A Girl in a Sports Bra
This 15-year-old national level player shares the everyday struggles of being a girl on the Badminton court
I draw my arm back, look up, and wait for the right time to bring my arm forward to hit the shuttle. Once the shuttle is almost above my head, I swing my arm - racquet in hand - with full force and send the shuttle flying into the opposite court.
I do not wait to see if it fell the way I wanted it to. Instead, I immediately look to my right at the adjacent court to see how his shot went and compare it to mine.
His shot reaches the other court, about two to three meters outside the boundary. I then turn my head back to my court and smile in satisfaction to see that my shuttle has flown in full-speed, just touching the line- the perfect shot.
I turn my head towards my coach, expecting some praise for that shot, only to be disappointed. His eyes are fixed on the other court, where the guys are being praised for playing well, even though it was my shot that deserved that praise. I look back at my court, tears welling up in my eyes, angry about what has been happening. I stand poised, ready for the next rally, determined to play better this time.
I raise my arm again, waiting for the shuttle, and the process is repeated. This time, something is different. When I turn around to see if anyone had noticed how good my shot was, someone was looking at me. Someone was looking, rather staring -- at my sweaty legs, on display, under my short badminton skirt and at the slightly visible bra strap peeking from underneath my T-shirt.
Well, sorry to break it to you, but this is my everyday life-while doing what I love.
I am Adya Bhargava, a fifteen-year old national badminton player.
You see, I am tired. I am tired of being asked to play only in the front-half of the court during mixed doubles when I know I am as good as my male counterpart; tired of being told that I will not be able to beat him. Tired of the fact that if and when I do, everyone will believe that he lost only because he went easy on me-a girl.
Tired of my muscles, which I have worked so hard on, being called ugly and criticized because it’s not ‘cool’ for a girl to have muscles; and finally, I am tired of being reduced to nothing when I am ogled at for wearing what I feel comfortable in, while playing.
This needs to stop. NOW.
We need to have to stop proving ourselves over and over again to get attention from our coaches when a guy gets more because...well, he’s a guy.
We need to stop having to wear track pants under our skirts in order to stretch at fifty degrees in the Delhi heat just to avoid sleazy looks. We need to stop having to adjust to the bad quality of playing fields in tournaments because the boys matches required better courts. We need it to stop simply because we are equal to men in every aspect and we deserve everything they do.
If we really want more Sindhus and Sainas, more Mary Koms and Geeta Phogats, we need this to stop, so that the few aspiring sportswomen out there know that when they are in the playing field, they are equal to men.
Parents need to know that their little girls will be safe training with the guys.
We have to show the world that India is taking a step closer to gender equality by braving the basic reason why women were considered inferior to men in the first place- physical strength.
I love badminton and sports, which is why I have shied away from sharing my problems, for years, in order to prevent portraying it in a negative light.
But now, I have had enough.
The love of this very sport got me talking.
I know that if we overcome this problem, India will do wonders in sports.
(The author is a tenth grade student at The Shri Ram School, and a national level Badminton player.)
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