Homecoming rally: setting the stage for sexism

by Phoebe Abramowitz and Sophie LemkinCentered around football, rivalry and the beautiful, shiny faces of our Homecoming court, this year’s Homecoming rally was a nostalgic throwback to high school tradition. And going even further back into tradition, it included in its agenda a blatant display of sexism and stereotypical gender roles.This year, members of ASB provided a “special little treat” for their adoring audience: watching Samo students catch a football. But athletes weren’t catching the balls ― girls were! While this event may have seemed harmless, fun and gender inclusive, the premise of the segment was sexist and offensive.Why is it such a novel idea that female students can catch a gently tossed spiral? There is actually a girl on the varsity football team. What was the purpose of that part of the rally? To be funny? Cute? The idea of women catching a ball isn’t hilarious and we aren’t adorable just because we’re female.One purpose of the competitions in the rallies is to entertain everyone by showing students doing goofy and challenging contests. But the only oddity was that there were women in football helmets. Imagine if they’d paraded guys up onto stage and acted surprised when they caught the ball. Most people would just call that a game of catch, but apparently it’s a spectacle when the ladies do it. In the same way, it was considered a spectacle when they had boys dance around and pretend to be cheerleaders. We need to ask ourselves why we laugh at boys cheerleading and girls playing football.The fact that every girl caught the football shows that it wasn’t actually a challenge. The fact that men are naturally stronger doesn’t mean women are all inherently uncoordinated and useless. Not that you’d know from the rally, but we actually have a lot of female sports teams that engage in activities requiring coordination and catching balls, like our CIF champions, the girls’ softball team. Football is predominantly male because it’s a contact sport where giant men tackle each other, not because women are incapable of catching a ball. Everyone is aware that girls can be athletes, a point emphasized in this case by the fact that there is, again, a girl on the football team.This segment not only proved to be demeaning towards women, but it also detracted from the larger goal of the rally. The purpose of having pep rallies is to unite Samo, and competitions serve as an effective way to get people excited. The rally could get away with a lot by being funny and entertaining, but by alienating anyone outside of the heteronormative football fan role at Samo and randomly demanding hype, it failed to inspire school spirit and camaraderie.Our school can unify by sharing common goals and activities and support, but that’s not going to come from pride in our arbitrarily assigned houses, and it’s definitely not going to come from laughing at people acting outside of expected gender roles — like boys dancing or cheering and girls playing football.We need to talk about this because no one else really is. It may seem trivial, but that segment of the rally exemplified a damaging, sexist and false mindset that’s present even in the liberal bastion of Samo. “Girls can’t play sports” seems like an outdated stereotype from the days before Title IX, but there it was, being presented for the student body’s entertainment.But this wasn’t just damaging for the female population at Samo; sexism goes both ways. Making comedy out of men dressed as cheerleaders discourages guys who may want to join our nationally ranked, extremely competitive and exceptionally athletic cheer squad. Having girls catch footballs as a unique activity perpetuates the idea that masculinity or athleticism is for boys alone.In a global context, we live in a community that can boast exceptional gender equality and, theoretically, sexism is frowned upon. However, deeply ingrained sexism is far from eradicated at Samo, and the incident at the rally wasn’t isolated.We attend a school where “The four B’s,” three-quarters of which serve to shame women’s bodies, are still school-mandated policy. The part of the dress code that applies to boys ― boxers/briefs ― criticizes their clothing, whereas girls are told that their physical body parts are inappropriate. We attend a school where, despite all the female empowerment programs in our community, girls are reminded every day that our worth is based on our appearances and that the best thing a woman can be is attractive. We live in a community where many girls don’t identify as feminists because they associate it with being against males, when in reality feminism is just about equality among genders.We need to talk about these issues so we can end the ignorance that fuels sexist attitudes. We need to educate ourselves so we can make positive change for students in our community.We can empower our students, through conversation and education, to combat the various, often more egregious, permutations of sexism we’re bound to encounter as we branch out into the world.eic@thesamohi.com