Hello there, my blog! It’s been quite a while since I sat down to just write. I peaked back, and I’ve not posted in almost over two weeks since my last writing. It’s not as if I don’t have things to write about, but I know as school has gotten closer, I’ve become more sad. Not angry, not depressed, but just sad. As I walked by wife to her car, both shared that this isn’t fun. The joy of teaching has been sucked out by the Covid, the virus itself and the politics that go with it. Now, there are those of you who will give me the “the kids need you” and the “just keep flexible” and my favorite “just find the positives”. Normally, I’m that guy!! 🙂 So, we’ll see what happens.

As it is, the thing that made me write was something dealing with women in sports. I’m a huge fan of Lucy Rohden (@lucyrohdenTV), a recent University of Iowa grad who made a name for herself pranking Iowa State (not hard to do) and creating some very funny sports videos, causing havoc on Big 10 fan bases (again, not really hard to do). She opened up in a story titled, In Their Own Words: Women in Sports Speak Out, by Crissy Floyd. In this story, many women in sports, including Rohden, talk about their issues being a woman in a male dominated industry.

Another woman, Alexis Chassen (@Lovelybuckeye) of Bleeding Green Nation (ugh, an Eagles fan 😂) gave me the title of this blog. She talks about how even without reading the comments, the intense opinions from fans can STILL invade your private life and affect your emotional well being.

From catcalls to insults to awful emails to being “mansplained” to Lucy and her stalking incident, each one of the stories just got further and further under my skin.

Why you might ask? Both of my daughters are set to enter male dominated industries. My first born will graduate in December with a software engineering degree from Iowa State. She running circles around me and I used to be pretty tech savvy. I’m incredibly proud of her and cannot wait to see what she does with her degree. However, the story transported me back to her freshman year, where she just found out she’d received a co-op opporuntiy from a high level tech company. We were all pretty excited, but then she said a male “friend” who graduated from our high school, told her she just got opporutnity because they needed to fill a quota for females.

#WTF

What kind of friend EVER does things like that?? I was stunned, having had this person and his siblings in class. Needless to say, I look at him because that’s not the person I thought he was as a students or a human being.

My other daughter is entering a male dominated field, dealing with cattle. It’s not quite as bad as our software enginneiring daughter, but she was told this summer her heifer “was a little too much for her” and that “she might want to bring something else to the ring” as they were doing showmanship (leading the animal, but the focus is on you as a showperson).

Again, #WTF??

First, my daughter was HOT after that comment, said over the loud speaker for MANY people to hear. The heifer was a handful, but not because our daughter couldn’t handle her, but because she was in heat and was hormonal! (Yes, animals get this way too!) Regardless, that’s not the judge’s job (a man) to point that out.

So, if you are that dude who thinks “women shouldn’t be in sports.” If you are that guy who thinks the best way to impress a women or if you are that meathead who thinks that the defination of “manly” is talking down a woman in sports:

YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!

There are women out there who know more about baseball than I will ever know. There are women who are athletes who know more about nutrition and training than I could possibly know. These women NEED to have their voice in sports not because they are women but because they are good at what they do! They also need this voice to show the younger generations that yes, women CAN do these things. And they can do these things WITHOUT your feelings getting hurt because they are strong.

As my daughters prepare to enter the workforce, my hope is they kick some man’s ass who tries to show them up, because they’ve been raised by a strong, powerful woman and know that’s the right thing to do.

And we need more of this right now. Positive, joyful asskicking! 🙂