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June 2014

A Note About Girls Becoming Women

This morning I saw this ad.

It made me weepy because I remember in college one of my classes was coaching baseball and softball. With my permission the professor (a woman) used me as the example of “Throwing like a girl”. I wasn’t humiliated, I hadn’t ever played baseball or softball but I was the example of how not to throw while my classmate Dawn was the example of how to throw.

She used two women to demonstrate that it wasn’t throwing like a girl but rather throwing like someone who didn’t know how to throw. I assure you I was never used as an example with other sports.

This video is so effective in demonstrating what we do to ourselves that it made me sad that I’ve been complicit in perpetuating some of these women are weaker myths. So I shared it on my Facebook wall and that’s when something really interesting happened.

You see I shared it and I recommended watching it with your daughters. Then my friends started resharing the video and suggested watching it with your husbands and sons. I’d forgotten that in these discussions you need both sexes. Thankfully my friends have remembered. So watch it with people you respect because this isn’t a girl issue. It’s a people issue.