The Influence Of Football On Gender Roles

Kicking, screaming, and pouting, I vigorously resisted my mother over something so simple, yet so meaningful to my three-year old self: princess underwear. My mom came to an important realization that day. Princess underwear was not for me and she might as well accept that now so she took me to the store and I picked out the raddest pack of superhero underwear there was.
I have been rebelling against gender roles since the day I was able to formulate simple sentences. It was something I had always naturally gravitated towards. The expectation that I and everyone else should supposedly fit into a cardboard cut-out that society formed based on gender roles irritates me. People want to intentionally reject and tear others down when they are perfectly fine the way they are. My response to this rejection has always been to remain entrenched in what I believe in. …show more content…
Football has been something I’ve loved since I was extremely young. I not only love the physicality of the game, but the strategy behind every play. For me, playing football at recess was non-negotiable regardless of how many times the boys would tell me girls couldn’t possibly handle football because of our “inherently dainty weaknesses.” I never let ideas or people like that push me around. In order to play football, I had to be twice as good as anyone else who stepped out onto the field. Even then, I was one of the last people to be picked for a team. This never stopped me from playing; it just frustrated me. Just because I was a girl, my peers would subject me to higher expectations allowing me to only gain partial acceptance as an equal. Unfortunately, as I grew up, the innocent prejudice I faced from kids on the playground turned into hateful slander, meant to tear me down. By the fifth grade, my class isolated me and I would often be called derogatory