by Maya Jex
Produced for the Web by Yael Bizouati

Even harder for the New York Sharks than overcoming skepticism, financial crises and structural difficulties in the Women’s Professional Football League, has been the struggle to win public acceptance for women involved in a sport so heavily associated with testosterone, beer and bodily injury.

Football, said Andra Douglas, team owner and occasional quarterback, is "the last bastion" left for women athletes to conquer.

"People say ‘how could a woman take a hit like that?'" said Crystal Turpin, the Sharks’ assistant general manager, bemoaning the difficulty of getting the public behind the idea of women playing professional football. "But we run track, play basketball, baseball, lacrosse and have babies. We're just as physical as men."

The challenges are still daunting, among them, the stubborn and subversive stereotype that "only butchy girls play sports." The Sharks come in every size, weight, age, race and sexual orientation and hold down day jobs from lawyers to construction workers, from architects to cops. As one of eight franchises in the Women's Professional Football League, the team completed its first full season in March with a 4-2 record, playing full-contact tackle football with the same rules as the NFL, only with a slightly smaller ball. In such a setting, the "dyke" stigma is hard to shake.

As Pat Griffin, the author of "Strong Women, Deep Closets," put it, "The more lesbians are made invisible, the more the stereotype of lesbians as sex predators is allowed to stand. It sets out the stereotype that women athletes have something to fear in lesbian coaches and older athletes." Griffin, a former coach, is a professor at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The terror also spreads to parents who then become wary of allowing their daughters to play sports for fear their daughters will become lesbians by association. This fear also harms young female athletes, both lesbian and straight, who don't want to be associated with what they perceive to be negative stereotypes.

"Why say it's a non-issue?" Griffin said. "Why not just say yes, there are lesbian players rather than brushing it off?" She pointed out that divisions can develop between athletes through such denials.

Griffin said that the WNBA recently made available a list of married and engaged players, pointing out the fact that the league, where no women are openly gay, felt a need to distribute such a list is telling.

"And the list isn't that long," said Griffin.

The Sharks have done their bit to break down stereotypes tagged to women athletes, by making athletic ability – not the sexuality of various players -- paramount.

Turpin added, "Players are coming to games with their kids and husbands and sometimes women come out with their girlfriends. Sexuality is not an issue and I can't see that it would become one. We have all kinds of women, people in relationships whether they be with men or women, positive people that have lives and futures."

Brandeis University Lacrosse team.

The Sharks represent one facet of a new attitude in the world of women's sports. Tina Ho, co-founder of the lacrosse club at Brandeis University, represents another. "It's nice to get dressed up and have people see your muscles and say 'she's an athlete, that's sexy.' Culturally, we're in a time where it's much more acceptable to be a strong, solid girl. We should celebrate that," she said. Ho is part of a generation of young athletic women who are ready to own their sexuality and power.

However, when Ho's team voted to give up their new shorts for the more traditional kilt, she felt that they were caving to external pressures.

"Skirts in women's sports were something that was imposed on us in the past. It's ironic that Brandeis has given us the power to choose our uniforms and we have chosen not to exercise our power. It's purely a decorative piece of clothing."

Ho said that one of the arguments the team made in favor of kilts was that they were out there to "play as women" and not to "sacrifice their femininity," an argument she finds ridiculous.

"I hate to say it, the team was really excited about looking cute on the field," she said. "It belittles our whole experience out there and makes me embarrassed. It totally goes against the progressive spirit of female athletics."

Despite what she believes is the conformist attitude of her teammates, Ho has not let go of her convictions, even making a speech to her teammates before their first game and writing an editorial about the decision for the school newspaper.

"Still, I am the only person who plays in shorts," she said. "I felt really disappointed about that. I thought that if I played in shorts more women would be inspired to. I lead by example that is all I can really do."

Pat Griffin believes women's sports as a whole would benefit from a more open dialogue about homosexuality in the athletic world. She thinks a willingness from professional athletes to be open about their homosexuality would have positive long-term results.

"In the short run, there's an adjustment period, but if you read the stories of famous athletes that have come out, not one regrets the decision," Griffin said. "It provides the people around them with a chance to grow and learn rather than live in ignorance. There are more ‘out’ young athletes coming into college and going into the professional ranks than ever before. They are out and they are not going back in. They have more of a sense of entitlement and are not afraid to use the legal system."

Athletes such as tennis player Amelie Mauresmo have come out of their own accord, rather than in response to an "outing" either by the press or a former lover.

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