We spoke with Cori Alexander a few months ago, after her trip to Indonesia with the US State Department’s Indonesia America Soccer Exchange. That program’s goal is to further understanding between Indonesians and Americans through the medium of sports, and girls sports in particular.
As a Portland Pilot fan, I’m not surprised that quality people like Alexander and Rachael Rapinoe are involved with such an organization. “Giving back” is so essential to Pilot soccer ethos, it’s probably in the training regimen somewhere. They traveled to Indonesia at the beginning of this year, and they will meet up with some of the girls they worked with in June, when the US plays host for their side of the exchange.
Organizer Karen Willoughby at the International Center was kind enough to tell us more information about that exchange. The program is influenced by Stevenson’s report on the benefits of sports participation for girls and such concepts as The Girl Effect, whose philosophy is put rather succinctly on their website:
The powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate.
Adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world. It’s been shown: she will reinvest her income and knowledge back into her family and her community. As an educated mother, an active citizen, an ambitious entrepreneur or prepared employee, a girl will break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
That is the girl effect.
I like this.
I’m kind of awful and cynical sometimes, but I don’t want to be. I’m over-educated and over-privileged and maybe that’s part of why I don’t necessarily think women’s sports is the solution to a lot of systemic and ideological problems and barriers to women’s opportunities around the world. However, I do understand the price of exclusion from activities, even in something as “trivial” as soccer.
In boxing and mixed martial arts, some fighters talk about people either being born a fighter or not born a fighter. Phrases like “some people don’t have it in them” get thrown around, possibly to explain why they think they are going to beat someone else. They’re interesting words, but it’s bull. Everyone is born with a fighter inside them. Not everyone gets to nurture this fighter properly, and I think this is especially true of girls.
Even in progressive areas of the world, the fighter within girls is rarely acknowledged or appreciated. Too often, the warrior they do have gets focused on fighting other girls, or worse, themselves. In less progressive areas, girls may be expected to be strong, resilient and compliant. But not to be fighters. After all, what can they fight for?
Understand, when I say “fighter” I don’t necessarily mean fists and anger, but I do mean struggle and I do mean a fight. I do mean a fight for yourself, a fight for your own happiness and health. I do mean resistance against people or institutions who would demand you take up less space in the world because of your gender, race, or sexuality. And sometimes, I mean ignoring the message of a lot of well-meaning people who will tell you to stick it out because it gets better.
Those are nice thoughts, and people who say them are genuinely concerned, but I think there’s a more valuable message that simply is not stated enough: you’re worth fighting for. I feel the concept of self-defense gets coulpled with fear too much and watered down by two-hour seminars for “women’s self defense” or magazine articles about how you should keep your keys out when walking to your car. For self-defense to really work, you need to trust your fighter.
Sports can be good for so many things, but perhaps the thing they are best at is as a method of self-discovery. It’s possibly one of the safest ways to meet the fighter inside yourself. It’s a way to figure out what’s worth defending and fighting for in your own life: improvement, happiness, justice.
Soccer and drills and coaches’ attention can be very small things. But small things lead to bigger ideas and a good big idea can give you a reason to fight.
@agmendenhall You're 5'2"?
Hi Joan,
I don’t know how I missed your original post on this, but am I glad that I caught this one. As a sports-loving Indonesian woman, this topic really interests me. I’m in such agreement with what you wrote above about fighting that I could be your amen corner. I grew up in a well-to-do family in Jakarta in the mid-80s and even so, the best sports participation outlets I could find were extracurricular basketball (we would occasionally play against other high schools; a typical score would be 24-6) and club basketball. I remember reading a newspaper article about a local women’s soccer team, but had no clue on how to get in touch with them (remember, pre-Internet days…). I’m not sure that currently there are more/better opportunities for sports participation in Jakarta, let alone in the other/rural areas. I was just in Jakarta for a short trip last month, when I noted that on Sundays the grassy area around the National Monument was chock full of boys playing soccer. I wished then that the girls would also be out there in force, but totally understood why they were not. Programs like the IASE is a start towards getting girls to participate–I wish they could select more than 15 girls for the training here in the US.
Anyway, I have all a jumble of thoughts trying to fight their way out of my brain, but I need to go back to work. In short, thank you for posting this. I would love to provide whatever contribution I can to the program, so please feel free to forward my info to the relevant people. Thanks.
grrljock – Thanks! I’m really glad you liked it. It’s always nice to know that someone likes something I wrote, even if I only do it once a year. ;)
I’ll be sure to send your information on to Karen.