Kendall Schofield was the first woman to be able to shred up the ice at the 2019 NHL All-Star weekend. Schofield was not able to beat her male competitor, Connor David, but was still able to beat Clayton Keller and win over the crowd with her impressive efforts in the male dominated show. Despite having a great experience out on the ice, Schofield still came under fire by sportscaster Pierre McGuire’s strong statement–“Nobody wants to lose to you.”–suggesting that losing to a girl is too damaging for a man’s self-esteem.
McGuire’s comment was not intended to be malicious, but it still takes away from the spotlight and praise Schofield deserves. In this day and age, I feel as though we should encourage the process we are making with women in sports and leave such childish ideas of a man’s ego being hurt by a girl beating.
As the sport of ice hockey is primarily viewed as a male dominated sport, it is slowly changing everyday with the efforts of women like Kendall Coyne. The statement that “Power and performance sports are historically grounded in the values and experiences of men, and they use evaluative standards that disadvantage women.” (Coakley & Donnelly, 2009) illustrates what McGuire was doing to Coyne, evaluating standard of skill of men and women.
Citation: Coakley, J. and Donnelly, P. (2009). Issues and Controversies Sports in Society. Toronto, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Chelsea Kenny
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 