gadzooks
01-18-2008, 04:10 PM
Rather than hijack every thread in which someone refers to the Duke women's basketball team as the "Lady Devils," I'll just do this here. Please, folks, the name of the team is the Blue Devils. Yes, that's the same name as the men's team, but I think we're all intelligent enough to be able to figure out which team is being talked about.
The #1 reason to call the women's team the Blue Devils is simply because that is the name of the team. I understand that a lot of women aren't offended by the "Lady" designation--the Tennessee Lady Vols seem to be perfectly fine with it--and that people who do use that name for the team don't intend to be insulting, but there is no team at Duke called the "Lady Devils." Insisting on using the wrong name for the team is a little bit like going to your acquaintance named John and saying, "There are too many guys named John, and I find it confusing, so I'm going to call you Manfred instead." At the least, it's odd, and at worst it's disrespectful. Just use the right name, OK? If you have to say "Blue Devil men" or "Blue Devil women" to make it clear, is that really so hard?
Now, here's the more contentious part, but please bear with me. Many schools have dropped the "Lady" designation for their women's teams because it's sexist. This fellow does a better job than I could in explaining why; it's long, but I think it's a very worthwhile read: If “lady doctor” is sexist-passé, why are “lady” athletes OK? (http://amerikanbeat.net/2007/09/18/if-lady-doctor-is-sexist-passe-why-are-lady-athletes-ok/) I realize that it strays into larger issues of gender and respect that are really not within the scope of this forum (though if anyone wants to have that discussion elsewhere, I'm down with that), but I encourage all to just give it some thought.
And I totally don't want to get into the peeing match about how much money the men's team makes vs. how much the women's team loses, or how many people attend men's vs. women's games, because that is entirely not the point. The women shouldn't have to rake in the bucks to be worthy of respect.
I'm not some crazy PC uber-feminist or anything, not trying to make anybody feel bad, not trying to be any kind of language police here, I'm just sayin'. So, in conclusion, let me just say, GO BLUE DEVILS!
The #1 reason to call the women's team the Blue Devils is simply because that is the name of the team. I understand that a lot of women aren't offended by the "Lady" designation--the Tennessee Lady Vols seem to be perfectly fine with it--and that people who do use that name for the team don't intend to be insulting, but there is no team at Duke called the "Lady Devils." Insisting on using the wrong name for the team is a little bit like going to your acquaintance named John and saying, "There are too many guys named John, and I find it confusing, so I'm going to call you Manfred instead." At the least, it's odd, and at worst it's disrespectful. Just use the right name, OK? If you have to say "Blue Devil men" or "Blue Devil women" to make it clear, is that really so hard?
Now, here's the more contentious part, but please bear with me. Many schools have dropped the "Lady" designation for their women's teams because it's sexist. This fellow does a better job than I could in explaining why; it's long, but I think it's a very worthwhile read: If “lady doctor” is sexist-passé, why are “lady” athletes OK? (http://amerikanbeat.net/2007/09/18/if-lady-doctor-is-sexist-passe-why-are-lady-athletes-ok/) I realize that it strays into larger issues of gender and respect that are really not within the scope of this forum (though if anyone wants to have that discussion elsewhere, I'm down with that), but I encourage all to just give it some thought.
And I totally don't want to get into the peeing match about how much money the men's team makes vs. how much the women's team loses, or how many people attend men's vs. women's games, because that is entirely not the point. The women shouldn't have to rake in the bucks to be worthy of respect.
I'm not some crazy PC uber-feminist or anything, not trying to make anybody feel bad, not trying to be any kind of language police here, I'm just sayin'. So, in conclusion, let me just say, GO BLUE DEVILS!