Getting dirty is for everyone!

Is getting dirty just for boys? The question arose briefly during subediting this week.

I was looking at a story for one of Allied Press' regional community papers. The story was an advertising feature for a rugby club. It included a picture of three boys playing that newish version of junior rugby, rippa rugby.

The boy in red was holding an oval ball, and the two in blue were leaping at him. One had something bright green in his mouth - possibly a lime, but more likely a mouthguard.

Although the boys were not especially dirty yet, the photo captured the dewy promise of ground-to-clothing mud transference.

Underneath the photo was a caption.

The caption began, "Getting dirty is for boys," and ended by stating the purpose of the feature, that the relevant club was "looking for schoolboys to field for its coming season".

The end part of the sentence was fine, was factual, even; but the first part I had to ponder.

It did not say getting dirty was not for girls, but that seemed to be the inescapable shadow sentiment. This implication made me go "Hmm".

Advertising features, a hybrid of journalism and advertising, at their best provide factual details about a service or product, wrapped in fairly glowing terms.

When they are not quite at their best, they may involve the dubious marketing technique of making unfounded and/or meaningless assertions.

Such assertions can be harmful or benign; I thought perhaps "Getting dirty is for boys" was an unfounded assertion that tended towards the harmful.

For instance, if young female rippa rugby players read that and took it seriously, then they might all dutifully quit the sport and leave the dirty-getting to the boys.

Then the Black Ferns, the present and thrice-consecutive Women's Rugby World Cup champions, would struggle to replace their ranks as the veteran players reached retirement.

Then the Black Ferns would become crappy, like the All Blacks. This would be a national sporting disaster!

After a period of deliberation, which you will be relieved to learn took a tiny fraction of the time it took to write about it here, I decided to kick "Getting dirty is for boys" into touch.

The clause was replaced with the non-discriminatory "Getting dirty is part of the fun."

This, I hoped, would appeal not just to schoolboys wishing to join that particular rural rugby club, but also to future mud-covered Black Ferns everywhere.