We might get a little tan from all that sports, but so what?

I was talking to an athlete in my school when I noticed that her skin tone has changed from one that is tanned and healthy, to a strange shade of white. I called her out on it and she told me that she was using whitening products, to help her become fairer. She lamented how difficult it was to be an athlete and look pretty at the same time.

“I’ve half the mind to quit sports because I’m becoming so dark, teacher. Thankfully, I look a little fairer now because of the cream.”

While lecturing her on the side effects of using cheap whitening products, I realised that many other female athletes in my school, shared the same fears when it comes to doing sports activities.

As the head of the sports house last year, I spent a lot of time convincing my girls to take part in activities. At times, it felt as if I was wasting my time. It would make more sense to spend that time training the boys who were genuinely interested in sports.

Most of my girls were worried about the same things – darker skin tone, sweating and appearing lesser than attractive when doing sports. It was easier to let them get away without doing any sort of sports, than forcing them into it. I also realised that I wasn’t the only teacher who allowed them to get away. 

Why do we do this? Why are we more inclined to make sports optional for our female students? Instead of pushing them to be active and focusing on the intangible value of participating in sports, we allow them to sit out on the sidelines and watch from afar.

We find it easier to give our female students other roles like decorating the tents and leading simple aerobics, instead of getting them to sweat it out in the sun. I find it very disheartening that most of my girls are so tied up with the idea of being fair, feminine and pretty, that they refuse to participate in anything sporty. 

While our female students may boast a higher enrolment rate in our universities, I think we are losing out on other areas, especially sports.

A survey of over 1,500 school pupils conducted in the UK, showed that only 12% of girls are reaching the standard level of fitness by the age 14 – half the rate for boys, which is itself only at 24%. The percentage of girls reaching the standard levels of fitness in Malaysia is unknown, but from what I've observed in my school, I can safely say that our students are far from being as fit as they should be. 

Perhaps it's time we start rebranding sports to help our girls, see the real value behind it. Sports, not only will help our students to be fitter, it will also teach them discipline, teamwork and tenacity. It is also evident that physically active people recover from mild depression more quickly, and physical activities are strongly correlated with good mental health as people age.

Perhaps it is time, we get our girls to look beyond the tan, that they might get from sports and see it as something that will help them grow and develop into physically, mentally and emotionally strong adults.

A fellow teacher shared with me, how difficult it was to start a girl’s basketball team in her school. Between convincing them to come for practice and then convincing them that basketball isn't as rough as it looks, she almost gave up.

However, and thankfully, her perseverance wasn't futile as today she has a girl’s team ready to compete with other schools. Listening to her story made me realise that it is possible to encourage our girls to be more active in sports. I am also starting to see how this is especially important in rural and underperforming schools, where we want to develop our students to become holistic individuals. According to the Women's Sports Foundation, high school female athletes are 92% less likely to get involved in drugs, and three times more likely to graduate than non-athletes.

I know we have a long way to go before we start seeing equality in sports, especially in our schools. I know that it would take a lot of convincing to get my own students, to get out in the sun and sweat a little.

But, I also know that we are at a time and age where it is pivotal to start pushing for sports, to become as important as academic achievement for our students. According to Sue Castle, executive producer of PBS Sports: Get in the Game, "The evidence supporting sports participation for young people are overwhelming...It has the power to combat everything from racism to low self-image, to the high-school drop-out rate."  – April 30, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.