As I sat on the gleaming bleachers aside Davis Field today, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the Friday night football games from this past fall.

I watched the football players battle it out on the field, with the air echoing with the sounds of crunching helmets and play calls. Without the cheerleaders chanting their usual color shout and “I believe that we will win!” cheers, Friday night football would remain incomplete.

Every year, one of the highlights of the spring Spirit Week continues to be the powderpuff game, with the girls playing flag football and the boys performing a cheerleading routine at halftime.

As the quarterbacks completed passes and the receivers converted catches into touchdowns, I couldn’t help but overhear the comments of other spectators. Many pointed out how the girls were actually “able to play football,” apparently surprised at their ability to catch and throw.

As a female, it is easy for me to realize when someone is referring to the stereotype of girls not being able to play a rough contact sport. However, even with powderpuff football remaining a high school tradition across the country, it’s demeaning that teenagers still find it shocking that girls can succeed at the sport of football.

Furthermore, I observed the reactions when the boys performed their individual cheering routines at halftime.

Were there similar comments passed? No.

In fact, spectators laughed and showed their support no matter what type of dance moves the boys performed. No one indicated any sort of surprise at the uncoordinated, cheesy dance that was choreographed. Some even murmured how they came to the game just to watch the boys’ cheering routines, and then left immediately after.

The fact that students of both genders came not for the powderpuff game, but instead to watch the boys perform a makeshift cheer for thirty seconds, further shows the fact that there is not as much novelty to women masculinizing themselves in comparison to the feminization of their male counterparts.

I, too, admit to holding some stereotypes of my own. Growing up in a society full of discussion on gender roles in society, it is impossible for one to not have views of their own. Today’s powderpuff game, however, made me realize that no matter how hard society tries, it is almost impossible to completely rid the world of gender stereotypes unless we collectively and consciously work against them.