Feminism in Hockey

Feminism is alive and well in 2014, according to Robin Morgan’s article titled “Feminist is a 21^st Century Word. A review of history illustrates how powerful women have been and their impact on major social issues in the United States since its existence. Women have led the way in their support of equality, environmentalism, and peace. Their efforts have not always been popular, particularly with the establishment whose efforts to deny women equal rights continue to this day. With the help of the Internet, we can experience the feminist voice across the globe. Feminism has not always been seen as cool but right now, it is very hot.

So what about feminism in hockey? I can say from personal experience, growing up as a girls’ hockey we always got crap from the boys our age about not being as good as them. In the article titled, “Women’s Hockey: Not So Equal After All”, Bert Perry states, “they can’t skate nearly as forcefully or quickly as their male counterparts, nor do they shoot the puck as hard or as-accurately as men do. They also lack the ability to stop, turn and reverse direction as well as male players” (Perry, 2014). While that may be true, it doesn’t mean that women don’t enjoy the game as much as men do. I think that men need to stop giving off the impression that they are superior to women just cause they can skate faster or shoot harder.

Now lets talk about the girls who are called “Puck Sluts”. If you don’t know what that is, they’re girls that have never played hockey a day in their lives, but they are the BIGGEST fans ever. They practically drool over hockey players, just because they play hockey. I don’t know if they hope to become NHL wives one day, or just want to act like they know the game for attention. What I do know is that calling them Puck Sluts isn’t okay. Slut is a derogatory term that shouldn’t be used so casually, or at all.

So in conclusion, I guess you could say that there are feminists in hockey. I’m sure the term “Puck Slut” just burns their ears every time they hear it. I’m also pretty confident in saying that feminists that do play hockey get so upset that their face turns purple where they hear guy hockey players say they are better in everyway than the girl players.

 Perry, Brett. "Women's Hockey: Not So Equal After All." The Thinking Housewife. Web. <http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2014/02/womens-hockey-not-so-equal-after-all/>.

 Morgan, Robin. "Robin Morgan on Why 'Feminist' Is a 21st Century Word." Time. Time. Web. <http://time.com/3588846/time-apologizes-feminist-word-poll-robin-morgan/>.