Mr. Waffle was up with Daniel at the GAA club before Christmas. A number of players from the women’s and men’s county teams were there to talk to the children and do some training with them. There were about 500 boys and girls there.
One of the Dublin team players said to the children, “Who’s the best at handstands?” Mr. Waffle said all of the boys immediately put their hands in the air. Very few girls’ hands went up. Instead, the girls started talking amongst themselves, “Are you the best? No, I’m not the best, maybe X is the best.” And so on. Ironically, given that far more of the girls are doing gymnastics (yes, a gendered space that), de facto it was likely that far more of the girls could do handstands. Capacity doesn’t really seem to matter in these contexts though, does it?
Ha. This does make me laugh. Plus, cue a bunch of articles berating girls for their lack of confidence and not boys for their overestimation of their skills.
You can hardly blame the boys coz the girls won’t put their hands up. Perhaps blame the adults for the way they phrase the questions. “Does anyone do gymnastics?” might be a better start.
I wonder what would have happened if a female had asked the handstand question?
Gender politics in sport, who would have thought it?
Most impressed with the return to blogging, from famine to feast!
Look at that, almost a debate in my comments, very exciting. Don’t give up loyal commenters!