The Real Reason High School Boys Forfeited A Baseball Game Rather Than Play A Girl

Title IX—legislation that created opportunities for women and girls to play sports in school—may have been instituted in the United States 40 years ago, but there’s still plenty of inequality on the playing field. After a high school boys’ baseball team forfeited a game recently rather than play against a girl, Hugo Schwyzer explores the real reason behind their choice, and says it has little to do with chivalry.

In a variation on what’s become an increasingly familiar story, a high school boys’ baseball team in Arizona forfeited a championship game earlier this month rather than play a team that featured a single female player. A year ago, a high school wrestler in Iowa threw away a chance at a state title rather than wrestle against a girl. As more and more girls play on boys’ teams (generally agreed to be their right in sports like baseball or wrestling or football where no comparable all-female equivalents exist), we can expect to see similar stories for a few years to come.

The team that forfeited this month’s baseball game belonged to Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic high school associated with the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X. In a statement to Fox News, the school explained: “Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty. Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls.” Joel Northrup used a similar argument in 2011 when he refused to wrestle Cassy Herkelman, claiming that “as a matter of conscience and faith” he couldn’t engage in close physical contact with a girl.

There’s some good news behind the Arizona and Iowa stories. As we mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX (the legislation that created countless opportunities for women and girls to play sports in school and college) this year, it’s worth noting what didn’t happen in either incident. In an earlier era, Paige Sulzbach (the 15-year-old female player whose presence sparked the OLS forfeit) might have been forced to sit out of the game to protect the troglodytic sensibilities of the lads from Our Lady; not so long ago, Cassy Herkelman wouldn’t have been allowed to suit up to wrestle. Not only are more and more high school girls playing sports, more and more are playing on largely male teams in events (like baseball, wrestling, and football) that rarely have a dedicated female equivalent. With each passing year, the presence of these girls becomes less and less controversial and encounters less and less resistance.

But those of us who believe in women’s equality can’t mistake gradual progress for final victory. Though the Society of Pius X holds views well to the right of even most conservative American Catholics, plenty of other seemingly more moderate folks share their anxiety about boys and girls competing against each other. That anxiety manifests itself in the ongoing effort to undo Title IX; check out the American Sports Council, an outfit that earnestly peddles the zero-sum canard that suggests more opportunities for women means fewer for men. It also manifests itself in the claim that “the rise of women turns men into boys,” an argument made by Kay Hymowitz in a bestselling recent book.

Though she’s desperately wrong about many things, Hymowitz gets to the heart of why boys like Northrup and teams like Our Lady of Sorrows would rather forfeit than compete against girls. The refusal to treat women as equals on the mat or the diamond is not about chivalry (despite claims to the contrary.) It’s not primarily about the fear of losing to girls, either, though that’s perhaps part of the equation. Nor are these forfeits rooted in the worry that close athletic proximity to young women’s bodies may lead to sexual arousal (a more plausible scenario in wrestling than in baseball.) 

I wrote last year about the Iowa wrestling case: “For lads whose sense of masculinity is rooted in doing what women cannot do, this means retreating to the few spaces where women are still not permitted to enter. As soon as a girl like Cassy does intrude suggesting that she has the right and ability to compete at a once all-male activity, that activity instantly loses its masculine cachet.” The problem for Joel Northrup, the OLS baseball team, and those who support their decision to opt out is that they see high school sports as one of the last few citadels in which girls are not permitted. As women integrate themselves into what were once all-male spaces (like universities, corporate boardrooms, and Congress), even the most ardent traditionalists have been forced to accept women’s intellectual equality with men. 

But that grudging acquiescence to egalitarianism in most public spaces means an even fiercer determination to protect the few remaining all-male bastions, be they Marine barracks or baseball diamonds.

As long as there are still a few remaining spaces in which women are not allowed, defenders of traditional gender roles can still resist the modern claim that men and women are far more alike than they are different. They may have to cope with alarming innovations like sexually assertive girlfriends or ambitious female colleagues, but in sports (whether as players or spectators) men who are uncomfortable with equality hope to find a space where biology is still destiny. When girls like Cassy Herkelman or Paige Sulzbach prove themselves capable of playing alongside boys, they demonstrate that the physical distinctions between the sexes are not as great as we imagined. For those already uncomfortable with women’s growing economic, sexual, and political power, this concrete evidence of their commensurate athletic ability is shattering. Forfeiting becomes the only way to sustain the illusion that men and women are fundamentally different; regardless of the outcome, to play against girls would demonstrate tacit acceptance of women’s equality.

In their forfeit statement, Our Lady of Sorrows school claimed to want to instill in their boys a “profound respect” for women and girls. I assume that they teach Latin at OLS; perhaps the administration might want to consider that the root of respect means to “look back at.” To respect women means to see their aspirations, their abilities, and their potential. Real respect means listening to what real women say. Paige Sulzbach says she can play with the boys; anyone who watches her can see she’s got the ability to do so. In forfeiting the game, Our Lady of Sorrows refused to look at Paige for who she is. And the disrespect was entirely theirs. 

While it may be true that the strongest man will always be stronger than the strongest woman, it is also true that the strongest women are stronger than the vast majority of men. Paige Sulzbach may not become a Major League all-star, but like many girls, she’s got the demonstrated ability to hold her own against high school boys. Her success—and the panicked resistance to it—serves as a reminder that our bodies as well as our minds are more alike than different. Inevitably, more and more girls will follow in her cleatsteps. Just as surely, the defiance shown by the likes of Joel Northrup and the Arizona Catholic baseball team will come to seem as bizarre and indefensible as the attempts of an earlier generation to prevent desegregation.

Hugo Schwyzer has taught history and gender studies at Pasadena City College since 1993, where he developed the college’s first courses on Men and Masculinity and Beauty and Body Image. A writer and speaker as well as a professor, Hugo lives with his wife, daughter, and six chinchillas in Los Angeles. Hugo blogs at his eponymous website and co-authored the recent autobiography of supermodel Carré Otis, Beauty, Disrupted. You can find him on Twitter at @hugoschwyzer.

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