GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

                Men are better than woman at sports. Men do not play on women’s teams.  And a man playing against a woman is not fair.  These are the unspoken rules of sports in a nutshell.  I would say that I understand why these social norms exist because they coincide with other ways that women are treated differently in daily life; for example if a woman is trying to carry something heavy, it is a MAN’s job to carry it for her because we are strong and tough and never break sweat.  In sports, I want to believe the gender divide has only to do with fairness because as everyone knows men are biologically slightly taller, stronger, faster blah blah blah.  I guess Ultimate doesn’t care about these norms for one reason or the other, probably because of the fact that Ultimate Frisbee grew up with the hippies and therefore their mentalities were transferred upon frisbee.  

During pickup games and even specific leagues, men and women are allowed to play on the same team and to play each other.  Not only can they be on the same team but they can match up man to man however they would like, there are no rules on who has to play who (besides the fact that there should be equal number of each gender which is determined by one of the lines each point).  I think this is a HUGE advantage for the sport.  You can play with girls?? That’s how we pull in men at the our USC involvement fair, and it seems to work like a charm.  The only trick is to make sure that the girls are there!  The interesting part about playing with girls in Ultimate Frisbee is that there is not a stigma against it, its not just allowed by the rules.  As long as everyone on the team understands some of the basic principles of the game, it seems to work out quite well as a competitive match.  One of the results of this is the extra sense of community that this brings because it is less of a “men’s club” and more of a extended family feel, and I think it is one of the parts of frisbee that make it so comfortable to just join, learn as a new player, and just to be interested in general.

One thing that does change when playing with girls is that the guys seem to try a bit harder to show off hahaha, this is inevitable and slightly amusing to me (I feel like I can't stop myself from doing it neither).  There is just something that happens when you start playing with women, where you have the need to prove yourself.  Some Ultimate Frisbee girls have actually told me that watching men play did change their perception of whether they liked or disliked that person, so its not just in the men's heads.  But either way, I think this is harmless form of showing off for the girls and just adds to the excitement of playing on mixed gender teams, it really is that fun!