I object to the term men's basketball ... discuss

Everywhere I have been as a reporter, it has been our style to NOT use the word "Lady" when referring to a HS girls team. As a matter of fact, there are very few newspapers in this area where it's actually used.

A college women's team is up to the college's discretion, but most colleges outside of the South have ditched use of the word "Lady" in their nicknames.

 

What does that have to do with anything?

 

That these organization called themselves what they did - both city and moniker. Not like Starman to just flatulate in the wind ...

 

Playing a bit of Devil's Advocate here, because I think BB is using shitty reasoning to back up a shitty original premise ...

If there's a valid argument for BB's point of view, which he hasn't presented for whatever reason, I think it's that men's basketball may not, in fact, be men's basketball because it's not men only who can join the teams. If a woman can compete at that level, I would think she'd be allowed to do so. And if they aren't, I'd say they should be. In other words, if a woman wants to try out for her school's men's team rather than its women's team, I think she should be permitted to do so, just like in golf and, at times, hockey. The men's game should be for the very best players, not just the very best male players. Thus, you could theoretically say it's "basketball," while "women's basketball" is set up since so many women would be at such a physical disadvantage against the men.

 

Technically, yes. But the incidence of females on male teams at any level past, say, middle school is so rare that it's hard to imagine that anyone would consider "men's" basketball unisex and thus not needing a gender modifier.

Now I DO think, at least based on anecdotal evidence, that many people think of the men's sport when they think of basketball. But for clarity's sake, it's of no harm to make the distinction between men's and women's basketball in the paper or on the newscast.

 

Here's a headline from the AP box on the Seattle Times website sports page this morning:

San Diego State cracks Top 25; UConn still No. 1

I know this is about the women. But shouldn't the headline read "...women's Top 25..."? Someone in Seattle is clicking and cursing, I figure.

As for the "Ladies" label, I find it a little uncomfortable; maybe it's time for a change, but it's way down my list of current world problems.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with that, MM.

But if there's an argument for BB's position, I really think this is the one for it. Not "The men play real basketball, and the women are some other entity."