The Cadre, Sept. 16, 1975, page 8

- WANTED

Dead or Alive

MI‘CKEYPLACE ' l

-Wifh or Without His Hat

Would Finder Please Turn in at Ladies Locker Room

Reward Offered

I

flMickey Place, your life

is in grave danger. You have committed an almost un— pardonable sin. You forgot about us. I mean you just passed us by. Not a werd. Not even an acknowledgement of our existence let alone a little encouragement. By "us" Mickey, I mean female athletes at the University. Right now somewhere out there, there are 13 angry Field Hockey players wield— ing extremely dangerdus weapons (their sticks) which they handle with a high de— gree of accuracy and profi— ciency and guess who their. next victim is. Right Mickey. Now you are catch— ing on. But you do have a

I chance to redeem yourself. Listen.

From very early in child— hood, females are taught to ignore those athletic endea— vours which provide for their male counterparts, many benefitS'(social, phys— ical, emotional, mental). The fairer sex is encouraged to pursue more sedentary and domestic activities, many of which involve caring for the males. From an early age, then, females are encouraged to pursue mundane activities in the isolated confinement of the home, while males pursue enjoyable interests in the company of their friends and contemporaries.

With increasing age,_a girl is taught more and more to derive much of her ful— filment in life from the satisfaction of observing male accomplishment. She is taught to be an observer rather than a doer. Through concerns, almost dbsessive by times, for the achieve- ments of father, brother, friends and husband, a women neglects to seek self-ful— fillment through her own achievements. Too often ~this leads to a situation where in a woman bases her whole identity upon that of' her hero and has no strength of her own to fall back on.

I think that because of the lack of satisfaction ex- perienced by girls through sports, the resentment that, they show toward men partié cipating in or watching

sports is intensified. This point is illustrated by the fact that many women become really upset when their hus- bands watch sports on T.V.. Essentially what the men are doing is putting themselves in the shoes of the players. Many women can't stand this. Even in small doses. Why? Because not being able to enjoy the same sensations themselves, they resent men being able to do so. In this regard, I think that

women who have taken part in sports themselves are much more easily able to accept

this phenomenon and are even able to sit down and enjoy a bit of the action themselves.

I think at the same time, that the cheerleader image, in which girls used their beauty, poise and other non- sence to build the male ego (and thus, they thought, their own) is dying. At least I hope it is.

Other things are chang— ing too. The ideas that the fairer sex is too helpless or weak to participate in strenuous activity and that it is masculine to do so are

certainly no longer accept- able. Still, from a young I

age, girls who are athleti- cally inclined are sometimes labelled "tomboys". I am sure that there are many potentially fine female ath- letes who have never enjoyed any amount of participation because they feel that they will automatically be unfem— inine. Even girls involved in sports will cringe at the sight of a muscular woman, afraid that they themselves might become like that. But

things are looking up. In some ways.

I was diSappointed to learn that all six Panther Booster Club bursaries are to be awarded to men. It may well be that women's sports do not attract as many spectators as the men's but women athletes seek and deserve\the same benefits from their participation in sports as do the men. If enjoyment is still the most important aspect should women not also be allowed consideration in the matter of financial aid?

I hope that the Booster

Club welcomes female members. Female athletes at U.P.E.I. who benefit from the club are much more liable to be— come strong members of the club in the future than are athletes whose eager parti— cipation in and contribution to intercollegiate sports has been overlooked through a lack of encouragement to pursue athletic along with academic indeavours.

At the same time, though the trends toward increased recognition and increasing- ly equal treatment of female athletics in both amateur (like at U.P.E.I.) and pro- fessional sports is leading to other, less desirable, results. For the sake of basic human rights I am glad to see the treatment of wo- men approaching equality in the world of sports (though of course there is still a long way to go) but I am sad to see women following di- rectly in men's tracks.

As people relatively new to the game of serious sports, we should show enough conscience to be less competitive (making sheer enjoyment more important), less mercenary and show our strength of character through refusing to pursue so hotly, the materialistic goals which tempt our male count— erparts. Also, I would hate to see women become pawns in a game between entrepeneurs who see athletes as commodi— ties to be bought, sold and otherwise manipulated with financial gain being the prime consideration.

Perhaps, then, we are

. lucky that we are not_treat—

ed equally. Perhaps we- shouldn't really want come plete equality but gee Mickey, there is one area where we would like equal treatment. Justlthink of it this way Mickey. There is a guillotine of 15 field hoc- key sticks hanging over your head....and we’d just like to be mentioned now and then ....c'mon Mickey... you must get the picture.... what d'ya say...atta boy Mickey.. we knew you‘d see.our point.

‘Joyce Burnett”