Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

By Laura Pappano

This is my son’s favorite sweatshirt – from when he was 3. My sister made it for his pink-Red Sox-guitar-themed birthday.

Now he’s 12. He doesn’t wear much pink, but neither does he avoid it. He grabbed a pink towel the other day to go swimming.

So why do I avoid filling up one of the pink water bottles as he heads for a soccer game?

It’s not that he will object; it’s that I am aware that guy-world is not – yet – really safe for pink. As a top scorer, kids get in his face, use the F-word and harass him. He recently told one non-stop trash-talker that Moammar Gadhafi wanted his personality back (I said he was 12, right?).

On the cusp of Father’s Day – once depicted on calendars by neckties, pipes, and golf clubs – we are having new conversations about being male in our society. A New York Times story described a more forward-thinking approach to parenting children who want to wear and play with what they want to play with. USA Today captured second-family Dads digging into parenting with less rigid gender roles.

Stereotypes, like my quiet pink avoidance, however, persist. News that college athletics departments are spending more despite budget cuts elsewhere only amplifies the fact that football and basketball increasingly take center stage in a college’s brand identification. This does nothing to reverse gender inequalities on or off the field (or in our children’s lives).

Over years of writing and talking about this issue, though, I am struck by a recurring experience: I cannot anymore count how many dads have stepped up to tell me about their daughters. Hockey players, go-cart racers, basketball stars, Little League pitchers. They are proud, even boastful.

Institutions – none more than organized sports — preserve an antiquated hierarchy of male privilege and power (and, of course, gender roles). But more Dads (and maybe boys who don’t get wigged out about pink) offer a fresh perspective.

There is a new way of being male. These men and boys see things differently. They aren’t loud, but neither are they afraid. It’s time we listened — and gave them credit.

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• SportsPLUS
• Family/Parenting

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• Happy Father`s Day

View Original Post at fairgamenews.com

View FGN's Full Profile