EDITORIAL: Campus football clinic should be more inclusive of all genders
On April 17, the University of South Dakota football team will host a clinic to teach women how to play football. The clinic was created to teach female fans of Coyote football the process of what the players go through and how to play the game. The day ends with a powder puff football game.
While the intentions of this event are good, it is sexist, not only against women, but against men as well.
The clinic dictates that only women are allowed to attend the event, which automatically makes the assumption that all women are clueless about the sport of football. It also makes the assumption that men are essentially born with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and play football.
On a campus that strives to foster the idea of inclusive excellence in everything it does, it’s disappointing that the university would not want to organize an event that invites everyone on campus to come together.
Organizers of the event say the clinic is designed specifically with women in mind as “football (is) a male-dominated sport, and men having played football and having been a fan their whole life, this gives women a chance to experience it differently than their husbands do.”
While this event is great because it helps to bring the community and university together, it should really be more inclusive. Why not include all genders in the clinic to help foster a stronger fan base for the Coyotes? Along with some women, there are certainly a number of men who do not fully understand the rules and regulations of the game, or at the very least just want to further immerse themselves into a sport they are passionate about.
This campus is filled with a variety of students from different backgrounds. For one, we have foreign exchange students who may not know the game, and we aren’t extending this invitation to them. Additionally, we have students here from all over the country and world who may not know how to play but we aren’t extending this invitation to them. They are simply out of luck, and this is unfair.
This event may be helping to create hype among female fans about the upcoming football season, but it is also unintentionally contributing to the sexist bias that men and women are supposed to adhere to certain standards based on their gender.
(Photo: For the second year, women will be able to learn about football as a sport in general and how the University of South Dakota Coyotes prepare throughout the season. File photo / The Volante)
