Let me be frank; I don't like hockey. I don't go to Richmond Renegades games and I certainly don't go to Capitals games. But this story I came across last night may make me rethink that. It is a story filled with all the necessary elements to peak anyone's interest (read: males 16-35); there is sex, violence, and scandal. Who could pass on a story like this.
Here's how it goes...
The New York Islanders are a NHL team that has a huge rivalry with the other New York NHL team, the Rangers. However, the Islanders have something extra... they have the Ice Girls... which are basically a group of athletic attractive young women who serve as cheerleaders/grounds keepers during Islanders home games... certainly there are those out there who find the objectification of women like this to be enough proof that the world is doomed, but hold on this story gets better!
So the other night the two big rivals, Islanders and Rangers, are playing each other at the Islanders home rink. During the breaks on the ice in between game play the Ice Girls are supposed to come out in their "swimsuit-y" outfits with squeegees and clean the ice, and apparently this includes the area around the opposing teams goal... well the Rangers goalie had a problem for this so he would not move to let one of the Ice Girls do her job... in fact he was so perturbed by this young woman that he decides to slap at her squeegee with his stick to get his point across... the problem being that this action causes the long handle of the girls squeegee to punch her in the stomach... now it appears this poor girl was not hurt just shocked by the incident... and so far I feel like this is just a story of bad judgement on both peoples part... but then things go tragically wrong.
The girl has to skate past the Rangers bench to leave the ice and as she does so one or more of the Rangers players spit on her.... disturbing.... really disturbing, and things only go worse because during the next break on the ice another girl goes out to clean the ice... this time a ref tells her to stay away from the obviously cranky goalie, but as she skates back past the Rangers bench she too gets spat on, and because of the nature of her uniform (there is barely anything there to begin with) the spit hits her on her bare back... Gross! Now of course the two organizations are making a big deal about this, as they should.
But my take is this... I don't ever think its a good idea to whore out women's bodies for entertainment, and lets be brutally honest... that's what the Islanders were doing, but just because these women were being degraded for entertainment does not give any man the right to hit or spit on them... or any woman for that matter, but as a man I am willing to hold our sex to a higher standard and call these men out... they are disgusting punks who are picking on young women (18-26) that ridiculous... come on guys... I know your Canadian so you really can't help it, but this is too much. This kind of rubbish has to stop... we cant keep having athletes abusing and mistreating women... I think we as the public need to hold them accountable for their deplorable actions!
Obviously I want everyone (read: males 16-35) to read this post so here is a link to the story on Newsday.com and a picture of the Ice Girls so you can get a better understanding of what we are talking about.
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