Iowa High School Wrestling with the Binary

By Hannah Clause



I stumbled across an article yesterday on yahoo titled “For the first time, Iowa girl wins a state wrestling match… by forfeit,” intrigued I read on.  Iowa has allowed women to be apart of men’s high school wrestling teams for about two decades now and this season is the first time two women have qualified for the state tournament. One of the women, Cassy Herklelman, won her first match because her opponent, Joel Northrup, would not wrestler a woman due to his faith. Here is the statement Northrup gave regarding his reasons to forfeit,

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan [Black] and their accomplishments, however, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times. As a matter of conscience and faith, I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.

The article goes on to comment on how this will affect Northrup standings in the tournament and if he will again be confronted with the “issue” of wrestling a woman, Megan Black, depending on the outcomes of the rest of the matches. Little is mentioned on what is in store for Heckler for the rest of the tournament.

Now that you have the gist of the article, let me start by giving a huge congratulations to the women who are being recognized and get to compete in a predominantly male sport. It is hard enough for women’s sports to be recognized, but for a woman to participate in a “man's” sport competitively and win is pretty awesome. Bravo ladies!


The first thing to break down is Northrup’s reasons for not wrestling. How is it inappropriate to engage a person in a sport based on their sex? The two students are in the same weight category and were placed up against one another based on their capability to compete each other and nothing more. By making this statement Northrup is insulting Herklerman’s ability to wrestle, and belittling her by not even giving her the chance to prove her abilities as a wrestler. Instead he is, whether intentionally or not, chastising her because of her sex and not considering her athletic competence as a sports player.


Secondly how is it unfortunate that Northrup has been placed in a situation “not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa’”? Isn’t it unfortunate that our gender binary norms and stereotypes often deny women the recognition they deserve in sports? Because she's a female, he doesn't see her as a fit component. This situation is unfortunate because she wasn't taken seriously in a sport she had worked so hard on. It is insulting as an athlete to not be competed against because of your sex. For some sports, they are broken up into two categories (male/female), but this was not the case for this wrestling championship. What is unfortunate is that Northrup felt that he couldn't compete against a woman, which reflects some of the beliefs in our society and divides us even further.


I respect Northrup’s faith and do not believe is he trying to put women in sports down, but I hope he can overcome, as well as our society, the idea of a man and woman engaging in an athletic physical competition as inappropriate. Once again bravo to Herklelman and Black, I hope to see you women win the championship (forfeit or not)!