The great Lady debate

I know I am going to ruffle more than a few feathers with this one, but I can't keep quiet anymore.

Enough with the Lady (enter mascot here) business.

This isn't aimed at any one team in particular, and I know historically there are college teams that have used to moniker forever - the Lady Vols at Tennessee, the most obvious example - and I know a lot of our local high school teams use it, too.

But I can't stand it.

The Lady Tide and the Tide are the same thing, so why the Lady? The Crimson Tide are the Crimson Tide. You don't hear anyone call the boys team the Man Tide or the Boy Tide or the Gentleman Tide. The girls teams are just as much the Crimson Tide as the boys are. Same with the Raiders, Highlanders, Solons, Trojans, Wildcats, Blue Devils, Red Devils, Gumbies, Warriors, Phoenix, Marauders, Galloping Ghosts, Hilltoppers, Indians, Vikings, Rebels, Seahorses, Presidents, Cosmos, Catamounts, Cadets, Green Knigts, Eagles, Golden Horde (what IS a Golden Horde, for that matter?), Mounties, Minutemen, Colonels, Terriers, Patriots, Hornets, Wasps, Yellow Jackets, Yellowjackets, Phantoms, Cougars, Red Hawks, Raptors, Badgers, Spartans, Chargers, Crusaders, etc. 

At the Aud a few years back, the Lake Region girls basketball team wore jerseys that said 'Lady Rangers' across the front. I remember making a loud complaint about it in the press box, echoing my argument above. I said, "The boys teams aren't called the 'Man Rangers!' And one of my sports media compatriots responded with, 'Wouldn't they be the Mangers?' Exactly.

In college, one of the first things we journalism students were taught was to drop the Lady. They weren't the Springfield College Lady Pride, they were the Pride, just like the men's teams. 

Of course there are schools that use two different mascots for the boys teams and the girls teams - BFA-St. Albans uses Bobwhites for the boys and Comets for the girls, but that's because the boys are named after an actual BFA coach, Bob White, and the girls are named for the same reason, after longtime coach Dario Comi. And I am pretty sure MSJ uses both the Mounties and the Green Wave, though I'm not sure the Rutland-area Catholic school uses the nicknames in terms of boys and girls.

I don't mean to offend anyone, nor do I mean to sound like an uber-feminist. But really. They are the Blue Devils whether they're playing boys soccer or softball. 

Your thoughts?

-Anna Grearson

Comments

[One Coach]

Stop being a "Lady" reporter. Just Joking! I agree with you 100%! After all I would not want to be a "Man" Coach.