Las Vegas New Mexico’s First State Female Wrestling Champ

The staunch Las Vegas Optic, one of a number of small-town newspapers that have found the cash and the spirit to survive the universal collapse of print news publications, recently ran a photo and story on its front page that caught my eye. The photo shows high school senior Liana Fernandez, arms overhead as she celebrates becoming the first female wrestling state champion in her weight class. She is blond, pretty and shapely and a generation ago, might have been crowned a beauty queen at her spring prom. But now it is not her looks but her strength that is bringing her hometown crowd to its feet. If this can happen in a poor rural town, perhaps we can assume that it will eventually happen everywhere.

The dark side of this story is represented for me by another front-page article titled “Vegas Woman Charged with Punching Coach.” It’s worth reflecting on the interesting issue raised by our increasing physical strength, as women; will this fact alter our old-time reputation as peacemakers?

The apparent cause of the altercation between a woman and a female coach was, unfortunately, familiar: the assailant accused the coach of having an affair with the assailant’s husband. Oh dear, I thought, here we go again. Our hurt feelings over this kind of betrayal, so understandable and yet always so fruitless, have led to a physical altercation and an appearance in court. The news story doesn’t mention the physical strength of the assailant or the coach, and so my conclusion may be off base, but now that so many of us revel in freedom from conventional restraints, is this kind of petty violence inevitable?

And if so, do we condemn or celebrate it? After all it will be many a day before a girl athlete equals the potential physical violence of a man.

In Women, New Mexico Las Vegas Optic