The Odd Girl Out on the Field

With the beginning of the World Cup last week, the ongoing U.S. Open in golf, and last night's Game 7 of the NBA Finals, it is a big time for the sports world. Lots of the bars around my house are opening up extra early to make sure they show all of the World Cup games and have been staying open extra late to accommodate the abnormally large Tuesday crowds who show up to cheer for the Celts. It's difficult not to get swept up in the excitement, but it is equally as hard to be taken seriously as a sports fan as a girl. Especially in a town like Boston.

I get it.  Men use sports as a bonding tool. It is a way for them to share a common interest or conversational tool in order to bring them closer. Many guys aren't comfortable talking about personal things with people they've known their whole lives- let alone the guy they just plopped down next to at the bar; thus, it makes sense that talking about last night's game would be a good way to break the ice. Sports are not a personal opinion nor are they an embarrassing thing to get riled up about- thus, perfect guy bar talk.

But where does this leave us girls?

I love sports. It's hard to grow up in Red Sox Nation without a strong allegiance. I've been watching football since before I can remember. My mom and I used to make Wimbledon a yearly event. I've watched more baseball games than the average person twice my age. I even used to play ice hockey. But if I open my mouth about sports at a bar, typically all I get are dirty looks and pandering responses. "Oh, is that what your boyfriend told you to think about what happened in Game Five, honey?" No actually- that's my own personal opinion derived from years of watching sports, thank you very much.

So why is it that men can almost never take a girl's passion about sports as anything other than a sign that she's either been spoon-fed the opinion or that she's a poser? Over the past couple championship runs I've developed a theory. Because men use sports as their own personal bonding subject and as a way to enhance the male band, it is quite a shock and a disruption when a girl tries to join the game. The fact that males have almost no other topics to fall back upon (save possibly for what they do for a living) makes sports the most sacred of all bar conversations. If the lone girl in the group tries to voice her opinion, to the men, she is not simply joining the conversation, but rather, challenging the relationship of the men in the group.

Although not many of them realize it, I've come to notice that the topic of sports is a territorial conversation topic- one that is innately without controversy brought on by anything other than location. If everyone simply agrees that the play was amazing, it doesn't matter which team you were rooting for. Girls do not see sports in this way; at least I know that I don't. It doesn't matter how good a play Jeter makes, I will never utter a single word of admiration for that man for as long as we both live. Unless, he were to be traded to the Red Sox, of course. To men, it is more about the level of play and the general consensus of admiration from the group; for women, it is about results and being entertained.

I know that I will always be the girl stuck in the middle of the men's game, but at least for now, I can still get the occasional free beer out it.