Title IX, The Trib Editorial Board, And Passage Of Time

Recently, (and surprisingly to anyone following the antics of a right-wing editorial page of a right-wing news source) the Tribune-Review editorial board published a positive piece about Title IX.

The piece is framed by the World Cup victory of the U.S. Women's National Team and it was given this title:

Editorial: Title IX scored USWNT victory
And it contains this:

Title IX is why the U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup for a record fourth time.

And this:

The USWNT grew up not just with talent and drive but permission to use them. Little girls had opportunity and ran with it. Big girls honed their skills and watched for their openings. Women scored.

And everyone won because equality is about putting everyone on the same playing field.

Let me just say that were I to have written this, I would not have gone with "permission" or the "little girls to big girls to women" time progression, but that's just me.

But take a look at that second sentence and how it begins:

And everyone won...

Certainly a positive view of Title IX, doncha think?

Getting back to the use of time as a framing device, the Trib Editorial Board opens this piece with this:

You can’t watch a glacier move. You can’t watch the continents shift. You can’t watch a redwood grow.

The big things take a long time to come to fruition. But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

Time passes and things change, right?

You'll be surprised (or perhaps not) that it was only 7 years ago that the Trib editorial board had this to say about Title IX:

Title IX, bane of collegiate men’s sports teams, turns 40 this month — an occasion to regret, not celebrate, its sanctioning of “social justice” discrimination and twisted notion of “equality.”

And:

Ever more an anachronism in an America where women are the campus majority, Title IX turns the very notion of discrimination on its head, purportedly rectifying one sort by substituting another. It’s brought higher education no closer to genuine nondiscrimination than has its close cousin, so-called affirmative action.

Those who do celebrate Title IX’s 40th birthday celebrate the codification of gender discrimination. How regrettable indeed.

That cracking sound you're now hearing is your own neck whiplashing.