Girls sports: It's time to 'Throw Like a Girl'

Editor's note: Please say hello to Claire, who will be writing an occasional column for us highlighting women and girls in sports. It's part of a project to improve the Herald's coverage of girls sports, which all started with an email from Northbrook resident (and GBN mom) Myra Holman in June 2020. She saw a problem and was looking for constructive solutions. Thanks to her great ideas, we have this interesting, ever-evolving effort. If you have any suggestions, please contact us: glenbrooknews@dailyherald.com

I've always identified as a feminist. Not because I refuse to shave my body hair or because I wish death upon every man alive, but because today's society doesn't leave me with another choice. Beneath every layer of girlboss propaganda or every white female politician wearing a pantsuit, society still deems women as less. In the classroom, the workforce, and in sports.

Last March I saw teenage boys on social media poking fun at the pathetic rack of weights allotted to the women's NCAA basketball team, which paled in comparison to the male players who were equipped with thousands of dollars of gym equipment.

Conversations with friends about discrepancies regarding women's sports always boiled down to "income proportional to revenue," because apparently girls should pay the price when nobody covers their games.

I'm tired of living in an environment where sexism is considered acceptable.

We can't applaud ourselves as a society for the existence of girls' sports and simultaneously treat them like white noise.

Honesty time: I'm not the athletic type. I'm not picked first in gym class, and I'll never score the winning goal or catch the Hail Mary pass. I'm a scrawny, brown-haired, 11th-grade girl who will probably only run if I'm being chased (and even then, not very fast). I wouldn't label myself as the type to care for lacrosse or swimming, but I would say I'm the type to care for other women. Seeing my female friends tossed aside and disregarded despite their athletic accomplishments is simply unacceptable.

That leaves me here: An uncoordinated and unathletic 16-year-old girl who's never touched a football but will happily pick up a pen.

It's not enough to write like a girl; it's time to throw like one, too.

• Claire Satkiewicz is a junior at Glenbrook North High School and is on staff at the Torch, the school's award-winning student-run newspaper. She took a 2-hour break from listening to Lorde to write this column.