Note from the Editor: This article is a repost. It was originally published at TheBigSister.net, a website aimed at young feminists. As feminism and other social justice issues are a staple of punk culture, we felt it appropriate to republish this article here at HockeyPunx.

I recently read that the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto recently changed the requirements for inducting women. Men and women used to compete against each other for spots, but now every year, four men and two women will be inducted.

Bill Hay, the Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame said, “The new voting procedures address the basic principle and general view among the Board of Directors and Selection Committee that men and women ought not to compete directly against each other for limited places of Honoured Membership. It creates fair conditions for all candidates while reinforcing that the existing basis for selection and requisite standards of excellence be applied equally to both genders.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about this at first. Some of the comments on the article I read about it thought it wasn’t fair. They complained that a really great male hockey player might never get in while a woman who wasn’t at all as good as he is would. I saw what this guy meant. And if a woman were inducted I wanted everyone to feel like she deserved it. I didn’t want people feeling like women needed special treatment to excel at a sport.

I’ve changed my mind though. It’s not giving women an advantage, it’s taking away the advantages that male hockey players already have. Women have a lot more obstacles to face than men do on the road to becoming a professional hockey player:

• A lot fewer women’s parents are likely to get their daughters involved in hockey at a younger age. A lot of professional male players have been playing since they were young kids, but women players are more likely to have to discover the interest on their own and start at an older age.
• I would imagine there are a lot fewer women’s high school hockey teams, so fewer women have the support and motivation to keep playing hockey that a team provides.
• Hockey is an aggressive sport. Men who excel at being aggressive are looked at positively…they’re seen as manly. Women are told they shouldn’t be aggressive though, and I’m sure many female hockey players have faced harassment for being too “tough.”
• Women don’t have as many or as easily accessible role-models to look to in hockey.
• Prime hockey playing age overlaps with prime child bearing age and that makes hockey a different kind of commitment for women. A male hockey player can easily be a dad, but a woman who wants to get pregnant has to delay or stop playing. It’s not like other careers where you can keep working until a few weeks before the baby pops out.

So I commend the Hockey Hall of Fame for their decision. Judging women separately is not giving them an unfair advantage. It’s simply recognizing that men and women become hockey players in very different conditions. The new rule judges people who face similar conditions in a similar manner.

UPDATE 10-13-2009 @ 9:47 PM Pacific Time: Site seems to be mostly back in order now.

HockeyPunx.com is in the process of moving to a brand new server. This means that there’s going to be a lot of weird things happening over the next week, namely a bunch of errors.

I anticipate this happening in a few phases, detailed as such:

• PHASE ONE: Nothing fucking works.
• PHASE TOO: Hooray! The mainpage and articles are backup. Hey, what the fuck, the board is still down!
• PHASE THREE: The board is up!

That is best case scenario, so I can’t promise anything. In the meantime, continue using our blog and forum as you normally would. You will know this process has started when suddenly shit ain’t working.

This week’s article about Gordie Howe is brought to you by Iggy Pop.

While the songs written about Gordie Howe are something to be forgotten (two links), his play became so legendary that he not only earned the nickname Mr. Hockey (a title actually previously held by Eddie Shore for you hockey nerds. Apparently, Shore called Howe up and said, “I’ve had my time with it and now it’s your turn.” Which is a very high honor coming from someone as eccentric as Shore.) that he also coined the stats of a Gordie Howe hat trick.

A goal, an assist, and kicking someone’s ass is considered a complete game. That translates exactly how Mr. Hockey will always be remembered, the most complete player ever to put on a pair of skates.

Now, before you start cracking jokes about this locker room photo. Never forget the infamous Mark Messier photo.

Howe was given a pair of skates during the depression when a neighbor sold a bag of second hand items to his mother. A larger kid with slight dyslexia, skating on the frozen creeks and streams in Canada was an escape from the teasing he would get from the other kids. When he grew out of his skates, Howe would resort to strapping blades to his shoes which was equally embarrassing.

He lived for hockey and while he would do chin ups to build his body (recommended by a doctor since he was malnutritioned), he would grow strong by helping his father with construction work in the summertime. His love for hockey didn’t stop even while on the job, though, as he would strip shingles off of roofs and shoot them like pucks.

While he didn’t impress the New York Rangers at age 15, the next year he was promised a tryout with the Red Wings as long as some of his friends could attend also. As you can assume, the rest is history.

At age 18, he found himself on the Red Wings’ roster and was fighting so much that he earned the nickname, “Mr. Elbows” before he earned the name Mr. Hockey. After three seasons, though, the ambidextrous Howe developed his scoring touch (which allowed him to shoot left and right handed) and finished in the top 5 in scoring for 20 years. I’m assuming the age group that reads this site hasn’t even been pooping in the proper place for that long.

It wouldn’t be old time hockey without an almost life ending injury and Howe was no exception. After colliding with Ted Kennedy of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Howe went into the boards and crushed his head on the ice… literally. A concussion, fractured skull, a broken cheekbone, and a broken nose were the result, and doctors had to drill a hole in his head to relieve the pressure built up on his brain.

Although he came back the next season, Howe now had a facial tick but still won the league’s scoring title.

Around this time, Howe was out bowling one night when he met the love of his life in a girl named Colleen. While Howe was shy and moved back and forth from Canada, they wrote letters and courted when he was in town. It’s one of those relationships to be jealous of because they did it right. I won’t get too much into it but read the book, “And Howe! an authorized autobiography of Gordie Howe” to read some of the letters they wrote to each other and see them tell it. Colleen Howe is just as much of a story as Gordie. She was the drive and brains behind Number 9.

About two years later, they decided to finally get married.

While Howe was never one to step down from a fight, he cemented his reputation as someone not to be messed with in 1959 when tough guy, Lou Fontinato, decided he was going to bring his goon parade into Detroit.

Let’s just say, Howe didn’t take kindly to people trying to push their weight around on other people.

While still remaining a dominant force in the NHL, arthritis caught up in Howe’s left wrist and he decided it was time to retire.

After two of his sons made it to the WHA for the Houston Aeros, Colleen urged Gordie to make a comeback and play with his sons. If you know anything about Gordie and his family, you know that this was too good to pass up.

When he wasn’t scoring goals and elbowing refs, Howe once had to save a son from a fight. While tangled up, Howe skated over to the player and told him that it had been enough. The opposing player didn’t take kindly to that so Howe just calmly stuck two of his fingers in the guy’s nose and pulled him away. The player had then had enough.

At age 50, Howe was playing for the Hartford Whalers when Scotty Bowman had him play on that year’s all star team. Howe received such a long standing ovation that he had to skate to the bench to get the crowd quiet. He recorded an assist in his team’s 6-3 victory. Simply amazing.

He would lace them up one more time in 1997 for a game at the age of fucking 60 to complete six decades of playing professional hockey. I don’t care if you’re playing in midnight beer leagues, that is an incredible achievement.

4 time Stanley Cup champion.

6 time Art Ross winner.

6 decades of professional hockey.

12 time NHL all star.

finished in the top 5 scoring for 20 straight years.

and inducted to 11 hall of fames.

despite all of this, he is known for not only hockey but having the time for everyone he meets, being incredibly respectful and kind hearted, and humble.

His wife Colleen was sadly diagnosed with Picks disease and passed away recently. It’s really sad to see such a great strong figure lose his corner stone. Read up on the Howes, they are a truly inspiring story.

Click here to watch a video on Gordie Howe.