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In the past few weeks, the women’s sports teams at Lawrence have held the spotlight. Between Women’s Cross Country winning the Midwest Conference title and Women’s Soccer going to the NCAA tournament, there’s been a lot to celebrate. With these victories, however, has come a concerning increase in usage of the phrase “lady Vikes.”
It’s not just Yik Yak posts and casual conversation between students — official administrative emails promoting these events mentioned supporting the “lady Vikes” several times.
For some, this isn’t a big deal. For me, it’s a step backwards for athletes on the women’s teams at Lawrence.
Being a lady isn’t a bad thing, if that’s what you want to be, but we must acknowledge that there is a long history of using that word to fit women into a patriarchal box. The societal definition of “being a lady” points to politeness, being well-mannered, never being angry or aggressive. That is the way it’s being used today to refer to athletes.
Female athletes have fought for decades to be able to get the same rights as male athletes, or to even be able to get onto the field or course at all. They didn’t do that by being well-mannered and doing as they were told; they did that by fighting major institutions and not taking no for an answer.
Perhaps “ladylike” is being reclaimed as so many other words with complicated histories are, one could argue. That is not the case here; not when the men’s teams here at Lawrence are still just “Vikings” and not “gentleman Vikings” or something comparable. It’s simply an unnecessary and sexist separation of genders.
Even if we go back to the source material, it doesn’t make any sense. There were plenty of women who existed in the Viking Age, and there are many powerful women in Old Norse mythology whom many would not refer to as ladylike.
Besides being nonsensical and sexist, it’s also exclusionary to people who don’t feel or want to be ladylike. Not everyone competing on a women’s team is a woman, and not every woman would be comfortable calling themselves a lady. Some might be okay with it, but the many who are not will feel alienated and disrespected.
As an athlete on the Women’s Cross Country team, I would certainly not call myself a lady, nor would most of my peers. On my team, being aggressive is seen as a positive thing, along with competing hard and racing smart. My coach often tells us to “be aggressive” before races. He does not tell us to be ladylike or to be polite during competition. He does not tell us to compete like a lady or compete like a man or anything like that, because none of that matters when the gun goes off and the race begins. Whether you’re on a basketball court or a track or a soccer field, when the competition starts, you’re just an athlete competing for Lawrence University — you’re a Viking, no qualifications necessary.