Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406060143
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Short
That's the point one Blacksburg High School student wanted to get across to Parade magazine columnist Lynn Minton.
Erin James, a 16-year-old sophomore, said the views expressed in a Fresh Voices column really bothered her.
Minton compiles comments from teen-agers on a variety of topics for the column.
A Fresh Voices column that ran April 3 featured male athletes discussing the difficulty of playing sports while injured. The athletes' girlfriends also appeared in the column.
James, who plays basketball and track, resented the absence of female athletes in the original column.
She said it implied females "were brainless people who didn't know anything about sports."
According to a Parade spokeswoman, the magazine received a lot of responses to the column.
In James' letter, which will be published in Sunday's Parade, she writes about females' place in society.
"This is the '90s! Not every girl wears dresses, paints her nails and cooks," she wrote. "Start treating us more than the girlfriends of 'great' male athletes. We are athletes, too."
James credited her hometown for respecting female athletes.
"In my town, girls' sports are taken just as seriously as boys'. We have been Virginia AA league state champions in girls' basketball, track and cross-country for two years now."
Erin is the daughter of Robert James and Ann Dunnington of Blacksburg.
by CNB