Girls and Wrestling

Girls and Wrestling Should girls be able to wrestle? I wanted to know the answer to this question and see what other people thought about this topic. I started out by looking for articles on the internet and talking to my wrestling coach Justin Ruiz to see what he thought about women’s wrestling. I am interested in this because a lot of people don’t believe that girls should be able to wrestle. I researched the question, I talked with my coach, and I did my own reflective thinking in order to disclosure more about the topic in which I am interested. I am a wrestler, and I have noticed that women’s wrestling is not at a colligate level like men’s wrestling. Women’s wrestling isn’t the most popular sport because not a lot of girls want to wrestle with other boys, they think it’s more of a men’s sport. It’s more of men’s sport because it’s almost like a fight; you beat each other up for 6 minutes to get a victor. Another reason is that men started the sport; girls never wrestled until 1900s. Also parents don’t like to see their daughters wrestling with other boys just because it looks inappropriate. Wrestling is a very grabby sport, you might have to touch the upper thigh close to the crotch and that might be uncomfortable for the girl or boy. You also have to get into some awkward positions if a boy is wrestling a girl. Some parents do not want their daughters to experience that. Wrestling is also very physical and intense on the body and mind. You have to cut weight, which means you have to watch what you eat and go on a diet. So for some people that can tear them down mentally where they almost want to give up. Also, you have to work out at least twice a day to stay in shape and physically ready. I researched this question to find out why women’s wrestling isn’t very popular to the general public and why people think it’s a masculine sport. When I was thinking about something to write about, this topic was one of the first things that popped into my head.

Cited: Ruiz, Justin. Personal Interview. 12 November 2012. Leng, H.K., S.Y. Kang, C. Lim, J.J. Lit, N.I. Suhaimi, and Y. Umar. "Only for Males: Gendered Perception of Wrestling." 8.1 (2012): 43-52. Web. Lewin, Tamar. "More Girls Take Part in High School Wrestling." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2007. Web. Rutkowska, Katarzyna, and Dariusz Gierczuk. "Emotional Intelligence and the Sense of Efficiency of Coaching and Instructing in Wrestling." Sport Tourism 19 (2012): 46-57. Print.