Self Story 4: Challenging the Chairs

“YESSS!!” my team mate shouted as we knocked another pin down. I could feel the air rush past as the dodge balls flew by. Our team only had to knock down one more pin and we would win the best out of three games of dodgeball. We concentrated on knocking out the remaining guards on the other side. Red, orange, and purple balls tore through the air and my team mates and I grabbed at them to hurl back. Finally, someone got into the right angle to throw and the pin toppled behind the last two guards. Cheers from the team mates who were “out” filled the gym. The teacher blew his whistle and we began cleaning up. Good hearted jokes were made between friends as we all filled the packed storage room putting away the equipment. With a booming voice our gym teacher called as to gather around. With breathless smiles on our faces, we sat down on the floor, enjoying the rest as the ceiling fans cooled down the afternoon summer heat. He discussed with us how next period there would be a presentation/assembly in the gym and our great moods on a Friday afternoon increased as we realized we got to miss math. The rumble of our voices grew as we all turned to our friends excited about this good news. Smiling, our gym teacher quieted us down. The ten minute clean up bell rang out. He then informed us that we need to start setting up the chairs. We all rose and began walking over to the stage, under which the chairs were stored. Then we heard him say “just the boys. Girls you can go change”. We girls turned around surprised and exclaimed that we could help set up to. He gave us a pity smile that seemed to say “ya right” and told us “no, go change”. Tension filled the air as we all looked around at one another with fiery eyes and walked off to the girls change room. As soon as the door had closed our voices raised as we expressed our anger at this. There was around 250 chairs to set up and only about 11 boys. If we had been allowed to help, we could’ve set up for the assembly way faster. This treatment by the gym teacher we would later learn was a common thing and he only ever chose boys to help with heavy lifting around the school, even with plenty of girl hands up to volunteer their help. Our school was very sports driven and we had been keeping up with the boys completely fine for years. Yet we get told that because we’re girls we can’t lift and place plastic chairs in rows. There was not a single one of us who didn’t feel angered and bewildered by this treatment. Afterwards, the boys were not pleased about us not having to help out either. Two years later when we had a new gym teacher, every single girl picked up as many chairs at a time as they could possibly handle, trying to match and even show up the boys. Although that gym teacher wasn’t there, we all wanted to challenge his notion anyway. This continued throughout all of high school, and the boys could never complain about doing all the work again.