I Empowering Gender Role Reversal
One of the greatness things about being a radical feminist is getting to meet and talk to other great feminist like myself. Here is a childhood recount from one of awesome friends and Champion Girls Sam. She grow up in 1970’s when girls had to fight to wear pants and play sports with the boys. Today she is a school principal who promotes girls by encouraging them to play sports and excel in school. Thank you Sam for talking the time to contribute to the group.
Howdy all this is Sam, thanks to Chris for letting me tell you about a monumental event in my childhood that turned me into a strong alpha female and feminist. The events happen in the summer of 1979 when I was ten years old. A group of girls and me started a huge controversy in our small Mississippi town when we tried out for the boys little league baseball team. In previous years my best friend Jill and one other girl had attempt to join the boy’s team but were denied. In 1979, Jill mother Barbara convince me and 3 other girls to try out. Like the previous year the men who ran the league tried to keep us from joining. Barbara was a lawyer and threated to take the league to court for violating Title IX. The men back downed and even allowed Barbara onto the league’s board. The coaches were furious and tried their best to limit the girls playing time. Barbara took action again and got three of the coaches fired.
Jill and I ended up being drafted by the same team which was now coached by Barbara friend Henry. Coach Henry was nice guy who Barbara had in her back pocket. Jill was a pitcher and shortstop and I was the team’s catcher. Most of the boys in the league were jerks especially our teammate Joey. The macho brat would often tease Jill, I and the other girls telling us that we should be home playing with dolls and having tea parties. In his mind baseball was for boys and we would just cry when they throw the ball too hard. Jill and I made a pact to show the boys especially Joey that girls were just as tough as or even better than boys. Neither of us realized at the time the chain of events that were about to be set into motion. All of us went to the same grade school. On the bus ride home Joey would tease any girl he could and wouldn’t stop until he made her cry. He used to pump his chest after and brag about how superior boys were. When he found out that Jill and I were on his little league team he went ballistic and tried to break Jill’s arm. After practice one day Jill and I were walking home when he came rushing by on his bike and pushed Jill to the ground. Jill arm was pretty brushed but thankfully not broken. Barbara was driving home when she noticed Jill holding her arm, when he saw Barbara’s car Joey and his buddies raced away from the accident telling us that we get it if we told on him. After taking Jill to the hospital, Barbara went and talked to Joey’s grandmother Mrs. Donaldson. She was furious, Joey tried to deny it saying Jill tripped on the curb and it was all her fault for being a stupid girl. He was grounded for two weeks and missed several of the team’s practices. Once Jill arm was healed she became the best pitcher in the league.
Like many little leagues at the time ours had a nasty tradition that Jill and I hated of having an opening day beauty pageant for girls called the Queen of the Diamonds. These things are awful, instead of allowing girls to play baseball they force them into elaborate dresses and make them parade around like dolls all in the name of raising money for the “boys” little league program. The Queen of the Diamonds Pageant was fairly lucrative and easily raised triple the amount of money compare to the league’s other fundraisers. Barbara convinced the mothers in town to boycott this year pageant as payback for not letting the girls join the “boys” teams. The men that ran the league were annoyed by what Barbara had done and were desperate to come up with another fund raising idea. Since Barbara was now on the league board and had voting power; she suggested an alternative to the traditional beauty pageant. The men thought Barbara was nuts when she suggested that each team should nominate a boy to compete in the pageant. A few weeks before the start of the season the league board had an emerge meeting. If they didn’t come up with an alternative fund raising idea quickly the league would be in serious financial trouble. Every idea that was suggested was quickly knocked down thanks to Barbara and her coalition of mothers. Out of desperation the league voted for Barbara pageant idea by a vote of 5 to 4. Each team (8 Total) in the league major level would nominated a boy to be the team’s beauty contestant. Jill and I strong armed the boys on our team to make sure Joey was nominated. When Coach Henry informed Joey that he was nominated to be our team’s queen of the diamond contestant he went ballistic, slammed bats and helmets and swore he never compete in any stupid girl pageant.
The Saturday before opening day Barbara had a special meeting for the mothers and boy contestants. Jill and I attended too and were responsible for handling out the pageant paperwork to the mothers. Mrs. Donaldson, Joey and his two best friends Bruce and Ron were in attendance, while Barbara explained the pageant rules Joey and his friend glared at Mrs. Donaldson and their mothers. It was clear all three boys were not happy and before the meeting was over they tried multiple times to get out of the pageant. The other boys looked like scared little kittens and stared in space not fully understanding what Barbara and their mothers were planning. The pageant rules were quite simple, all contestants would be required to wear a pageant or party style dress along with the appropriate accessories. The local children boutique and hairdressers were there offering half off coupons for dresses and wigs. Jill and I spent the whole time smirking and watching the boy’s reaction as the rules were explained. We were loving every minute; we never imagine seeing a boy wearing a dress let alone being forced to compete in girly beauty pageant. Joey and his buddies were particular distributed when it was explained that the boys would be required to show up wearing their outfits for opening day and only be allowed to change once the pageant was completely over. The final rule made Jill and I both burst out laughing. Each year the pageant queen along with her court of maids were required to attend the July 4 town parade. Since there were only 8 boys entered this meant all of them would be required to make up the court. To say the boys were speechless would be an understatement. After the meeting Mrs. Donaldson spent a significant amount of time talking to Mrs. Jameson who owned the local clothing boutique. Joey was very antsy and kept pestering his grandmother to leave. After he complained one to many times Mrs. Donaldson gave Joey three good smacks on his butt and made him stand in the corner for another 45 minutes while she finished talking to Mrs. Jameson. We would find out later that Mrs. Donaldson had long wanted to petticoat Joey but her daughter was always against it, thanks to the pageant she now had her chance to put Joey in his place.
Once word got out about the pageant the league quickly out-sold the previous three years of 50/50 tickets combined. Thanks to Mrs. Donaldson, Joey ended up missing the last two team practice before the season because of fitting for his pageant dress. With Joey out, this ensured Jill would become our team’s opening day pitcher. Jill and I were overly excited as opening day grower closer; we both had Saturday April 7 circled on our calendars from the day we signed up for the league. This day was especially memorable for Jill and her mom Barbara, Jill had tried for several years to join the league and her first baseball game had finally arrived after a long hard fight for a change to play. On Saturday, Jill and I both got up early put on our shiny new baseball uniforms and run to the park to have a game of catch. When we arrived we were in awe of the freshly cut grass and newly lined baseball diamond, everything was perfect. Soon all the teams arrived and divided up into our assigned spots. The league was made up of two levels, a minor league level that included 4 teams of kid’s age 7 to 9 and a major level of 8 teams for kids age 10 through 12. After the national anthem and a few other speeches it was time for the pageant. A stage was setup on 3rd base side of the field and before long the 8 lucky boy contestants appeared. Most of the boys were wearing old dresses borrowed from sisters or cousins and wigs styled in an assortment of girly styles. Joey and his two buddies were not as fortunate, all three had on very elaborate pageant dresses. Unless you knew better, no one would have ever guessed any of beauty queens were boys. When the pageant was over, Joey was crown the Queen of Diamonds and his buddies Bruce and Ron were 1st and 2nd runners up. Ever girl Joey ever teased smirked as the macho boy paraded across the stage and waved to the crowd. Joey worst nightmare was about to go from bad to dreadful. After the pageant the boys ran off to change into their uniforms. While Jill and I warmed up we noticed that Joey was nowhere to be found. Right before the game started we saw Mrs. Donaldson and sitting next to her was Joey in tears still wearing his pageant dress. His grandmother had “mistakenly” forgotten his baseball uniform. After the pageant Joey was a changed boy, the once macho attitude was gone. At school he stopped picking on other kids and hardly said a word to anyone. By the end of the season our team had won 12 and lost 2 games and easily beat the other teams to win the league championship.
In all of the excited of the baseball season Jill and I totally forget about the July 4th parade. Because our team won Jill and I would be allowed to ride on the league’s float and toss out candy. Barbara happily reminded us that the Queen of Diamonds and her court would be the float too. Poor Joey and the other boys were again dressed up in their fancy pageant dresses. Because of their girly dresses we had to help them on and off of the float. As the parade drove through town it was cute to watch Joey and other boy’s wave like girly pageant queens. When the parade was over Barbara asked Mrs. Donaldson and Joey to join as for ice cream. She said ok but first she needed to help Joey out of his pageant dress, we suspected to see him return wearing jeans or shorts, but instead the former macho bully returned wearing a white blouse and pink pleated skirt. When we arrived at the local ice cream shop, Jill and I were speechless as Joey gracefully smooth his skirt and sat with his hand nicely folded. Mrs. Donaldson compliment Joey by saying nicely down young lady. It was clear to everyone, that the fact Jill and I were wearing our baseball uniforms while Joey was in a skirt added to his misery.
After that night we hardly saw Joey the entire summer. He ended spending most of it up north with his father. By the time school started in the fall Joey has slipped back into his old habits, the sweet girly pageant queen had transformed back into the macho bully. We often saw Mrs. Donaldson yelling at Joey and his friends; the three of them always seemed to be getting into trouble. One day Joey and his friends tied to pick on Jill and me. Unlike the other kids we weren’t afraid of them and after school challenge the boys to a hitting contest. When we easily won, Jill and teased the boys telling them to go home and play with their dollies. Joey tried to get smart, we just laughed and told his friends about his pleated skirt outfit. Joey tried to deny everything saying we made it up. We continued teasing the boys until they got fed up and ran away.
As the new baseball season approached Jill and I were trilled and looking forward to another fun season. In addition to the 5 girls who had joined the previous year 10 more girls now sported baseball uniforms. In fear of what Barbara had planned this year the league board disbanded the traditional beauty pageant fundraiser instead adopting a different event. As the opening day came closer Jill and I noticed that Joey wasn’t around. Initially we though he joined a different team, but Barbara told us that Mrs. Donaldson hadn’t signed him up this year. At School Joey ignored us and ran away when we tried to talk to him. After we won our opening day game Jill and I decided to do some investigating to track down Joey. As we got closer to Mrs. Donaldson house we noticed a little girl having a tea party in the backyard. We peeked through the fence and saw a young girl with long hair tied in braids wearing an extremely short girlish back-button dress that was flared out by multiple layers of petticoats. Jill and I both looked at each other and said “No way is that Joey”, we watched as the girl poured tea for her collection of dolls. We couldn’t help it and started to laugh; this little girl noticed us and ran daintily into the house which caused her dress and petticoats to bounce up and down as she walked. Mrs. Donaldson came out and invited us in for some lemonade. As we talked to Mrs. Donaldson, Joey served us lemonade and cookies that he and his grandmother had made. Mrs. Donaldson explained that she had enough of Joey macho attitude and that he would be spending the entire summer learning how to be a proper young lady. After every game that summer, Jill and I would stop by Mrs. Donaldson’s house for lemonade. While, Jill and I talked about our latest baseball glory; Joey just sat there in his frilly dresses playing with dolls. His sexism comments about girls should be having tea parties instead of playing baseball had come back to haunt him. Mrs. Donaldson and us took every chance to remind Joey that he was the one wearing a dress and playing with dolls; while Jill and I were the baseball stars. At the end of the summer Mrs. Donaldson, her daughter and Joey packed up their car and moved to Seattle. After they moved, Jill mom received several post cards over the next few years from Mrs. Donaldson telling us all about how Josephine was adjusting to her new life. Much to her misery she was now taking ballet and jazz dance classes and had won the local little league “girl” beauty pageant. Jill and I still laugh sometimes remembering the look on Joey face after he won the Queen of Diamonds beauty pageant.
My experiences from growing up and helping defeat out dated sexist traditions. Has greatly aided me in my career first as a teacher and now as a grade school (K-6) school principle and administrator. I work for a public funded school system so unfortunately I never been able to utilize petticoat punishment. Over the years I have casually mentioned it to a few mothers of the more annoying alpha male students. On the flip side, I go out of my way to promote champion alpha girls encouraging them to play sports and excel in school. I have a great group of mothers who are very open minded. A few years back I convinced them to have an annual womanless pageant. Each year the pageant has grown in popularity and the moms go all out in dolling up their sons. My girl students are strong alpha females who love seeing the boys all prettied up and asked if we could have an additional pageant this year. I selected 2 girls from 4th through 6th grade and put them in charge of running and organizing the pageant. 3 additional girls will be judges. There will be 5 boy beauty queens per grade level, each boy will have a girl manager assigned who will be in-charge of selecting his outfit, hair styles, shoes, etc… I have turned the whole thing into a graded school assignment for the girls. It’s a great opportunity for them to learn teamwork and organizational skills. The Winning Girl-Boy pair will received a nice gift certificate to one of local stores.
Thanks again to Chris for giving me a chance to tell you about my childhood experiences and how they influence me to become a strong alpha female. I love to hear your comments and feedback.
Sam
Howdy all this is Sam, thanks to Chris for letting me tell you about a monumental event in my childhood that turned me into a strong alpha female and feminist. The events happen in the summer of 1979 when I was ten years old. A group of girls and me started a huge controversy in our small Mississippi town when we tried out for the boys little league ba
Jill and I ended up being drafted by the same team which was now coached by Barbara friend Henry. Coach Henry was nice guy who Barbara had in her back pocket. Jill was a pitcher and shortstop and I was the team’s catcher. Most of the boys in the league were jerks especially our teammate Joey. The macho brat would often tease Jill, I and the other girls telling us that we should be home playing with dolls and having tea parties. In his mind ba
Like many little leagues at the time ours had a nasty tradition that Jill and I hated of having an opening day beauty pageant for girls called the Queen of the Diamonds. These things are awful, instead of allowing girls to play ba
The Saturday before opening day Barbara had a special meeting for the mothers and boy contestants. Jill and I attended too and were responsible for handling out the pageant paperwork to the mothers. Mrs. Donaldson, Joey and his two best friends Bruce and Ron were in attendance, while Barbara explained the pageant rules Joey and his friend glared at Mrs. Donaldson and their mothers. It was clear all three boys were not happy and before the meeting was over they tried multiple times to get out of the pageant. The other boys looked like scared little kittens and stared in space not fully understanding what Barbara and their mothers were planning. The pageant rules were quite simple, all contestants would be required to wear a pageant or party style dress along with the appropriate accessories. The local children boutique and hairdressers were there offering half off coupons for dresses and wigs. Jill and I spent the whole time smirking and watching the boy’s reaction as the rules were explained. We were loving every minute; we never imagine seeing a boy wearing a dress let alone being forced to compete in girly beauty pageant. Joey and his buddies were particular distributed when it was explained that the boys would be required to show up wearing their outfits for opening day and only be allowed to change once the pageant was completely over. The final rule made Jill and I both burst out laughing. Each year the pageant queen along with her court of maids were required to attend the July 4 town parade. Since there were only 8 boys entered this meant all of them would be required to make up the court. To say the boys were speechless would be an understatement. After the meeting Mrs. Donaldson spent a significant amount of time talking to Mrs. Jameson who owned the local clothing boutique. Joey was very antsy and kept pestering his grandmother to leave. After he complained one to many times Mrs. Donaldson gave Joey three good smacks on his butt and made him stand in the corner for another 45 minutes while she finished talking to Mrs. Jameson. We would find out later that Mrs. Donaldson had long wanted to petticoat Joey but her daughter was always against it, thanks to the pageant she now had her chance to put Joey in his place.
Once word got out about the pageant the league quickly out-sold the previous three years of 50/50 tickets combined. Thanks to Mrs. Donaldson, Joey ended up missing the last two team practice before the season because of fitting for his pageant dress. With Joey out, this ensured Jill would become our team’s opening day pitcher. Jill and I were overly excited as opening day grower closer; we both had Saturday April 7 circled on our calendars from the day we signed up for the league. This day was especially memorable for Jill and her mom Barbara, Jill had tried for several years to join the league and her first ba
In all of the excited of the ba
After that night we hardly saw Joey the entire summer. He ended spending most of it up north with his father. By the time school started in the fall Joey has slipped back into his old habits, the sweet girly pageant queen had transformed back into the macho bully. We often saw Mrs. Donaldson yelling at Joey and his friends; the three of them always seemed to be getting into trouble. One day Joey and his friends tied to pick on Jill and me. Unlike the other kids we weren’t afraid of them and after school challenge the boys to a hitting contest. When we easily won, Jill and teased the boys telling them to go home and play with their dollies. Joey tried to get smart, we just laughed and told his friends about his pleated skirt outfit. Joey tried to deny everything saying we made it up. We continued teasing the boys until they got fed up and ran away.
As the new ba
My experiences from growing up and helping defeat out dated sexist traditions. Has greatly aided me in my career first as a teacher and now as a grade school (K-6) school principle and administrator. I work for a public funded school system so unfortunately I never been able to utilize petticoat punishment. Over the years I have casually mentioned it to a few mothers of the more annoying alpha male students. On the flip side, I go out of my way to promote champion alpha girls encouraging them to play sports and excel in school. I have a great group of mothers who are very open minded. A few years back I convinced them to have an annual womanless pageant. Each year the pageant has grown in popularity and the moms go all out in dolling up their sons. My girl students are strong alpha females who love seeing the boys all prettied up and asked if we could have an additional pageant this year. I selected 2 girls from 4th through 6th grade and put them in charge of running and organizing the pageant. 3 additional girls will be judges. There will be 5 boy beauty queens per grade level, each boy will have a girl manager assigned who will be in-charge of selecting his outfit, hair styles, shoes, etc… I have turned the whole thing into a graded school assignment for the girls. It’s a great opportunity for them to learn teamwork and organizational skills. The Winning Girl-Boy pair will received a nice gift certificate to one of local stores.
Thanks again to Chris for giving me a chance to tell you about my childhood experiences and how they influence me to become a strong alpha female. I love to hear your comments and feedback.
Sam
By:
RadicalFeminist
Age:
26-30
,
Female
