Here are some interesting thoughts on girls and sports by Douglas Wilson. As a dad of a Jr. High Girls Basketball player (for the first time this year). I was so thankful for the assertiveness that I saw growing in our girls during the season. In our culture, I often see the subtle message—especially in athletics—that female athletes become better by losing their femininity. (Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me now” comes to mind at this point.) We have two problems as believers:
- We have sometimes adopted a Victorian view of femininity that is unbiblical. In this view girls are all softness, lack assertiveness, and are submissive to men because men are better. (This view is Greek. It is certainly NOT Christian. When we pretend that it is Christian, we harm our daughters by diminishing them and we harm our sons by diminishing their wives.)
- Our culture has, ironically in the name of “feminism”, adopted basically the same view. The difference is that it recommends a different outcome. It sees the masculine as better, and then it requires girls to become men if they want to be “successful”. This view leads to a push for women in combat.
A biblical view asks the questions that Wilson is asking: How can our girls profit from things like athletics (which they can obviously profit from) while they remain distinctively feminine. As a connected aside, this is one the reasons that I have been most proud of our varsity coach Amy Horst this year. She has been an inspiration for our girls on the court and she is a lady. We are blessed.
Here are Wilson’s thoughts
