12-year-old girl kicked off football team for making boys horny

969659_622224847789388_1199413151_n12-year-old Madison Baxter has been playing football since second grade. She played on her football team in sixth grade. But this year she was told not to come to tryout for the seventh-grade team because she is provoking “impure thoughts.” Baxter’s mother says this was the explanation offered by Patrick Stuart an administrator at the Strong Rock Christian Academy private school Madison attends. Cassy Blythe, Madison’s mother, told Atlanta’s WXIA-TV,

“In the meeting with the CEO of the school [Patrick Stuart], I was told that the reasons behind it were one, that the boys were going to start lusting after her and have impure thoughts about her and that the locker-room talk was not appropriate for a female to hear even though she had a separate locker room from the boys.”

WTF, Madison! What are you doing? Whatever it is, it’s totally distracting to the boys on the team. People in support of Madison and opposed to the total old school sexism and the total infantilization of boys, have joined a facebook page called Let Her Play that Blyth started.  The about section says, “This page was started because my daughter was told she could no longer play football simply because she is a girl. We stand behind all female athletes who are told no. Join our fight for equality. Our daughters should not have limitations. Let them soar!” Madison or “Maddy” herself wrote a post on the site which is both badass and adorable.

Hey you guys! It’s Maddy. I have chores to do so I better hurry. [adorable]  I wanted to take a few minutes to express my sincere gratitude for your support for all athletes that struggle to compete based on differences… My dad and my papa were both football players in high school…My uncle was a football coach… Football is in my blood. I was raised around the sport and have a serious obsession with it…

…When I was told my gender would prevent me from continuing my dream I was crushed. I felt like my heart fell on the floor and the school stomped on it. I worked hard to earn my spot and I deserve to play. I will never allow someone to tell me I can’t do something I’ve already proved I can do. I might be young but don’t think that will stop me. My voice will be heard and I will fight for what is right [badass]…

There are other people who have been in my position since the beginning of time. Those people took a stand. I will follow them and take my stand [badass]… I have the power to fight for those who will follow in my footsteps…

By liking this page you are saying that you stand with me. You are screaming from the mountain tops that we will prevail! [badass]

Unfortunatley [adorable] the grass won’t mow itself so I have to run [adorable]. Many thanks to all of you!

-Maddy

You gotta read the whole post here. And like her page, obvs.

nyc

Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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