Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Micro Agression in Powder Puff
For PowderPuff football, about 18 senior girls were on my team. At our first practice together, we had no "tryouts" or tests or anything. The coaches (senior football players) just looked at each person and decided what they would be best at. I noticed that all of the African American girls on the team were put in positions where speed was essential: running backs, wide recievers and corner backs. All of them. Although these girls did for the most part prove to be very fast, could this be considered a micro agression? Without any comparison or testing, was it fair for the coaches to assume the African American girls would be fast?
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It is unfair to assume. Even positive stereotypes are stereotype threats, as it gives an unfair expectation for certain groups to live up to. It's also kind of odd that although people pay attention to the ONE Powderpuff Football game, and although it's entertaining, it's not an official sport. It's simply a role-reversal that ends up looking more like a sexist (and here, racist) joke.
ReplyDeletePS: At homecoming games of old (circa 1982), not only were the boys who volunteered to be cheerleaders expected to dress like the cheerleaders, they also put balloons under their shirts to imitate you-know-what. Nothing inspires school spirit like jocks in drag.
Though it is a microagression, it may not be seen by the coaches as this because part of their job as a coach is to determine, simply by looking at a persons body type, what position they'd be best at. After having coached many players, wouldn't it be wrong to place somebody who's better fit as a corner in the position of quarterback? Not that it ISN'T wrong, because it is a microagression, but there's more to it than that.
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