Women Exist, Too

Kiara Romero, Senior Staff Writer

“Boys’ football teams are hot!,” said some of my peers in one of my classes. “Boys’ basketball, OMG!!!” “How about the girls?” said another student. The others replied with indifference.

The story shows the attitude of many students, an attitude that, in today’s society where we strive for equality between women and men, should not be tolerated.

After the pep rally this past fall, I was talking to some girls who were commenting on our male step team Dem’ Raider Boyz’ performance in words like, “I just love DRB, their performance was hot.” I agreed, I told them, however I also said I believe the Lady Raiders Step Squad deserves kudos. Then, they told me that no one cares about the girls.

I felt so speechless after hearing that. It’s not fair that women get less cheers than what we deserve.

Why do us women bash on our ourselves, like with the girls who didn’t give the Lady Raiders proper credit?

It’s one of the most stupid and irrational things I’ve seen; it’s as if we have forgotten our current worldwide struggle for equality, and where we come from.

Recently here at Eleanor Roosevelt HS, our girls’ basketball team won state champions. This win did not bring as much cheers as the boys’ basketball team would have. There were cheers on social media, school, and other places, but they were not as big as it was for our boys’ basketball team when they won state champions in 2013. Twitter went crazy and was cheerful when our boys won, even by those who are barely active in school activities.

Our WNBA players are hard to name, in contrast to the NBA players, which are the easiest to recognize.

The Women’s World Cup is playing this year, but who knows about that? Everyone I talk to about it is unfamiliar with those words, “Women’s World Cup.” People sicken me with this. This is so sad; our mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins are not getting attention that they deserve when they’re working as hard as the males.

As I’ve heard, one of the reasons for this is “girls are boring,” and then people have failed to answer when I ask why. Do people fail to realize women are the people who gave you life? Women should not be ignored, whether it’s a joke or not.

Where is our fame for what we get? A woman will succeed and have very few chances to receive credit. In some instances, men might do something stupid and be more likely to gain success.

It is 2015, therefore it is insane that women organizations like Lady Raiders, our girls’ basketball team, and Women’s World Cup teams, are still not receiving the amount of attention that is needed. Please fix our society: acknowledge gender bias, reflect honestly on your attitude toward woman, and stop throwing so much shade at us. Women exist, too.