The Universal Language Barrier
I remember when I was 6 years old when most of my things where from the Disney characters Beauty and the Beast. Things that I would use every day such as my first tricycle, my dining set plates, my bed sheets, and clothing were some of the things that every girl would of love to have. Since I had fallen in love with the movie, I wanted to feel like a princess too. These ideas came from the first time that I was introduced to these fairy tale stories. My mother had decorated my room pink and my brother’s with sports.
It wasn’t until I was 9 years old when I watched my first football game with my brother. I would see him how cheerful he was cheering his favorite football team, the green bay packers of Wisconsin with such passion and excitement. I would watch the men play in what I consider to be one of the toughest sports in American culture; American football. It was in that moment when I fell in love with the sport. The rigor, the excitement, and the intensity of how the players would play against each other were some of the things that captured me of this sport not to mention all the emotions what goes in cheering your team and wanting your team to win. I had a good connection with the sport. These moments were by far one of the most memorable times I’ve had during my childhood. Except the day when I asked my brother, “How come there is no American Women’s football?” He glanced at me as if I had said something wrong or as a mistake or as if I made no sense and proceeded to say, “Of course there isn’t! It’s a man’s sport”. I was bewildered.
Fast Forward 2015 I read the news where a women named Jennifer Welter had made history by becoming the first women to be hired by the NFL as an assistant coach for The Arizona Cardinals. First women ever to earn a position in a competitive men’s sport. The news made headlines because it was something new that sounded wonderful and exciting but to think and realize why is this achievement targeted as a headliner in the 21st century? It was a love and hate kind of reaction from me when I first heard the news. To live in a country where it’s considered a modern progressive world meant for me and for my generation an embarrassment!
This matter out of place context where the women is being included for the first time in a man’s sports can be argued by the way social structures have fortified the binary concept between genders. As Genevieve Vaughan explains in her book For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange she argues that the main reason for this disparity within our society is due to the misuse and patriarchal dominance over language. She exemplifies, for example,the word “strong” or “aggressive” has been assimilated to a man’s characteristics, hence, making it easy to associate that word with other things such as a sport, science, or some other role that involves with being strong or aggressive. Furthermore, humanity has been known as “Mankind” the word man automatically sets the males in a hierarchical position from women. Thus, the word “man” is put to reference the whole human race without differentiating gender differences. This viewpoint can be seen as described by Vaughan as the one-way relationship where people’s paradigm has been structured to have this binary structure of genders for society to follow a specific blueprint where “males have been taken as samples within human category” (Chapter 5).
Women are often seen as the nurture one, the one that gives, the one who is consistently giving or sacrificing for the sake and happiness of their loved ones. Such characteristics that are assumed to be opposite of a man. The lack of “abstract thinking, aggressiveness, leadership, independence” among others are characteristics made only for the strong; The patriarchal society (Vaughan Chapter 5). The division between genders has long been ingrained in people’s mindset that society has adapted to follow a certain form of structure.
It is why females have not pursued after male occupations because of the way people interact with their young ones. If individuals were to eliminate the patriarchal language and the associations with each gender, perhaps more opportunities like the one from Jennifer Welter would have come a long time ago and more women wouldn’t have any obstructions in taking part in important social roles. Putting aside these different characteristics or what should be considered a male or female trait should provide the young generation an opportunity to achieve more things that can be called a ‘normal’ rather than a breakthrough achievement.
