A Cry Against Injustice

Have you ever noticed how small the women's section is compared to the men's in sporting goods stores? I went shopping for new running shoes today with mumsies and daddy-oh, and reached a whole new level of frustration by what would seem to be a very obvious example of systemic sexism. Although I have no doubt that there are more female athletes now than ever before, I'm still appalled by how deeply gender roles are entrenched in our culture--and in this case, within the context of fashion and sporting equipment. I've never been a huge fan of "women only" anythings, but dammit, you'd think that people would at least recognize the fact that women participate in athletic pursuits as well. In every store except for the Nike Store, the men's shoe section was at least twice as large as the women's, and often, weren't even labelled "Men's." At Athlete's World and Foot Locker, the shoe categories were Basketball, Leisure, Running, Cross Training, Women's and Kid's. Ridiculous. Not to mention, the only shoes they carried in their minimal "Women's" section were pink, white and baby blue Nike Shox and walking shoes masquerading as athletic footwear. Anyways, that's my rant. I was really looking forward to trying on some of the sick shoes that had been reviewed in this month's issue of Runner's World, but I suppose that will have to wait for either a) me to get to West Broadway or b) store merchandisers to eschew their notions of the athletic goods market composition.