Soapbox: For those who say sexism doesn’t exist anymore, you’re wrong

Oh no, not another rant about sexism from an agitated woman. She probably doesn’t shave her legs, hates men and plays rugby. Well, the last one is true. And the first one every other week, but that’s just because I’m lazy and my shower has two temperatures: glacier and lava.

Anyway. What does rugby have to do with sexism? Allow me to explain.

Rugby culture is rich, colorful and, occasionally, crude. I love it. There is a song we sing after matches that assigns a theme to every day of the week. Monday’s a working day, Tuesday’s a practice day and Wednesday’s a … well, Wednesday’s another day. For the two years I have been playing rugby and singing this song, Saturday has been a rugby day. Some of the other days change depending on the team or region, but Saturday is always a rugby day. Until last week.

Last week, Sunday was a rugby day. The song says Sunday is the Lord’s day, and is sung more quietly with mock-reverence. But last week’s game and two more this season are scheduled on Sundays.

So? Loads of high school, college and professional athletes play Sunday games regularly, no problem. Whether athletes choose to play on Sundays or Saturdays or Thursdays is a personal decision. But there is a different problem: we don’t get a choice. In our women’s rugby union, we play league matches on Sundays because the experienced referees we need to call a fair game are occupied on Saturdays. Said referees work on Saturdays at high school, club and college rugby matches around the state — played by men’s teams.

Sexism happens in many forms, from blatantly obvious to less so. I do not think that the experienced referees are thinking to themselves, “I’m not going to work a women’s rugby game on Saturday because they are women and are therefore inferior athletes.” I do, however, recognize a subtle nevertheless disturbing inequality and discrimination based on gender. My team as well as other women’s club teams in our union must settle for Saturday games with subpar referees or sacrifice our Sundays to have games with fair calls. For those unfamiliar with rugby, just imagine how an inexperienced referee can throw a football game.

Our union scheduled games on Sunday because “referee shortages on Saturdays persist within the union and Sunday matches afford our women’s teams the potential for better assignments,” according to an email from Amy Rusert, our conference representative. Referee shortages do not persist in men’s rugby unions. Not all our players are personally comfortable with playing on Sundays; only 16 played last Sunday. Fifteen players are required for a full team, meaning we had only one substitute. (We still beat Idaho State University, 59-0.)

The point is not whether athletes should play on Sundays or not. The point is every team of any sport should have equal access to experienced referees, regardless of the days their games are scheduled and regardless of their gender.

This is a single experience that proves to me a depressing truth: sexism is still very real today. For further evidence, actress Emma Watson launched a global gender equality campaign called HeForShe at the United Nations headquarters this weekend.

“No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality,” she said in her speech. Watson, the Women Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, invited men to become advocates for gender equality and said they are also imposed upon by society to fulfill inaccurate requirements of “manliness.”

“We don’t want to talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are,” she said. “When they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive, women won’t be compelled to be submissive. If men don’t need to control, women won’t have to be controlled.”

If anyone can get the world to acknowledge the elephant on the globe that is gender equality, it’s the woman who so perfectly portrayed Hermione Granger. And if our world is such that we require a celebrity to call us to action, so be it. I’ll join my voice with Watson’s: recognize the problem and be a part of the solution.

— Noelle Johansen loves books, puzzles and naps. She’s a senior in Spanish and print journalism. Follow her on Twitter @broelle and send fan mail to noellejohansen@gmail.com.