USA Hockey Remains an Easy Target

A recent email I recieved from USA Hockey about the 2011 Pond Championships includes the following gem:

"Referees will be paid $10 per game and we provide training. All refs also get to wear stylin’ fluorescent yellow vests. Chicks dig it."

Yeah, chicks do "dig" it. Surely chicks won't be playing hockey or ref'ing it, or anything else, just there to watching those sexy refs in their sexy bright vests do their sexy ref'ing thing. So you should ref to accomplish your manly man goal in life of attracting a woman.

THN Volume 64, Number 4. September 13, 2010

I'm really behind on reading my hockey magazines. Here's the Feminist Read of the September 13, 2010 The Hockey News.

cover

I could have a blast picking apart the messages which are sent about what Men are, but I'm instead gonna illustrate this by pointing out the places where women are represented in the 52-page magazine (including both covers).

What I learned: women don't play, manage, coach, or write about hockey, but they sure do marry hockey players!

Three images of women.
1. On page 5, there is a picture of Taylor Hall (a rookie in Edmonton) with a female hidden behind a hockey mask. The accompanying letter from the female explains that she won a chance to stand in goal against him to win some Oilers tickets. (I will admit I am basing her gender off of her name, Jennifer, as she uses no gendered pronouns to refer to herself, obviously.)

2. Page 31. There are a couple women in the background of one picture of a crowd. It's ridiculous that I even have to count that.

3. The only other woman in a photo in the magazine is in an ad inside the back cover. This ad is for an online "betting" site (an NFL pick'em site actually). I have no clue what the buxom blonde in a low-cut red dress and a vapid facial expression has to do with betting on sports. Oh wait, yes I do, it's called "patriarchy." I actually shot off an email wondering what in the world this image has to do with the website. Will update you if I get a response...

Ten mentions of women, one about a non-wife/fiance/girlfriend female.

Women Aren't Human

 USAHockey.com's drop-down menu on their website:

I can't believe this is seriously like this.

Simone de Beauvoir wrote a book called The Second Sex in 1949. I've only read the introduction which, honestly, is a travesty because it blew my mind. Her main point (at least in the intro) is that society gives women meaning only through their relationships to men. Men are The One, neutral, the default human being. Women are The Other, the marked gender. Basically, we can't talk about women without mentioning they are women.

De Beauvoir continues to resound with me because it remains insanely applicable all over the place, particularly in sports. WNBA vs. NBA. The men's tennis tour is called the ATP=Association of Tennis Professionals, while the women's tour is the WTA=Women's Tennis Association. And the above gem from USA Hockey. Women are women hockey players, men are simply adult hockey players. The One, the Other.

There's also some beautiful ableism at work with excluding "Disabled" players from being adults. And women from being disabled. Intersectionality (more than one identity) exists, people.

Thanks guys. And some other time, I'll get into lumping women and girls together. And the fact that we need these categories at all. So much more to analyze, so little time...

context. interesting that the main article was about women's hockey on this day

Women in the Hall of Fame: Finally.

Angela James and Cammi Granato (L-R in picture) were the first women inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame today. This is awesome. It is. I'm thrilled. These women don't deserve to be in because they have done well as women, but because they have contributed to this wonderful sport as human beings.

Cammi Granato was part of the 1998 USA National Team that won the first women's hockey Olympic gold medal. Angela James played on several Canadian National Teams and is widely acknowledged north of the border for her contributions to women's hockey and women's recognition in hockey.

Granato had this to say, as quoted by ESPN:
"It just comes with the territory because we're used to doing that, we're used to defending ourselves," Granato said Monday. "I had to defend myself from the time when I was in a rink when I was a little kid and people wondered 'Why is she playing?'"

"We just have to keep repeating ourselves over and over. ... But this helps, I tell you, being here. Having this committee and this Hall accept us really helps."

These two women have already done their share to hasten the day when the patriarchy no longer forces females to defend their position within this sport. Finally, it seems some of that patriarchy is starting to listen to them.

(sources: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/45678/ http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/halloffame10/news/story?id=5781271 )

Just another random and unnecessary exclusion of women.

not that I believe in bottled water ever, anyway...but still

Oh.okay.then. I guess me and my woman'ness won't be buying any ice-water from Mellon Arena.

(yes, yes, I know what you're thinking: probably just an oversight. Though you will notice the mistake was not to mark it as a women's product, now was it? And why must the shop at nhl.com be separated into sexes at all? Questions for another day...)