Heather O’Dell // Staff Writer
Amanda Lorenzo, a junior studying logistics, played softball her whole life and said she felt she never got the credit a baseball player would get.
“We do the same thing,” said Lorenzo. “We play just as hard, we’re dedicated just as much time, and we get just as less of credit.”
Lorenzo also said when it came to sponsoring, men’s sports receive more funds than women’s sports.
“I played softball since I was in middle school and all throughout high school,” she said. “I noticed how funding always went toward men’s sports and never the women’s. It always bothered me.”
Katie Garcia, a sophomore studying psychology, said she feels the same misjudgment other women in athletics feel.
“I am a dancer and it bothers me when people tell me that I am not an athlete because ‘dance’ isn’t a sport,” said Garcia. “I go to practice every day and condition my body. I may not be on a field or a court, but that doesn’t me that dancing isn’t a sport. I hate it when guys say dancing is ‘girly’. Because I am ‘girly’ does that underestimate what I do?”
The phrase “like a girl” has become something regularly said. You throw ‘like a girl’. You run ‘like a girl’. ‘Like a girl’ translates into doing an action poorly or not as well. There are women athletes who do not get credited with how well they perform because of their gender.
“I challenge any guy to come take a ballet class or participate in any women’s athletic programs,” said Garcia. “Maybe after that I can start saying ‘like a boy’.”
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