When Will the Fabrications End?
In the Florida Times-Union, we learn that “Boys aren’t being hurt by Title IX” even though male and female athletes, think–tankers and government lawyers prove otherwise. We are told that Title IX enforcement is not akin to a quota despite the widespread implementation of artificial, rigid limits on the number of male athletes allowed to play and receive scholarships at the university level (coming soon to a high school near you). We are forced to accept that the author’s preferred parenting style is appropriate and applicable to use when determining what sports are added and/or dropped, although the correlation completely ignores the rationale behind Title IX. And finally, young adults are insulted with the notion that they somehow are incapable of filling out schools’ surveys to signal their interest (or lack thereof) in sports.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the senior director of advocacy at the Women’s Sports Foundation and professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law, is behind this nonsensical, erroneous op-ed. Through spin and rhetoric typical of the Women’s Sports Foundation , she attempts to rebut an honest, logical, heartfelt letter also published in the Florida Times-Union, that calls for an end to harmful regulations like proportionality. However, Hogshead-Makar blunders, not only the details of her response, but also in calling the letter “anti-Title IX.”
Nowhere does the author, Christina Lanier Hobbs, ask for the repeal of Title IX. In fact, her only call to action is a simple one: To “reflect on the progress that has been made in terms of opportunities for girls and women but also look for way to protect men’s programs so that our sons aren’t denied athletic opportunities by an unfair quota system that doesn’t take into account student interests.”
It’s a shame that merely reflecting on how schools have carried out Title IX is a sin to some people.