One of the black belts was helping out in class last week. He’s a sort of gruff older guy. Several times, he made the comment, “you kick like a girl” to me and a the other woman in class. At one point, he tried to explain that he meant no offense by the comment. I don’t get offended, so I wasn’t offended this time. The other woman said she wasn’t offended either.

On my drive home, I decided I should have been offended. What the guy meant to say was “your kick is weak” or, “you aren’t kicking well enough” or even, “your kick sucks.” But what he said was “you kick like a girl.” So, in his mind GIRL=WRONG/BAD/WEAK/SUCKS. And that’s NOT OKAY.

I don’t blame him. Our society (heck, our whole world) has made this type of thing acceptable. Kicking like a girl, screaming like a girl, throwing like a girl… they are all regarded as negative things. In fact, I can’t think of anything that is done “like a girl” that isn’t regarded as negative.

I think girls rock. So, if I kick like a girl, then my kick must rock. Don’t you agree? I’m not going to give that guy a hard time about it. He’s an ignorant victim of society’s campaign to treat women like lesser beings. But the next time he tells me I kick like a girl, I’m going to thank him. Maybe when he has to explain that his comment was meant as criticism, he’ll realize his mistake.

When did soccer become such a big sport? Okay, I know in OTHER countries soccer is pretty big. But I’ve never known it to be a big deal in the US. I’m not even sure we had a soccer team when I was in high school.

I know that soccer’s popularity has grown over the years. Grown a lot. In fact, it seems like soccer is the first organized sport children play these days. Not so in my day. Now suddenly adults are watching soccer. And talking about soccer. And… playing soccer?

I feel so out of the loop. Not that I need to be in the loop, but I would to have at least known about the loop.