In the news from Phoenix (oh god Phoenix – whose bishop is Joseph Olmsted, who tried to force a hospital to promise never again to prevent a woman from dying by aborting her doomed-anyway fetus) –
Instead of playing in a championship baseball game, Paige Sultzbach and her team won’t even make it to the dugout.
A Phoenix school that was scheduled to play the 15-year-old Mesa girl and her male teammates forfeited the game rather than face a female player.
Well that’s insulting.
Our Lady of Sorrows bowed out of Thursday night’s game against Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association championship. The game had been scheduled at Phoenix College.
Paige, who plays second base at Mesa Prep, had to sit out two previous games against Our Lady of Sorrows out of respect for its beliefs. But having her miss the championship was not an option for Mesa Prep.
Excuse me?! Out of respect for its beliefs? She sat out two games out of respect for its beliefs that women are inferior?
Can we stop doing things out of “respect” for vicious unreformed I’m-better-than-you beliefs that don’t deserve the respect you would give a gob of phlegm on the sidewalk?
“This is not a contact sport; it shouldn’t be an issue,” Pamela Sultzbach said. “It wasn’t that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it’s that (they believe) a girl’s place is not on a field.”
And they believe they have the right to insult her by ostentatiously acting on that moronic belief. They believe they have the right – and “respect”! – for trying to deprive her of the right and ability to participate in a game that she presumably likes and does well. They believe they have the right to try to make her have a smaller more impoverished life, more hemmed in by stupid nasty restrictions forced on her by a gang of Catholic men and boys. It’s revolting.
Officials at Our Lady of Sorrows declined comment. In a written statement Thursday, the school said the decision to forfeit was consistent with a policy prohibiting co-ed sports.
The statement also said the school teaches boys respect by not placing girls in athletic competition, where “proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty.”
Our Lady of Sorrows is run by the U.S. branch of the Society of Saint Pius X. The group represents conservative, traditional priests who broke from the Catholic Church in the 1980s.
Oh, that explains it – they’re even more fascist than the church gang. Well you know what then? Nobody should agree to play them. Period. Not if they refuse to play a team that includes a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Nigerian, or a Malaysian – and the same goes for A Girl.
H/t Michael Fugate.
I respect their beliefs by seriously considering them, at which point I discover that they are stupid beliefs with no empirical support.
So, I’m done now.
I can’t believe that the mothers of that team allowed such bigotry. I wonder what else those boys are being taught? Women shouldn’t be allowed in public, no voting, that noncatholics are doomed to hell?
What “proper boundaries”? Do they think sex will break out in the middle of the game?
desoto, more like they fear they will be shown up.
Are the Lady of Sorrows team afraid of being beaten by a girl?
Deadspin took the story and replaced “female” with “black”. It’s a bit sad that people have to do this to show how bizarre these policies are.
Of course, maybe the team was just scared that they might be beaten by a girl, and rather than admit their cowardice, they invented a cockamamie story about their objection to playing being religiously-inspired.
I prefer the suggestion a commenter on that site made. Every other school in the league should make sure they have a girl on the team. Make them forfeit all their games.
Some things never change and it’s not just about girls. Back in the sixties there was an attempt to disqualify a team from the final game in a boys’ little league tournament because their hair was too long. Such initiatives always come from anal-retentive adults, who hold in their farts, which then travel up the spinal cord to the brain causing shitty ideas.
I dunno I’d disagree even with paige there sorta. Even if it was a contact sport if she can hold her own and be on the team so what that she’s a she.
Which reminds me of a similar situation involving wrestling from a while back.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/For-first-time-Iowa-girl-wins-a-state-wrestling?urn=highschool-322846
If they have the skill and ability to play with men on the same terms set for men why not let them do it.
I am very curious how they feel about Joan of Arc. Apparently she’s one of their most popular saints but got there doing a whole lot of things it seems they’d have a problem with (leading and fighting men).
“The statement also said the school teaches boys respect by not placing girls in athletic competition, where “proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty.”
Really? Because I would have thought that it would teach them far more respect if they occasionally faced situations where respecting “proper boundaries” (whatever those may be…!) was difficult. You know, the way you only get better at say, playing baseball if you’re occasionally up against someone better than you.
But what do I know, I don’t have a dick.
Huf, huff. But, but,that’s different
This is why I get so angry when told I “must” respect religion, religious beliefs and peoples right to hold those beliefs.
[meta]
For anyone unaware: History of netball.
“I dunno I’d disagree even with paige there sorta. Even if it was a contact sport if she can hold her own and be on the team so what that she’s a she.”
Without a doubt. There were plenty of girls in my martial arts clubs 20-odd years ago. There was no question or hesitation about mixed-sex sparring. Sometimes boys won, sometimes girls did. I don’t think we ever thought about it for an instant.
Until there were tournaments, of course, when girls were only allowed to fight girls and boys only boys. Six foot 16 year old boys were allowed to fight four foot 12 year old boys, but a 16 year old 6 foot girl wouldn’t be allowed to fight a 16 year old 6 foot boy because that would be somehow unfair.
No discernible difference between who won between men and women in the dojo, but as soon as there’s an official competition, apparently women need to be ‘protected’.
Protected, presumably, against the possibility of their winning.
Is there some kind of law violation going on here? Suppose it had been a black second base player and the school refused to participate? Surely they can be punished at least by withholding of grants and such?
In any case all I’ve read on this indicates that these cretins have “beliefs”; I didn’t even see “religious beliefs”; did I miss something? All in all this seems to be exaggerated anti-sexism of a kind only male clerics can know. Certainly I don’t believe for an instant that there is any justification social or religious for this antediluvian attitude. Kick the bastards out of the league, i say!
Hm. I don’t think there is any actual law against refusing to participate, even for terrible “reasons” like gender or race. There’s law that says the school can’t deny funding or distribute funding unequally, but I don’t think it covers not withdrawing for sexist/racist reasons. I’m not sure though.
But there’s stigma. Let’s do our bit to make sure they get LOTS of social stigma.
Hmm. Does the charter school association get federal funding of a sort that would bump them up against Title IX?
Dunno. If they do, Title IX would cover withdrawing because “ew a girl”?
Clearly I need to re-familiarize myself with Title IX.
Horrible. ‘Proper boundaries’ ffs. What do they think will happen if a girl bumps into a boy on the sports field? It will inevitably descend into an orgy?
Maybe it’s about aggression – needed in sports at times but definitely not desired if one is to be a Good Girl. For we are to be pretty and dainty and quiet and sweet and definitely not sweaty or muddy or shouty or muscly.
Teaching boys ‘respect’ my eye.
“Girl cooties” about sums it up.
“We respect you SO MUCH we’re going to keep you from participating.”
It’s unsportsmanlike to refuse to compete and give the young athletes a chance to prove themselves.
@sailor1031
Even if there were some law, since when do religious schools have to follow the law?
Shouldbeworking:
I guess the fathers have no role whatsoever in passing misogyny onto their sons, eh? Fuck’s sake.
MichaelD:
…