If you're wondering whether women in the United States are second class citizens, wonder no more. We are, and Major League Baseball is helping to perpetuate our second class status by sending a very clear message: it's humiliating to be a girl. As reported in the NY Times, "Rookie relievers are being forced to wear schoolgirl backpacks-- gaudy in color, utterly unmanly-- to transport gear." Mets' pitcher Tim Byrdak said, "You have to walk all the way across the field to get to the bullpen, so you make the rookie carry this pink bag, and you can kind of humiliate him." Oh, it feels good to be dressed in pink, doesn't it?
So how would these professional athletes feel if they wore a blue bag or a bag that boys would like to wear, such as an R2-D2 (Star Wars) bag? Erik Hamren did have to wear an R2-D2 bag, and how did he feel about that? "I've grown to love it." I'm not sure he would have grown to love a Hannah Montana, Dora the Explorer, or Hello Kitty bag. Or the pink feather boa that Michael Stutes was forced to wear. (Wouldn't it be great if he did love wearing that boa?) Trevor Hoffman (retired relief pitcher) said, "I think it's amusing for the fans to see [the rookies wearing these bags]. It's kind of a way of pointing out who's the low man on the totem pole."
Yep, the low man on the totem pole is a woman.
Major League Baseball "has no issue with the bags, as long as they maintain a spirit of innocence." Aw gee, it's so much innocent fun to be coerced into feeling like a girl!
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