Coed Wrestling

A few weeks ago a 15-year old high school wrestler from Iowa forfeited a state finals match because he was matched against a female wrestler. His reason for forfeiting was due to his belief that violence should not be imposed on a girl and the sport of wrestling is a combat sport that involves compromising positions too inappropriate for a male and a female to engage in. He also claimed to be an avid Christian and although there is no specific rule about males and females wrestling together, he believes that females should be treated with respect and not be violently slammed and groped. The female wrestler, on the other hand, feels demeaned by the boy's decision. She simply wanted to be treated equally in a sport that she has worked hard to compete in.
I think this issue can be looked upon in two different ways. Many people have applauded the high school boy for his choice to forfeit the match, praising his values and valiance to accept a loss in defense of his beliefs. The other side is that if the boy truly respected females then he would treat them as equals. He would not have forfeited the match because he respects the female athlete and her achievement of qualifying to the state finals by competing against her. I think one's interpretation on this issue depends on how one views "respect". The boy doesn't believe that girls should be violently thrown or slammed around or put in compromising positions in wrestling while competing with other male athletes, yet he thinks that females should compete against other females where basically the same treatment would occur, just differing in who it involves. This is interesting to me because all the female wrestler was asking for was equality. She wasn't expecting special treatment of any kind, just simply being considered as an equal on the wrestling mat. However, this is very difficult to get around because regardless of her skill and how much she obviously deserved to be taken as a serious wrestler, she is still unequal to the other male athletes simply because she is born a girl. In my experience, wrestling is one of the few if not only male dominated sports that generally does not have a female subsequent team yet has a fair amount of female participation and at an advanced level. My high school wrestling team had 3 female athletes on the team while the football and baseball teams had none.
The Iowa boy wrestler had every right in making his decision to forfeit the match. But his view on respect for females is debatable.
Emily Teramoto
KIN 338I Sec 05