Sorry for shaking your beliefs about the good person you think you are but, if you laughed after reading the title, you’re sexist. 

I’m an exchange student from Belgium and, in Europe, it would have been unbelievable not to consider this inequality sooner. In fact, men being the only ones to have access to football isn’t fair. 

My education makes me realize a lot of things and, today, I want to share my opinion with you. I hope a foreign belief will help to forge yours. It’s always interesting to discover each other’s culture. 

Men and women are equal according to men, right? So why does half of the population still have to suffer from the power of the other one? Inequalities aren’t just about football. Anyway, they will be our topic for today. 

I’m writing this article to support every little girl who was told, “Football is for boys,” and to denounce the nerves of men who dared to shatter childhood dreams. 

Indeed, thinking women don’t belong on a football field reveals the closed-mindedness that some may demonstrate. Everyone should be able to play every sport if they want to. 

However, I’m not fighting for girls on the football team. I want football teams for girls.

First of all, I don’t want to hear about Powder Puff, this day during which girls play flag football and the guys cheer for them. It seems funny at first glance but we should look at what this game implies. The name is so reductive. Are women reduced to just putting on makeup? And are women reduced to being seen as too fragile to play tackle football?

Also, those events are rare. Did the creator of this day think that it would be enough? It’s not, and it’s why women had to fight to create teams by themselves. 

In fact, according to an Oct. 22 article of USA Today, women’s Flag Football has achieved high school varsity status in eight states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Nevada) and 18 more states could achieve this status soon. It’s a good thing but it’s still not enough. And what about tackle football?

Tackle football is even rarer for girls. Indeed, no high schools in America offer a girls’ tackle football team. 

It’s crazy not to consider women able to play a sport. Even more so when, as stated in the Title IX law, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Indeed, for every male sport, a sport for girls must be offered. At Central, the sport offered for girls during football season is volleyball. There is no similarity between those two sports and what about boys who want to play volleyball? It’s unequal in both ways.

However, the creation of girls’ tackle football teams is a matter of time. For now, it’s nevertheless possible for girls to join boys’ football teams but they need the approbation of the coach and to eventually pass the tryout. 

Because of the physical differences between the two genders, girls could be involved in the boys’ football kicker team while creating teams for them. 

Head football coach Tim Mattingly guaranteed that girls could join the boys’ football team if they wanted to. They will have to practice like the boys and he said it wasn’t easy, but girls will be welcome.

It’s true, joining a team made up only of boys is complicated. However, if you’re determined, you can do it. This difficulty shouldn’t stop your desire to play this great sport. 

Therefore, if practicing with boys seems too hard, you have another option. You can wait until after high school and try out for a women’s team. 

In fact, according to the article in the Tahoe Daily Tribune published on Mar. 30, “By the late 1970s, several schools had begun offering full-fledged varsity teams for women’s football. Today, there are over 200 colleges and universities across the United States that offer varsity programs for female athletes who want to compete at the collegiate level.” It might be hard to join those colleges’ teams but not impossible. 

There is also a possibility after college, the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) which contains 60 different teams throughout the United States. One is in Kentucky, the Derby City Dynamite. 

To conclude, tackle football is still an emerging sport for women but it’s getting better and it will continue to take a larger place in America’s culture. Girls, if it’s your sports dream, don’t give up. No one should tell you what to do, especially not a man.