Editorial: Gender-based intramural rules are unfair, outdated
Several intramural sports on campus operate with rules that are designed to create gender equality among players by awarding advantages to females.
This manifests in varying degrees, but ultimately makes their contributions either mandatory or of higher consequence than that of their male counterparts, to guard them against perceived inequalities.
These guidelines are unnecessary and reinforce negative stereotypes about women competing against men in athletics.
Although these rules were put in place with good intentions, to create equality and participation among men and women in IM sports, isn't the idea that women need extra help to be equal contradictory to the meaning of equality?
Equality is not looking at an athlete less because of their gender, one needing a crutch in order to perform at the same level. In many cases, female athletes are more skilled than males.
Advantages range from simply having female scores count for additional points, or having a mandatory number of female participants, to a more complex set of rules that can make the sport unnecessarily difficult.
For example, in flag football not only must there be an equal number of men and women on the field, but men and women have to connect on every other completion in what's known as "open" and "closed" plays. In softball, pitchers must be of opposite gender as the catcher they pitch to.
The tangled web of other gender-based regulations have left players confused.
Assuredly, some might find them annoying, but at what point does the game suffer for a compulsory effort to make things "equal?"
It can be insulting to be given unnecessary advantages and treated as if it is being done as a service to women.
Women who play co-ed IM sports know what they are signing up for. They don't need coddling. Like any other athlete on the playing surface, we believe what is truly fair is equality across the gender spectrum.
The gender-focused rules can also make it uncomfortable for individuals who don't fall under the gender binary, forcing game officials to decide which gender rules to use in those situations.
We are not alone in this sentiment. Steps to change rules in IM sports have been taken in the past and students do exhibit some degree of control if they are vocal enough.
Scott George, head of IM sports at Central Michigan University, said of the 200 to 300 spring sports performance surveys sent out, few people have stepped forward with complaints.
Surveys sent out by IM sports largely go unanswered by participants with issues.
We challenge students who disagree with the gender rule advantages to voice their opinions by means of the annual survey.
Our inquiry into the issue put us in contact with several passionate protesters of the gender bias rules, including one IM soccer team actively fighting them by requesting each game to play without them.
If the desire is out there, students should be more vocal. Change cannot occur silently.
