After Atalanta

The NY Times ran an article yesterday about the trials of minor league baseball umpires which was intriguing though not especially captivating to a non-fan like myself. What caught my eye though was the one line (in parentheses even) sharing the fact that there is one woman in the AAs working as an umpire. And then no more was mentioned. This is the real story, I thought. Not only does she have to deal with the regular crap all baseball umpires take, but she is working in a hyper-masculine environment. So as I do with all things intriguing, I googled her. She has been working as a baseball umpire--the only one (though not the first) since at least 2000 according to this article . As expected, she deals with doubts about her ability from coaches, players and even other umpires and she also has the burden, because she is the only woman, of having to do extra interviews in addition to her other duties. Of course if the old boys' club actually let in a few more women, such things would...

This summer I switched my workout regimen because I was hitting a plateau. I increased my daily cardio work, took out most of the lifting I had done and added yoga three times a week. And while I love yoga and do feel it requires amazing strength and flexibility and balance, I missed lifting. So I tried Body Pump , a group exercise class my gym offersbut I had never been interested in. [Actually it just changed its name to Group Power because of some wranglings in the upper levels of the corporation that puts out this pre-choreographed class. The fact that I am taking some corporate-produced, manufactured exercise program does make me feel a bit like a fitness automaton, but it is not the primary cause of my anxiety (after all I did once own Tae Bo tapes).] I had avoided this class for a long time because I chose to lift in the actual gym. I had always done it this way but additionally I felt that I was making a statement. That area of the gym is dominated by men (though there are wome...

So things have been slow in the world of women's sports of late. We've hit a middle of the summer type of doldrum. (Though I realize exciting events are on the horizon in many women's sports.) So I went searching for something to blog about this morning and I found a very interesting study just released and co-authored by Michael Messner, one of the leading sports scholars who does work on gender and sports. The study looked at the amount of coverage women's sports gets on television news and shows that it has actually declined over the years. The year 2004 saw the same amount of news coverage as 15 years ago! First of all--why was this study released about a week ago and I, a fairly vigilant seeker of news on women's sports, had to do a google search to find it? And while the story was reported on two separate sources, neither of them were major news outlets. Seems even news about the news of women's sports can't get any press. Which is interesting given ...

I have found an answer to one of my earlier posts about the Tour de France and the lack of female representation. The girls it seems cannot be participants in the Tour de France because they are too busy being trophy girls. Every time an award is presented, whether it be to the stage winner or, as happened today when Lance Armstrong won his seventh tour, to the overall winner, two women are there to offer kisses, trophies, and flowers. I had noticed them before, I think. But today I really noticed them. This is the weirdest form of "cheerleader" I have ever seen. I can find no good reason to have these women there. And yet this seems to be a popular and coveted gig in France. Models try out for the chance to kiss each cheek of a sweaty cyclist at the end of the day as they help him into the ceremonial yellow jersey (because apparently he can ride hundreds of miles but can't get a shirt on without female assistance). These women are more egregious than the silly evening go...

So I have finally discovered some consistency in the Republican platform--they will not tolerate alleged flip-floppers. First it was John Kerry and now the women of the NCAA DIV I championship Northwestern lacrosse team. Apparently this is old news but I only just read about it and found it oddly fascinating. Some of the women wore flip-flops for their brief photo-op with President Bush at the White House earlier this month. And it made national news. Polls have been started, TODAY show appearances made, flip-flops auctioned off on E-bay for charity--and yet the question still persists--was this inappropriate attire? Part of me wants to say, "who cares?" But I think this knee-jerk response allows us to overlook the question of why some are calling the appropriateness of women athletes' footwear into question here. Is there a certain way female athletes are supposed to look? (That's a rhetorical question, of course.) Perhaps some see the flip-flops as not quite feminin...

So I've been playing rec league softball this summer. I play on a co-ed team which has a myriad of gender-based rules (batting order, % male/female fielders, ball size!) which I am going to refrain from analyzing in depth here. (A sports scholar has done an excellent piece of ethnographic research on co-ed softball though. It's printed in the anthology Athletic Intruders and I highly recommend the essay and the book.) I have not quite decided how I feel about co-ed softball. And since the last time I played all-girls softball was when I was actually still a girl, I really have no basis for comparison. But I do have some brief observations based on this evening's game--which sadly we lost. [But on the bright side I had the lone RBI and there were some amazing catches in the outfield. Whoop-whoop!] Observation 1: during our team's at-bat, one of our players hit a fairly decent fly ball out to right-centerish where a female player was standing--she barely had to move. Then...

When Lleyton Hewitt came on the tennis scene about 8 years ago now, I rooted for him. He had a different style of play (relatively speaking--he certainly falls into the category of power hitter). He got the crowd into it and heck--he was from Australia. When Patrick Rafter left the game we needed another charismatic Aussie to take his place. And of course he was dating Belgian player Kim Clijsters who is just the epitome of professionalism. But post-break-up Hewitt's behavior has just irked me. Now that he's engaged to and about to become the father of the baby of an Australian soap star, his life seems to have a lot of drama. His "Come-ons" have gotten louder and come at more inappropriate times. His dodging of the press is well-known (though having heard and read some of the inane questions from post-match press conferences I can't really blame him all that much for this). So I had casually written him off. But after his latest episode I am taking out my red cor...

Well--who knew the US softball team could lose a championship game? It has happened. Team Japan beat them last night 3-1 behind some pretty good pitching. Made me glad I didn't make, what I thought would be, the not-so-bold prediction that the US would crush Japan just as they had once already in this tournament. But as I mentioned previously, this non-USA win might go a long way in proving to the IOC that other countries can be competitive in the Olympics. On an "oops" note, in my previous post I confused this new World Cup of Softball tournament with the already-established World Championships. The World Cup was apparently created to give the top 5 teams from the previous year's Olympics the chance for international competition before the next World Championships, which will not be held until--oh wait I couldn't find that information despite my diligent internet research. Perhaps this is part of the problem with the game internationally--even the international g...

It has been interesting to watch the coverage of the women's inaugural World Cup of Softball taking place in Oklahoma City right now. Or rather, it has been interesting to hear how people are reacting to the news the softball is out of 2012 London Summer Olympics. Some of the commentators agreed with me that there was some political wranglings behind the IOC's doors that lead to scrapping softball, but no one seems to have any good answers. The commentators actually thought there was a possibility to bring the sport back in 2012 rather than campaigning for reinstatement in 2016. This seems unlikely to me but I suppose they need to keep hope alive. But the rallyers are not doing a good job of convincing the IOC to keep it based on the commentary during games. The camera pans to a group of young girls in the stands wearing their uniforms and cheering and holding signs and commentator/player Michelle Smith says "This is why we need to keep softball in the Olympics. We need ...

Youth sports have been turning nasty for some time now. Probably one of the most horrific cases of violence in youth sports occurred in my home state of Massachusetts when a youth hockey ref/parent was killed by another parent . Until now though it seems like most of the incidents have involved confrontations among parents, coaches, and officials. This new case left me stunned however. A T-ball coach (also the parent of 2 girls on the team) allegedly paid another child to injure a mentally disabled player so the coach would not have to play him the requisite three innings. The news accounts have people referring to the coach as "very competitive" and "wanting to win at all costs." Well I hope this one costs him a lot. But I am a little doubtful. While Coach Downs has been charged, the league penalty (if they discover any wrong-doing--which they have not yet) is barring him from coaching next year. How about barring him for life? How about barring him from games even...

I caught some of the World Team Tennis contest between the Boston Lobsters and the New York Sportimes yesterday while I was at the gym. I have never seen a WTT match in person but it looks like fun. (Though Bright Arena at Harvard where the matches were held was a good deal less than full despite headliners like Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis .) And I was impressed when WTT founder, Billie Jean King, and long-time player Navratilova both commented about the equality of the format: men's and women's matches count the same (because WTT score is based on number of games, not matches, won). Everyone is equally important. They both noted their belief that sports can influence society and so having a format that promotes equality is good for all. Just warms the cockles of sports and cultural studies scholars' hearts everywhere (or at least my own). But wait--what is this? In the mixed doubles matches when the game gets tied at deuce (WTT does plays no-ad tennis which mean...

(with thanks for Ebuz for inspiring this off-the-blog research). The Ponytail Posse is the official fan club of the US Women's National Soccer Team. I truly am a fan and a supporter of women's soccer, but I cringe when I hear the term Ponytail Posse. I know the women on the team are strong and confident and leaders but ponytail posse sounds a little childish to me, and thus a little demeaning for the sport. But I had never really sought out the origins or the rationale behind the name. So yesterday I went to the club's website and looked at what the mission statement says about the ponytail: Yeah, yeah, so the whole ponytail thing...well, it's meant to convey the combination of femininity and athleticism that is inherent in putting your hair up in a ponytail. Oh, no, no, no. This is so problematic. Why do you have to continue to convey femininity (or at least pay lip service to it) if you are a female athlete? And what does this alleged femininity look like? Soccer is...

Casually surfing around some of my favorite internet sites this morning, I headed to USA Hockey's site just to check in and see if anything interesting was going on this summer in development camps, etc. USA Hockey's home page seems to provide a range of stories about all aspects of USA Hockey from juniors to collegiate, inline leagues and I was very impressed that there was a home page story about sled hockey and the tryouts for the 2006 Paralympic Games in Turino which will take place immediately following the Olympics. I also noticed a story on Hobey Baker winner Marty Sertich being nominated for an ESPY for Best Male College Athlete and a link directly to his category (versus having to vote in all categories) so one could, presumably, vote for him. I scrolled down some more looking for a similar story about Harvard forward Nicole Corriero who is nominated for Best Female College Athlete. Not there. I was somewhat miffed. So I clicked on the link for just girls'/women...

My French is very rusty but the title is, in my mind anyway, supposed to translate into "where are the women?"--actually I think filles is girls--you get the point. The Tour de France is underway as most people know and the annual event brings to mind (along with the nudging of Ebuz's mom) the issue of where are the female cyclists. Not knowing the exact answer (besides the obvious: not in the race) only recalling that I had heard/read somewhere about a female version of the race, I went googling for some more information. Luckily someone had the same question . So I was right about there being a race for women. It's shorter but still in France. The answer otherwise is pretty exasperating. The responder gives the history--started by a man to find the greatest cyclist (read: male cyclist) blah blah blah. Most sports did begin as exclusively male--doesn't mean they have to or did stay that way. But the responder suggests that even if all of us folks who believe in-...

Outsports.com recently posted an article about the hiring of a softball coach who's contract was not renewed by University of Florida due to "lack of team progress" but more likely it was for discriminating against one of her gay athletes and pushing her Christian agenda on her players and staff. Karen Johns was the coach (with a winning record) at Florida when one of her athletes sued for discrimination. I had heard about the case but had not hear any more about Johns since that time. The entire department was receiving diversity training under the tutelage of Dr. Pat Griffin who worked personally with Johns. Well the administration and athletics department at University of Virginia apparently does not have a problem with Johns's history. Lesser allegations than this can crucify people's careers but when it comes to discriminating against lesbian athletes many heads seem to turn the other way. It becomes increasingly difficult to be an advocate for the hiring of...

The IOC has voted to cut softball and baseball from the 2012 Olympics. I heard the news this morning when I was barely awake and now that I am fully cognizant and have read the news, I am still in shock. This is a huge, huge blow for softball. A professional softball league is only just getting on its feet and I worry that this news may irreparably harm its chances of succeeding. The WUSA couldn't even survive in this country and the US always is a contender in the Olympics. The reasons given for the cutting of softball are ridiculous though. It was implied that USA softball is just too dominant having won all three of the gold medals since its Olympic debut in 1996. Granted the games could be more interesting if there was greater competition but the strength of the US team has only made other teams more motivated. (Look at what happened to women's tennis when Venus and Serena were dominating--everyone else raised their level of training and play.) But change, especially in wom...

So when I was in the same major sports store where previously blogged about swim paddles were being sold, I saw a stand of t-shirts made for girls who participate in various sports (tennis, volleyball, soccer, softball, and a few others I think). The shirts played off the old disparaging remark: you throw like a girl. These shirts though are trying to reclaim the "like a girl" part by using slogans such as "kick the ball the past you--just like a girl" "ace you/spike it/ hit it out of the park...just like a girl"--you get the idea. In terms of design and attitude they were very bold. And I myself was tempted but being the good postmodernist that I am, I decided to question my initial response and the t-shirts purpose. Can we or should we reclaim the "like a girl" phrase when it comes to athletics (or anything for that matter)? Are we just reifying the binary of girl/boy man/woman? And probably most importantly are t-shirts like this really attemp...

I voted at ESPN.com yesterday for this year's ESPY nominees. What was interesting this year was the categories. The basic ones are still there: Best Male and Best Female Athlete, best team, etc. What I did notice was that there seemed to be some downsizing. Last year you got to vote for best male soccer player and best female soccer player. This year it's just best soccer player. Same with golf. I can somewhat understand the soccer consolidation--non-World Cup year, no more WUSA, the Olympic Games have largely left the collective memory. But I still think collapsing the category is a bad idea. I don't really want to get into the debate about men versus women in competition, because I don't think it's applicable here. What I think is that there are a lot of good female soccer players out there and in a year when some of the founders of contemporary women's soccer retired (Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett) it's a great time to pay tribute t...

Swimming paddles are plastic discs of various shapes and sizes that swimmers and water aerobicizers put on their hands when training. They create greater resistance and so build upper body strength while helping swimmers with their stroke. Casually browsing in a major sports store yesterday I came across swim paddles made by TYR. They were all different colors that corresponded to their respective size (XS-XL). I had never seen swim paddles sized and so I flipped over the package to find out how the sizes were measured. The size chart was very interesting. XS paddles are meant for beginner swimmers. S are meant for intermediate swimmers. OK--this makes sense. Then things started gettting interesting. The descriptions for who shoud be using each size became more intricate, listing various levels of swimming such as high school. junior nationals, senior nationals, collegiate, etc. But they also became gendered. For example a female collegiate swimmer should use size M but a male collegia...

I tuned in briefly last night to watch a taped game between the US national softball team and team Australia. I probably watched only 2-3 innings total but in that time I found out about half of the team's marriage/dating status. Every time a married or dating USA player came up to bat, we were informed of their heterosexuality in various ways: anniversaries, famous male partners (one who plays for the White Sox), fabulous weddings, etc. We all know the stereotypes surrounding softball players, but most of us also know that straight women make excellent softball players too. But USA softball and the media that cover it seem very concerned that softball become just as heteronormative as the rest of the world and they are doing so by highlighting the love lives of their stars, most notably pitcher Jennie Finch. Are they trying to give softball an image overhaul like the LPGA did a while back when they had some their prominent golfers pose in bathing suits on a golf course? Trying to ...

Well the Wimbledon women's (I refuse to use the language of the All-England Club and say ladies) final has just ended with a spectacular match between Lindsay Davenport and Venus Willams. Congrats to both for an excellent final. But overall the women's side of the tournament was a relatively staid affair with only a few upsets and almost no controversy...except for the grunting. Grunting in tennis has been around a long time in some form or other. It became headline news when Monica Seles entered the scene as hers was a fairly consistent (in volume and articulation) but different from others we had heard. This year tournament referee Alan Mills made it news again claiming that it amounts to gamesmanship and cheating. And he points out that only the women are doing it. Hmmm...can this be true? and, if so, why? Certainly there is the argument that the grunts serve as a timing device for players--certainly the case of Seles's grunt. But some players, champion Venus Williams, ...

Before I begin complaining, I want to give due credit to the ESPN powers-that-be who have finally begun to understand the nuances of covering a tennis tournament. The network has gotten much better at showing a range of matches. But all is not wonderful...I woke this morning, ran down to turn on the TV hoping to catch the last few games of the Davenport/Mauresmo match which was rain-delayed in the 3rd set yesterday. No such luck. It was over--no coverage. I saw none of that match which, at least by looking at the scores (two tie-breaks and a 6-4 third set to Davenport) was one of the better of the tournament. Instead I had the opportunity to see tennis's current beauty queen (albeit one with talent this time) Maria Sharapova lose to Venus Williams--not once, not twice--but three times between ESPN2's coverage and NBC's. A little coordination might have helped. A whole fortnight and I did not see any of Mauresmo's matches. A woman who made it to the semi-finals without d...

Atalanta was a huntress, wrestler, runner, and warrior whose main claim to fame, according to Ovid anyway, is her race for marriage--literally. A single Atalanta agreed she would marry whomever could beat her in a foot race. But if she won--which she did numerous times--she was allowed to kill the defeated. She was finally beat by Melanion when he, seeking the help of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, tricked Atalanta by throwing three gold apples in her path as she ran, distracting her and allowing him to finish ahead of her. This story does not help dispell the dumb jock stereotype that abounds in athletics, but sometimes we have to look at the big picture which is that Atalanta was thought to have rivalled men in her athletic ability. Controversy abounds over the role of Atalanta's athleticism. Was she tamed by Melanion when forced to marry? Did her athletic prowess take away from her ability to attract men? Or did her strong athleticism actually contribute to her sexual appeal? W...