When
you see this picture its obvious that your attention goes to the woman running
in between, being shoved and on her way to making history.
To
me this picture also gives me an insight to what could have really happened at
that time and how some men behaved and what they thought of women.
The
woman is Kathrine Virginia "Kathy" Switzer the first lady to run the
boston Marathon. Women were not allowed to run the Boston Marathon until 1972.
In 1967, she became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entrant(an oversight
at the registration). During her run, race official Jock
Semple
attempted to stop Switzer and grab her
official bib. The word is “Grab”. I believe his actual words were "Get the
hell out of my race and give me those numbers!"
You see they could have just let her
run the race. She wouldn’t have won because her registration was invalid. But
then they thought, what if she wins, that would be a kick to our chauvinistic
masculinity and to save the last shred of it, let’s just shove a woman and put their
race into their place so that she doesn’t dare change or make history.
The acceptance of women in sports has
take over 100 years, fighting generations of ugly stereotypes.
Now for the other aspect of this
picture, Sadly for Semple he was
shoved to the ground by Switzer's boyfriend, Thomas Miller, who was running
with her and she completed the race.
We still live with
that generation of men who think the same way they did 4 decades ago and then
there are men like Tom miller who aid that movement for women to have the same
rights as them.
As a feminist ..the one who believes in equal opportunities,
I want to thank men who have made our lives a little easier, made our struggle a
little lesser. To the fathers who support and love their daughters, to the
husband that is a partner and a friend, to the bosses who don’t see gender but
abilities and capabilities. In general men whose best quality include the absence of chauvinism.
No comments:
Post a Comment