I loved this. Also it makes me more hopeful about the Rabbit books than I had been previously. Also Ürboss said that it, rather than Hamlet, would be sufficient preparation for Something Rotten.
Several weeks ago the small but valiant Lymeline in Old Lyme called the high school girls' soccer team the "lady" Wildcats. I had, months before when the site was new and the editor debating whether to continue her effort, written to say oh yes please do, how can I help, because I need my hometown news.
So I wrote again:
I still love LymeLine and I appreciate the job you do. But please, no "lady" Wildcats unless there are "gentleman" Wildcats as well.
I'm pretty sure it was this article, which the editor has since modified. She asked if she could publish my letter, and I said I hadn't intended it as a public letter to the editor but to go ahead if she thought it would spark useful debate.
The girls' soccer coach and my ninth-grade history teacher responded:
The girls of the seventies and eighties enjoyed this title, and proudly became, over the years, a very good program in their own right.
If the UConn Lady Huskies, the national champions for three years straight, can deal with this endearment, I think then we can too.
Editor’s Note: The writer is the Athletic Director of Regional School District 18, which comprises the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme.
The Usual Suspects have toughened me up, and I earned a 95 on his mid-term examination, back when I could recite all the Roman emperors in chronological order. This hasn't been posted yet:
The need in 1975 to market and distinguish the new girls' team from the existing boys-only team no longer exists: girls' sport programs are well-established and funded on a par with boys' teams. To the extent, if any, that girls' teams may not be respected as much as boys' teams, to discriminate between Wildcats by gender only perpetuates the notion that one gender is other or lesser. When "Wildcats and Gentleman Wildcats" sounds no sillier than "Wildcats and Lady Wildcats," then might equity have been reached.
In all content at www.uconnhuskies.com, a commercial site for UConn athletics, the UConn teams are called the women's or men's sport (unless only one sex participates: baseball is just baseball and softball just softball). In this article, while the Huskies are called simply Huskies, the Tennesse team is called the Lady Vols. For one institution to do a wrong thing does not justify another's doing that same wrong thing; but [Coach] did commit that fallacy, so by his logic, should not LOLHS shun the designation of UConn's chief rival?
Following another institution's lead is no excuse not to think for oneself. I don't assert that the girls' teams be "Wildcats" because the UConn women are "Huskies"; I do so because that is fair and equal.
I don't recall that the girls' teams were called Lady Wildcats during my tenure at LOLHS (class of 1986). When I first alerted the editor (not the "lady" editor) of this site to my concern, she responded that she had used "Lady" only to distinguish one article (about a girls' game) from the previous (about a boys' game), but not because it is the actual team name. Between that admission and my (possibly not all-inclusive) memory, I doubt that "Lady Wildcats" is even the LOLHS girls' teams' official designation. It seems not, from this site. The Wildcat Booster Club's page is blank, but the LOLHS handbook says that the Club "is an organization of adult members established to support the school athletic programs and to help recognize excellence in Lyme-Old High School varsity athletic competition." Though it is called "the Wildcat Booster Club," not "the Wildcat and Lady Wildcat Booster Club," I am sure its mission is to forward both boys' and girls' teams.
All of the above paragraph suggests to me that the "lady" Wildcat headline which I challenged in Lymeline.com is not LOLHS policy but was a formatting choice on Lymeline's editor's part. If I am wrong and "Lady WIldcat" is and continues to be LOLHS's policy, then I hope students might consider the implications and petition to change their team's name.
