“You play like a girl…”

Am I supposed to be offended if a guy says I play like a girl? Since I’m a girl, it seems a little silly.

I think this is a silly thing to say to anyone because it’s intended to put someone down, first of all, and second it assumes that girls are inherently worse at doing physical activities than boys. The phrase that people often use is “you throw like a girl,” meant to be an insult for boys or men who don’t have as strong of a throwing arm.

I won’t go into it here, but there’s enough scientific information that proves that there is little to nothing biologically different between men and women that makes them better or worse at throwing. A lot of it has to do with whether or not you were encouraged to throw when you were young. It’s like learning a language. It shouldn’t surprise us if someone has an accent when they learn English later in life because English isn’t their native language. It’s not a biological limitation, it’s simply a limitation of what they grew up with.

Here’s an article that does a much more in depth explanation of why boys tend to be better at throwing than girls.

Throwing like a girl (The Atlantic)

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s helpful to put someone down with an insult as it often is just a way to make ourselves feel better at the expense of someone else. And, furthermore, I don’t think it’s helpful when “doing something like a girl” is used to insult people as it implies it is somehow wrong to be a girl. We are all made in God’s image and so using insults and joking to put someone down is choosing to ignore the inherent value that each human being has.