In 1962, I graduated from high school in a rural area that has since become a typical upscale suburb in Chester County, PA. (Upscale was a word that hadn’t been invented yet.) There were 90 kids in my graduating class.
Throughout high school, I played field hockey and "girls’ basketball." I was not an athlete, just a nice cooperative girl with enough energy to run around for a couple of hours in the afternoon after school. A girl like me would never make any sports team at the local high schools today, where girls are on the front page of the sports section as often as boys.
Nobody expected me (or any of the other girls) to be an athlete. It wasn’t required. Girls sports weren’t really sports. Girls sports were games, something to keep the girls happy and healthy for their real role in life. That role was to take a shower after practice and go cheer for the boys at their games, which were played at night, under lights, with lots of screaming and shouting. Playing girls' sports was how you got out of having to take gym that semester.
We played basketball in the old gym, a dim room where the walls were just barely outside the lines of the court. There wasn’t anyplace for spectators, and nobody came to watch our games, not even our parents. We were thankful for that. We knew we looked awful in those short jumper uniforms over the bloomers.
We played basketball by "Girls’ Rules." It was a different game from the one the boys played in the big new shiny gym. The rules were set up to avoid any kind of rough physical contact. They were also designed to make sure nobody had to strain herself too much. It’s hard for me to believe now, but my memory is that nobody actually ran the full length of the court. Too much running, you know – might not be good for our young ladies.
Allowing Sarah Palin to avoid speaking to the press is letting her play by Girls' Rules. It is pure sexism. No man would ever assume this exemption, or be granted it for a moment. It’s insulting to Palin. It’s insulting to women. Most of all, it is insulting to the United States of America.
Sarah Palin is running for our county’s second highest office (one which could put her in the highest office at a moment’s notice.) To play these games with her candidacy is to demean the democratic process. I can understand the McCain campaign trying to get away with this. But if the media allows it, they will forfeit their already tenuous right to be seen as serious participants in the electoral process.