We’ve always heard of the sentence “You hit like a girl” or“You throw like a girl.” Since when did that start, and when did it first become an insult?
Normally, when it is used, guys would say it to another person in a sports game to make them angry and insult the way they played the game. It is never stated to readers when this sentence was first spoken, but it is safe to say that this was happening in the early 20th century. However, we can deduce that the phrase was already used around the year 1993 and before.
There was a movie called “The Sandlot” during that year that used this line with a main character who was a child, with a group of kids competing in a baseball game against another team. One of them said, “You hit like a girl!” to insult the other team’s kid player. It indeed makes the kid feel hurt, as shown through the shocks and the kids’ faces when he says it. In reality, it was used as comedic relief in the movie, but who knows if everyone found it funny or not? Well, no one in the cast or crew was emotionally hurt or offended, so I suppose it gets played off right?
But this still doesn’t answer the question: “Why is it used as an insult instead of being more complimentary towards a woman playing a sport?”
Most people would assume that it is because men are believed to play sports more aggressively, making them better at it. While this may be possible in sports with violence, such as boxing or MMA, or even football, where standards are in place to make these games fair and safe, this doesn’t apply to every sport, including basketball, baseball, or tennis.
When it comes to other sports that require less violence, this may lead people to assume that the same applies. It is often passed around as a fact that men are biologically stronger and faster in these sportsrone and muscle mas due to testostes.
While it isn’t a said fact, I also believe that when the phrase “You hit like a girl!” is used on a guy, they are attempting not just to insult the way they are playing, but are also insulting the person’s “manhood” and making them question how “manly” they are performing the act.
Unfortunately, there is also a difference in the views of men and women playing sports. As women receive less sponsorship and public interest, some people feel that women don’t always perform “the same”, making this a typically controversial perception.
However, there can be women just as capable as men in playing the sport, and some can even be better with practice. Instead of arguing about how they don’t perform “the same as men”, we should take this as a challenge to let them compete more competitively and practice with a few men to see how it goes.
Meaning that it is also possible that women don’t play the same because of the fact that they are not playing with men already. There is always still the possibility that some women would already do better than men in certain sports.
To name just a few women who are some of the best at the sports they have played that we may have heard of are: Serena Williams in Tennis, Simone Biles in USA Gymnastics, and Lindsey Vonn in the United States Skii Team. These names have all been quite familiar and if anything, these women get recognized just as much for their hard work and dedication in being the best women in what they do.
So, in the end, there is always the chance of having a woman perform better than you at a sport. But if she isn’t better than a guy, you should still be a fair guy about it and stray away from using the phrase to insult, since it could just be a genetic difference in the end. Even if a guy is simply bigger than the other!
Granted, phrases can change over time, but it never seemed that this sentence would ever be used in a better way. Therefore, we should start using it more carefully and instead make it more of a compliment towards women, like saying, for example, “Wow! You play like a true strong woman, Tana!”
