Anything he can do, she does better

I’ve never been the sporty type, but watching Alex Eala left-handedly smash a tennis ball with a racket and Mazel Alegado smoothly land a handplant, made my heart skip a beat.

Growing up, I was seen as weak and inferior by people around me — all because I was a girl. I started to develop self esteem issues, especially when it came to how I presented myself to the world. Girls were supposed to look and act a certain way, that’s what I was taught and that’s what society imposed on almost half of the world’s population.

An incident comes to mind whenever I see female athletes flourish on their respective field or court. It was a Friday in elementary, the day we wear our P.E uniforms for our P.E subject. We were tasked to practice and play baseball on the grassy fields just outside our campus grounds. Our teacher had divided us into two groups. Girls vs. Boys. The classic rivalry, still relevant today. Despite the obvious differences, I was confident that we would win the game. I was fast. I was agile. I was, most especially, competitive. I was not going to lose. For the first round, I played as a baseman. We did alright. We lost but there were eight innings left. We went on until the fourth inning, holding the same positions, getting the same results. We decided to switch things up. I was now the team’s pitcher. During our huddle, we could hear the boys laughing, making fun of us, the typical banter that crossed the lines. In hindsight, it was always that deep. Their chants of insults, the mere fact they were demeaning us for the sole factor that we were girls. They perpetuated disrespect and we absorbed every bit of it.

As they hit a homerun, solidifying their victory, I basked in the loneliness of being myself. My team comforted one another, with a few clapping back at the boys’ ridicules. The thing is we were never going to win, because we are who we are. We lose, they say it’s because we’re girls, weak, fragile, all good for nothing. We win, they say it’s because we’re girls, weak, fragile, needing pity.

Wherever and whichever career path we choose, we are haunted by society’s upbringing of our demise.

The news about Alex Eala brought calmness to me. A young, talented, Filipina woman on the rise of becoming a star on the tennis court. I know nothing about tennis but she made me care about the sport. It’s that feeling when you finally feel represented within an aspect you never thought would be achievable for you. That feeling of someone like you, making the impossible possible.

Her not being shy about sharing and flaunting the fact that she is Filipino is the cherry on top. Alex has been very consistent, since the start of her career, about her pride for her heritage. She’s one of those who made being a Filipino and a woman, at the same time, cool again. That’s how I saw it at first. Then I had a realization.

It was always cool, I was just blinded by self-devouring shadows I mistook for reflections of who I am.

A fakie towards the tween years

11-year old Mazel Alegado is the inspiration I wish I had when I was younger. In a niche sport like skateboarding, she would’ve definitely made it to my corkboard of idols (alongside K-Pop artists). The spectrum of my immature fantasies would’ve benefited from a figure like Mazel — young, Filipina, and proud. Having had a pennyboard when I was her age, it feels like parallels. Something I considered as a hobby, she turned into a lifelong career possibility. Remarkable. Courageous. A huge salute to the people around her.

There are no male-dominated sports, in a truth where men created them for men. They are male-dominated because they are designed to be that way. Alienation grows by the second, and it has always been us, girls, that fall victim to illusions of trust and performative pity.

It’s now time for us to be let in the world we were always meant to be part of. No more hiding in the dark, no more pleasing stereotypes. The light is finally catching up to the dimmed talent that’s been there all along.

The court is ours to ace and the skatepark is ours to shred.