I was at a gathering last August and, not knowing many people, I stood alone in the kitchen waiting for a conversation to jump into. After a while, two older guys started talking about the Flyers so I had to ask what they thought about the Chris Pronger trade which went down a couple months before. They looked at me like I was crazy. Silence. So I asked them what they thought about Mike Knuble signing with Washington and they said they felt bad for Knuble since the Flyers were going to win the Stanley Cup in 2010 since they have Pronger now. Then, very much on purpose, they turned their backs to me and continued their conversation.

I understand the problem that female sports fans encounter. It’s essentially the same problem which women encounter just about everywhere, with just about everything. I’ve also been edged out of conversations regarding computers, politics, entertainment…basically anything that’s not about cooking or cleaning. What’s funny is that I’m a terrible cook and a total slob but I certainly have more than a few educated things to say about Pronger and Knuble.

I’ve been encouraged to blame other women for this. I seriously didn’t know what a “Puck Bunny” was until maybe a year ago. I actually thought it was kind of cute. I thought maybe it just meant a girl who likes hockey. My husband made a joke about me having a crush on a player and my friend Stephanie asked “Are you calling her a Puck Bunny?!” I didn’t get it at first. What’s wrong with that? I like bunnies. Apparently, however, I should not like Puck Bunnies because they are part of why men at parties turn their backs on women who really just want to talk about hockey. The girls and women who fall into the Bunny category are basically those who don’t care at all about the sport or the rules, they just want to mess around with hockey players. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is their right. I can’t get on board with scolding someone else’s choice, even if the way they portray themselves effects me. And I think the anger and vitriol that many women direct toward the Puck Bunnies only enforces another stereotype. So now it seems that women only like hockey for the men AND they’re bitter and catty toward each other. By the way, I saw Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s girlfriend on a talk show last week and apparently the NASCAR version of a Puck Bunny is a Pit Lizard. So, ladies, let’s be glad nobody is likening us to a greasy reptile.

As I get older, it seems I’m less worried about these things. Do I roll my eyes at the woman wearing a wedding dress and a “Marry Me Sidney!” sign? I do. Do I laugh at the barely-legal girls at games wearing tank tops and booty shorts and are visibly freezing their asses off inside the rink? I totally do. But am I mad at them? I’ve tried, but I just can’t be. Of course I wish that more people would respect women as readily as they respect men, but I wish that across the board; not just in sports. If I started being angry about this, I’d hate every type of woman who reinforces a stereotype that doesn’t define me. I would spend a lot of time hating. So in order to avoid falling into this hole, I have to remind myself that hating on, or even eliminating, a group of people who I feel misrepresent me won’t really change anything. Rather than letting them define me and wasting time being angry over it, I will just have to be stronger in defining myself.

I am a lot of things, too many to list. And I’m also a hockey fan. I just want to watch the game–preferably at the rink with my friends and a giant, hockey-sized beer. If the guy across the aisle assumes that I want to screw a player because I’m wearing his jersey, then I’ll let him think that. I don’t have time to argue, there’s a game on.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 11:57 am and is filed under Thoughts from the Beer Line. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.