Thoughts

Today started off with a 12 mile (total) bike ride to the end of the road and back.  It's cool b/c at the end you can bring your car on the beach, there are supposedly wild horses, and how cool is it to be AT THE END OF THE ROAD?  Some people actually live beyond that so they have to drive on the sand to get to their homes.  How awesome is that?

Then I really didn't do much.  We watched some soccer, I read a lot, in an effort to make my arms as big as possible I went swimming for 1/2 an hour and did a bit of faster swimming, and then did some sit-ups.  Now I have on a dress, I've taken off my sports watch, and I blew dry my hair.  We're going out to dinner and I have to look nice enough that my Mom doesn't get mad at me.  No ponytail or flip-flops allowed.

Things on my mind that I don't know enough to talk about but will anyway:

Apparently female tennis players get less prize money than men, the argument being they play shorter games.  The argument against is simply equality/human rights.  My Dad's argument is that whoever brings in the most viewers should get the most money.  My argument is that it's a social issue and the tennis organizations have the power to do the right thing despite whatever value society may currently place on men's vs. women's tennis.  My Dad and I actually have no idea if there is a difference in viewership.  Another gender issue is apparently male players were mad they originally weren't allowed to wear sleeveless shirts while the women wear very little.  My Mom also told me the tennis organizations are cracking down and asking female players to cover their cleavage.

I also just read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.  It's a fictional story-based on truth-about two young girls growing up in China in the 1800s.  The book includes a lot of detail on the practice of foot binding.  It's really horrible.  I have been reading about it on the internet as well and I encourage you to look it up. Mothers basically broke the feet of their young daughters (about age 5) and remolded them every 4 days so that the feet (after 2 years of this) were ideally the length of someone's thumb.  One out of ten girls died during the process and all were crippled for the rest of their lives-women could barely walk afterwards.  Society valued really small feet in a certain shape.  There are a few possible ideas as to how this tradition started, but people are unsure as to how exactly it did.  It's so awful.  I've been thinking a lot about that and I just feel really lucky for physically being able to get around (forget even playing sports) and having so much opportunity.

Comments

[Amanda]

My 4th Grade teacher had mentioned this during the reading of The Sign of the Chrysanthemum. I kind of remember him mentioning chopping off of toes, also... but I remember thinking that is awful. Alsong with female circumcision and the practice of sewing shut vaginas in some cultures.

[Caitlin]

Here is an article from last year that I found from Tennis Life magazine:
http://www.tennislifemagazine.com/ed2005/feb05/feb05-offcourt.html

[David]

I never cease to be amazed at how I continue to be amazed at the diversity of life, the highs and the lows; how very disturbing, breaking and molding children's feet to be thumb sized. It'll be a while before I put that image out of my mind, perhaps rightly so.

Gag!
It amazes me what humans have done and are doing now to be deemed better than the norm. Then there is what women do to themseleves to be accepted and valued.
And the ongoing issue of mans attempted control of women....

[Jay T]

The women's sports issue is never easy. I'm of the belief they should make the same money, but I don't know many, if any, sports where that's financially feasible right now.

The fact is a large portion of sports fans think women sports are inferior, so they don't spend their money on them.

It's going to take time and patience, but women's sports can thrive. They just need people to focus more on the good differences between the genders instead of the usual "women aren't as fast or strong, etc." complaints.

When the WUSA was still around, I enjoyed almost every game exponentially more than I have any Red Bulls games this year. I would rather see women playing a better technical game with better teamwork, but fewer goals from 40 yards out than watching guys speed around the field looking like 22 people not realizing it's a team game.

Okay, done ranting. :-)

[Joe]

I love it when a long ride reaches the turn-around at a dead end. Give it a certain sense of balance, for some reason.

I'm not gonna touch the whole equality debate. It's such a messy issue to begin with.

[Aracner]

I've seen examples of the foot breaking thing in Niagara Falls at the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum (yeah I know it's pretty cheesy). There was also the neck stretching exhibit where woman wore these neck rings that would progressively stretch their neck. If there were ever discipilined, the rings would be removed which would essentially kill them becuase their vertebrae couldn't support the stretched neck. it's incredible what humans have done over the years. Granted 200 years from now, people will be looking back at us and wondering what all the fuss about chest implants and botox injections was about.

[Rae]

That sounds beautiful! It would be so neat to drive home on the beach every day!