Post Editorial Tackles Faulty Title IX Implementation

Feminist-enforced Title IX harms male, female athletes

It’s been more than two months since the Ohio University Athletics Department unceremoniously dumped four sports teams from its program, and the outrage among student athletes and supporters has not subsided. Unfortunate¬ly, they’re not alone. OU is one of many schools that has eliminated sports teams in compliance with Title IX, the federal statute feminists use to dictate their vision of “gender equality” in college athletics.

On Jan. 24, Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt announced the elimination of men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s swimming and diving and women’s lacrosse. In addition to budget constraints, Hocutt cited Title IX as the reason for the cuts, describing them as the first steps in “the development of a comprehensive gender equity plan.”

Title IX, first implemented in 1972, forbids sex discrimination in schools that receive public funds. The original statute said nothing about sports, let alone quotas or strict gender proportionality in athletic programs. But feminist busybodies in the Carter administration invented the “proportionality test,” which dictates that the proportion of men and women in college athletics must be roughly equal to that of the student population.

Proportionality is one of three ways that schools can demonstrate compliance with Title IX. Schools can also comply by proving they have “continually expand¬ed” athletic opportunities for women or that female athletes’ interests have been “adequately accommodated,” according to the NCAA’s Web site. However, since the other two conditions are highly subjective, proportionality is the only option guaranteed to prevent Title IX lawsuits.

Unfortunately, gender proportionality in sports is in direct conflict with human reality. Every reasonable person realizes that men are generally more interested in athletics than women — a fact that remains easily measurable despite decades of feminist bullying.

For example, a Brown University study of incoming college freshmen found that 50 percent of men expressed interest in joining a sports team, but only 30 percent of women did. According to the Media Research Institute’s Web site, 75 to 80 percent of ESPN viewers are men. And, according to the NCAA, the vast majority of “walk-on” college athletes are men. Walk-ons are non-scholar¬ship students who try out for a team after recruitment has concluded. The fact that many more men than women are willing to sit on the bench for years, with little chance of starting in a game, says some¬thing about men’s relative interest in sports. Women athletes might be just as dedicated to their sport as men, but they are fewer in number.

This gender disparity seems to bother no one except the ruthless busybodies responsible for enforcing Title IX. Count¬less teams have been eliminated to create the illusion that women are just as eager as men to play sports. A recent report by the College Sports Council found that 2,200 men’s teams have been eliminated since 1981.

In addition to cutting men’s teams, many universities create women’s teams for sports that are easy to learn (such as crew) and offer athletic scholarships to students with no experience, according to a 2005 Eagle Forum report. As hundreds of male athletes lose their scholar¬ships after years of hard work, women get full rides for sports they’ve never played. This is the feminists’ idea of “fairness.”

Of course, some feminists have other motives for supporting a law that forces elimination of male teams. The Feminist Majority Foundation had this to say about men’s sports on its Web site: “By encouraging boys to become aggressive, violent athletes, and by encouraging girls to cheer for them, we perpetuate the cycle of male aggression and violence against women.”

Ironically, the bureaucrats dictating “gender equity” in college sports have also inadvertently hurt female athletes. Since Title IX reduces athletics to a numbers game, departments often cut teams indiscriminately until they achieve pro¬portion — and some of the axed athletes are women.

It’s time for students to pressure Congress to ban the proportionality test from Title IX enforcement. College athletic departments should be able to address the unique needs of student athletes as they see fit, without being forced to fill arbitrary quotas. The gender-equity police may be displeased with human nature, but that doesn’t give them the right to destroy teams that men — and women — love.

Ashley Herzog is a junior journalism major. Send her an e-mail at ah103304@ohiou.edu.