I can say that I have been to at least 90% of the boys basketball games this year. I cheer and participate in chants, probably more than most students and I always dress to the theme. I’ve never had the chance to sit in the  front row. This isn’t because I don’t get there early enough, or I don’t choose to sit there, it’s simply because I’m not a guy. This is a constant reminder to me at every basketball game that sexism is still alive in the westside world.

In 1848 the first Women’s Rights Convention took place. At the end of the convention over 100 people committed to work together to improve women’s rights. Today, women on average are roughly paid 74 cents to every dollar paid to a man. Now 160 years after the convention, ironically who would have thought in 2013 I would still be dealing with the issues of sexism within my own high school.

Every basketball game about 10-15 senior guys are “in charge” of the student section, formally called frontline. They sit in the front row and lead chants. One of their “rules” is that girls are not allowed in the first row. Seems a little sexist right?  Their reasoning behind this rule is that girls don’t cheer. Many of them have also said that the success of  Prep’s student section is due to them not allowing girls in it. Prep is an all boys school so it only makes sense that they only allow kids from their school in the section. Why does it make sense to exclude girls from the front row of the student section when they go to Westside too? Don’t they have a right to sit there just as much as the boys? Plenty of girls cheer just as loud as boys, if not more. But because we’r girls we are ridiculed and yelled at and asked to move if we stand in the front row. Sometimes even the second row. Why do guys deserve that row more than me? I’m friends with a lot of these guys and I don’t understand why they think they are more entitled to sit their than me.  The real question is why do students in 2013 have the mentality that boys are superior to girls?

All students are in the student section for the same reason, to cheer for the team. It makes sense that students who aren’t cheering or dressed to the theme shouldn’t be in the front. It doesn’t make sense to tell someone where they can and can’t sit based on their gender.