Thursday, November 06, 2008

Thoughts (not mine) on women and hockey

I have plenty of thoughts about women and hockey, and it's good to know that others feel similarly. Damien Cox at ESPN.com has a very good editorial about the continued gender discrimination perpetuated by the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Again this year there were no female nominees. Cox notes that this is despite the fact that both the International Hockey Federation HoF and the US HoF recently broke the gender barrier and enshrined female players. It has basically become a pissing contest Cox says with the HHoF seeing how long it can hold out, refusing to change its procedures and reveal how the process really works (beyond our basic understandings of typical old boys' networks).
He also takes to the task some of excuses proffered by HoF officials like "there isn't enough of a women's hockey history yet" (been around just as long as the men's game--just because looks different doesn't mean it isn't there) and that female players' accomplishments do not compare to those of male players.
Cox believes some day the HHoF will give in but right now they seem pretty wedded to their position (of privilege).

3 comments:

Unknown said...

An even more annoying aspect is that the NHLPA colludes in this nonsense. You'd think the brothers of women who deserve to be there would be up in arms.

Diane said...

I was there last week, and it looked to me like the administrators had tried to compensate for this rather large discrepancy by having all kinds of other exhibits about female hockey players. These exhibits were nice, to be sure, but they also served to emphasize the obvious major omissions.

ken said...

Wait--Diane, you went to the HHoF and you didn't tell me until now??
Please tell me you took pictures...