The year is 2016, and whether women and girls should be allowed to wrestle is still a debate. On March 22, 1972 the the Equal Rights Amendment for Women was passed, over 40 years ago.

Yet, there are attempts being made to ban girls from wrestling on a Co- Ed team when this country is supposed to be based on “equality”. When a girl chooses to join or tryout for her school’s, whether high school or college,  wrestling team, she is fully aware that she will be wrestling males and that it is a contact sport. Girls should be allowed to wrestle against male competitors.

There are many people, such as parents, coaches and other spectators that believe that girls should not wrestle boys. They believe that it is wrong for a female to defeat a male physically. A lot of people claim that it is against their faith and religion; for a male to engage with a female in that manner. Others refuse simply because it is too “uncomfortable” for them, worried that their hands might slip to a girls “lady parts,” for lack of better terms. Female wrestlers are still a foreign concept to society today.

I have personal experience with this subject area, because I am a female wrestler.

I have been told to give up wrestling and I have had male wrestlers forfeit due to my sexuality and their refusal to wrestle a girl. The males wrestlers that refuse prefer to tarnish their record than to wrestle.

It is said that males should not lose to females in any physical competition or sport. They are not losing to a girl, they are losing to fellow athlete.  

This year there was discussion amongst the coaches that a female’s wrestling record should not count towards the team’s record or points, that it should not count at all. After four years of wrestling I could not feel more dehumanized or stripped of my earned title than I did when I heard that was a suggestion being discussed.

So, if we’re female, we are not technically considered part of the team? Yet, we attend the same practices, do the same drills, wrestle in the same meets and tournaments, but are not considered a part of the team. Our hard work and sweat means nothing.

Stop dehumanizing our women and belittling their accomplishments because of their sexuality. Instead, recognize them for overcoming society’s expectations. No one gets to decide what her level of comfort is, aside from herself. Stop telling us that we will be “too uncomfortable,” you are not living in our skin.

Take a stance and attend coaches meetings to voice your opinion and to re-establish

women’s equality.