Remember too..

I finished finals and I immediately came home to clean my messy week ignored apartment.  I was going through some drawers in which I came across a stack of cards.  Not playing cards but the cards that parents send out to make sure you’re still alive.  I must have had about five alone from my parents and about three from my grandmother.  What I noticed was that at the end of the cards they would always sign “love mom and dad” or “love grandma and papa”.   Never once did I see either my dad or papa’s signature on the card.  I know they love me but why do both my mother and grandmother feel the need to send cards?  This all came clear to me when I leaned of the term kin keeping.  My mom is always calling to remind me of something along the lines of getting my license renewed, calling my aunt to wish her happy birthday or that I apparently have a dentist appointment.  She has always been that way.  I believe since my mother was that way and I was brought up that way that I believe I will then become like her in that way.  It sounds a bit confusing; however, I am sure you all can find something to relate within your families. 

She's a Girl!

As a few of you have caught on I have a huge love for football and yes I am a women.  Growing up, I had an older brother who was really involved with football.  I wanted to be just like him.  I would always help him practice his running, catching, throwing, and even tackling (may I add that was my favorite part).  Sounds strange, but I loved being powerful and feeling like nobody could stop me.  I liked being tough!  One day I told my mom that I wanted to go out for football.  Like most mothers, she almost had a heart attack.  Her little 11 year old daughter wanted to put on football pads and play with the boys and get beat up.  My dad on the other hand, always my coach was ecstatic!  He knew how talented of an athlete I was and how this was another sport of many that I would try.  Long behold after much begging, I got to sign up for Pop Warner football.  I was so excited to show up for my first practice.  I thought to myself that I couldn’t be the only girl to play.  After the first practice, I noticed I was surrounded by boys.  I heard mumbles of parents picking up their boys that day.

“What kind of parents would allow their little girl to play a boys sport?”

“That is one girl you want to stay away from, you hear me.”

“Is that even allowed, she could get hurt?”

I was silent the entire way home.  I assumed my mom thought I had a bad practice (even though I did great).  I went home and told my dad that people made fun of me because I was a girl.  His response was “did you have fun?” and I quickly smiled and told him that I did.  He ending the conversation saying “just go out and show those boys what you can do!”  And from that moment on, I listened to him.  I was moved all over the place on the field.  My coach didn’t know where to put me.  I was fast for outside linebacker, had a leg that could kick at field goal, and feet that could out run the boys with a ball in my hand.  After the parents saw how much of a contribute I was to the football team, their comments vanished.  I even had little sisters looking up to me and wanting to play themselves.  After the season was over, I couldn’t help but wonder what pushed me to be the player I became.  Was it my dad’s inspirational talk or was it all the other people who were against me playing in the league being the only girl in the entire city of 70,000 people playing?  To this day I would say it is a mixture of both. 

I came across this YouTube video on a little 9 year old girl out in Utah.  Basically she is dominating on the field.  Why t is this any different from a little 9 year old boy rushing for yards?  She made national news for just being a girl and exceeding at a man’s sport.  Even though the news reporters seem like they are spreading good news, they are simply performing gender ranking.  They are saying that it is so shocking to see a girl outrun the boys (like it has never happened before).  It just goes to show that gender ranking and discrimination is still not over yet. 

I think it’s amazing that this player made the national news but to advertise that she is a girl make it seem like this is a rare occasion.  What are your thoughts?  Do you think its right to make note that this talented athlete is a girl or should the news just simply talk about the talents of this player? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrmi8_-u1c4

this one is better :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3eyetGvQNY

Fantasy Football Queen

I love my boyfriend dearly; however, he can really lose his temper quit easily.  Today, it was really bad.  My boyfriend has about five different fantasy football teams.  Every Sunday he purposely sets an alarm to get up early to watch ESPN and to set up his fantasy for the day.  He keeps note of who is injured, who he thinks will play good, and even the type of weather condition the athletes he has will be playing in.  If I haven’t made myself clear, he is very committed to winning his fantasy league every week. It takes a lot of time and knowledge of each athlete and the sport teams in order to do very well.  

I was doing some homework in the other room when I noticed him yelling at the television more than usually.  I came in to ask what was wrong and his response was “I am getting my butt kicked in fantasy by a girl!”  I immediately started laughing. I thought to myself that I had gotten up from studying for that?  He is really yelling about that?  To me it wasn’t a big deal. I thought the girl who was beating him must be a real cool chick. As you can guess, he even got mad at me for laughing at him. 

What is it about guys and not being able to accept the fact that women are perfectly capable in beating men? Men believe that women aren’t as good at sports, are not strong enough, and simply shouldn’t know more about sports than they do.   This act showed me that gender equality is still far from where we want it to be.  Women can achieve and do what men can do.  Why is it so hard for a man to face the world and know that women can beat them? 

What do you all think?

 

Anyone in fantasy and what would you think if you were getting your butt kicked by a female fantasy goers? 

My boyfriend would be so mad if he knew that I had blogged about this.  Our little secret! J

It's Not for Women!!!

I was watching ESPN today when my favorite soda came on a commercial.  Even though I haven’t had soda in almost 7 years, Dr. Pepper still gets me to think about giving up my long commitment and cave into having a sip of my favorite soda.  It was when I started to watch the rest of the commercial that my mind changed completely. The manly commercial was filmed in the forest with a guy holding a lazar gun.  His masculinity is clearly being presented as a tough macho man.  It started off with this male actor asking us women if we enjoyed the film and replied “of course not, it’s our movie!”  Throughout the advertisement they kept referring to the soda as “our drink” or “our soda”.  As a woman, I immediately feel discriminated against.  Are us woman not high enough on the scale in order to enough such a drink? Are we not that cool or important enough in order to enjoy this low calorie soda?  If anything, I think this makes you less manly for wanting a soda that has such few calories because after all men don’t want their calories (sarcasm, stereotype intended).   Throughout the clip, they say that it is “only 10 manly calories.” Why couldn’t they target both men and woman and simply say that this soda only had 10 few calories? What really pushed me over the edge and made me feel less like a woman was when they said “you can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks.”  So this commercial is really bashing women and the stereotypes that follow.  I hope the makers of this commercial realize that some men do like to watch romantic comedies and a lot of men do like what they are trying to say ‘girly drinks’.  This gender ranking commercial ending in "it's not for women" really should be taken off of television and YouTube.  As a society we are trying to focus on gender equality.  How can we do this if the media is continently ranking men higher up than women?

For you so-called manly men out there, what are your thoughts on this commercial?

For you romantic comedies and girl drinks lovers, what are your thoughts?

Super awesome non-gender ranking Dr. Pepper 10 video right here>    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8&NR=1&feature=endscreen