I am a girl. I was born a girl and I identify as a girl.
Over the weekend there were a couple of notable events in the AFL.
The first involved Adam Goodes an indigenous spokesperson who made a statement on the weekend which as I’m not indigenous myself, I don’t feel qualified to comment on (except to mention a couple of tweets about how excited their kids got when seeing Adam Goodes seeing their tribal dance on TV which I thought was really cool – every kid should grow up seeing themselves in at least one person on TV.)
The second was Ollie Wines (who plays for my beloved Port Adelaide) making a statement at quarter time saying that “we’re playing like a bunch of girls.”
Firstly I want to say that I’m not offended by this. I don’t wake up on a Sunday morning, read the paper and wonder what to be offended about today. But I am frustrated and pissed off.
I hear this type of comment way too often to not be annoyed by it.
BEING A GIRL IS NOT A BAD THING!
And I continue to ponder how is being like a girl an insult?
So why, when watching a game of football does ‘oh you’re playing like a girl’ get said so often.
Mythbusters has proven that “throw like a girl” has no scientific merit.
I doubt there is a single category of thing where you could have everyone in the world in a row from best to worst and there would be a distinctive line between men and woman (and this who identify as neither).
I confronted a male friend about this last weekend and eventually said “if you use being a girl as an insult then we can’t be friends.”
Because we can’t. If you think that my gender is inferior to yours then no we can’t be friends. That’s a deal breaker to me.
But interestingly no one had ever called him on it before. No one had ever pointed out that by calling a football players lack of commitment ‘girly’ he was saying that being a girl was somehow worse than being a boy.
I love being a girl. Sometimes it sucks (eg finding the right hormonal birth control), but you know what? being a girl is awesome. And no worse than being a boy.
So stop saying ‘girl’ as though it’s an insult or somehow worse than being a boy. Because it’s not.
polka-dots & sparkles 
TotAlly agrEe
My sentiments exactly.
I think being offended by that type of comment would be totally valid! It’s really uncool to be told “welp, I think all people belonging to this particular gender are awful at this particular thing” – as you pointed out, it doesn’t even make sense! Being a girl can be tough (and I imagine even tougher for those girls who were not AFAB) but our gender should not be used as an insult. I hope that Ollie Wines realises what he said was unfair to women who love and play sports so that you can get on with enjoying football! ^____^
Very well said! I also think that playing like a girl in some sports ( soccer for example) is a good thing as in team games girls can play as a team rather than try to get all the glory themselves. Unfortunately not seen by men!