Amongst the Sturm und Drang of high-profile sexism and misogyny, it can easily be lost that many of the younger generation have already moved past bigotry and not just in form but in function. It is the older generations that continue to fight the same battles over and over again while all around us, quietly and without fanfare, the kids are getting it right.
In the middle-class, mid-size town of Antioch, California, inhabited by people no different from those in any other town in America, a story within a story tells us how young people today deal with the complexity of gender roles and equality. The distinctly good news is that they do so far better than their supposedly wiser and more experienced elders, an improvement that will in a short time permeate our society. Well, in a relatively short time; however long it takes for the older people to clear themselves off the planet.
Dallas Butterfield is the placekicker for her high school’s varsity football team, the Antioch High Panthers. That’s quite an accomplishment for any young woman but no longer big news; since the colorfully nicknamed Luverne "Toad" Wise kicked six extra points for the Escambia County (Alabama) High School football team in 1939, dozens of young women have played organized tackle football.
Ms. Butterfield has been everything her team needs her to be; in her second season kicking extra points she’s 17 for 19 so far and 41 for 45 in her career. Her longest field goal is a very respectable 37 yards, although she makes 40+ yard kicks in practice. Her skill and 13 years of dedication and training have made her a star on the women’s varsity soccer team as well, where she plays defender but handles the corner, penalty and goal kicks because of her leg strength, accuracy and touch.
But her athleticism isn’t the news either. What’s significant is the way it came about, her being on the football team; she was recruited. Chris Henry, then the Panther’s special teams coach, heard about her ability with a soccer ball and persuaded her to try out.
Take a moment, and let that sink in. Butterfield isn’t on the team because of a lawsuit or a publicity campaign undertaken to overcome archaic societal restrictions; she’s there because she was recruited, because she was seen as the best person available for the position and her gender was never a consideration.
Along with Coach Henry, the Panther’s Head Coach Randy Autentico also deserves mention and commendation for seeing past the stereotypes and treating his athletes with an even disposition. Not every oldster is a bigot, and we should celebrate those who rise above the norm.
And then there’s this, the most laudable part. The young men on the team; what was their reception? Ms. Butterfield worried about that too, so much so that when she dressed out for her first practice she burst into tears the moment she ran out onto the field.
In an earlier age that would have drawn taunts and so degraded her standing that the team would have made her even more miserable and perhaps driven her out, but none of that happened. Instead, the team spontaneously surrounded her and began to chant her name – DAL-LAS, DAL-LAS, DAL-LAS – as a show of solidarity before they had even seen what she could do. Very touching, that, in a setting where competition is often cut-throat and the weak are routinely eliminated.
Extraordinary, the young people of today; they are the change we’ve been hoping for.
Having shown she can carry her weight, teammate Jesse Smith describes her as fully accepted; “The whole team is confident, and everybody trusts her just as fully as we would anybody else.” That approval has spread throughout campus, where Butterfield’s friends describe her as “an inspiration to the whole school.”
Butterfield has seen acceptance even at rival schools; “When we go to other schools, guys will walk up to me and say things like ‘You’re my hero, keep doing what you’re doing.’ That makes (me) feel real good, like maybe I’m doing something important.” Which of course she is, and so are all the other young people who have simply accepted her as an equal without reservation and judged her on her abilities, not her gender or any other such triviality. They are my heroes, all of them.
Dallas Butterfield, in her own words.
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The trouble with the young
is that they get old and sometimes develop those nasty little prejudices. OTOH, if they were brought up in more tolerant and respectful households, then chances are, they will be more tolerant and respectful, too.
As long as guys don't feel threatened by their female counterparts, of course attitudes will improve. However, the workplace and life after 18 in general are not the same as a high school football field. I've read similar stories like this in the past. Many girls blazed a tough trail and provided inspiration and confidence for those who were also willing to accept the challenges...
just as Hillary and Sarah and many other women are doing for women in the world of presidential politics. But we are definitely not there yet in that regard.
We are definitely not there yet
As recently as eight years ago, right here in the heart of Liberal Northern California, gays were teased and taunted and abused in high school. One of my daughters suffered abuse as a result of sticking up for a gay friend. That experience led to a series of discussions with her and her friends, and untimately they decided - emphasis on they because it was their decision - on formation of the first Gay-Straight Alliance club in the school district. What began as five very brave young people and one sympathetic faculty advisor has transformed the local public school culture.
The clubs, now called GLBT-Straight Alliance, have spread since then to every high school and middle school in the district. Last year the kids now in the original club got in a battle with the local city leaders who refused to allow them to march as a club with a banner in the city 4th of July parade and beat them back, made national news with that one :-).
The culture has shifted in all of the schools to include formal district-operated outreach and counseling for bullied children in general as well as specific administrative support programs for GLBT kids, where none of that existed before. Where malicious teasing and bullying was once the norm, no kid today would dare try those behaviors on campus for fear of being called out and ostracized and punished as they should be. To me, this is a sign of a better world to come.
The culture is changing, all across the country, and it is changing fastest among the young. This is as it should be, the normal course of progress, and I for one am well pleased to have lived long enough to see it happening.
yeah, lets forget about the gross sexism...
...that has been endemic among Obama's supporters (including the "young" ones) and focus on a puff piece in which A NON-YOUTH is the person responsible for recruiting a woman -- and probably responsible for making it clear to the guys on the team that any harrassment of DAL-LAS would be grounds for disciplinary action.
(and lest we forget, the kicker position is the most protected in football by the rules themselves)
Why on earth would you argue that, Paul?
I certainly haven't, so who is it you're arguing with? And what on earth does this have to do with Obama or any other politician? Nothing at all, but it is the existing standard rebuke to every positive report about any human behavior. Keep wearing it out like the boy who cried “Wolf!” and it will lose whatever real value it may have.
Is sexism at large? To be sure, far too much and far too established. But still, this is an instance of a whole social structure, an entire culture in miniature, where hundreds – perhaps thousands – of young people have moved on and no longer feel any need to offer anything but praise for what at one time in the not-to-distant past was considered exceptional and condemned and resisted.
I find that emergence encouraging, and this is only one well-documented instance. From my own children and their friends and their activities along with conversations I’ve had over the last several years with the children of friends, it is clear to me that a generational shift for the better is occurring with regards to bigotry. I rejoice in seeing that, and take some small comfort in thinking that I’ve had some role to play in bringing it about.
Was the recruiting done by a coach, who happened to be male? Well yes, in fact it was, and that’s a purely good thing. This is the football team, after all, so a male coach is hardly unusual or a source of puzzlement and recruiting is a normal coaching function. Have you any evidence that the coaches coerced the players? If so, please put it up. Alternatively, they may have lead by example - as decent people often do. Are you suggesting that the reporter here is lying about what happened and so is Dallas Butterfield?
Regardless, the young men on the team have behaved as we all - perhaps I speak too broadly there, but I hope not - would want them to, treating her as an equal. I’ve been on sports teams and however much coaches demand that everyone on the team be respected it doesn’t work out that way; there are always rules within the team that override anything a coach might say or do, and those seen as weak or “different” are usually ostracized and driven out. That didn’t happen here.
Pity that you see an optimistic report of people behaving decently as a “puff piece”. I see no benefit in disputing that characterization; best to just let it stand as it is, for the record.
There have always been individual women and girls
who are allowed to do things that women as a group haven't. It's very nice that this girl has had this experience and it's a heartwarming story that signifies a fat lot of nothing. it doesn't suggest anyone has moved on.
What would suggest that is if you could prove that young women all across the nation are now competing equally.
My hometown, Belleville, Illinois, was (is?) an overtly racist town when i was growing up in the sixties. God forbid the police would notice some African American family from East St. Louis driving through town. They were consistently ticketed, harassed and even jailed for no reason. I grew up with the tales of the race riots of the twenties and how black men swung from the street lights. But there were a handful of black families that lived in Belleville. I was always they were okay to talk to. They were "our blacks". To this day, it freaks me out that I have a phrase like "our blacks" in my head. But there is it.
Basically, you're taking the story of those families and presenting them as evidence things are better than they were in the day when black men were thrown in jail for being in Belleville.
C'mon - misogyny is worse now that it's ever been in my lifetime. There is no attempt on anyone's part to transcend our human inclinations but just a mean, self-satisfied celebration of our darker angels.
I see plenty of Sarah Palin is a c*nt rhetoric in progressive circles but no Obama is a n+gger Rhetoric anywhere.
"Someone needs to point out that elephants produce infinitely more shit than donkeys." Brad Mays
Growing up in lovely Soviet Union
It was always so exciting* to be one of those "you are not like the other Jews, you are OK" Jews, while "evil jews (substitute with an language appropriate derogatory term)" stories were exchanged at gatherings.
*beware of cynicism
There will always be bigots
All we can do is beat them down to the point where they have no power over society.
The process, in a democracy, is always the same. Protest to the point of causing pain and embarassment, legal sanction leading to social sanction then leading to social acceptance. We are at different points on that path for each of our oppressed groups, but we are progressing down the path.
Funny thing; different forms of governance but the same old human beings, eh tartu?
Not so funny BIO
There are a lot more similarities between the two forms of governance than you think. A common mistake that people make is concluding that Communist Party and Soviet Leaders are liberal or progressive in any possible way. Soviets always knew that the best way to keep the power is "Divide and Conquer"
Sorry tartu, language issue
and I know better; my bad.
That was meant to express funny as a cynical expression, not funny as in ha-ha or as an unexpected event.
A dictatorship, authoritarianism in general, is by its very nature illiberal, doesn't matter whether it comes from the Right or the Left.
Language is not really an issue here BIO
Plenty of familiarity with cynicism, irony and snark on my part. The unfortunate reality and overall failure of the humans to learn from past mistakes have managed to surpassed even the cynicism of this heartless bitch. I have officially entered the Twilight Zone.
Not all the differences of opinions need be ascribed to the failure of the other person to understand due to presumed lack of intelligence, knowledge, language skills or old age;) It's best not to assume anything about anybody.
I disagree, basement angel, that either misogyny or sexism
is worse now. In my experience it has always been bad, and it is still a prevalent norm. What we're seeing now, I believe, is the same sort of thing that happened with racism in the late 40's, 50's and early 60's, a raising of general consciousness.
This is the necessary storm that will clear out the smog and pollution, or if you will the pain that will make us seek the surgeon's knife to remove our malignancy. Oppression never relieves spontaneously, from the good will of the oppressors; it must find a voice and force those in power to give way.
Hillary's campaign did not engender sexism; it only showed the prevalence of it. But it did so in a way that cannot be dismissed and for the first time, in a way that didn't happen with Chisholm or Ferraro because they didn't represent real threats to patriarchal power, it showed to the whole country the disgusting depth and broad prevalence of this particular evil.
This is a good thing. From here on the debate will no longer be about whether or not sexist discrimination is wrong, if Hillary's efforts have done nothing else she accomplished that, but what to do about it. Her candidacy will be seen years hence as the singular transformative event in our national discussion, the triggering step, the pressure that surpassed the tipping point, and for that alone we should be very appreciative of her courage, her determination and her grace; I know I am.
In the same way, and entirely complimentary, Obama's candidacy has done the same thing for racial prejudice. We are slightly farther down the line on that one - slightly - and that is why we don't see much in the way of overt racist speech but there is plenty that is still being spoken in code. Never the less, after this election there will be a great uprising in the land and neither sexism nor racism will ever be acceptable in the same way again.
I am so very pleased to have lived to see such progress, and am hopeful that I will live long enough to see both a black and a woman attain the Presidency. I am certain that we have in this moment, right now at this time, won the decisive battle and yes, there is no small irony to the fact that the symbols of leadership in the effort are both people with center-right philosophies. It is this reality that the center-right not only accepts but now expects and demands equality for women and racial minorities that most encourages me.
Hey!
Where's her "Sarah Palin is a C__T" t-shirt??
No genuinely liberated post-feminist young'un should be without one!!
Kudos to those strident, shrill feminists who demanded Title IX-
and then worked hard to ensure it was enforced and honored.
Yes! Those strident shrill feminists
Made this happen, because females were finally given the chance to prove themselves.
Remember when so many tried to say that because females didn't ask to be in sports as much it must be showing they didn't want it? There's something about being refused, or given the crap leftovers, that makes a person not want something. Give them the opportunity, and good resources, and suddenly the next generation starts wanting things. Being beaten down leads to beaten down behavior.
This is a good sign. I hope it continues! It's great for her!
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot." - Albert Einstein
Kudos again
to those young woman who won placement on the high school team.
Thanks also, as Jawbone stated, to Title IX. Also throw in affirmative action, Choice, no fault divorce...just something they may need in the future.
Let's not forget to celebrate the younger generation
wearing 'Bros before Hos' and 'Iron my Shirt' t-shirts. Not as clever as 'Palin is a C***', perhaps, but the great progress made by the younger generation in demonstrating their awesomest tolerance should not go unheralded. I'm probably forgetting some other key harbingers of my utter irrelevance in believing sexism still exists, so readers, help me out, please.
You don’t know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.
-Malcolm Reynolds, “Serenity”
Yes, Valhalla, in the course of recognizing any form of progress
it is important to point out that there are always some who manage to remain clueless and display various forms of immature and foolish if not entirely idiotic behavior. Thank you for once again pointing that out.
Oldsters = bigots
and are standing in the way of your youth-utopia.
Nothing in this story even remotely supports these gratuitous jabs at 'oldsters' (apparently, anyone over 18, or possibly anyone of any age who believes there's still sexism in the world).
One data point does not a trend make, and it certainly does not offset the thousands of instances of misogyny by people across the political and demographic spectrum this year, including and probably weighted quite heavily toward younger people.
My experience is that there's been pretty much no progress made fighting sexism since at least the Anita Hill hearings. The internet and our friends in the media feel more at liberty to denigrate women as women than ever. At least back in the 90s it had to be mildly coded. Not only is this something I pay attention to, but I don't reason from 1 to infinity, or from 1 to a Xanadu of happy bunnies of tolerance (but for those f*cking old people, of course), so I'll trust my own observations and judgment on the sexism score, thanks.
Why is it you can't discuss a single thing that should be good news without insulting or blaming some other group of people? 'Oldsters', feminists, women, anyone who dares disagree with you? I'm actually interested to know whether bullying and insulting people has been a successful tactic for you.
Early on in my work experience, I worked for one lawyer, a litigator, who was the most enormous dick (and I've worked with a lot of lawyers who were really offensive specimens of humanity, and this guy took the cake). He had an incredibly bad temper and took out every frustration on whoever was nearest by, and below him on the food chain. Everyone knew about it, yet the partners LOVED him, and he was constantly showered with praise. It wasn't even that he was making rain for the firm, he wasn't in the most lucrative practice area. It really nauseated me that he would be rewarded for such bad behavior. Is that your experience? Somehow, somewhere, you're getting something out of pissing people off, by constantly implying that all but you are stupid or intellectually defective? Would it really have been so hard to just say, here's some cool news, without making sweeping generalizations about the f*ckedupness of all of us 'oldsters', or those who still think sexism might be a problem, or creating paeans to the intolerance-free youth of society?
You don’t know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.
-Malcolm Reynolds, “Serenity”
Ah, yes, foolishly refighting the battles of the 60s
I guess the blogger boiz and the press aren't young. Or else they aren't dealing with "complexity." Could that be it?
Not, of course, that all the battles fought by the "than their supposedly wiser and more experienced elders" had anything to do with what these women and girls so rightfully can do, today.
I wonder where all these changes came from? Did somebody find Title IX under a cabbage leaf?
Nice job working in the Obama slogan on change, too. I wonder if it will come up on Google...
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Young people?
You mean ones like this, bringiton?
And these?
Yes, we can now breathe a sigh of relief that young people have given up on sexism.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
There are always exceptions, Caro
So there are three idiots with poor taste; so what?
Would you be equally outraged at "Obama is a dick"?
Two anecdotes, then
One heartwarming, in the post; the other not so, in comments.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
one involving three
people who may or may not know each other, the post involving hundreds if not thousands with a common culture and social structure.
My now-invested POV, to be sure, but the mass movement I find meaningful and the three fools I find to be nothing more than background noise.
Well, the IDIOTS at my alma mater who stole McCain signs
from "cube" displays in town last weekend have now been outed, and they say they did it in support of their candidate -- John McCain.
Because they could take those signs and put them up in their dorm's hallways, for free.
So no, youth doesn't possess a universal grasp of logic, truth, or justice. Sometimes, they possess a universal lack of same.
Witness those photos above.
Oh, the local GOP isn't pressing charges, and the kids who stole the signs -- no seniors among them, so they're all 18 and 19 -- are going to Texas Tech instead of enlisting. So they're not 'underprivileged' kids. But they are Facebook kids, and they did post photos of themselves, including ones of their "sign kidnapping" exploits.
Idjits.
But as far as it goes -- yeah, girls are taking more opportunities in sports, and proving themselves every bit as talented and hard-working as guys. Some of 'em even earn national championships (a local college has multiple volleyball titles, and Tech has the only national title to its name thanks to a bunch of girls who played basketball like nobody's business back in '92 -- so take that, University Athletic Administration!) and play on multiple Olympic teams (Lisa Leslie, e.g., or Sheryl Swoopes, or Misty May-Treanor).
American-rules football is a tough game. It has for generations regularly crippled and killed young men. That we now have young women taking the same risks is a measure of equality of some sort, but I'm not completely convinced it's the same thing as progress. Sort of the way Lori Piestewa dying in Iraq was a measure of equality -- but not of a sort of equality I'd consider particularly laudable.
If Dallas Butterfield gets a college scholarship in one of the sports she plays, that will be a huge benefit to her. If she survives her collegiate athletics career UNINJURED, that'll be something to really cheer for.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
Equality can be measured in many ways
The measure I emphasized here was not Butterfield playing, but the universal acceptance of her as an equal in doing so by her peers. No harassment, no lawsuits, no blazing headlines, no discussion of appropriateness, no big deal at all. That's the change.
Poor taste?
C'mon BIO, aren't they just demonstrating how down with it they are with the iFeminism?
Oh, I get it, you are saying "Dick" and "Cunt" are synonyms because they each have one respectively. So the mythical Obama shirt would be exactly the same as the Palin shirt, and just "poor" taste, not even ugly, or offensive, just "poor", like using the wrong fork.
That's rich.
Um, no. They are not the same, like the "Smell the Glove" cover from Spinal Tap, you just change it around a little bit and it makes all the difference. Are you as dumb as the band in Spinal Tap? Then why fail to get it?
I'm planning a short post on this iFeminism thing.
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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites
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I'm not such a bad guy once you get to know me.
wtf is iFeminism? why is everything iSomething now?
and I for one am sick to death of all the isms anyway.
Let's make a positive statement: Equal rights for everybody.
Then let's stick by it.
Black, white, young, old, Native American, Asian, Latino, mentally challenged, physically challenged, male, female, changeling alike:
Equal rights for everybody. Period.
If our 'betters' have trouble with that, they're really not better, are they?
Geeze, people, back in 1976, the President got this.
We really have come a long way (backward, dammit!) since 1980 in America, haven't we? It should've been "mourning in America" to be truthful.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
exactly--for everyone
-- some basic tolerance would help a lot too.
Here, here Sarah
Equal rights for everybody. Regardless of whether or not they "deserve" it. Rights are rights, they aren't something you "earn". The ACLU knows that sometimes you have to defend the rights of Nazis in order to protect the rights of us all.
I didn't think that should be such a difficult concept to grasp for liberals and progressives, but apparently the response now is "Feh, that's old skool."
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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites
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I'm not such a bad guy once you get to know me.
lawsuits and publicity campaigns
Butterfield isn’t on the team because of a lawsuit or a publicity campaign undertaken to overcome archaic societal restrictions...
Uh, yeah, she is on team because of lawsuits and publicity campaigns. Not in her *particular* case, but you think this just up and happened? in a vacuum?
She may have won this battle, but the war goes on.
I have made no such argument, Imelda
that precedent did not contribute. Of course it did. But here I am describing this particular case, how in particular it came about, how in particular it has been handled by those around it, and in those particulars it is to my mind distinct and positive in comparison to what happened under similar circumstances in the very recent past.
In your mind, is that positiveness actually a negative?
Indeed, the struggle (I sometimes make the same lapse but we really should not use "war" unless actual conflict with weapons is involved; it normalizes something we should treat as exceptional) continues and to some degree it always will; it is in the nature of us as human animals. Never the less, I find that among the young particularly this struggle, and the struggle with prejudice generally, is shifting towards tolerance and acceptance at an increasing rate. I believe this to be a good thing.
I think you're being too optimistic frankly.
As economic conditions worsen for people who are used to getting what they want, we may see quite a change as they find themselves competing for the crumbs.