The other night we were watching the Oscars as a family. We had a $15 iTunes gift card on the line for whoever had to most guesses right of the winners. If you watched the Oscars I'm sure you can recall Patricia Arquette's speech. Its gotten a lot of media attention because at the end of her speech she says:
"We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America,"
During her speech the cameras then move to show Meryl Streep, one of my favorites, standing and clapping along with JLo standing and clapping next to her. Of course seeing this I got all fired up being quite the little feminist myself. Bronson thought he would make the comment that its bad to be feminist because they're crazy. I will never forget what my Mother shot back at him so quick I didn't have time to even get my two cents in. Michelle said, "Bronson being a feminist just means that I believe and fight for women rights. I think women should be treated with the respect and dignity as men do. Is it bad that I want to be respected and seen as an equal at work and in the community?" Well that shut Bronson right up. I think a lot of people see the extreme feminists and think they are a little on the crazy side. From the beginning of time women have been treated lesser to our counterpart, unfortunately. The other night I had a funny experience. Every night I go to the gym. I lift, I run, and then lastly I get some shots up and work on my game. The courts were empty when I got there so I was able to get a main hoop but they started filling up fast as the night went on. Soon two guys came in. They were all decked out in Adidas BYU gear (BYU is sponsored by Nike. Giveaway they weren't all that great) and came off as your typical pick up ball jerk. They came up to me and asked if I would shoot on the side hoop so they could have the main hoop for themselves. I politely said no thanks and went to go about my workout when they stopped me again. They continued to tell me how they needed the main one bc they wanted to play one on one and their buddies were coming anyways. Rather than asking me to move again the one boy looked at me and told me to move. I smiled and giggled then looked at them and said how about I play you both in a game of 1 on 1 to 11 by ones and twos winner gets the court. They both started laughing like I was crazy. Well, they weren't laughing when I beat them both in a matter of minutes. After this I got thinking and thinking and thought, if I ever have a daughter I don't want her to ever feel like she's not an equal? Do I want boys and men to view her value as less than theirs? Do I want her to lack the confidence in herself as a woman? No. The thinking continued and I thought about what Michelle did to prepare me for life. How she helped me gain the confidence I have and thats needed to survive in the world. There hasn't been a time in my life where I felt I wasn't equal to the men around me. If anything I've always felt I was above them. I thought about what Michelle taught me. What Steve taught me. What the women in my life have taught me. What basketball, friends, school, my siblings, cancer, and how every aspect of my life has led me to be who I am today: a feminist. A strong proud woman who demands to not only be treated as an equal to men but also demands the same respect that men receive in the work field, on the basketball court, and anywhere and everywhere I may be.
At the top of the page there's a YouTube that really got me thinking. I saw this commercial and it made me a tad teary eyed. I never thought about the saying "like a girl." I would be lying if I said I've never used the phrase. If you read my previous blog I talk about how I was raised with all boys. In my mind when I think, oh I play basketball and xbox like one of the guys. I never saw it for what it truly meant until just this last year. I loved that in the YouTube above the younger girls have all the confidence in the world. They don't see throwing like a girl as a bad thing. Or running like a girl. So where's the breakdown? When does playing ball like a girl become such a bad thing? When was being a girl such an insult to society? So I'm going to remind you all what it means to run like a girl. To fight like a girl. To throw and play ball like a girl. I think people forget just what us girls are truly capable of.
Running is something I will never be fond of. I hate running probably because for so many years of my life it was the punishment for crappy basketball play. Its the worst part of my work out when I have to stop lifting and go do cardio. So when one runs like a girl what does that mean? When I think of one person and one person only when it comes to running. Michelle. If you were to tell you 3 things about my mother I would tell you this 1. she needs diet coke and water in large volumes throughout the day 2. she just wants to watch downtown abbey everyday all day and 3. she loves to run and will out run you on any day. My earliest memories of my mother are driving around the night before a long run leaving water bottles in bushes. Riding my bike with her on her runs. Things like that. My mother has ran everywhere. No matter where we are on vacation or where she is for work she goes running. She's ran in China, Canada, Boston, Hawaii, all over southern California, Florida, the capitol building, wherever she can get a jog in she will. If I ran half as good as my mother I would probably be 20lbs skinnier. Running like a girl isn't a bad thing, in fact a few years ago there was a little girl who was quite the running back. She became a huge hit on YouTube because she is only 9 years old and was running circles around the little boys in her pee wee football league. Sam Gordon actually is from Salt Lake and I was able to meet her a few summers ago when she attended a BYU basketball camp I was coaching. Check out her high lights here she runs better than any of those other little boys and looks just as smooth out there as some of these college running backs. Running like a girl obviously isn't a bad thing. 
Girls and fighting I feel like can be taken in a few ways. There's fighting like literal throwing punches, there's the emotional fights that we all go through, then there's the physical fights that come along with health issues etc. When I think of fighting like a girl I think of first and foremost the amazing Ronda Rousey. Ronda is a UFC fighter. She's 10-0 and is to make it simple for you all that don't know her, she's the UFC champion for women. If you don't know who she is google her. I don't think anyone would want to get in a fight with Ronda Rousey lets be honest. She's a beast in the ring. ESPN did a short video on her check it out. UFC for so long was a men's sport but she came in and was the first women to sign with the UFC in 2012. She's set a trail of what women can do when given the opportunity to compete in what was once that to be just a man's sport. Ronda has not only proven she deserves to be a part of the UFC but also has done it better than any man or woman has. So Ronda is a great example of the actually fighting, they lets punch each other for the hell of it. But there's another fight and not everyone experiences it nor does everyone win this fight. This fight also is very familiar to me and its the fight with cancer. To explain a little bit about this fight I chose one of my own personal heros. Her name is Tenley Wilson. When Tenley was 2 years old she was diagnosed with AML. Tenley's family just happens to be one of our closest family friends from Salt Lake so it was so sad to hear about her diagnosis. It killed me to think a two year old little girl was going through what I had. The needles, the constant IVs, the pain, the nausea, the hair loss, everything I went through she was going through. But she was only two. But you know what, when I went and saw Tenley there wasn't a doubt in my mind she would fight and eventually overcome her cancer. She was sassy and spunky and you could just tell she was a little fighter and she was. Fighting like a girl means fighting like Tenley, which it completely fine with me.
Karlie Harman, a 15 year old girl out of Virginia is the quarterback for her football team. When she was told she throws like a girl and she said, "I take that as a compliment because yeah I throw like a girl because I am a girl. I throw with power and dedication." Talk about confidence. At 15 years old there's a significant different in the athleticism between boys and girls. Boys are usually much farther ahead than the girls. But as you watch Karlie out there she plays with heart and she just plays football, and she's quite good at it. Football has always been a guys game. But every now and then you hear about girls like Karlie, or like Sam mentioned above and it makes you wonder how different the game with be with more teams had a girl on the team. Not just any girl, but a girl that can compete and hold her own out there. I know for a fact Karlie Harman throws a football a lot better than I do and probably better than most boys lets be honest. Besides throwing a perfect spiral most importantly Karlie Harman plays with confidence and doesn't see it as a bad thing that she throws like a girl.
Playing ball like a girl I feel like really became an insult when the fat kid from the Sandlot said it as an insult. When I think of playing ball like a girl my mind automatically goes to some of the greatest women basketball players of all time: Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, Candice Parker, Becky Hammon, Elena Delle Donne, and Brittney Griner just to name a few. Mark Cuban back a while ago joked that he wanted to take Brittney Griner in the second round of the NBA draft. Diana Taurasi was said to be the only woman that would be able to hold her own in the NBA. Its a given obviously not very women can dunk. Some people think that because of the lake of dunking that takes away from the game. I think thats a lie, if anything it makes it so that you're watching good fundamental basketball not a dunk contest. Playing ball like a girl isn't a bad thing. You have to accept some of the harsh facts, yes Lebron would beat Maya Moore any day in one on one. But does that mean that playing like Maya Moore is a bad thing? There's a reason Becky Hammon is an assistant for the San Antonio Spurs, because she understands the game. She plays ball like a girl and now she's teaching Manu and the boys how to play ball like a girl. I take pride in the fact that I understand the game of basketball; that I can hold my own when I play with the guys and dominate when I play with the girls.
When I was at BYU in one of my classes I learned that between the ages of 8-10 boys naturally become more coordinated. By the time kids are 12 boys are three years ahead of girls athletically and coordinately speaking. Is coordinately even a word? But you get what I'm saying. Boys naturally have more muscle mass. They're naturally more coordinated and athletic. So when you find a young girl who can compete with the boys, its a big deal. She physiologically speaking has the odds against her. Its a rare find. When you find girls who can play alongside the boys. Who are confident enough to know they're good enough to play with the boys. I know I used a lot of sports and athletes as examples, but in any situation in life no matter what it is, it isn't a bad thing to be a girl. Its nice to see TV shows, books being written, and movies being made with strong female role. Just in the last few years we've had Divergent, Hunger Games, Wild, Revenge, and Frozen all have leading ladies. Being a girl isn't a bad thing, its one of the greatest things in the world. Its time that women start being treated as an equal to men. That women get the same rights, benefits, respect a men as well as being viewed just as knowledgable as men in the work field. Doing things like a girl shouldn't be an insult anymore. It should be a compliment in the highest form. There is nothing more beautiful that a young girl who has confidence and who is proud of who she is. If she can keep that confidence throughout her life she then becomes a strong confident and independent woman which is one of the greatest achievements a young girls can achieve. I think of everything Michelle has taught me. How a woman can run for a city office, how to feed the masses, how to use mind over matter, and even how to do a cartwheel. But the most important thing Michelle has taught me is to be proud to be a woman and to be a smart, independent woman who never gives up and does what she wants when she wants. My mother taught me to be a feminist, to believe and fight for the equal rights of women all over in every aspect of life and to stand up for myself. She taught me by example to be proud of who I am and never back down. Some of the greatest lessons I think a mother could ever teach her daughter.
#LikeAGirl
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