I was a mentor for an all girls high school FIRST team and I have to say, the way they were treated at competition by other teams and the way the organization handled that sexual objectification of them at competition leads me to a “that checks out” conclusion of Kamen and Epstein.
How did you rule out the much simpler explanation that the culture propagates from the hormones of high school boys, and going against that is a hard problem? You're going to have to be explicit about the details of "the way the organization handled that", as the obvious assumption is that they'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to post-facto punish at the organizational level (as opposed to proactive policies for team mentors to follow going forward).
I am currently a mentor and previously a judge and volunteer for many years at regional events. In all my years I have never seen anything remotely like sexual objectification. I obviously can't know your experience but I would be very very surprised to find this occurring... especially at competitions.
I believe this implication goes against core values of the org and certainly it's local volunteers. I have no skin here except to defend a program that is doing amazing work. My kids are participants and I have contributed to the org for more than 10y.
