It may be strange to hear a sports reporter admit that she has no experience with sports.
But I have actually spent a large portion of my life avoiding sports at all costs until somehow I ended up becoming a sports writer for the Catalyst. So, over the next few weeks I will be asking the inexperienced, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes inappropriate questions that I have always wondered about the foreign concept of sports.
This first week begins with women’s lacrosse, a sport that is often mocked for its differences from men’s lacrosse, not only on our campus but throughout the sports world. I decided to take a closer look at women’s lacrosse in an effort to learn just what these differences are and how the athletes feel about what seems to be a matter of inequality.
From my confused perspective, a game of women’s lacrosse involves high-pitched screaming, strange masks, and stranger skirts. And to my surprise, it seems that even to the sports-trained eye this game is particularly nonsensical to watch.
“Coming from a sport that rarely ever stops, it’s pretty strange to watch girl’s lacrosse because there are so many ways to foul and the whistle is always being blown. I think it’d be frustrating as a player,” said men’s soccer player Caden MacKenzie.
Women’s lacrosse is subjected to scrutiny for its divergence from the original men’s lacrosse. These differences include rules against body checking which keeps the game less aggressive, different equipment like sticks with shallower pockets leading to more passing and less running, uniforms without pads or helmets, and two more players on the field with less structured positions. Though some of these changes seem logical, some question whether the extent of the changes are over the top or even oppressive. Members of the team seem to feel otherwise.
“It’s true that our rules are meant to make the game less physical than men’s lacrosse, but I think it’s still very aggressive,” said sophomore attacker Chelo Barton. “Even though we can’t hit at that speed the men can, we still hit and we’re not wearing any pads at all.”“Of course we can’t play the same exact sport. There are clear biological differences that have to be accounted for, that doesn’t make what we do any less of a sport,” added sophomore midfielder Julia Tarantino.
And while they defend their sport and strength in the game, one item on the field remains controversial: the skirts. The players themselves expressed mixed feelings about the gendered uniforms.
“I think we all like the skirts because they’re more comfortable. We also practice in shorts, so it really feels like a game when we are wearing the skirts. It’s part of the performance of the game,” said Tarantino.
“I think they make us wear skirts because it’s just part of the history of this sport and no one has really tried to change that. It’s become a tradition,” added sophomore attacker Steph Kelly.
However, some players were much more opinionated about their dress code. When transitioning to lacrosse after a career in the male-dominated sport of ice hockey, junior attacker Hannah Lyons had to get used to the conflicting ideals of female athletes that their uniform may reflect.
“I think the skirts are an extension of trying to feminize women’s sports because normally sports are seen as aggressive, tough, and not nice at all—all things that women are not ‘supposed’ to be,” Lyons explained.
“I do think the skirts are a symbol of femininity and I’m not sure how I feel about that,” said junior midfielder Natalie Shishido. “When I’m playing I just think they’re comfortable, but it’s only when I take a step back and think about it that I feel kind of like, oh maybe this is a form of patriarchal oppression.”
A counter argument could be that the skirts function as a sense of freedom from the masculine confines of athletics. “I think it could also be argued that they are a symbol of femininity in sports, helping us resist the forced embodiment of the masculine ideal,” said Shishido.
Alas, this game of “Is It Patriarchal Oppression?” ends as it often does, unresolved. So if only to please my feminist grandma who fought for the right to wear pants in the 50s, I say, if you want to wear shorts, you should be able to wear shorts. And if the skirts truly are more comfortable, why not let the guys give them a try? Regardless of uniforms, the women are clearly doing something right with only two losses on their record this season. Go forth and kick some kilt, ladies.