Where will listening to girl music take us? To more women's basketball games for starters

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A few weeks ago, The Kid implored me to listen to girl music.

"What's girl music?" I asked.

"It's music that has girls singing, Papa," she stated with a hint of disbelief that I didn't intuitively know that.

So we started scanning FM stations, eventually finding girl music. The next day, I put on a playlist of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Aaliyah to avoid frustration when we couldn't find appropriate music over terrestrial radio.

I realized through this exchange that she is starting to figure out who she is in this world, and what makes her different from other people. I reflected on our conversation last month about why I have white skin and she has brown skin (hint, we are all made a little differently). I thought about my tendency to take her to sporting events that feature men, Detroit Tigers baseball, Detroit Red Wings hockey, and Oakland University Golden Grizzlies Men's basketball.

Talking about this with my wife, I decided we needed to head to the O'Rena for another game. The Golden Grizzlies were playing a doubleheader, with the women taking the court first. We arrived midway through the first half and stayed through the first half of the men's game. I consider this a major accomplishment because her favorite mascot, Grizz, wasn't at the game.

She didn't have much to say after the game, other than she was disappointed Grizz had the day off. But a few days later, she was trying to dribble a beach ball the same way she saw the "girls" dribble a ball. And when Grandma was flipping through channels, The Kid made her stop when she recognized the blacktop at the O'Rena and made my mom watch more college hoops on TV than she has her entire life.

I accomplished what I set out to do, I let my daughter see that girls can play basketball, just like they can make music. I have to make sure she sees more women creating, playing, doing the things she is interested in so she has a shot at being the women she was born to be.

Which means we'll probably be going to a lot more Golden Grizzlies women's basketball games in the near future. #GoGrizzlies!

Photo courtesy Matt Boltz Photography

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