By Kaylan Kha
Features editor
When people think of football, they picture men clad in helmets and shoulder pads tackling each other on the field. Women are hardly associated with the sport, but powderpuff presents girls with the opportunity to play football at the high school level.
While not all students may be interested in playing in powderpuff, students at Gabrielino High School should at least have the option to participate.
Powderpuff is a version of flag football in which the gender roles are reversed. The girls are playing on the field, while the boys are cheering in the sidelines. Schurr High School in Montebello, Arroyo High School in El Monte, and Rosemead High School are a few schools in the San Gabriel Valley that offer powderpuff games.
Powderpuff can help Gabrielino lift school spirit, encourage student participation, and raise money for the community.
“The guys dress up as cheerleaders,” stated Caitlyn Nguy- en, junior at Rosemead High School. “They [plan] their own halftime show, so it’s something that everyone looks forward to.”
Last school year, Glendale High School held their first powderpuff game in a decade.
“We really worked hard to get this [game] off the ground, but it became a real community-service opportunity,” Associated Student Body co-adviser Jon Livingston told the LA Times.
Some people may argue that powderpuff is sexist because it is female exclusive. Unlike other sports, however, football is the only sport at Gabrielino that does not have a girls team.
Safety is another concern of people who oppose powderpuff. Many schools do not offer powderpuff because of the danger it poses to its players. Yet, these schools fail to realize that with every sport—not just powder-
puff—danger is always a possibility.
According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, there is a lower chance for girls who are involved in sports to take drugs and get pregnant. Instead, they are more likely to graduate high school. It is clear that powderpuff should be implemented here at Gabrielino. Being able to play a male-dominant sport both empowers girls and provides them with a chance to challenge gender roles, demonstrating how girls can do anything that boys can—maybe even better.
