On Wrestling Girls

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times. As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high-school sports in Iowa.” — High-schooler Joel Northrup refused to wrestle a girl and thus forfeited his school’s wrestling tournament division finals. I’m completely on Joel’s side on this. I also have a hard time watching women wrestle/box/fight in any capacity — why are you hurting your face! please stop! — but the forced coed-ness of it does seem unusual and unfair. If there weren’t enough guys to start their own … rhythmic gymnastics team, I wouldn’t want a guy to join my rhythmic gymnastics team. Unless he were undercover and it were the plot of a romantic drama. “She had the rhythm, he had the bass … and the rhythm. They were on the same rhythmic gymnastics team.”

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