Cultivating

feminism

The Journey - GO BIG RED!

This is an open journal about my journey exploring feminism.

8-30-23 GO BIG RED - I will pivot from my retreat to Husker Volleyball for a minute. Nebraskans' love for Husker Volleyball is true, fierce, and unwavering. Just look at the crowd who showed up Wednesday. 92,003. A world record for attendance at a Women’s Sporting event. Not to count how many others (yours truly) were tuned in on the TV to watch history in the making. My first thought was, “Let’s build a dome and give the Memorial Stadium to the Volleyball Team. Because this is AWESOME!”

But as I have seen pictures and videos from the game, I can’t help but notice the looks of awe and inspiration on little girls’ and boys' faces. Even my son was impressed I once played volleyball. He didn’t even care that I wasn’t good, never hardly played in games, and quit after my junior year in high school. He was just impressed that I played. Heck yeah!

Imagine if women were celebrated as equal to men for every sport we played. The Husker volleyball team has rocked the last 30 years (maybe more). But it has always been about Husker Football. I know other Husker Women’s teams have excelled, too, but it’s almost always about the boys. One of the main reasons I always heard was that football can sell tickets. Well, John Cook, Trev Alberts, and the team said, “Watch this.” So, let’s keep celebrating women's athletics and women in general. Let’s celebrate them as much as we have a mediocre football team for 25 years. I am a UNL alum and love Husker football, but why can’t women and women’s sports share the stage and the attention?

How different our state and world would be if all little ones could see women outside of traditional roles celebrated, cheered, and idolized. There is enough energy to go around. And it won’t mean that men and men's athletics are less than or wouldn’t be celebrated.

Hell, what if (hold on) we celebrated everyone for excelling at being themselves, honing in on their skills, practicing, pushing, and growing? Whether it be for volleyball, band, speech, swimming, bowling, magic, knitting, gardening, football, baseball, etc., I am not saying we all need a 90,000-plus audience and live coverage—just love and support for being your best self, trying, failing, winning, improving. No one accomplishment is better than another. Not everyone gets a medal, but everyone gets celebrated for their effort for being a “Husker.” We supported the “winning isn’t everything” rule for Husker football. Why not expand?

Kudos to Nebraska for showing the world what Women’s sports can and should be and how we can celebrate anyone who dreams big!