By Nour Kaddoura | Contributing Writer
How many times have you heard the phrase “don’t throw like a girl?” Most probably, more times than you can count. That’s only one of many sexist, worn out taunts used to associate girls with being “bad” at sports. As someone who loves basketball, I’ve always felt that the single story around girls not being good at sports was false. I’ve seen females who can play basket- and other sports- extremely well, but who are instantly deemed ‘not good enough’ because of their gender. “The game starts in 3, 2 ,1” and I’d feel the nervousness pumping through my veins being replaced with adrenaline and determination as soon as the game begins. The rush inside of me as I enter the court, the audience cheering loudly to their teams, the “boos” and “yesss” that come from the assembly, and the shivers I get when I capture the ball and go straight to hoop it, are all a part of what made me want to pursue basketball while avoiding every single stereotype I encounter. This single story is true for some but more importantly, it is false for many, and it is unfair that girls are immediately correlated to being bad at sports.
“You got an airball”, “you’re too short”, and “leave” are some of the things I hear on an everyday basis. Yet no matter how many times I’ve heard them, they always get me emotional and bothered at how insensitive some people are. As a result of such stuff people tend to go to therapy and I’m one of those people. Yes, I go to therapy and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Instead, people should think wisely before talking. One day, I got so irritated that I exploded. There were some guys playing a friendly game in a place called “backstreet” while a big audience was cheering. So, I decided to go and play with them. The second I said that I wanted to play, everyone started laughing at the idea of a “girl against guys”. They wouldn’t look at me as a player but as a girl, and girls, in their opinion and every other ignorant person’s opinion, can’t play. At first, I was about to cry because of the words they said to me, treating me like I’m out of this world. As a result of the pressure, I fell multiple times. And with each fall, they laughed as if they didn’t fall as well. I went to the bathroom for a second to clear my mind and then cried, not from the fact that I fell, but from the cruel words they told me. Then, it hit me. I recalled everything I was practicing with my therapist, and I was so fed up that I decided to show them that they’re wrong and by showing them, I felt indeed out of this world and beyond. I was reminded of Monica Wright, a character in a movie called “Love & Basketball” (which is based on a true story), in an article written about the movie, “Get back into the kitchen: A WNBA RoundTable On Sexism in Basketball”. This article describes Wright’s experience, as she was being bullied and stereotyped because she loved to play basketball. She simply showed them that she’s a “legit basketball player” by doing what she does best: playing basketball. Instead of laughing at me, people started laughing at them and that was when they felt what I was going through and apologised.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who is an African author, sheds light in her video on the “Dangers of a Single Story” by sharing some of her own experiences and showing that a single story reveals only one face of the story. However, social media tends to show the true faces of everything that occurs. Hence, what can be said is that these stories, which are based on stereotypes, leave every single person feeling inadequate because of a story that doesn’t show the true colours of a certain situation. In my case, my single story is defined by being a female basketball player to the extent that people think that it’s hilarious and avoid the fact that some women are better than some men and vice versa.
Many girls aspire to play basketball. Many female athletes have been through such experiences that shaped them and made them who they are now right now. Psychologists Kimberly Hively and Amani El-Alayli, stated in their article entitled “You throw like a girl: The effect of stereotype threat on women’s athletic performance and gender stereotypes”; which states that these negative gender stereotypes tend to cause the person being stereotyped to worry about his or her performance and when someone messes up, it tends to prove the one stereotype (2014), only adding pressure to the situation. For example, if a female basketball player misses a shot, it proves that females can’t play- but when a male player misses a shot, it was just a miss, a small mess up. It all comes back to every single person thinking that way, from an adult to a parent, to a neighbor, to even your teacher at school, and it is verified by Kimberly Hively and Amani El-Alayli through many studies on how, for example, physical education teachers interact more with boys and encourage them more to be involved in sports in general (2014). But, just like many female basketball players that overcame all the stereotypes thrown at them, I am happy to say that I did as well. Other than the fact that I became more confident and better in what I do, I can proudly say that I became a part of one of the most competitive basketball teams: “Hoops.”
There are many stereotypes that hinder people from pursuing what they want either based on gender, race or any other aspect that makes someone different from the other. It’s the 21st century, and people still tend to stick with the traditional ideas that women are meant to do this and men that. However, when people start realizing that those stereotypes are just a waste of time, you start realizing that the single story itself doesn’t exist and it’s only a fiction story built in our minds by people who like to waste their time by hurting others.