Tradition. Tradition. Tradition. I love traditions; from doing a puzzle every Christmas
Eve with my family to upholding the hallowed heritage of Glide-Crawford’s hall identities
(#firstglidepride), doing things the way they have always been done has an almost sacred quality to it. However, it wasn’t until several weeks ago with the resurfacing of the women’s soccer “rowdy week” tradition during the week of homecoming that I began to wonder if some traditions only serve to illustrate their innate misogyny and lack of respect for women.
The longstanding rowdy week tradition is as follows: each member of the women’s
soccer team chooses (or is assigned) a member of the men’s soccer team, and throughout the week leading up to homecoming the women are supposed to decorate the men’s lockers, bake them treats, buy them snacks and gifts and make them signs for the homecoming game. The expectation is for the men’s soccer team to reciprocate by taking their rowdy girl or girls out for dinner. Although, as explained by many of the women’s soccer players, this rarely actually happens.
After last year’s merciful hiatus from the rowdy week tradition, it resurfaced in 2019 like an unfortunate cold sore. Please understand, I greatly support spontaneous acts of love and service, but this is where rowdy week fails miserably. While I hold no issues with the idea of doing something special for my fellow athletes and serving them in a new context, I do find the underlying implications of this tradition quite concerning.
Instead of being recognized as an athlete myself, this tradition demotes me to a place of merely being a cheerleader for the “real” competitors. The women’s soccer team played a game only three hours before the men’s team’s homecoming game on Oct. 26, but no one froze out in the rain with colorful signs to watch me play. At its core, this tradition is founded upon gender clichés, operating under the perception that every woman on the women’s soccer team is waiting with bated breath to be taken out for dinner by the highly esteemed men’s soccer team, rather than spoiled with gifts of our own and cheered on for being capable athletes.
Rowdy week was not presented to my team as a servant-hearted optional event, but rather something we were just expected to do. “It means a lot to them and they appreciate y’all making them feel special,” one of my captains texted my team before the week began, but I want to know where exactly their appreciation is. While I don’t believe any of the men’s soccer players or leadership in the athletic department are actively working to oppress gender equality, they are making a clear statement by passively standing by.