The Subtle Elision of Girls

2008 September 12 at 10:05 AM (2008, feminism, Gov. Sarah Palin, media)

In yesterday’s NYT, Kim Severson had an article, The Hockey Way of Life. It’s about the Palins’ eldest kid and their future son-in-law and how they played a lot of hockey, essentially. All fine and dandy, except that the summary blurb on the main page read

Hockey often keeps kids in Alaska on the straight and narrow, much the way football and basketball do in other places.

Football, basketball, and hockey keep “kids” on the straight and narrow, eh? I have a thing for rhetoric and precise speech, so I clicked through to see if the article was actually about “kids,” which come in more than one gender, or if “kids” was serving as shorthand for “boys.” Basketball and hockey can have both girls’ and boys’ teams, but I’ve never seen a girls’ football team, although there was always one or two girls on the team in my high school. Below the cut is a look at the article and how often it talks about boys while purportedly being an article on kids and children and how sports keep them “on the straight and narrow.”

WASILLA, Alaska — Like many parents here in the communities near Anchorage, Sarah Palin raised her older children in hockey rinks.

Powered on white mochas and an aerobics class or two, Ms. Palin, now the governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for vice president, would drive to rinks at all hours, children in tow. She sometimes ran the scoreboard, let hockey players from other cities sleep on the floor of her home and got involved in the management of her eldest son’s teams.

But last Friday night, two longtime and once promising young players — Ms. Palin’s eldest, Track, and her soon to be son-in-law, Levi Johnston — were absent from the hockey arena in Wasilla as the coaches made the final cuts for the new season of the area’s elite amateur team, the Alaska Avalanche.

“older children” – can refer to both Bristol and Track, so theoretically it could mean girls, too. However, as far as I know, Bristol doesn’t play hockey.

“eldest son’s” – boy

“longtime and once promising young players” – boys

Although hockey players enjoy a reputation as rowdy partiers at many high schools, the sport often keeps children here on the straight and narrow, much the way football and basketball do in other places. When Dan Johnston sold raffle tickets for his son’s team, his sales slogan was, “Help keep the kids on the ice and off the streets.

…

If football dominates Friday nights in rural Texas, hockey dominates here.

Are girls allowed to play high school football in Texas? Do they have the hypercompetitive leagues, funding, support, and attention that the more affluent boys’ teams do?

“children” – implies mixed-gender group

“son’s” – boy

“All of us basically raise our kids here from August to March,” said Donna Cooley, who has an out-of-town Avalanche player as a boarder and a 12-year-old son who plays. “We call the kids ‘rink rats,’ and we all miss each other when the season ends.”

“our kids” – implies mixed-gender group

“Avalanche player” – Avalanche is a boys’ team

“son” – boy

“kids ‘rink rats’” – implies mixed-gender group

Ms. Palin’s father was a popular cross-country coach. She was a high school basketball star who married Todd Palin, a high school jock who has remained an athlete as an adult. Mr. Palin is a four-time winner of the Iron Dog snowmobile race, something akin to Nascar elsewhere in terms of its local celebrity.

Wasilla’s four-year-old sports complex, where the Avalanche and other teams play, is a $15 million legacy from the days when Ms. Palin was mayor. The house that Sarah built — named after one of her best friends who died in a plane crash — was secured with a sales tax increase. And even before Track Palin was in elementary school, his parents had him on skates.

Sarah Palin – the first mention of a female athlete so far, and she played basketball, not hockey

“Track Palin” – boy

Parents with especially talented skaters or with enough money or both often do what the Palins eventually did with Track Palin: Write a check and send him to hockey development programs out of state. Housed with teammates, the boys go to local high schools and play on sponsored teams intended to attract attention from college recruiters.

“especially talented skaters” – can imply a mixed-gender group but refers to boys, given the “the boys go to local high schools…”

“There are some hockey moms who live their dream through their son,” he said. “Sarah wasn’t like that. She pretty much loved to watch her son and was engulfed with his level of play, but she let me coach.”

“son” – boy

Clearly, although the article purports to be about children and kids, what it’s really about is boys. No girls allowed. Every time it mentions kids, children, skaters, and groups that could theoretically be mixed-gender, the context clarifies that Severson and the people being quoted are actually referring to boys.

What bothers me is that talking about “kids” when you mean “boys” erases girls from the discussion. It assumes that the only kids that matter are boys; who cares what the girls are doing after school? Who cares if they’re playing sports? Who cares if they’re keeping “on the straight and narrow”? Girls don’t matter and are invisible – that’s what’s behind the rhetoric of using “kids” when you’re only talking about boys. If you’re going to talk exclusively about boys, use “boys.” If you’re going to talk about a mixed-gender group of kids, use “kids.” The two words are not synonymous. You’d never see an article that talked almost exclusively about girls using the word “kids” to refer to girls alone; “kids,” “people,” “humankind” and other words that theoretically denote a mixed-gender group of people are used to mean boys and men exclusively but never girls and women exclusively because maleness is constructed as the norm.

Words matter. Words shape thoughts and reality. Use them accurately and to say what you mean.