Spectators of the Gender Battle: Who’s Rooting For Whom
By Katie Hartsoe ‘06
News Staff Writer
A few weeks ago, I attended my first ever Choate girl’s hockey game. Having attended the boy’s game the night before and having seen the intensity of school spirit that was exhibited, I was excited to go to another game and cheer on Choate’s female team. However, I arrived at the game with a friend to find only one other student there. I was shocked that no students had come to support the team for such a pivotal game. I was sure to have seen all of the female team’s members at the boys’ game the night prior.
I began to wonder: is this a low-attendance statistic a trend for all female sport events? Do people knowingly favor supporting our boys’ teams over our girls’ teams? Why doesn’t anyone go to female sporting events?
I might seem like the last person who would be writing this article given that my extracurricular activities all happen in the PMAC; but this question has puzzled me now for a long time. As a NCAA basketball fan (there, I admit it) I regularly follow both male and female games and live and die for my beloved UConn Huskies. Yet, in most of the games, I am always amazed by how much more attention is rewarded to the male events. Male teams’ tournaments are broadcast on national television, while the women’s are restricted to cable. In the 2003-2004 season, attendance at women’s games was 6,718,289 net total for 324 teams, while at men’s games the net total was 25,548,468 for 326 teams. Apparently, such inequality transcends to the Choate playing fields as well.
In order to gain more insight into this issue, I interviewed varsity athletes (male and female) and a varsity coach. I was curious about their responses to the subject and was surprised by the answers I was given.
Having talked with two female hockey players, a female varsity basketball player, a female soccer player, and a coach, there was a likeness in the sentiments that pervaded every answer. “It’s frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do about it” they all said. As one coach put it: “I’d rather have a smaller crowd than have some of the people who go to the boys’ games and harass the goalie and insult the other team. But, it would also be nice to have the support of a large, energetic crowd at a crucial game. So, I guess there are positives and negatives about having a smaller crowd.” Though this girl’s team has a far better record than its male counterpart, the female games still draw smaller crowds. Therefore, the inherent problem must be found in the game itself and not the team, right?
“Guys’ games are more violent and physical, therefore drawing bigger crowds,” three male explained. This is apparently also true for hockey, lacrosse, basketball, and soccer and it is easy to understand how this assumption might be formulated. However, one only needs to look at baseball to find a fault in the argument.
Baseball, like softball, is a mental game in which violence is not only rare, but heavily reprimanded. The sport is also played at a much slower pace than basketball or hockey. Yet the baseball team regularly draws larger crowds than the softball team does. It is the same game with the same rules and still baseball’s spectator statistic prevails. Therefore, another factor must be at play, right?
At the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, the US Women’s basketball team cleverly beat all of its competition while the touted men’s “Dream Team” floundered before the medal round had even started. Lisa Leslie jokingly suggested that the men’s team come watch their games to learn how to play the game properly. Only one member of the men’s team attended and was reported to have sat slumped in his seat, listening to his iPod in a state of childish sulking. This blatant display of disrespect highlighted the reluctance of many male team members when asked to publicly support their female counterparts.
“The guys’ team would never come to our games and we always went to theirs. I think it’s because guys just don’t think like that. Girls are emotional and want to go to the game to check out the hot players, but the guys don’t even think to come support us” says one varsity Choate soccer player. While this is not necessarily true in all sports (hockey being a shining exception according to one coach), the disparity is obvious when one scans the crowd and absorbs the attendance records at male basketball and hockey games. How many in the crowd are female supporters? Often the majority.
Many players, male and female alike, wonder why girls’ athletics are not more physically aggressive. How long ago were the rules established that girls still adhere to? If women truly have truly achieved equal rights, why can’t they have equal rules? If it’s too physical, just don’t play. Women are biologically designed to play contact sports because their center of gravity is lower than men’s. This makes it more difficult for women to be thrown off balance and fall over.
Even so, stereotypes have prevented women from hurting each other in “the name of the game.” One hockey player explains “Girls are too emotional and guys are allowed to be more intense. Girls have more finesse so they are nicer to watch because they are focused less on killing each other and more on passing the puck. However, at this level, most girls don’t get the game, so it is slower to watch.”
To most sport fans, the problem lies in the fact that they themselves are guilty of perpetrating the same gender-biased crime. “Guys are born more athletic.....if I had to choose between seeing alley-oops versus shooting well, hard checks versus regular ones I would choose the more exciting one every time” says one male varsity basketball player. “I’d rather see a boy’s game than a girl’s game any day” says a female varsity basketball player as two hockey players nod in unison.
I find it ironic that the same female varsity players who are frustrated with their games’ lack attendance numbers will readily admit that their game the more weak. Perhaps it is just that, at this level of competition, there is a huge gap between what each gender is physically capable of and women simply have gotten the short end of the stick. Regardless as to any biological disparity, however, our female teams deserve as great a turnout as our male teams do.
I challenge the Choate community to set aside its misconceptions about female athletic games. Go watch Ashley Bairos take someone out on the ice or Lisa Viccione slide tackle an opponent. After you do, perhaps you can try to explain to me the difference between the genders.
