WRESTLING WITH STEREOTYPES GIRLS WRESTLING IS GAINING TRACTION AS ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWING SPORTS IN IOWA AS WEST HIGH STARTS AN INAUGURAL GIRLS WRESTLING SEASON.
BY HANAH KITAMOTO
A
t first glance, wrestling mats might look soft. That’s what people thought about female wrestlers. But if you take a closer look, both are extremely tough. It took decades of dodging stereotypes and doubters for girls to settle into the wrestling room. Forty years ago, female wrestlers took these steps for the first time. Julie VanDyke, who graduated from West in 1984, was one of the first female wrestlers in the U.S. to wrestle at the junior and high school level along with Caroline Lee ’84. VanDyke wrestled in 1980-81 as a ninth grader at Central Junior High in Iowa City, around eight years after Iowa ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972, recognizing the equal rights of every citizen regardless of their gender. However, this amendment didn’t have an immediate impact on society. “It was a lot different around [the 1980s],” Van-
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SPORTS DEC 20, 2019
Dyke said. “Iowa City had its first female firefighter, and she was fired for breastfeeding.” These types of discrimination in jobs and society transferred onto the wrestling mat and made it difficult for VanDyke and Lee to participate on the team. The duo experienced separation from the rest of their team during the season. “There were guys that intentionally didn’t make weight just so they wouldn’t have to wrestle us at meets,” VanDyke said. “They did not want us there.” Although there was a stigma around girls wrestling, it didn’t stop VanDyke from joining the team. “I think I may have wanted to do it partly because people said we couldn’t do it,” VanDyke said. After VanDyke’s first year of wrestling, the Iowa City Community School District stopped supporting athletes participating in sports dom-
“I AM PROUD OF DOING IT. I DON’T REGRET IT AT ALL .” -JULIE VANDYKE, HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLER