I have long been perturbed by the uncritical use of male pronouns in women's sports: defensemen, first baseman, Ironman, etc. I am very much in the minority in these views, I realize, and so rarely bring them up.
But I had a mini-epiphany the other day at a softball game. I went to see UMass take on George Washington. The announcer gave the line-up: "up for the Minutewomen, first baseman ____."
So some schools go out of their way to distinguish their women's teams from the men's by giving them separate ridiculous names like Minutewomen but persist in calling them men.
1 comment:
This drives me crazy. The other day, I was watching a women's softball game, and one of the announcers, right after talking about the "second baseman," made a comment about a batboy. And I thought to myself, wouldn't everyone go crazy if he was called a "batgirl"? Because it is the same thing.
Your example, by the way, is just more proof that people will go way out of their way to avoid using the dreaded "w" word.
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