My niece wrote me recently that the new thing to say at Portland Fire games is the MNBA – Men’s National Basketball Association, not the NBA. Since the WNBA has a W, she’s saying that men need a gender label too.

The headline of Lookout’s article about Sporting Cascades FC said “Eugene’s upcoming pro soccer club.” Since there is no gender, it appears that all of us are supposed to be in on the assumption that no gender means it’s a league of male players. I had to read well into the article to find a player’s name before I knew if it was a women’s or men’s team.

I hope Lookout considers the language the University of Oregon uses. Years ago, when they wrote about their sports teams, UO constantly would use, for example, “basketball” and “women’s basketball.” But they changed their policy and got so much better, consistently saying, for example, “men’s basketball,” and “women’s basketball.”

This labeling based on hierarchical position is important because it’s systemic. The history classes I’ve taken that were required for most students were essentially about white men but they were called history. If I want to learn about African American history, Native American history, women’s history, I have to take a special course that’s called out by group and treated separately but not equally.

We have many, many girls and women who play soccer locally and a pro women’s soccer team in the Portland Thorns. I hope that Lookout will demonstrate that they understand and support the equality in sports that so many people are passionate about and have worked toward for so many years.

Charlotte Behm
Springfield