The stereotypical cheerleader-football player dynamic has been portrayed in countless movies and shows; only recently did I really realize the extent to which it has been playing out in Chelsea as well. For the past few years, cheerleaders have been released early from school in order to serve the football team dinner before their game.
In our school’s culture, we see a troubling juxtaposition: while cheerleaders are expected to serve the football team dinner, celebrating their efforts, the triumph of our field hockey team—who recently won their first state championship— elicits a disproportionately small reaction. This disparity speaks volumes about the ingrained attitudes toward women’s sports and their value in our society. It strengthens a power dynamic and pushes stereotypes about both the roles and responsibilities of women, as well as the superiority of male-dominated sports. My argument is not to say that football doesn’t deserve the attention it receives, but it is indisputably disproportionate to the support that other sports–like field hockey–receive.
This disproportionate attention is not an isolated issue at our school but reflects a larger, cultural trend. Football, with its massive fan base and longstanding tradition, occupies a unique and powerful place in American sports culture. Yet within this environment, the treatment of women’s sports is often brought down to a secondary, trivialized status. One example of this is the tradition of “Powderpuff” football—an event meant to involve girls in the sport of football, but one that carries with it a problematic history of diminishing the seriousness and athleticism of women’s involvement in sports.
“Powderpuff,” let’s think about this word and its origin. It is a reference to cosmetic powder; worn by some women, but it really has nothing to do with football. In my opinion, it only serves to delegitimize the act of females playing a heavily male-dominated sport. The name powderpuff implies humor, but humor in the form of mockery; the use of “powder” (associated with femininity and beauty) with “puff” (implying something lightweight or insubstantial) reinforces stereotypes about women in sports. It forms an image in my mind of girls, vain and heavily makeuped, unserious about their sport. I can’t think of a way in which this name can be interpreted that doesn’t carry underlying condescension. Many would make the argument, however, that Powderpuff isn’t supposed to be serious, it’s supposed to be a once-a-year game of entertainment, and poking fun at it isn’t a big deal. If that were truly the case, then we wouldn’t call the very similar event of boys playing volleyball “extreme volleyball”. These names get to the root of how so many people view women’s sports in relation to men’s. Men play with intensity, grit, and passion; women, on the other hand, are much more easily seen as superficial, just there for kicks or popularity.
For so long in this nation’s history, we’ve limited women’s acceptable realm of life, forming an idea that sports—building muscle, being aggressive, celebrating successes—were inherently unfeminine characteristics. While we now know that when a woman runs, her uterus won’t fall out, those types of incredibly antiquated ideologies have not disappeared; they simply exist in an accepted way.
It’s a societal issue, a messaging ingrained in our language. It’s entrenched in tradition, behind solid walls of “we’ve always done this” and “no one’s had a problem with it before”. However, that doesn’t give us the right to simply accept it. It may have no impact on you personally, but it shapes the rhetoric about how we talk about women in sports. It’s not the most pressing issue in this world, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to solve it. Changing the name, “Powderpuff” may feel inconsequential, but it would hurt nobody. However, it has the potential to make even a few girls feel like their intensity is valid and respected. Until we stop viewing sports through the lens of gender, we’ll continue to miss out on the spirit of competition that sports should foster for everyone, no matter their gender.
