I am an attorney and a practicing social worker. I am also a member of an all- women extended family. One of three sisters; myself the mother of three sisters; my grandmother, one of five sisters. When we visit a park with our boyfriends, husbands and fathers, what a disappointment. We watch the boys play. We all would like to participate but only they have drop-in walk-on playfields, a variety of sports and recreation facilities. The non-males – and the disabled – are excluded. There is nothing there for them designed for their participation. The amenities provided in our parks are all unsuitable for a mixed family or for all-girls play or for boys and girls of a family playing together. They all require rivalry against others – recreation to defeat or “beat” others. Where are the ballplaying facilities in our parks where we play alongside each other like at golf and bowling w/o offense and defense, without body contact, aggression or banging into one another? Unfortunately all the sports and features in our parks such as basketball, soccer, football and all fast-moving defeat-others ball play are fundamentally exclusionary and marginalizing.
Invariably these play/sports activities conduce to aggression, to bullying, to the exclusion of members of my family. There is nothing, not a single sports facility for a family to drop-in to play ball together w/o running fast and banging bodies as at bowling and golf, recreation assets that do not belong in our parks. The social worker instinct in me makes me alert to the discrimination of the elderly and the disabled and of women who are excluded from our shared commons. The attorney in me seeks equality and fair play.
We should ask, where are the shared spaces designed for the feminine side of park attendees? Where are the sports that are not body-banging, non-aggressive and not fast moving? We are deprived of play facilities that are non-competitive or self-competitive. We should be providing ball-playing facilities designed for the participation of all visitors, male and female alike, essentially all our neighbors, not only for the men and boys, athletes and jocks, participating in bang-one-another recreation and sports. My girls want none of that. They invariably face discrimination in our parks having been provided so little share of our shared spaces. Drop-in walk-on participation is what they’re looking for in recreation, not organized teams whose purpose is to defeat others.
Women are so far left out and so acclimated to marginalization that they are not even conscious of their being left out, sidelined and discriminated in our so called shared commons. The same for people with disabilities. When was the last time you saw a teenager using a wheelchair or a young girl or a grandparent with mixed-age grandchildren waiting for next at a basketball court? Never.
There is an exception that not only proves the rule but highlights what could be a model for our parks. At King Farm in Rockville – and hundreds of recent communities across the states –take note of the Bankshot Playcourt designed for non-aggressive, non-competitive ball playing, or “self-competitive play.” The participation at Bankshot is intentionally alongside other participants of all ages and genders like at bowling and golf. No opponents necessary except yourself. That concept embraces everyone at play. Bankshot as a tangible example reveals what can be derived from drop-in individualized play that is designed for including the differently-able as well as my full female family. When there are so many full contact combat-like sports facilities and recreation intended to defeat others, park designers should get to work creating many other non-aggressive non-competitive playcourts and fields that include us all.
Ariella Klein
Board member-The National Association for Recreational Equality
Nareletsplayfair.org
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