This is my first dive into the waters of the blogosphere. It’s a little intimidating. But it’s also exciting to have a regular forum in which to express my opinions about news, events and the general state of the athletic world as it relates to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and women’s issues. I see myself as an educator, a researcher and an activist. I am hoping to integrate all of these aspects of my professional identity with my personal identity as a middle-aged white lesbian former coach and athlete to make some observations in this blog that will be thought-provoking, informative and entertaining.
One of the things I look forward to is unleashing my inner bad girl. As a social justice educator, I am always looking for ways to join my audience and invite them to see things from different perspectives, to consider ways to create more opportunities for participation, achievement, equality. I need my “good girl” to be in charge as an educator in order to accomplish these goals. In this blog, I will not necessarily be speaking from my good girl place all the time. I might write stuff that will piss people off or offend people. I might express opinions that my good girl would never think of saying out loud in a public forum.
That’s where my bad girl comes in. She’s been feeling trapped in a good girl’s body for a long time and she has a lot to say. I am going to call her, Griff. That sounds bad to me, don’t you think? When Griff speaks, expect more immediate emotion, less filtered and careful balanced commentary.
Griff is angry and tired of making nice. She’s feed up with mean people and stupid people. She has difficulty hearing professional athletes say things like, “I hate gay people” or coaches say things like, “I don’t allow drugs, alcohol or lesbians on my teams” without indulging in fantasies of violence and mayhem that Dr. Griffin (the good girl) would never condone.
Dr. Griffin will also be contributing to this blog. She does have opinions and perspectives to share. After all, she has been writing and speaking about sports equality for over 30 years: fighting for Title IX and equality in sport for women, speaking as an out lesbian fighting for equality in sport for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, working as a white ally for sports equality for people of color. She’s seen a lot, lived through a lot and she can present a particular historical perspective now that she is qualifying for senior discounts at the movies. Dr Griffin, however, will be sharing airtime with Griff. Dr. Griffin is already nervous about what Griff might say.
So, stay tuned. The girls (Dr. Griffin and Griff) plan on blogging anew each week (or as close to that as possible). Let’s get the party started. This should be fun.