As the snow clouds roll away and the sun comes out to play, so do those warm weather athletes who are ready to run in the nice, comfortable air. While there are days where Mother Nature kindly gives jocks the ability to run comfortably, there are also days where the heat is so unbearable. Recently, the topic of girls being able to run in their sports bras has come up at Monroe High School. It is not reasonable that when the sun is beating on these spring athletes, the boys get to be more comfortable than the girls.

If a woman athlete feels at home in her own skin, there shouldn’t be people telling her to hide what she’s most proud of. For these runners that put in hours and hours of work on their physique, their bodies are their instruments just like a trumpeter has his trumpet.

For those who say that it would be distracting and dangerous for a woman to be in her sports bra while running, in case you didn’t know, women are just as distracted when men run shirtless. If you are going to ban women from taking their shirts off, you need to ban men, too.

Women have fought for equal rights since the 1900’s, and the fact that such a trivial thing as what women wear when they run is holding us back is absurd. Men, we have bigger issues to worry about.

There’s also a difference between wearing sports bras for meets/games and during practice. Most people on sports teams are close knit enough to not care about whether they have their shirt on or not in practice. Meets and games are more formal, but practice is every day and athletes should be comfortable.

In the end, sports are made to show off the talents of the people on their team. Now, with all of the progression made by women in the fight for equality, self-confidence and freedom, these ideals should be taught in high school, and telling those athletes to hide is not the right move.