After Atalanta

1. New blog! Diane of The Dees Diversion (sadly she has decided to discontinue this blog) has created a new blog called Women Who Serve devoted entirely to women's tennis. Yea! 2. Ashley Harkleroad. Ashley Harkleroad was supposed to be one of the U.S.'s next stars on the women's side. Alas after some good results she has kind of faded away. I always found her too cutesy in an "I'm so innocent and I carry the Bible to every tournament and my nickname is Pebbles, tee-hee" kind of way. This reputation was enhanced when she married, at a very young age (19), fellow American pro Alex Bogolomov. I figured it was the strict Christian thing--if they wanted to have sex and not feel too guilty about it they would have to do so within the confines of a marriage. Harkleroad says it is Georgia thing : "that's what they do in Georgia; get married at 19 and start having babies." And then they get divorced, if it's economically feasible, that is. Luckily it ...

You know the rest. This seems to the situation the WNBA is facing. The league recently launched a campaign to encourage more local press coverage of WNBA teams . On each team's home page there is a link to a local paper that allows you to send a letter to the paper asking for more coverage of the team. It's a form letter. This a point of contention I will get to later. It's no secret the WNBA is struggling when it comes to attendance. And it's also no secret to some of us that greater media coverage will bring in more fans. So, in addition to changes such as 4 quarters and 24-second shot clock,* Donna Orender, David Stern, and other sport administrators met with key people at the Associated Press before the season started asking how to get more press. And, not surprisingly, they got back the same old line the media gives us regarding women's sports: we cover what our readers want. Well Orender knows WNBA fans want more coverage and so this email campaign was launche...

Twisty at I Blame the Patriarchy comments briefly on the current Newsweek cover story on the "ancient riddle of identity" noting that it didn't do much to "solve" it. I saw the cover on the magazine rack at my gym and thought, "yeah, I don't really think they're about to shed any light on gender" and I figured the piece would likely make me a little crazy, so I refrained from picking it up. And Twisty confirmed my decision when she noted that she herself threw the mag across the room. Which part did it to her? Former tennis player Renee Richards's comment that "God didn't put us on this earth to have gender diversity." I have previously commented on Richards's rather conservative (and self-hating) stance on GLBTQ issues. What's unfortunate is that "mainstream" stories like these always seem to seek her out for her opinion. The Newsweek article was trying to address the issue of transsexuals who *gasp* want ...

The Mills College soccer team , after having suffered from racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs and harassment, directed their off-field energies into getting the NCAA to change the rule regarding ejection from games. Prior to the Mills College campaign the rule stated that "abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct" was grounds for ejection. But, as we see, that language is kind of vague. At an NCAA meeting* the soccer coach and Mills College athletic director advocated, on behalf of the team, that the language of the ejection rule be changed to read: "engages in hostile or abusive language or harassment that refers to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or national origin, or other abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct." And in March, the NCAA approved the change. Collegiate soccer doesn't start again until the fall so we'll have to wait to see how the rule is enforced and/or changes behavior and conduct. * T...

...apple pie and baseball. Good thing, too, for the members of the De Anza Community College baseball team in California who are being charged with absolutely nothing after sexually assaulting a teenager (17 years old) at a house party. The ripple effects of the Duke lacrosse apparently have run all the way across the country because despite witnesses and a huge amount of local publicity, none of the eight men are being prosecuted because the DA claims there is not enough evidence. Twisty at I Blame the Patriarchy and Diane at The Dees Diversion have posted about the case so I won't go into just how ridiculous it is that once again the players and their supporters are crying "poor persecuted white men are we." That's been covered. I will say that it is quite saddening to find that, even as many of us yearn for more women in positions of power, that a woman actually in power were at the center of the decision not to prosecute: the DA Dolores Carr. I figured out long a...

I was so pleased last month when I read about the University of Missouri having a gay (club) lacrosse coach for their men's team. There was a little bit of controversy but at the time of the article it seemed that most of the team was on board, along with the university. Not so much anymore. Hawkins has been fired . The article's sub-headline reads: Student-run lacrosse team lets gay coach go, says sexuality was not an issue. Yeah, right. The team asked Hawkins to resign and when he refused they fired him. Because lacrosse is a club sport the team has the power to make these decisions. Apparently they wanted to do it last year but because Hawkins had just come out they felt it would have looked like they were making the decision based on his homosexuality. A year didn't really make that much of a difference--it still seems pretty clear from the weak reasons they provided, that there was discomfort with Hawkins being gay. Karen Mitchell, a graduate student who serves as one...

Every month TENNIS magazine runs a column/feature called "The Tennis Life" that is usually written by a recreational player and highlights his/her history with the game--shining moments, embarrassing tales, etc. In general, I find it a good addition to the magazine, one that highlights the publication's commitment to promoting the game as one for everybody. You feel a little better about yourself as a player when reading the narratives, especially after being regaled for pages upon pages of the feats of Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, etc. This month's Tennis Life though is a little different and quite disturbing. The writer, Tom Stein, is a recreational player but he writes about a man named William Wu who captains USTA league teams in the San Francisco Bay area. He is a player as well but is well-known--infamous is more fitting as you will see--for his captaining tactics. For those unfamiliar with a captain's role, he or she is in charge of put...

This weekend marked the opening of the 11th season of the WNBA. I didn't watch any of the games because I was either playing my own sports or watching golf and softball. And frankly professional basketball has never been my sport of choice. But it's not because I think the women are slower or not as exciting--as a column I read the other day contends. The start of the WNBA season has brought commentary that seems to fall into one of two camps: the WNBA is flailing and it may plod along for a while but it will never be as popular as men's sports because no one cares--even other women!; or please give women's sports a chance--if you watch them you may like them (as exemplified by this column ). There are problems with the arguments put forth by both camps. The first column about how women's sports will always be a niche market is irritating. First the author admits that he has never seen a WNBA game because he has never had any desire to watch. I have only ever seen o...

Saw an ad for a new movie about women and sports, Gracie , coming out June 1. I watched the trailer at the website and it looks good. It's about a high school girl who wants to join the boys' team after her brother, the star player, dies. It appears to take place maybe in the 70s because there was no girls' team for her to play on. It is not hiding the fact that it is a feel-good feature, but I am trying not to hold that against it. When I see it, I will report back.

A few weeks ago I came across an article that said women seeking recreational sporting opportunities can have quite a hard time with it. There are several reasons for this. Because women generally have less free time, often having to work outside the home and shoulder the majority of household responsibilities, there just are not enough interested women to comprise teams and leagues. Also, because women, as young girls, were less exposed to and encouraged to play sports, they often don't seek out something unfamiliar in adulthood. The growing number of girls whho play sports is most likely to effect change in the latter situation, hopefully bringing about more opportunities for adult women. Also, sometimes finding out about what's out there in terms of sports for adult women can be difficult. So I've added to the sidebar programs and teams for adult women that are either women-only (W) or co-ed (C). It's a work in progress and will be organized by state. If you know of...

Critics are being quite harsh about Kim Clijsters's retirement. In this month's TENNIS , which was put to bed long before her announcement, they deride her for then intention to skip the US Open. But this column from Selena Roberts of the NY Times (kindly sent to me by a reader because I do not have a Times Select subscription) is the harshest condemnation I have seen yet. Roberts suggests that Clijsters is turning her back--negating practically--all the work that pioneers in the sport, like Billie Jean King, Martina Navratlilova, and Evert (note that Evert was not initially on board with this whole equality thing) did in the 70s and 80s. She writes that Clijsters would make " a terrible bra burner." (Of course all feminists are terrible bra burners given that no bras were ever burned; it's just a (anti?)-feminist urban legend.) Yes, some of us are none too pleased with the married/having children discourse that Clijsters herself is putting forth, but this is not...

My usual gripe about young women and feminism is their denial of the need for feminism which sometimes manifests in the "I'm not a feminist, but--" syndrome. But I have found teaching women's studies or gender-focused courses is a helpful way of feeling like I was doing something to combat this. Lately though I have seen an interesting inverse of the "I'm not a feminist, but--" syndrome. It's more like "I am a feminist, but--". The but in the cases I have seen being "but I don't really like women's sports" or "but I think Title IX is discriminatory against men." The first case is from a student columnist from The Loyolan (in LA) who seems to get it initially. She talks about sport as male-dominated, the attention female athletes get only when they take off their clothes, and the failure of professional women's sports to really take off. Unfortunately she says she really can't blame the American public be...

Dr. Mary Jo Kane's research (with Heather Maxwell) on sexualized media images of female athletes was released a few weeks ago and there has been some publicity about the ongoing project to assess the situation. I have seen a story here and there about it, but you know it's making waves when a Sports Illustrated columnist picks up the story. The gist of the research: sexy pictures of athletes may draw some eyes and numerous internet hits but they do not increase the popularity of women's sports. In fact they may be harming women' sports because such pictures are actually a turn off to real fans. So the rationale offered by many female athletes who do pose in nothing or next to nothing in various men's magazines--that they are bringing attention to their respective sports--is now going to ring a little falser (even before the study, some of us had doubts). What the SI column does not address is that this practice is likely to continue because the less altruistic reas...

About a month ago I came across this curious post on the Golf Blog about the potential demise of women's golf when Annika Sorenstam leaves. I was shocked because I see the LPGA as having a lot of depth--granted I don't watch men's golf so I have little as a basis of comparison; but when I look at the rising young talent in golf, it reminds me of the viability of women's tennis which will go on now that Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, and seemingly Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati have left. And it will go on when marquee names like Serena and Venus Williams are no longer on the draws. Don't people generally like it when there is no one top contender? Isn't this past of the reason why men's tennis is losing its appeal? Roger Federer, as great as he is, has become a little too predictable--unless he's playing Nadal. I would think people--who aren't Sorenstam fans--would be happy she has slipped from the number one spot. I thought men--who seem to b...

I recently read an article about Katie Dallam (the "real" Million Dollar Baby) excerpted in Susan Cahn and Jean O'Reilly's new edited collection Women and Sport in the United States and I have to say, having been pretty ambivalent about boxing in the past, I now wonder why anyone thinks this is a good sporting option. The training indeed gets you into great shape and I see the appeal in working out aggression, but doing it competitively seems a little...extreme. In a Thai women's prison though the appeal of participating in bouts between inmates is pretty obvious: if you win, you get out early. A convicted drug dealer recently won an officially sanctioned match against another prisoner and was pretty much assured of early release. Curious and with very little knowledge of either Thai prison culture or women's boxing, I asked my Thai colleague what she knew. Nothing--she found it curious too as did all of the friends she made inquiries of. Unfortunately ESPN....

I read this morning that Kim Clijsters is retiring --effective immediately. She had said, for some time, that this would be her last year but she decided she just could not make it to the end of the season as planned given her nagging injuries and the physical toll the game takes on the body. Although I have not always been on board with the "I want to get married and have babies" housewife discourse around her decision, I think the retirement is still a huge loss for tennis. And I think her retirement brings up two important issues to consider. The first is an old one that is allegedly being addressed by the WTA. How absurd has the sport gotten that 23-year olds are retiring early because of persistent injuries and pain? And actually they are not specifically addressing this but rather the length of the season which they see as a contributing factor in injuries and burnout. Unfortunately I see the plans that aim to make some events mandatory as counterintuitive. I just finis...

I have mentioned previously that I go hot and cold on Frank Deford who provides a piece every Wednesday on NPR's Morning Edition. Yesterday's (and the written version which is at SI.com) is about Title IX. And I am now decidedly cold. I am not going to go into all the problems with Deford's assessment of the situation, most egregiously his belief that Title IX requires proportionality. (Will sports writers ever learn what Title IX really is?) He does trot out again his potential solution that college sports be deemed entertainment--which would basically give athletic departments carte blanche. What was really disturbing was the collection of comments from readers posted on a blog, sponsored by FanNation, linked from the SI.com site. There were some smart comments from Title IX supporters that attempted to show how these cuts anti-IXers are bemoaning are really all about economics and institutional priorities: basketball and football. But people still cry out about how this...

A few years ago the talk in women's professional tennis was all about the "Russian Revolution"--all the Russian women who were quickly ascending the rankings and, in 2004, winning 3 of the 4 Grand Slams. Though the cadre of Russian women--some of the same, some new--are still a formidable threat at every tour stop it seems, a new revolution is brewing. This one is a little farther east: China. Chinese women are making a name for themselves in both women's singles and doubles. But what's interesting is that they aren't being discussed in the same ways that the Russian women were. In fact, whereas names like Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Dementieva, etc. are known to tennis fans, there are probably few who could actually name some of the dominant Chinese players right now despite their success. ( Yan Zi and Zheng Jie won the doubles title at this year's Australian Open.) There are probably many factors that have contributed to this lack of attention. It does not se...

I have long been perturbed by the uncritical use of male pronouns in women's sports: defensemen, first baseman, Ironman, etc. I am very much in the minority in these views, I realize, and so rarely bring them up. But I had a mini-epiphany the other day at a softball game. I went to see UMass take on George Washington. The announcer gave the line-up: "up for the Minute women , first baseman ____." So some schools go out of their way to distinguish their women's teams from the men's by giving them separate ridiculous names like Minutewomen but persist in calling them men.