I love reading your stories. You make me wish the past half century of female sports could continue forever. The incredible empowerment of women that has arisen in our lifetime is rooted in the teamwork, leadership and especially the confidence that was taught to girls thanks to Title IX's demand for sex-based equality. Since its passage in 1972, the empowerment that female athletes experienced spread out through society, as evidenced by some 85% of female CEOs having participated in athletics.
Title IX didn't just build female sports. It built the feminist movement that empowered girls and women to become what we are today.
But as I meticulously pointed out in a previous comment on your July 29th article, "Cheering for Female Olympic Athletes - and for Kamala Harris," the current Democratic Administration has already reversed Title IX.
Let that sink in. As of August 1st, 2024, all US schools and colleges will be required to allow each and every male who wants to participate in female sports and utilize the female showers and changing rooms, to do so.
It is now the law of the land. Male rights supersede female rights.
That means if an 18 year old senior in high school, an adult man, wants to creep on 9th grade girls in the shower, he is legally free to do so. And by he, I'm referring to him by his sex, not whatever he claims to be his chosen gender identity. A school that prevents male students from abusing females in this manner will lose federal academic funding. That's right, your local school could lose a teacher for protecting female students from perving men. Go Democrats!
We all know the end game - girls and women will stop using the showers in high school and college.
Girls and women will be knocked out of female sports by mediocre male athletes.
Young girls will realize there is no chance to beat the males who will be "included" by law in girls and women's sports. Being inclusive and abiding by federal law means those mediocre male athletes will destroy the accomplishments that female athletes have worked for years to achieve. Young girls will choose to spend their time on tiktok instead of dedicating hours every day for years of their life to achieve athletic success. When any male can take away their wins, their glory and their scholarships, girls will simply stop participating in sports. That's the end game. The powers that be are not happy about how strong women have become. This is our take-down.
The Harris/Biden Department of Ed has assured schools that they will not punish them until after the election. Well isn't that interesting? Why wait until after Harris is elected? Because that gives people like you, Mariah, the opportunity to pretend that Harris will save the day, once elected.
She won't.
Much as I despise Donald Trump for the ignorant, despicable, unethical man that he is, he's unfortunately the only candidate who says he will keep males out of female sports. Why isn't Harris saying that? You imply, Mariah, that Harris is so smart she knows not to admit she's really on the side of female athletes. Wow.
I think it's because the DNC selected a candidate who they are sure will NOT undo the Democrats reversal of Title IX. It's also patently clear that they didn't want her to run in the primary, probably because she would have lost. It would have been harder to convince Democrats that they should be excited with memes telling them that “Democrats are EXCITED about Kamala,” if she had been asked about men in women's sports in a Dem primary debate.
I won't vote for Trump. But I know the war profiteers will most assuredly get their next war for profit no matter which candidate wins. If Trump's in the seat when that happens, the Left will remember that they are anti-war. That's a good thing. If Kamala is our president, those of us who stand up against perpetual wars for profit will be called sexist. Because the president happens to be a woman. So I won't give my vote to either candidate. Unless Harris steps up and assures us that she will undo the Democrats' reversal of Title IX.
Which she won't.
Our Democratic candidate is complicit with the destruction of women's rights. I will not vote for someone who will continue the destruction of 50 years of female empowerment our generation has built. Years from now, I want to say my hands are clean. I didn't vote for the take-down of women's rights to safety, privacy, dignity and sex-segregated sports. Thanks to the women's movement we finally have a female candidate who's likely to win the presidency. Ironically, she's also the best candidate to trick women into thinking she supports our sex-based rights. When she doesn't.
And for you perpetually HOPEful folks out there, I'm sorry to tell you that she won't evolve to agree with you on this issue. Sadly, our Historic First Female President (TM) will continue this insane Left-Right fight over female sports with the convenient benefit of distracting us for another 10 years fighting for our rights instead of reversing environmental damage, stopping perpetual wars for profit and the dangerous theft of middle and working class wealth to the ultra-rich. It's hard to work on those three and other problems when we're dealing with the trauma of creepy men staring at our naked bodies in public showers.
So my question to you, Mariah, is what is it that makes you so easily fooled into thinking Kamala Harris, the candidate that a corporation picked for our party, the candidate who wasn't even on my primary ballot (or yours), will step up and do what's right for women and girls? Or that she'll work on our behalf against the very billionaires who profit from the Gender Industrial Complex who are funding her candidacy. For that matter, why did taxpayers have to pay for very expensive Democratic primary elections in every state if a corporation can then just choose someone else? Doesn't that bother anyone here? What's that you say? You didn't realize a the DNC was a corporation? Lol.
Is it such a relief that it's a woman against Trump that we're all supposed to stick our fingers in our ears and cover our eyes and pretend she's our next savior? Is this the same HOPE that we experienced in 2008 when we assumed that our candidate's ethnicity would keep him from, say, bombing brown children in foreign countries like Yemen? To the benefit of the Saudis who pumped billions of dollars of dark money via Citizens United into his election? Is this the same HOPE that our Democratic president would put the banksters who crashed our economy in prison? He didn't stick with that promise, of course. Instead he gave them multibillion dollar bailouts even larger than what George Bush had handed them. They were flush with cash as they then proceeded to steal properties all over our country, especially from first time homeowners, many of whom were black Americans. Our historic first black president presided over African Americans losing 50% of their net worth to the very people who crashed our economy. Luckily for those banksters, they had the foresight to bankroll Obama's election. Along with the Saudis and other oil interests. And the Left barely batted an eye. Once you vote for someone you HOPE will be your hero, it's very hard to believe they are working against your interests. Those who did complain about the theft from middle and working class Americans into the hands of the ultra wealthy were called ... You guessed it: racist.
So do we now have to spend four more years while strong women like you Mariah carry water for Kamala Harris as she continues the destruction of the legacy our generation built? Will you call me sexist when I complain that she is removing academic funding from schools that allow males to beat the crap out of females in girls sport? Will you pretend it's A-OK to degrade the quality of education because she's primarily hitting red state schools? You know, those schools where we had to rely on Republicans to pass laws keeping males out of female sports and showers. Because we couldn't trust our Democrats to do it. Unfortunately, our elected Democrats are completely captured by transgender ideology and those who profit from this abuse of females and mutilation of the bodies and minds of our youth. We know that because every sing House Democrat voted against the Save Women’s Sports Act of 2023, a simple bill that would have protected female sports by keeping males out of them. Every. Single. Democrat. Wow, I guess their strategey is to just HOPE we don't notice that our side is destroying female sports. And then pick a candidate without requiring her to run in the Democratic primary where she might actually have to debate the Democrat's REVERSAL of Title IX. Brilliant.
Get a clue. All woman who are fighting for girls' and women's sex-based rights should take a hard look at how the Democratic Party has fooled them. You should all put the following question to our current corporate-chosen candidate who was (by design) not in the Democratic primary race:
Kamala, will you rescind the Democratic Party's REVERSAL of Title IX?
But be forewarned. She won't answer. She won't admit it's been reversed. She'll blather on about how it's just a minor change, meant to be “inclusive” of those sweet little transgender girls who just want to play with their friends. “So stop being so mean you big transphobe!”
Kamala is on the side that prioritizes male rights above female. And she's not going to show her cards until after it's too late to stop her.
Hi Sally, I hear you, share many of your concerns, and welcome all respectful comments. Kamala may indeed be asked about women in sports in the debate or interviews. I'll be surprised if she's not. I know people who are trying to provide education and advice re: how and why to stick up for female athletes. She's busy; not sure if these messages will get through. But many of us are doing everything we can.
OK, maybe you were the wrong person to contact. Is there anyone else in the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group who understands urgency for coordinating BEFORE the debate? You're welcome to continue believing that as president, Harris will work to reinstate sex-based rights, but since I know she won't, I'd like to connect to someone else on on WSPW or in any other group. If you have a way to connect me to them, are you willing to do so?
Yes, and those of us without big public voices appreciate all that you do.
May I suggest that you and others coordinate immediately to produce a very effective presidential debate candidate question, and a follow-up, knowing that Harris will give a non-answer. Not only do you have a voice, you have personal contacts within organizations that are fighting for women's sex-based rights. If you don't have the time or inclination to do this work today, or as soon as possible, I would be happy to coordinate it with some introductions to those people from you. I have no timely way to contact them.
If many women's rights organizations step up right now to publish the same question in many media outlets, this issue presents a combined opportunity for Americans on both sides of the aisle to learn about and demand accountability for the reversal of Title IX while educating loyal Dem voters that they've been cheated out of choosing our candidate by an organization they are not a member of, namely the DNC. The timing of Biden stepping down once all the Primary elections were complete is suspicious enough. But then our Party, and I say that loosely since we are NOT members, refused to provide an open Democratic convention to choose from Harris and other potential candidates. I believe Harris would likely have lost had the DNC run her against other viable candidates because challenging questions would make Dem voters realize that Harris/Biden just made it completely lawful for every male student to use female showers in US colleges and high schools. That's in addition to the abolition of sex-segregated sports that became the law on Aug 1, 2024.
I envision an ad hoc group comprised of sex-realists and big thinkers like Kara Dansky, Dr. Sheila Jeffreys, Maureen O'Hara, Dr. Helen Joyce, like Dr. Emma Hilton, Colin Wright and others who are willing to meet to refine this question, then publish it from many platforms with a memorable and educational hashtag such as #ReverseTheReversalOfTitleIX. This is a moment in time that we should not miss.
The group should include people with enough skepticism to be able to throw off their own internalized HOPE (that's a reference to the blind loyalty people exhibit to their candidate and members of their “team” based on perceived tribal affiliation – my Party, a woman, a conservative, a progressive, etc.). False HOPE is what leads many to believe Harris is secretly on our side of this issue (because she's a woman!) and will surely step up to help after we elect her.
That skepticism should encompass a reasonable criticism of any and all mainstream media that has not even raised the issue that every state paid for an expensive primary election, yet the DNC chose someone who was not even on any Democratic Primary ballot. Small d democracy has officially been subverted with the selection of Harris by a private organization instead of the voters. Not one mainstream media organization has raised this issue, not even to question the expense of state primary elections on behalf of a private organization that tossed the results, and which has previously been sued for fraud by rank-and-file Democrats. Therefore it's reasonable to conclude that the media will either ignore/bury this issue or frame a debate question that misdirects the electorate with a softball question to Harris.
Note that the first ballots will be mailed out to voters this week on Sept 6th, so voters who drank the media's “Democrats are excited about Kamala” cool-aid might vote before they even realize our Party reversed Title IX. If you are concerned that putting our candidate on the spot might help Trump get elected, remember that Kamala could simply agree with us and publicly promise to #ReverseTheReversalOfTitleIX. I'm quite sure she won't actually reverse the Dept of Ed rule change if elected. She'll have four years to gaslight people who really, really want to believe she's' on our side. The DNC knows women are a captive market; with Trump running they know most Dem voters have nowhere else to go, so to speak. But at least Kamala will be on record stating she believes sex matters in sport. And if she doesn't, if she obfuscates, distracts, misdirects and otherwise pretends that she'll address this after the election, she hasn't earned my vote, even if she has yours.
This is urgent Mariah. We only have one chance to get this question asked in the debate on Sept 10th, and this week is our best chance to promote sex-based rights before people start voting. Can you make some calls and get this request into the hands of those who will recognize this opportunity and are willing to jump on it?
I loved this story—the way it rocks back and forth between you and Nancy and between the past and the present. Although, it does make me hunger for cookies!
As evidenced by the comments thus far, I also love reading your Substack. I played a lot of sports in school (volleyball, basketball, track, soccer, tennis) and a lot out of school (volleyball, softball, soccer). Your posts take me back to those days. Fortunately, my love of movement has served me well. I’m currently 64 and teach Spin and Step classes at our local Y. And I’m constantly relaying your messages, both about sports in general and specifically girls in sports to my 32 year old daughter. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
I just love this Mariah. Not only because I could absolutely see you in this scene, but because I love watching little and young girls for this very reason. I have talked to Rich about it, sitting outside waiting for a table at a restaurant for instance, watching a a girl-child prance, dance, turn cartwheels, and talk to herself, completely entertained with her own world. The unvarnished wildness of young girls is mesmerizing to me. 💜
Oh yes, me too. The arms stretching in every direction, the running never in a straight line and never without a few vertical leaps. The unselfconscious thrill of physical aliveness. A wonder to behold indeed. And thank you!
Fabulous writing here, Mariah. You really created a mood. You could make this into a novel or even a fantasy series. Damn, I’d read books of this story! Not kidding or exaggerating. It would also be a great YA or middle grade story with the older ladies as mentor characters. Almost like witches. Can you tell I’m excited?
This is an intriguing thought. Yes, a girl taking an elder by the hand... placing the girl in the leadership role... helping the elder remember and respond and play in whatever ways she still can... the girl might become incidentally enlightened too by this partnership, seeing the world thru the adult's eyes.
I've noticed over the years that I'm not good at making things up. All I know how to do is tell my truth, so I stay in that lane. You, however, are welcome to take the Girl World concept and spin off in any direction you like. I'd be honored. In any case, thanks this enthusiastic support.
Same. My dear friend Marilynn Mobley hoped to write "just maybe one more book - a short one" when she was very ill with cancer. She died four days later. I expect to have the same desire, and same result. Creative people just keep creating for as long as we possibly can -- often, as in our cases, with no shortage of ideas. A very good problem to have.
I love reading your stories. You make me wish the past half century of female sports could continue forever. The incredible empowerment of women that has arisen in our lifetime is rooted in the teamwork, leadership and especially the confidence that was taught to girls thanks to Title IX's demand for sex-based equality. Since its passage in 1972, the empowerment that female athletes experienced spread out through society, as evidenced by some 85% of female CEOs having participated in athletics.
Title IX didn't just build female sports. It built the feminist movement that empowered girls and women to become what we are today.
But as I meticulously pointed out in a previous comment on your July 29th article, "Cheering for Female Olympic Athletes - and for Kamala Harris," the current Democratic Administration has already reversed Title IX.
Let that sink in. As of August 1st, 2024, all US schools and colleges will be required to allow each and every male who wants to participate in female sports and utilize the female showers and changing rooms, to do so.
It is now the law of the land. Male rights supersede female rights.
That means if an 18 year old senior in high school, an adult man, wants to creep on 9th grade girls in the shower, he is legally free to do so. And by he, I'm referring to him by his sex, not whatever he claims to be his chosen gender identity. A school that prevents male students from abusing females in this manner will lose federal academic funding. That's right, your local school could lose a teacher for protecting female students from perving men. Go Democrats!
We all know the end game - girls and women will stop using the showers in high school and college.
Girls and women will be knocked out of female sports by mediocre male athletes.
Young girls will realize there is no chance to beat the males who will be "included" by law in girls and women's sports. Being inclusive and abiding by federal law means those mediocre male athletes will destroy the accomplishments that female athletes have worked for years to achieve. Young girls will choose to spend their time on tiktok instead of dedicating hours every day for years of their life to achieve athletic success. When any male can take away their wins, their glory and their scholarships, girls will simply stop participating in sports. That's the end game. The powers that be are not happy about how strong women have become. This is our take-down.
The Harris/Biden Department of Ed has assured schools that they will not punish them until after the election. Well isn't that interesting? Why wait until after Harris is elected? Because that gives people like you, Mariah, the opportunity to pretend that Harris will save the day, once elected.
She won't.
Much as I despise Donald Trump for the ignorant, despicable, unethical man that he is, he's unfortunately the only candidate who says he will keep males out of female sports. Why isn't Harris saying that? You imply, Mariah, that Harris is so smart she knows not to admit she's really on the side of female athletes. Wow.
I think it's because the DNC selected a candidate who they are sure will NOT undo the Democrats reversal of Title IX. It's also patently clear that they didn't want her to run in the primary, probably because she would have lost. It would have been harder to convince Democrats that they should be excited with memes telling them that “Democrats are EXCITED about Kamala,” if she had been asked about men in women's sports in a Dem primary debate.
I won't vote for Trump. But I know the war profiteers will most assuredly get their next war for profit no matter which candidate wins. If Trump's in the seat when that happens, the Left will remember that they are anti-war. That's a good thing. If Kamala is our president, those of us who stand up against perpetual wars for profit will be called sexist. Because the president happens to be a woman. So I won't give my vote to either candidate. Unless Harris steps up and assures us that she will undo the Democrats' reversal of Title IX.
Which she won't.
Our Democratic candidate is complicit with the destruction of women's rights. I will not vote for someone who will continue the destruction of 50 years of female empowerment our generation has built. Years from now, I want to say my hands are clean. I didn't vote for the take-down of women's rights to safety, privacy, dignity and sex-segregated sports. Thanks to the women's movement we finally have a female candidate who's likely to win the presidency. Ironically, she's also the best candidate to trick women into thinking she supports our sex-based rights. When she doesn't.
And for you perpetually HOPEful folks out there, I'm sorry to tell you that she won't evolve to agree with you on this issue. Sadly, our Historic First Female President (TM) will continue this insane Left-Right fight over female sports with the convenient benefit of distracting us for another 10 years fighting for our rights instead of reversing environmental damage, stopping perpetual wars for profit and the dangerous theft of middle and working class wealth to the ultra-rich. It's hard to work on those three and other problems when we're dealing with the trauma of creepy men staring at our naked bodies in public showers.
So my question to you, Mariah, is what is it that makes you so easily fooled into thinking Kamala Harris, the candidate that a corporation picked for our party, the candidate who wasn't even on my primary ballot (or yours), will step up and do what's right for women and girls? Or that she'll work on our behalf against the very billionaires who profit from the Gender Industrial Complex who are funding her candidacy. For that matter, why did taxpayers have to pay for very expensive Democratic primary elections in every state if a corporation can then just choose someone else? Doesn't that bother anyone here? What's that you say? You didn't realize a the DNC was a corporation? Lol.
Is it such a relief that it's a woman against Trump that we're all supposed to stick our fingers in our ears and cover our eyes and pretend she's our next savior? Is this the same HOPE that we experienced in 2008 when we assumed that our candidate's ethnicity would keep him from, say, bombing brown children in foreign countries like Yemen? To the benefit of the Saudis who pumped billions of dollars of dark money via Citizens United into his election? Is this the same HOPE that our Democratic president would put the banksters who crashed our economy in prison? He didn't stick with that promise, of course. Instead he gave them multibillion dollar bailouts even larger than what George Bush had handed them. They were flush with cash as they then proceeded to steal properties all over our country, especially from first time homeowners, many of whom were black Americans. Our historic first black president presided over African Americans losing 50% of their net worth to the very people who crashed our economy. Luckily for those banksters, they had the foresight to bankroll Obama's election. Along with the Saudis and other oil interests. And the Left barely batted an eye. Once you vote for someone you HOPE will be your hero, it's very hard to believe they are working against your interests. Those who did complain about the theft from middle and working class Americans into the hands of the ultra wealthy were called ... You guessed it: racist.
So do we now have to spend four more years while strong women like you Mariah carry water for Kamala Harris as she continues the destruction of the legacy our generation built? Will you call me sexist when I complain that she is removing academic funding from schools that allow males to beat the crap out of females in girls sport? Will you pretend it's A-OK to degrade the quality of education because she's primarily hitting red state schools? You know, those schools where we had to rely on Republicans to pass laws keeping males out of female sports and showers. Because we couldn't trust our Democrats to do it. Unfortunately, our elected Democrats are completely captured by transgender ideology and those who profit from this abuse of females and mutilation of the bodies and minds of our youth. We know that because every sing House Democrat voted against the Save Women’s Sports Act of 2023, a simple bill that would have protected female sports by keeping males out of them. Every. Single. Democrat. Wow, I guess their strategey is to just HOPE we don't notice that our side is destroying female sports. And then pick a candidate without requiring her to run in the Democratic primary where she might actually have to debate the Democrat's REVERSAL of Title IX. Brilliant.
Get a clue. All woman who are fighting for girls' and women's sex-based rights should take a hard look at how the Democratic Party has fooled them. You should all put the following question to our current corporate-chosen candidate who was (by design) not in the Democratic primary race:
Kamala, will you rescind the Democratic Party's REVERSAL of Title IX?
But be forewarned. She won't answer. She won't admit it's been reversed. She'll blather on about how it's just a minor change, meant to be “inclusive” of those sweet little transgender girls who just want to play with their friends. “So stop being so mean you big transphobe!”
Kamala is on the side that prioritizes male rights above female. And she's not going to show her cards until after it's too late to stop her.
Hi Sally, I hear you, share many of your concerns, and welcome all respectful comments. Kamala may indeed be asked about women in sports in the debate or interviews. I'll be surprised if she's not. I know people who are trying to provide education and advice re: how and why to stick up for female athletes. She's busy; not sure if these messages will get through. But many of us are doing everything we can.
OK, maybe you were the wrong person to contact. Is there anyone else in the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group who understands urgency for coordinating BEFORE the debate? You're welcome to continue believing that as president, Harris will work to reinstate sex-based rights, but since I know she won't, I'd like to connect to someone else on on WSPW or in any other group. If you have a way to connect me to them, are you willing to do so?
Yes, and those of us without big public voices appreciate all that you do.
May I suggest that you and others coordinate immediately to produce a very effective presidential debate candidate question, and a follow-up, knowing that Harris will give a non-answer. Not only do you have a voice, you have personal contacts within organizations that are fighting for women's sex-based rights. If you don't have the time or inclination to do this work today, or as soon as possible, I would be happy to coordinate it with some introductions to those people from you. I have no timely way to contact them.
If many women's rights organizations step up right now to publish the same question in many media outlets, this issue presents a combined opportunity for Americans on both sides of the aisle to learn about and demand accountability for the reversal of Title IX while educating loyal Dem voters that they've been cheated out of choosing our candidate by an organization they are not a member of, namely the DNC. The timing of Biden stepping down once all the Primary elections were complete is suspicious enough. But then our Party, and I say that loosely since we are NOT members, refused to provide an open Democratic convention to choose from Harris and other potential candidates. I believe Harris would likely have lost had the DNC run her against other viable candidates because challenging questions would make Dem voters realize that Harris/Biden just made it completely lawful for every male student to use female showers in US colleges and high schools. That's in addition to the abolition of sex-segregated sports that became the law on Aug 1, 2024.
I envision an ad hoc group comprised of sex-realists and big thinkers like Kara Dansky, Dr. Sheila Jeffreys, Maureen O'Hara, Dr. Helen Joyce, like Dr. Emma Hilton, Colin Wright and others who are willing to meet to refine this question, then publish it from many platforms with a memorable and educational hashtag such as #ReverseTheReversalOfTitleIX. This is a moment in time that we should not miss.
The group should include people with enough skepticism to be able to throw off their own internalized HOPE (that's a reference to the blind loyalty people exhibit to their candidate and members of their “team” based on perceived tribal affiliation – my Party, a woman, a conservative, a progressive, etc.). False HOPE is what leads many to believe Harris is secretly on our side of this issue (because she's a woman!) and will surely step up to help after we elect her.
That skepticism should encompass a reasonable criticism of any and all mainstream media that has not even raised the issue that every state paid for an expensive primary election, yet the DNC chose someone who was not even on any Democratic Primary ballot. Small d democracy has officially been subverted with the selection of Harris by a private organization instead of the voters. Not one mainstream media organization has raised this issue, not even to question the expense of state primary elections on behalf of a private organization that tossed the results, and which has previously been sued for fraud by rank-and-file Democrats. Therefore it's reasonable to conclude that the media will either ignore/bury this issue or frame a debate question that misdirects the electorate with a softball question to Harris.
Note that the first ballots will be mailed out to voters this week on Sept 6th, so voters who drank the media's “Democrats are excited about Kamala” cool-aid might vote before they even realize our Party reversed Title IX. If you are concerned that putting our candidate on the spot might help Trump get elected, remember that Kamala could simply agree with us and publicly promise to #ReverseTheReversalOfTitleIX. I'm quite sure she won't actually reverse the Dept of Ed rule change if elected. She'll have four years to gaslight people who really, really want to believe she's' on our side. The DNC knows women are a captive market; with Trump running they know most Dem voters have nowhere else to go, so to speak. But at least Kamala will be on record stating she believes sex matters in sport. And if she doesn't, if she obfuscates, distracts, misdirects and otherwise pretends that she'll address this after the election, she hasn't earned my vote, even if she has yours.
This is urgent Mariah. We only have one chance to get this question asked in the debate on Sept 10th, and this week is our best chance to promote sex-based rights before people start voting. Can you make some calls and get this request into the hands of those who will recognize this opportunity and are willing to jump on it?
Another great story!
I approach the grocery store the same way. And feel like a million after my swims. And cherish these chats in the aisles
I loved this story—the way it rocks back and forth between you and Nancy and between the past and the present. Although, it does make me hunger for cookies!
As evidenced by the comments thus far, I also love reading your Substack. I played a lot of sports in school (volleyball, basketball, track, soccer, tennis) and a lot out of school (volleyball, softball, soccer). Your posts take me back to those days. Fortunately, my love of movement has served me well. I’m currently 64 and teach Spin and Step classes at our local Y. And I’m constantly relaying your messages, both about sports in general and specifically girls in sports to my 32 year old daughter. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
I just love this Mariah. Not only because I could absolutely see you in this scene, but because I love watching little and young girls for this very reason. I have talked to Rich about it, sitting outside waiting for a table at a restaurant for instance, watching a a girl-child prance, dance, turn cartwheels, and talk to herself, completely entertained with her own world. The unvarnished wildness of young girls is mesmerizing to me. 💜
Oh yes, me too. The arms stretching in every direction, the running never in a straight line and never without a few vertical leaps. The unselfconscious thrill of physical aliveness. A wonder to behold indeed. And thank you!
Fabulous writing here, Mariah. You really created a mood. You could make this into a novel or even a fantasy series. Damn, I’d read books of this story! Not kidding or exaggerating. It would also be a great YA or middle grade story with the older ladies as mentor characters. Almost like witches. Can you tell I’m excited?
Yes I can tell you're excited :-) and that's such a satisfying response to see, of course. Thank you, Donna! I love how you're building on it.
Or maybe the older woman’s granddaughter leads her back to girl world. I’m so here for this!!!
This is an intriguing thought. Yes, a girl taking an elder by the hand... placing the girl in the leadership role... helping the elder remember and respond and play in whatever ways she still can... the girl might become incidentally enlightened too by this partnership, seeing the world thru the adult's eyes.
I've noticed over the years that I'm not good at making things up. All I know how to do is tell my truth, so I stay in that lane. You, however, are welcome to take the Girl World concept and spin off in any direction you like. I'd be honored. In any case, thanks this enthusiastic support.
My idea list is too long for the years remaining in my life!!!!! 🤣
Same. My dear friend Marilynn Mobley hoped to write "just maybe one more book - a short one" when she was very ill with cancer. She died four days later. I expect to have the same desire, and same result. Creative people just keep creating for as long as we possibly can -- often, as in our cases, with no shortage of ideas. A very good problem to have.
Thanks for a lovely story.
Hi Diana, so glad you enjoyed it.