or less.

Comments

[geophile]

I think the girls would still complain that they're being locked out if participation is predicated solely on their ability to compete with males. (Though I could probably have identified several girls in high school that were better than I was at a sport or two. Or all.)

I think it would be interesting to see a University come up with an inter-collegiate co-ed league (with rules in place that require a team to be comprised of players of both genders in proportion to demand), so that athletes of both genders could play a sport that would otherwise be eliminated for one of them.

There could still be sports that are unisex, of course. It's my opinion that Title IX is too maniacally fixated misguided notions of equality, considering athletic ability and participation is so obviously an area that defies direct equality. However, we should be able to expect that our institutions of higher education will deal creatively with this and other issues, rather than having them just slash programs (some of which they've probably wanted to get rid of for years) and using legislation as the scapegoat.

[Gilbert Martin]

Indeed.

Let there be just one co-ed team for every sport at every school. Anyone can try out and those who are best on an ABSOLUTE basis make the team.

The feminists are always claiming that they are equal to men in every way - let them show it.

I'll be waiting to see some Patricia Ireland type lining up in front of a 300 lb defensive lineman on the football team.

LOL

[Brad S]

Gilbert - in football, I think you'd be more likely to see the likes of Rosie O'Donnell and Roseanne Barr lining up in the trenches. 😉

[Lonewacko]

This'd make a good TV movie. [insert link to 70s TV movie about first girl to join an all-boy football/baseball team].

[Gilbert Martin]

"Gilbert - in football, I think you'd be more likely to see the likes of Rosie O'Donnell and Roseanne Barr lining up in the trenches. ;)"

I think we would be more likely to see them in a "huddle" with each other. 🙂

[Warren]

There's no reason to force girls to compete with boys for a place in organized sports.

The solution it to privatize education. Let schools decide what sports they will support and whom may participate. Let parents decide where to send their children. The market will provide opportunities for everyone that chooses to make athletics a priority.

[Gilbert Martin]

Privatizing education would be ideal.

However, the realistic probabilty of that happening is somewhere close to zero.

[D.J. Sandman]

Rick Reilly wrote an article about a kid that played field hockey with a girls' team on the east coast. It is worth reading:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2001/11/21/life_of_reilly/

No honest person would dispute that at this point in human evolution men are generally bigger, faster, and stronger than women. So to allow a man to compete on a woman's team is unfair. To his teammates and to the opposing players.

[Brad S]

I like the solution to the "Title IX" issue that the article implies - make all sports everywhere coed. Problem solved.

[Thomas]

If only it did cut both ways:

"'Under Title IX, there is no obligation . . . for the school to provide opportunity for the over-represented sex,' Lopiano said. 'It further exacerbates the lack of opportunity for the underrepresented sex. . . . We all know that schools can't fully meet the interests of boys and girls because budgets are limited. There is just no inherent obligation to have unlimited athletic or academic programs.'"

I do like the previous response--open every team up for every student. Let the best 10 or 20 or 100 play. Competition is fair, isn't it?

[Rick Barton]

When we have federal government subsidized higher education together with federal title IX control it can spell disaster for academic freedom. Justin Raimondo's new column at antiwar.com (a libertarian oriented anti-war site) tells of efforts by Senator Rick Santorum to amend Title IX of the higher education act so as to cut federal funding for thousands of American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of "anti-Semitism."

[Anonymous]

"I do like the previous response--open every team up for every student. Let the best 10 or 20 or 100 play. Competition is fair, isn't it?"

"Let there be just one co-ed team for every sport at every school. Anyone can try out and those who are best on an ABSOLUTE basis make the team."

School athletics aren't supposed to be about catering to the best, but about allowing as many people as possible to enjoy the benefits of participating in organized sports. Should we only let the best math students take math?

[Brad S]

In response to the last post - only the "best" students are allowed into the most reputable schools. So, in a very real sense, the best students are given opportunities simply by virtue of being considered the best that the rest of us common folk are not given. That's the way the real world works, too. The best jobs are given to the best candidates for those jobs. Why should it be any different in sports? The ideal world is a meritocracy, and sports (at least in my mind) should be the ultimate meritocracy.

[Weeva G]

Hello to everyone, I am a SWW girls lacrosse team player. It is very interesting to see people opinions on the title 9. In our school's situation having a guy (Ralph) play on our team just showed us that title nine is effective rule as long as it is used in it's fullest terms. I know schools (esp DC public High Schools) very rarely give funding for sports, so of course some teams like lacrosse end up being for "only one sex"; but even with lack of funding, we have found a way to play and have it be equal with a guy on our team. For all of those that are worried about complaints by other players on the team, our team stood and still stands behind Ralph for playign with us. No complaints if anythign he taught us a thing or two about lax and life.