In essence, a high school boy in Wisconsin dances with his high school competition team. They traveled to a meet in Minnesota where he was not allowed to participate because dance is a “girls sport”.
We have had cases before where a girl wants to participate in a sport that is only offered for boys.
I think he should be allowed to dance and any other boy. In my memory there has been just one boy at our high school that wanted to be on the team. I think that was before it became a sport and not a club.
It’s depressing that there still have to be disputes about such things. Of course he should be allowed to be on the team if he’s a good enough dancer to qualify.
Let the boy dance. What do they mean dance is a “girls sport”? Haven’t they ever been to the ballet, or any number of professional dance troupe performances? Cheer competitions? Broadway plays?
I follow the national high school and college cheer/dance championships. It is common to see one male student on a high school squad. What a shame that the adults involved in this matter couldn’t see past their assumptions. Dance is a field where no gender has an inherent advantage.
I absolutely support boys participating in dance teams. D’s HS team had one guy but it was not an issue here because dance was considered a “club” activity rather than a sport (which I disagreed with BTW).
This is not a Title IX issues, or at least we don’t know that there aren’t as many opportunities for boys as girls at this school. Title IX doesn’t say that a girl can play on a boys team if there is no girl’s team, or that the school has to have a girl’s team. It says there have to be equal opportunities. If a school decides to sponsor a boy’s wrestling team and a girl’s dance team, that may meet Title IX goals. Most schools do not have girl’s football. Many do not have boy’s gymnastics and it’s not going to be fixed by allowing boys to join the girl’s team. If the school has an even number of boys and girls, and offers 100 spots for female athletes and 100 spots for males, it is meeting Title IX goals. If all 100 of those boys spots are on the football team and the girls have 10 spots on 10 different sports, that’s an issue for the school board to take up, not for the Dept of Education.
My guy almost joined the dance team but it conflicted with theater. Still he took dance lessons for eight years and is on a ballroom dance club at university. It hard for boys be the only boy in class when they’re young. You have to be stubborn and determined and thick skinned. Let him dance, Minnesota!
I think there can be all girls squads and teams, there can be all male squads and teams and there can be co-ed squads and teams. I don’t think everything has to be co-ed. If the event was for girls/women and that was understood and a requirement then he didn’t belong at that competition. Actually I find the whole topic interesting because I made and participated on a boy’s team in high school (before Title IX). Things were ALOT easier before Title IX in my opinion. No one batted an eyelash if you were able to make the cut, other than I never had a locker room to use or freshen up in, but no one said anything because there were no rules generally just surprise when we showed up on the bus. Sometimes “rules” are a detriment.
He goes to a high school in Wisconsin but they cross a bridge and play in an athletic district in Minnesota. I’d imagine Minnesota’s high school athletic board establishes what is allowed and what isn’t (ex., in the article it said the Wis school couldn’t participate in lacrosse because the state doesn’t support lacrosse, so even if the Minn schools in the district play lacrosse, the Wisc school is ineligible). If the Wisconsin schools don’t want to follow the Minn rules, they can organize their own athletic district and set their own rules (under the Wis high school athletic association). I’m assuming this high school in Superior wants to be part of the Minn district because it is just a trip across the bridge and they can find other high schools of a similar size and level of competition. Other schools on the Wisconsin side of the river are probably much smaller or much (much) farther away.
I think it is going to vary state by state which is confusing. Our state does not restrict to girls only. Competing boys don’t have an advantage. Obviously, Wisconsin knows Minnesota’s rules now. Neither the dance or lacrosse teams from Wisconsin are eligible to compete in Minnesota since they are not state recognized. But beyond this minutia of state laws and rules which aren’t the important part are challenges to the stereotypes of what is acceptable as a boy or girl. The featured Wisconsin boy’s family stated that they know Minnesota boys who would like to challenge the rules but are afraid of being bullied.
This reminds me of a hilarious conversation I had with a friend at work a while back. I forget what we were talking about, but he was a football player in college. He said something like, “If I had a chance to do it over, screw football, I would’ve done song and dance.” We were probably on the subject of successful actors that can sing and dance (e.g. Hugh Jackman, Ryan Gosling); or maybe we were talking about skills for impressing women…
I always told my son that the best way to impress girls is to learn to dance and cook. He did both.
I’m not sure if this is a “club vs sport” argument (which sounds like what they want it to be) or “boys don’t belong on the dance team”.
Had the team competed in MN before? Why would they be going to a competition if dance wasn’t even illegible to compete?
There have been converse issues, where there was a girl on a boys soccer team and she was not allowed to play in certain tournaments.
The main problem I have with dance and step and music/arts in general is that in my district, it is an excuse to infuse religion into a public school. I kid you not.