Cy Perry
Professor Shaw
WGSS 275
12/1/2016
Throwing like a Boy
As a young boy, my parents have always told me that they think I will one day play baseball professionally. From the early days that I first began walking, my father has continuously made it a priority that I have a ball of some sort in my hands. My father and mother were both extremely athletic, (or at least through the stories of their “glory days” one would assume they were athletic), and have always been adamant about me playing sports throughout my lifetime. Through some trial and error, (a grueling experience with soccer and swimming), I picked out three sports that I thought I would want to play the rest of my life. Baseball, football, and basketball were my entire childhood growing up. Practices, games, and more importantly, pretending to be Kobe Bryant in my drive way as I played on a seven foot basketball hoop. As most everyone knows, kids starting at a young age clearly do not have a filter when it comes to what it is that comes out of their mouths. Calling someone a sissy if they mess up or are scared, or the most common of them all, “you throw like a girl.” This tends to create a sort of habit, more common in young boys I am sure, that is not easily dropped with the aging process. Since I am now playing college baseball, a male only sport, I think it should be appropriate that I touch on the topic of what it is to “throw like a girl.
The article written by Iris Mason Young entitled, “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology off Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality,” speaks out on what the issues are with the habit that is clearly still around. This article focuses on the issues there is with the naming of an issue with mechanics not only throwing, but other aspects of sports such as running and toughness in sports beginning at a young age. Obviously this article basically destroys what it means to “throw like a girl” and digs further into the other issues with other actions similar to that of the shaming of doing something in a feminine way. However, that is not what caught my eye in this article. There is a paragraph on page 139 of the article that made me as a male reader, really contemplate what it is our sex is doing when we say a term such as throwing like a girl.
The last full paragraph on page 139 explains what it is that this article is going to be doing and how it is going to be shown. There is a section of this paragraph that stood out to me. When Young mentions that the reason little girls and even grown women are forced into doing things a certain way is, “… it traces in a provisional way some of
the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and
relation in space. It brings intelligibility and significance to certain observable
and rather ordinary ways in which women in our society typically comport
themselves and move differently from the ways that men do.” After I read this, I began to think back on some of the other issues we had talked about previously in this class. Women’s bodies, how they do things, and the reasons why the social norms have created these specific and simple issues, like walking or throwing a ball, it all became clear why it is that women are given this crude image when regarding doing things. It is simply because societal norms have created a specific norm for women. Body norms and the ideal body that we have talked about previously, were the first thing that came to mind. Especially considering the Farrell article that talked about the fat body, I found this connection important.
Young is saying that the reason women throw like they do and do other things the way they do, is because of issues we see regarding the woman body. The fat and uncivilized body shaming that Farrell hits on, is a main reason for the somewhat awkward way a typical woman throws. Farrell uses examples of women contorting and doing grueling things to make sure they do not gain the extra space that fits into the category that is considered fat. They all constantly asked to take up as little as space as possible. The stereotypical way a girl throws and walks is very compact compared to that of a male. The connection between the social norm of smallness and the way that women think is the correct way corresponds exactly. Women basically have no choice in the way they throw because since the day they were born, they were taught to follow the social norm that has created the issues we have ere today.
However, there have been multiple exceptions, just like there are in males as well, that do not conform to the norm. Stand outs have always been an interesting issue to look at. Like we've discussed in class as well, Little League World Series star Mo’ne Davis is undoubtedly one of these standouts. Mo’ne was a dominant force throughout the world series and to simply put it, was better than the boys (here is a link to one of her games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhyb0KrPECc) . She simply went against everything that she was ever taught as a young girl and simply followed her dreams to become one of the best all around athletes we've seen on television in this era. She not only was a dominant pitcher, but she played arguably the most position on the field (shortstop) when she wasn't striking out her opponents. Simply put, she was a force to be reckoned with. Mo’ne is now a freshman on her high school basketball team, where she of course plays varsity. Mo’ne not only should be an example to those little girls everywhere trying to prove that women can be athletic too, but she should be a role model to any young athlete trying to become as best as they can at a game they love, boy or girl. Maybe Mo’ne could have taught some of the boys she played with how to throw like a girl.
