My son says to me the other day, “Mommy, boys throw like this (overhand) and girls throw like this (underhand)” very matter of fact-ly.  I could only imagine that this was the discussion of the day on the playground and I also realized that this was (potentially) a budding of the concept of male superiority and I was having none of it.

So, I explained the difference between overhand and underhand, that boys and girls had the option to throw either way, but decided to take it a step further. “You know son, one is NOT better than the other.  They can both be thrown strong and hard.  You see, the toughest best girl throwers throw underhand to pitch and it is strong and scary.  See?”

We watched about 10 minutes of YouTube videos of super strong athletes pitch softballs. “And when they’re done pitching, they can throw underhand OR overhand, which is better because they can choose. Right?  Like boys can choose if they want to pee sitting or standing.”  I can see the gears in his head start turning.

You know, my son has the rest of his life to think boys are better than girls.  I’m working on squashing it right now, because in our house, we teach that everyone is valuable and has something important to contribute.  Girls are strong, underhand can be very strong and don’t get it twisted.