Throwing a Curveball to Society
The reality of being a woman in the sports industry.
Podcast by McKenna Andersen
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/klipsun-magazine/throwing-a-curveball-to-society[/embed]
Podcast Transcript
McKenna Andersen: Hello! And welcome to Klipsun Out Loud, podcasts from the summer 2021 edition of Western Washington University’s award-winning student magazine, Klipsun. This edition’s theme is Limitless, and I’m your host McKenna Andersen. Today’s topic is breaking the stereotype, and joining us today is Talia Demich. Talia received many opportunities to play collegiate softball and she came close to signing with a team in Pennsylvania, but at just 20 years old she decided to stay local and become a firefighter. Talia, thanks for being here.
Talia Demich: Hi Kenna, thanks for having me.
McKenna: OK so just to start the conversation off, I was wondering if you could tell us about a time where you felt you were breaking the common stereotype within your sport.
Talia: For sure, one time I felt as if I was breaking a barrier was when I decided to play football. Obviously, it’s a male dominant sport and very masculine sport, and definitely at first, I could tell that me being a female was not wanted. We would do drills where one person would lay down on their back with the football, and the other person would lay down on their back and then you have to stand up and then run at each other. All of the guys would refuse to play against me, or the coach would put in the tiniest player against me, even if that was a kid who was younger than me. I finally had an open discussion with them [her coaches] saying “Hey, I decided to sign up for this sport. I’m the one who made the decision, I know of the injuries, I know of how uncomfortable it could be to hit a woman because people are taught not to hit women. But I signed up for it, this is what I’m asking for. Can you guys please just play it even? I want it to be as equivalent as possible.”
McKenna: OK I see, so how did the coaches respond to this conversation that you wanted to have with them?
Talia: They were mostly supportive; I think that they made the argument that most of the boys were put in an uncomfortable position by me being on the team. And I think that was definitely discussed throughout our talk; however, they ended up completely understanding my side and throwing me into the game, allowing me to get hurt because I feel as if you can’t get better unless you learn your lesson. The more I was tackled, the more I understood what wrong steps I was taking in order to be tackled. They were extremely supportive over my decision in the end, and allowed me to learn the sport and play it for the year that I played with as much passion as I possibly could have.
McKenna: I’m happy to hear that they responded in a positive way; now did you play any other sports where conversations like this, people didn’t respond in a positive way?
Talia: 100% as a woman you play sports, and you are always compared to men’s sports. A stereotype that was not listened to very well was definitely when I played softball. The bases are 60 feet apart, and in baseball the bases are 90 feet apart, so the men were like “We have to work harder to get to the base.” Then you go on to the sizes of the balls and in reality, we are both working equally hard. We are equally as passionate, we are putting in as much effort as possible to play a sport that we love, and still women’s athleticism is so undermined due to the measurements of the field. Although, we’re putting in every ounce of effort that we possibly could.
McKenna: So, you put in the equal effort in these stereotypes and still disregarded that, did these remarks ever affect you playing your sports?
Talia: Yes, they did, but in a positive way. When a boy was faster than me, I wanted to beat him, so I worked harder to be faster and stronger to be able to be equal to a boy. I wanted to lift 60 pounds if he was able to lift 60 pounds and run to a base in 1.9 seconds if he was able to run to a base in 1.9 seconds. It was just how I responded to it. Of course, that’s not how everybody responds, right?
McKenna: Unfortunately, yeah everyone responds differently. A mass majority of women tend to respond negatively to these stereotypes and it’s causing women to participate in sports less and less. When in reality, they should use that as motivation, but it shouldn’t happen at all but unfortunately it does.
Talia: Yeah, and I completely agree it literally should not happen at all. I don’t think that if somebody is working just as hard as you, if they are at practice every day and they are pushing out as much energy as they can just to be better for their sport. And they show their passion — they show their want, then they shouldn’t be made fun of for that in any way. No matter if they are the skinniest kids you know.
McKenna: Critiques shouldn’t be different, you know? Boy’s baseball versus girl’s baseball, it’s baseball.
Talia: Critique your own self in your own sport and critique yourself on how to get better. Not other people — I mean teach people but don’t tell them who they are and what they can do. That’s kind of what these stereotypes do, it tells you what you are capable of. Oh yeah, you’re really good at softball, but after college your entire career is over. That’s literally how people respond to softball, they don’t even know that there are pros or national teams for it; and that’s really sad to me. Women always give up — they go to college but think there’s no point in me playing in college because I have no life in softball after it. I would just be putting in effort for nothing. I won’t get something out of it, and that saddens me.
McKenna: Well Talia, thank you again for joining us today. That’s it for this edition of Klipsun Out Loud podcasts for the summer 2021 edition of Western Washington University’s student magazine, Klipsun. Thanks for listening!