Female Harvard soccer players respond to sexually explicit ‘scouting report’ in op-ed
“We are appalled that female athletes who are told to feel empowered and proud of their abilities are so regularly reduced to a physical appearance.”
Six former members of the Harvard women’s soccer team are responding to the sexually explicit “scouting report” created by the 2012 men’s team with a message of strength in unity. The report by the men’s team, which described each female recruit in lewd terms and assigned them numerical scores and hypothetical sexual “positions,” has been condemned by Harvard athletic officials. In a op-ed published Saturday in The Harvard Crimson, six members of Harvard’s Women’s Soccer recruiting class of 2012 and 2016 graduates wrote that “personal nature” of the report by their peers was not the most painful or surprising part of the experience.“More than anything, we are frustrated that this is a reality that all women have faced in the past and will continue to face throughout their lives,” they wrote. “We feel hopeless because men who are supposed to be our brothers degrade us like this. We are appalled that female athletes who are told to feel empowered and proud of their abilities are so regularly reduced to a physical appearance.”While the “report” attempts to pit teammates against one another, Brooke Dickens, Kelsey Clayman, Alika Keene, Emily Mosbacher, Lauren Varela, and Haley Washburn said their experience as athletes taught them better:
This document might have stung any other group of women you chose to target, but not us. We know as teammates that we rise to the occasion, that we are stronger together, and that we will not tolerate anything less than respect for women that we care for more than ourselves.
The authors said there is no excuse for the actions of the 2012 men’s team, which they called “hurtful,” “careless,” “disgusting,” and “appalling,” referencing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s own defense for lewd comments he made about women.“’Locker room talk’ is not an excuse because this is not limited to athletic teams,” they wrote. “The whole world is the locker room.” For the title of the op-ed, the former students borrowed a slogan from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign — “Stronger Together.”Their message throughout the piece was one of strength in unity. “To the men of Harvard soccer and to the men of the world, we invite you to join us, because ultimately we are all members of the same team,” the athletes wrote. “We are human beings and we should be treated with dignity. We want your help in combatting this. We need your help in preventing this. We cannot change the past, but we are asking you to help us now and in the future.”Read the full piece at the Crimson.
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