{"id":2585249,"date":"2026-03-30T08:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/popularity-of-girls-wrestling-signals-death-of-femininity-in-red-america\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:03:08","slug":"popularity-of-girls-wrestling-signals-death-of-femininity-in-red-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/popularity-of-girls-wrestling-signals-death-of-femininity-in-red-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls&#8217; Wrestling Signals Death Of Femininity In Red America"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpopularity-of-girls-wrestling-signals-death-of-femininity-in-red-america%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2585249&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece argues that girls\u2019 wrestling, as one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S., signifies a broader feminist project to redefine femininity and reshape family life in \u201cRed America.\u201d Using Idaho as a focal point, the author notes that a substantial portion of junior high wrestlers are girls and that crowd reactions at events reflect a tension between admiration for competition and unease about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/total-denial-tim-walz-refuses-to-believe-report-that-men-dont-want-kamala-harris-during-delusional-tantrum\/\" title=\"Total Denial: Tim Walz Refuses to Believe Report That Men Don&#039;t Want Kamala Harris During Delusional Tantrum\">changing gender norms<\/a>.He links this surge in female athletic dominance to Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s ideas about women adopting a more aggressive, self-assertive identity, suggesting that the sport helps nurture a new kind of woman who views traditionally masculine power as desirable.<\/p>\n<p>The author contends that while female participation in sports can be empowering,it also challenges conventional femininity and the social structures around marriage and family. He points to marriage trends, education levels, and economic factors to argue that many working-class women still seek stable, protective male partners, a dynamic he believes is eroded when gender distinctions blur and women pursue aggressive athletic roles. He asserts that simply adding a heavyweight division or promoting competitive sports for girls will not restore the \u201csexual dance\u201d essential to family life.<\/p>\n<p>the piece calls for preserving clear distinctions between the sexes and preserving femininity as a foundation for healthy families. It argues that the culture war cannot be won by surrendering femininity at the local gym and that a revival of traditional family life depends on celebrating and safeguarding female roles rather than adopting a feminist project that champions extreme athletic aggression.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Girls&rsquo; wrestling is among the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/columnists\/3909110\/girls-wrestling-fastest-growing-sport\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span>faste<\/span>st-growing<\/a> sports in America. The popularity of the sport is bad news for Red America, where the boys are not <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/high-earning-women-are-more-likely-to-marry-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alrigh<\/a>t. Sadly, the rapid growth in girls&rsquo; wrestling shows that the girls aren&rsquo;t alright either.<\/p>\n<p>The New Plymouth, Idaho junior high wrestling team walked out between the third and fourth quarters of the recent district basketball tournament game. About a third of the team were girls. During the delay as the wrestlers walked up the sideline, the announcer said, &ldquo;Here are the future girls and boys of the New Plymouth wrestling team,&rdquo; to the applause and approval of the crowd. Trump carried the four precincts feeding the New Plymouth school district with 86 percent of the two-party vote.<\/p>\n<p>Fewer than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/article\/news\/local\/womens-wrestling-becoming-more-popular-throughout-idaho-northwest-nazarene-university-nampa-tournament\/277-4ab5b4bc-c224-44be-9aae-db70c4af9ac7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">123<\/a> Idaho girls wrestled in 2018. When the state&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >sports association sanctioned girls wrestling<\/a> in 2022, nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahosports.com\/blogs\/blog.aspx?contentid=3353\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">500<\/a> girls grappled. During 2025-2026, Idaho had nearly a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahosports.com\/blogs\/blog.aspx?contentid=3894\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thousand<\/a> certified participants across weight classes (up to 235 lbs). More than a third are freshmen. A heavyweight division will be added next year to accommodate girls more than 235 lbs.<\/p>\n<p>I recently attended Idaho&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-times-transgender-athletes-dominated-womens-sports\/\" title=\"5 Times Transgender Athletes Dominated ...\u2019s ...\">state wrestling championships<\/a>. The fans wore MAGA hats, &ldquo;Jesus Loves You,&rdquo; and American flag garb. They appreciate raw competition, up and down the ticket. They celebrate hard work and toughness. Fewer fans flocked to the girls matches than the boys &mdash; and the fans were more subdued. Perhaps they have a lingering sense that something is wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Red America parents have become unwitting participants in the feminist project. Parents do not know what to do with their daughters, so they raise them to an androgynous world where female wrestling &mdash; and other aggressive sports &mdash; is aspirational. Modern elite women&rsquo;s sports &mdash; especially confrontational and violent ones &mdash; were designed to revolutionize female character. For feminists today, as for their godmother Simone de Beauvoir, sports would help teach women aggression and daring, physical confrontation, and a desire for dominance.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional woman, Beauvoir writes, lacked the &ldquo;free and habitual resort to force&rdquo; that would allow her to know &ldquo;the conquering pride of a boy who pins his opponent&rsquo;s shoulders to the ground.&rdquo; Women rarely confront one another &ldquo;as free beings&rdquo; seeking to vanquish, &ldquo;to force an arm to yield and bend&rdquo; and &ldquo;to assert one&rsquo;s sovereignty over the world in general.&rdquo; The &ldquo;<em>competitive<\/em> attitude, most important to young men&rdquo; is little known among young women. Women&rsquo;s sports, regrettably, for Beauvoir, rarely involve violence.<\/p>\n<p>Idaho&rsquo;s crouching, attacking, pinning girl wrestlers are Beauvoir&rsquo;s spiritual daughters. Wrestling makes women who will leave the old femininity behind. Women wrestlers would no longer be, in Beauvoir&rsquo;s unforgettable phrase, &ldquo;the second sex.&rdquo; They would neither need nor desire male protection.<\/p>\n<p>Later advocates have followed Beauvoir in investing more and greater hopes in athletics as a factor in disrupting feminine character. Advocates promote &ldquo;empowerment&rdquo; through expanding female participation in <a href=\"https:\/\/repository.gchumanrights.org\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/b9fa52b7-19a0-4bfa-860c-ce6de0b9d9f8\/content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">soccer, football<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/usaboxing\/posts\/usa-boxing-is-proud-to-celebrate-national-girls-and-women-in-sports-daykeep-trai\/1550015953151125\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">boxing<\/a>. Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin, authors of <em>Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Built-Sport-Culture-Leslie-Heywood\/dp\/0816636249\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=140EYZW5YSXMD&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.y70v7R1lL-hj8VvPdzh0gA.vqc4eN0YCxnIbuoJHwyUrGp87JF_v_KiYV7R65yoP-Q&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Leslie+Heywood+&amp;+Shari+L.+Dworkin+2003+Built+to+Win:+The+Female+Athlete+as+Cultural+Icon&amp;nsdOptOutParam=true&amp;qid=1771599228&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=leslie+heywood+&amp;+shari+l.+dworkin+2003+built+to+win+the+female+athlete+as+cultural+icon,stripbooks,155&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2003<\/a>), for instance, see the &ldquo;new cultural ideal&rdquo; of aggressive, competitive, powerful women &ldquo;shattering the Victorian &lsquo;frail\/docile&rsquo; stereotype.&rdquo; Less feminine, in other words.<\/p>\n<p>Sports are far from the only way women are unsexing themselves. The war on femininity emerges in ugliness, piercings, androgynous dress, and contempt for domesticity, as well as in a vision of sport that deemphasizes feminine grace. No wonder many young men spend their twenties in their parents&rsquo; basement.<\/p>\n<p>Feminism lands <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmind.org\/salvo\/the-wages-of-feminism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">differently<\/a> downstream than it does among college graduates. It has revolutionized family life among many elites, as both female and male college graduates delay marriage, have fewer kids, and sink more of their identities into careers. Yet college graduates are doing a better job matching up than those without college degrees. While the marriage rate at age 40 for those with college degrees is above 70 percent, it languishes <a href=\"https:\/\/news.cornell.edu\/stories\/2025\/02\/struggling-men-hurt-noncollege-womens-marriage-prospects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now<\/a> just over 50 percent for those without.<\/p>\n<p>The sexual dance itself, a necessary preparation for family life, is compromised at a primal level. The dance is fueled by sexual attraction. Adding a heavyweight division to girls wrestling will not restore it.<\/p>\n<p>Family among many Red Americans is, as Charles Murray showed in the early 2010s, &ldquo;coming apart.&rdquo; The romantic image of healthy, rural family life, celebrated in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uWu4aynBK7E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">song<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy\/dp\/0143035002\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">literature<\/a>, has long since given way to dysfunction and mutual suspicion. Divorce rates are high. Cohabitation is common. Religious practice has waned too.<\/p>\n<p>Old wisdom explains why. Women, even after decades of being told that it is their job to take care of themselves, nevertheless <a href=\"https:\/\/philipperushton.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/iq-race-sex-gender-survey-mate-buss-nyborg-rushton-buss-behavioral-brain-sciences-19891.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">still want<\/a> men who have stable jobs and can <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/the-one-role-gen-z-women-still-want-men-to-play\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protect<\/a>. There are fewer marriageable men among those without college degrees due in part to the loss of well-paying, stable jobs among those without college degrees, but also to <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/642851\/cannabis-greatest-among-lower-income-less-educated.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drug use<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC6571756\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">porn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC7044589\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gambling<\/a> and other vices. But simply restoring manufacturing jobs will not revive marriage and family among &ldquo;our people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>American women have never been dainty aristocrats. But they have never been wrestlers either.<\/p>\n<p>Less feminine women are less attractive to men. Femininity is harder to find among working-class women than it used to be. More than a third of women (about 37 percent in some polls) without college degrees have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2023\/08\/15\/32-of-americans-have-a-tatto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tattoo<\/a> (only 24 percent among college graduates) &mdash; significantly fewer than men. Obesity rates are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/products\/databriefs\/db508.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">higher<\/a> among those without college degrees than those with college degrees (45 percent to 32 percent). Church attendance among those without college has also plummeted in the past two generations, especially among females. Families among those without college eat meals together less often and eat out more than others. Babysitting is in decline. These girls are not being raised to be marriageable.<\/p>\n<p>Women should, of course, exercise, play sports and enjoy competition. Women&rsquo;s sports can have a different spirit than men&rsquo;s sports, and they can enjoy different sports too. Boys&rsquo; wrestling instructs in the extreme toughness and protection necessary to provide for a family, while many girls&rsquo; sports like volleyball and soccer do not compromise femininity.<\/p>\n<p>Restoration of the sexual dance requires distinctions between males and females, not androgyny. Red America cannot win the culture war while surrendering femininity at the local gym. The revival of healthy families depends not on mimicking the feminist project, but on rejecting it &mdash; starting with what we celebrate in our daughters.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Scott Yenor is director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation and Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute&rsquo;s Center for the American Way of Life.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Girls&#8217; wrestling grows; Red America unsettled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1269,"featured_media":2585250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-25-at-1.52.07-PM-1024x608.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[14678,76797,74019,76798],"class_list":["post-2585249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-feminism","tag-gender-roles-2","tag-red-states-2","tag-women-sports"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screen-Shot-2026-03-25-at-1.52.07-PM-1024x608.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2585249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2585256,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585249\/revisions\/2585256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2585250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2585249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2585249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2585249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}