Well, as I’m sure most of you know, yoyoing is an extremely male-dominated sport. And if you ask me, the current yoyo society isn’t doing much to help. Yes there are some really amazing female pros like Ann Connolly, but it still isn’t even close to on par with the skill in the male community. Why is this? Personally, I don’t think it has anything to do with girls being somehow less good at throwing than men, it’s that less is expected of female throwers. I’m sure you know that, because there are so fewer female throwers, companies will sometimes sponsor sub-par throwers just because they’re girls. Because if this, less is expected of girls who throw. They don’t need to get as good to “excel and shine” out as guys do. It’s essentially just a self-exacerbating problem.
yeah I noticed that too but with the girls getting sponsored because there girls who Yoyo. As for me I if I were to be sponsored I would want because of my skill not because of me being a girl. However I talked to AJ Kirk at a competition and he said the reason why girls are being sponsored is because they want more girls in the Yoyo community. So they sponsor them if they see a girl to get more girls in the sport. However to some extent it has to stop because eventually it will just be ridiculous.
I don’t think it’s anywhere near the point of being ridiculous just yet. Had a quick poke around online at the list of players that some of the bigger companies sponsor and there aren’t any more than 1 or 2 female players per team. Like I said in the thread about Ann Connolly, brand image and publicity is as much a part of sponsorship as ability.
bro man check out the girl on C3[i think(also not Corli but she is good)] she beats out more than half the population of bro throwers! There are also tonnes of girl throwers that I cant think of that rock my socks, your socks, and the red socks’ socks.
I think girls and yoyoing shouldnt be a problem and da bros and da girls should live in harmony without ever sayin nothing like “OMG LOOK A GIRL JOJOER ASJFKLSKFHKD SO HOTT(did ya notice the two tts?)” but that probably wont ever happen with the way society is goin’.
I feel that girls think of yoyos as a ‘dorky’ kind of sport hobby that doesn’t fit feminine norms of extravagant beauty and spending hundreds on chinese produced overpriced handbags…
I think sponsored female players is a good thing, even if they are not “better” than others. I think we will see great things from female players in the future. There isn’t a good reason why a female can’t be just as good or better than a male at throwing.
Mimi Thian is also sponsored by C3. She’s pretty darn good too.
Who cares if they’re not as good as some male pros, I like watching girls yoyo. I wish my wife did it and I’m gonna teach my daughter if I can get her into it.
Mimi rocks. She rinsed off all the male competition at the Malaysian Central Regional contest recently and took 1st in 1A by a rather large margin. Go mimi, go mimi! chants
Its just an issue with society as a whole… women just don’t tend to have many hobbies. When you think about it there are very few hobbies/sports that AREN’T completely male-dominated.
In fact, its such an out-of-the-ordinary thing for a woman to get truly involved with a hobby that when they do, they really stand out. If I see a guy playing guitar its like “yeh yeh, big whoop, we can all play it”. If I see a girl playing guitar its like “flip, that’s impressive!”.
It shouldn’t be the way it is, but it’s a problem that goes far beyond just the yoyo-ing world.
I have a few thoughts on this… As the mom of a boy yoyo-er, I have seen some of his female friends try to enter the community and not quite get there. I think it is a combination of the lack of role models and the lack of female yoyo-ers to hang out with. My son’s friend came to a few competitions, but was almost always the ONLY girl there and it isn’t easy for an 11-year-old to be the only one…
And, there are quite a few great female yoyo-ers out there, including everyone mentioned. I’d like to also add Tessa Piccillo and Stephanie Haight to the mix. They’re pretty darned good as well…
