After Atalanta

One of my favorite feminist activist groups (it seems odd to think about having a favorite activist group and, of course, I don't really rank them) produced one of my favorite "slogans." The Guerrilla Girls have asked this question: Q: If February is Black History Month and March is Women's History Month, what happens the rest of the year? A: Discrimination. This came to mind when reading an ESPN notice that went to the network's employees (and I assume at some later date, the world) celebrating Women's History Month. Its title was "DURING WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH, ESPN DEMONSTRATES ITS UNPRECEDENTED COMMITMENT TO WOMEN’S SPORTS" and noted that ESPN is "the leader in providing extensive coverage of women's sports content." First, it's not all that much of an accomplishment to provide an unprecedented commitment to women's sports when there hasn't been much--oh wait, any--commitment to women's sports in this country. It ...

It is soooo obvious which women in the gym are brides-to-be. They are the ones logging many miles on the treadmill, counting hundreds of crunches on physio balls, and lifting teeny tiny weights in an effort to tone (but not build--god forbid--bulk) shoulders (for those going strapless), upper back (for those going backless), and pecs (for those going for the plunging necklines). And all the while sporting those very large diamonds that are so popular these days. And while some of these women are doing it on their own many get help in various forms such as trainers, or the many , many websites out there dedicated to getting women to their desired shape for one day. And now, according to today's Boston Globe , gyms are offering special packages for brides-to-be. Total Performance Sports in eastern Massachusetts has a Bridal Survival Fit Camp. The gym may call it "fit camp" but the article (including the photo caption which reads: "future brides and members of wedding...

...on the other side of gender? I teach classes in women's studies and sports studies and I am always talking about race and gender (and class and sexuality and (dis)ability and a host of other identity markers) and thus I frequently hear sentiments such as this: "we shouldn't look at the color of a person; we should look at the person" and "we don't need feminism anymore; women are equal." This editorial out of Colorado kind of combines these sentiments. The author, a mother of two youngish children says her kids don't see gender. I hate to break it to you--but unless you are visually impaired, you see gender--and race and a host of other things. Here's an exercise I learned in grad school in a critical race theory class: Close your eyes. [Just humor me and do it.] Now recall a person you met in the past couple of weeks. Someone who you met in passing, someone whose name you might not even be able to immediately recall. Now can you identify that...

Richard Williams, father of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, gave an interview on March 13 [ok ok I am a little behind but I have been on spring break and my comments are still relevant even if the story is old] in which he talks about racism in tennis. He also talked about a few other things including his own prejudices and the careers of Tracy Austin and Chris Evert whom he referred to as "no good trasher[s]...who cannot hit the ball." This has caused some...ahem...discord. I don't agree with what he said. I think it's insulting to Austin (who I actually never saw play as I was just a wee one when she was on tour but I'm pretty sure she would hit the ball) and Evert. And WTA CEO Larry Scott was right to publicly denounce Williams's comments on Evert and Austin, but he's fooling himself if thinks that the tour's "zero tolerance policy" on racism or his encouragement of Williams to go to him when he has "evidence of racist comme...

The female ski jumpers' fight for Olympic entry is getting national attention--American national attention that is--tonight. ABC News with Charles Gibson is airing a segment tonight on the ski jumpers. One of the teasers was "some [women] even jump better than men." Well, of course, some women will always be able to do some stuff better than some men. That's just everyday common sense--too bad that seems to go away when we talk about sports. Hopefully I will be able to catch the segment tonight.

This past fall and into the winter (aka baseball and football seasons to some folks) I was continually dismayed that The Boston Globe would put sports stories on the front page of the Sunday paper. I understand when they put the BIG stories there like World Series winners or Superbowl...well losers. But there seemed to be a sports story, one that took up a lot of inches, on the front page that should have been on the front page of the sports section. With all the "stuff" going on in the world I thought it was a poor editorial decision to highlight so prominently what was a relatively minor story. So my prior discord made me stop and have to think about what I thought about UConn's Maya Moore's front page appearance this past Sunday. Of course this story started on the front page (way below the fold) and ended in the sports section. And it wasn't about a game or a season or a series, it was about one player which, in some way, suggests that the women's sports ...

Last year the Soccer Hall of Fame thought it was just the bestest for inducting an all-female class; the first ever all-female class. How does that saying go...? One step forward...before the patriarchy just squashes you and makes you remember why you've bought into all that postmodern musing on the quaint notion of progress. This year the Hall of Fame is inducting , fresh off his lengthy legal battle over sexual harassment, eventual settlement, and admittance (kind of) of inappropriate behavior...drum roll please...University of North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance. National Soccer Hall of Fame, President Steve Baumann said: "Anson Dorrance has set an unbelievable standard for American soccer coaches. His success at UNC is staggering and his World Championship with the U.S. women's national team has inspired coaches to higher levels of excellence." Yes it was so excellent the way he got away with sexual innuendo, questioning of his players' pers...

Last weekend the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative, which was co-founded by Brandi Chastain, sponsored a Dads and Daughters Day where dads and their daughters (that's the obvious part) came to hear about women's athletics, participate in some fun physical activities, and check out a couple of women's intercollegiate basketball games. It all sounded very "rah-rah, go women's sports!" I mean, I get it. Using active and eager daughters to get men on board in the support of women's sports isn't exactly a dumb idea when we live in a society where men still dominate sports--and I don't mean as athletes, but as administrators, coaches, the people in power. There are a lot of fathers who will go to the mat for their daughters if they are denied opportunities. But how far does this support and potential activism go without a larger consciousness about systemic gender discrimination? Sure, most fathers would argue for better funding for their daughter...

The Billies, the annual awards celebrating positive media portrayals of women in sport sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation, will take place April 15 this year in LA. The WSF just announced the finalists in the three award categories. In the Breakthrough & Innovation category, honoring images and portrayals that challenge the status quo of females as athletes, we have: 1. "Women's Soccer Team -- The Greatest Team You've Never Heard of"; Nike's advertising campaign from the 2007 World Cup. I was not a huge fan of this campaign. I thought it condescended to the many soccer fans who knew exactly who this team was because we don't show up for soccer every 4 years. 2. "Boom Boom Tap" Under Armour's first campaign for female team athletes. This was catchy and simple and it featured sports like field hockey that get very little attention. 3. "GKA" a television series on Fuel TV dedicated to women's participation in action spo...

Harvard University last month instituted women-only hours at one of their campus gyms. The hours are designed to accommodate female Muslim students at the university who find it easier to work out among women. The students asked the university for the women-only hours so they could dress in ways more appropriate to exercise (i.e. clothing that is not allowed in mixed-gender situations because of modesty requirements). Needless to say, the policy has been controversial. Men have been crying about equal access (note that this is not the only gym on campus and this one is actually not very centrally located and there are only 6 hours a week when this policy is in effect) but it seems there is a decent amount of anti-Muslim sentiment behind some of the criticisms--by both men and women. So we have issues of gender and religion and even the role of an educational institution. The latter seems the easiest to address. A spokesperson for Harvard said is its responsibility of the school to prov...

The Women's Tennis Association instituted its new mandatory criminal background checks at the tournament in Dubai last week amid a lot of controversy and backlash. All members of a player's entourage must sign a document agreeing that the tour can do a background check on them. I don't feel as if I have a strong opinion on this practice but I am not pleased with the "protect the women" rhetoric that surrounds it. Scott has assured all concerned parties (some of whom were sitting outside the tournaments last week where the checks were being done in protest while their players brought them food and information) that they will not be looking into financial and tax information. The checks will look for criminal behavior like sexual offenses in an attempt to protect all these young girls. Why do we think the greatest threat posed by these entourage members is sexual assault? Would a background check have picked up on Peter Graf's financial misdoings? You know the o...

Since I am all about ice hockey this week and because I just finished teaching about sport and violence in my sport sociology class I thought I would point your attention to this lovely spectacle: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LZAehXzjG0w This is a recent game between the University of Minnesota Mankato and University of North Dakota. I showed it to my sport soc class the day after we had made a long list of violent events in sports 99 percent of which involved men. (The Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident was the lone exception.) What was disturbing was that many were laughing while watching the video clip, commenting on the effectiveness of the actual fighting, and referring to them as girls and/or noting that it looked like little kids fighting. Because apparently we don't really want to talk about what it means when women get violent, unless we can paint them as pathological i.e. female serial killers. But we can't do that with female hockey players because then we might hav...