Cornered by Mike Baldwin for July 31, 2012

Oh, Please.

Geez! Even in Heaven there’s bullying and belittling.

Let’s hope this guy isn’t taking the lead at Armageddon

Judging from the view of the Earth, those are veeerrry high clouds.

hm…..curious. I hadn’t thought or heard of the old term ‘throwing like a girl’ ever since girl’s high school and college softball became popular. Those girls are PLAYERS.did those girls have to train to overcome their own tendency to ‘throw like a girl’ by taking lessons in how to ‘throw like a man’?maybe this is a throwback cartoon from the 1950’s; when girls played with dolls and boys played sports, period.maybe the caption , since this isn’t the 1950’s, should read:“good lord, you can’t throw for sh..! We want shock and awe not static cling"or some such; the throwing like a girl thing sounds vaguely offensive even to this 64 year old.

“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”

I recall an old Saturday Night Live sketch, “The Run, Jump, and Throw Like a Girl Olympics.” Sexist of course, but funny nonetheless.

My understanding is that women’s shoulders are constructed a bit differently than men’s (as are the hips, for more obvious reasons), so the standard overhand throwing motion comes less naturally. Whether that results in an advantage when it comes to underhand throwing, as is used in softball, I couldn’t hazard a guess.

I’d say that an unpracticed 8 year old boy will be as awkward when it comes to throwing as an unpracticed 8 year-old girl, but they will be awkward in different ways, hence “throwing like a girl” carries a greater insult than simply “throwing badly.” And by culture (perhaps reinforced by nature) young boys are generally more practiced at throwing things than young girls (if only through throwing rocks, sticks, and dirt clods at small animals, trees, windows, and each other).

Oddly enough, when I was in junior high the boys’ softball team borrowed the second pitcher from the girls’ team because, well, there were at least 2 girls who threw better than the boys.