“She’s the Man”

Robert DeDonatis, Staff Writer

Women that play sports are usually judged because of their gender. However, some women strive to break those stereotypes by showing everyone that they are gifted at the sport they love playing. Women are just as capable as men and should be recognized for their abilities in the same manner that men are.

"Dani" Perez in blue, outselling her male opposition.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3306664/Footballers-Spain-shocked-learn-talented-opponent-woman.html
“Dani” Perez in blue, outselling her male opposition.

In an experiment conducted in Spain, Brenda Perez, a professional female soccer player dressed up as a male by putting on a face mold, complete with a beard and realistic wig and went by the alias, “Dani” Perez. Perez played against a male amateur team without anyone noticing that she was a girl until she finally took off her disguise. In fact, Perez scored most of the goals in the game.

“I think this was a great thing to test because it really gives a good perspective of everyone playing ability because none of the players knew she was a girl it makes it that much better,” sophomore Savannah Payne said.

Some of the best soccer players in the world are women.
http://tinyurl.com/or2vbk6
Some of the best soccer players in the world are women.

Some may say that this experiment was flawed because Perez is a professional soccer player who inherently had an advantage against the less experienced male players. Unfortunately for them, their skills were no match for the payed professional player “Dani” Perez and thus supported the experiment’s claim rather easily.

“As a soccer player myself, personally I think all players are equal unless there is a clear skill difference, I mean that a world class payed player is going to be much better than someone who just started playing the sport,” junior Alex Rabell said.

The significant skill gap between the professional female soccer player and the trainees should not matter because had they known she was a girl they would not have tried as hard to beat her. They probably would have also treated her differently so that they would not look bad for playing aggressive against a girl.

This social experiment serves as a key point of evidence that women are equal to men in the realm of sports and should be treated with the respect they deserve, and should not be considered inferior just because of their gender.