Photo by Sue Jaye Johnson
On February 12, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorium said on CNN that he had concerns about women in front-line combat roles. He said “I think that could be a very compromising situation.”
Four days later NASCAR driver Danica Patrick asked the media why they can’t find a nonsexual way to refer to her.
” If there is a pretty girl, (reporters) don’t know how to describe her other than being sexy. It has such a negative connotation to it. You don’t say those kinds of things to frame it like that for a guy or even sometimes talk about it, but it seems like with female athletes, if they are pretty, (reporters) only know how to describe them in a sexual way. I don’t care, but I just wonder why we can’t talk about it in a different way.”
Women’s abilities are called into question on many fronts. A select corps of women is fighting back. On the home front is 16-year-old Claressa Shields, a high school student and middleweight boxer from Flint, Mich. She is the youngest American competing for a place on the U.S. Olympic women’s boxing team. This is the inaugural year for women’s boxing at the Olympics. The 2012 Olympics will be held this summer in London, England.
Claressa started boxing at the age of 11. When Claressa asked her dad to teach her he replied that boxing was a man’s sport. This made his little girl mad. She didn’t give up, eventually her father finally gave in. Claressa has an undefeated boxing record of 19-0. But her spot on the American Olympic team didn’t come easily. At the Olympic trials in Spokane, Washington Claressa had to compete against women almost a decade older and much more experienced than she.
As remarkable or more than Claressa’s story are Afghani teenagers Shabnam, 18, and her sister, Sadaf Rahimi, 17. Their gym is ill equipped, but they fight on preparing for the tough qualification matches to be held in China prior to the Olympics. Claressa also will have to succeed in China if she wants to be invited to compete at the 2012 Summer Games.
The young Afghani women and their coach have faced dodged more than punches; they’ve had death threats. Afghani women under the Taliban rule were banned from playing sports. There are still factions against women participating in public athletic matches. Shabnam and Sadaf have done well in international competition, but the most important victory for these young women may be the opportunity to bring pride to Afghanistan and demonstrate to the world the power of the country’s women.
To read more inspirational stories about women buy my book Living in the Heartland: Three Extraordinary Women’s Stories on Amazon.com.
1 Comment
March 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Wow, these young women are amazing! I hope they can all go to the Olympics. And it is shameful in 2012 then in US any public figure will just openly put women down (actually any man will do it, but it is expected some always will, unfortunately). Santorium is underestimating, as many men do, the power of women. We have many brilliant, brave, strong, capable women in the world (and some of them do better in their fields than men do). Pamela, thanks for sharing!