Identity Of Girl

I am a girl. I have always been a girl, have always seen myself as a girl, and hold onto being a girl as a part of my identity. For most of my life, this identity has not had a profoundly negative nor positive impact on how I live. I have the privilege of having grown up in liberal Sonoma, where my being a girl did not automatically make me lesser. I played Co-Ed soccer until I was 10, was given the same opportunities to learn as the boys in my classes, and never had anyone other than a playground bully tell me that I could not do something just because I am a girl. However, I absolutely grew up with the idea in my mind that girls are naturally a little bit worse than boys. Small bits of information entered my mind to support this theory, and …show more content…
However, problems arise when people do not see the physical differences of boys and girls as simple facts of life, but use them as a way to put down girls for being born with a smaller average size. First hand experience has taught me that school aged boys love to disparage girls for being smaller and weaker. They see the differences between them as bad, instead of just neutral facts of life. This way of thinking does not change when girls outperform boys either. In high school, my volleyball team absolutely dominated our league. We had at least four girls on our team who would go on to play in college, and other schools could not compete. Every regular season game would see the bleachers packed with students, parents and people from the community. When playoffs rolled around, we would have a line outside the gym that stretched into the parking lot. A busload of fans drove for over an hour to watch us play for the section championship. Support from the community overflowed. Yet, when it came to the basic respect from our male friends and fellow athletes, there was still a disconnect. Sure we were champions, future college athletes, and dedicated players, but we were still girls. We were weaker, and the boys that we called our friends still loved to put us down for it. Not a single one of those boys went on to participate in any sort of college sport, …show more content…
Living in Northern California in a progressive area is a privilege as well. In terms of the big picture, I have had a wonderful life, and I recognize and appreciate that. However, the same system that allows girls like myself to feel a sense of equality also allows boys to ignore and downplay the inequalities that still exist. An example of this arose in our class discussion on gendered clothing, toys etc. A girl complained that she has to switch over to the boy’s section to find basketball shorts, and the response she was met with was (quoted exactly) “Who cares? Why does it matter?” In the big picture, no, maybe it does not matter. Not being able to find women’s basketball shorts does not prevent her from going to school, finding a job, or being an independant person. But again, it is the little things. In my opening sentence I stated that I am a girl, and I am proud of that. Why should I have to shop in the boy’s section if I want to find basketball shorts? Does wearing basketball shorts make me a boy? I have had a lot of experience with basketball shorts, I know for a fact that there is no discernible difference between those labeled for men and those labeled for women. Why should I feel like less of a girl because I want to wear basketball shorts? Maybe in the grand scheme of things it does not matter, but all of the little things, not being able to find certain pieces of clothing, having half the products marketed towards me be pink,