After Atalanta

Well I haven't blogged in a week even though we are in prime women's sports time with the NCAA basketball tourney, an amazing women's Frozen Four, the beginning of the LPGA season in the US...so the immediate answer is yes. But the question was actually inspired by the interview with Brittney Griner by ESPN's Holly Rowe that I watched last night after the Oklahoma/Notre Dame game. And it struck me as I watched her speak so well (granted the Baylor PR people probably have been spending a great deal of time with her) about "the incident" that is still practically a child. Granted she's a 6'8" child who is now one of the most-watched and discussed female basketball players in the country. I know she's a legal adult and one who is responsible for her actions. And she has certainly taken responsibility for them--good and bad. But as someone who is known for a certain acerbic cynicism often directed at athletes, and coaches, and administrators, I pa...

...on the Brittney Griner "incident" here, I thought I would at least point you toward a thoughtful column on the issue of violence in women's sports.

I know that this story is already out there but it deserves more discourse. Plus it allows me to think again about the Olympics which seem so far away now, especially in this very odd 60+ degree pre-spring weather I am experiencing. So the story is that Johnny Weir was not asked to participate in the Stars on Ice Tour sponsored by Smuckers and the Discover card and organized by Scott Hamilton. Party line is that there is not room for him--which we all know is a crock of [low-quality, sweetened-with-high-fructose-corn-sugar jelly]. The allegedly family-friendly show is more worried about Weir's unabashed flamboyance. Apparently Weir has been trying to get into the show for years, but keeps being turned down. Smuckers denies the allegations which have been taken up by GLADD, too. Stars on Ice has been deemed one of the more conservative shows as compared to, for example, Champions on Ice, in which openly gay skater Rudy Galindo once performed seemingly without issue. Note that Weir c...

Last year I noted, probably more than once, that President Obama neglected to fill out a women's bracket. I wrote about how problematic that was at the time. This year he has done both brackets. And Christine Brennan is practically drooling in her congratulations to the president. [OK that was slightly exaggerated, but I have been forced to watch a lot of ESPN lately so I am trending more toward hyperbole. I will try to tone it down. But sometimes Brennan's happy happy just makes me crazy crazy.] I mean, come on, he should have done it last year. He should have at least admitted, perhaps as he congratulated the Huskies and played pick-up with them at the White House, that he made an error in judgment and participated and perpetuated the general societal ignorance of American women's sport. But no. I heard no such things. [Happy to be corrected, of course.] So good for you President Obama, for doing the right thing that should have been the automatic thing if you really bel...

Did you know the Paralympic Games began in Vancouver last Friday? OK, I forgot too. Though I knew they were forthcoming. On March 7, the Globe Magazine ran a Q&A column about American sled hockey player and UNH student (woo-hoo!) Taylor Chance, who plays for team USA. I haven't seen where there might be television coverage of any of the Paralympic events, but if you know of any, please share.

...we're going to get a lot of lip service about gender equity in sports. Yes, if you're an intercollegiate basketball fan, it's a good time of the year. If you're a basketball fan (or a quasi one like myself) and a fan of gender equity, it's kind of frustrating. The good news is that ESPN changed its ticker (a while ago) to NCAAM and NCAAW. The bad news of course that goes uncommented on during the tournament is that it is nearly impossible to find coverage of women's basketball on ESPN during the regular season. I'm not talking about game coverage. They do air games on a semi-regular basis. But on highlight shows such as Sports Center. There is no conversation about the games when the games stop airing. But this is just ESPN who has to make an effort because they actually air all of the women's tournament. The men's tournament is on CBS and ESPN. Other media outlets do not have the same commitment. This I realized once again today when I tried to ...

That's the Jeopardy version of the answer posed by MSNBC columnist Mike Celizic who asked " Why no buzz about UConn women's reign ?" UConn demolished the University of West Virginia last night. UWV stayed close throughout the first half and a little bit into the second, then I turned my head away for a minute or two and it was pretty much over. I kept the game on for background noise as I finished my dinner. Then I turned on a rerun of the season finale of Glee w which was still more interesting but shared one similarity with the game: I knew how both were going to end. The Big East tournament was pretty much in my backyard and I didn't go because I didn't want to see UConn demolish everyone in its path. (Well I almost went to see Rutgers play Saturday because C. Vivian is my favorite!--but I was tired and cranky.) Absolutely the lack of interest reflects the sexist culture we live in. And while there has been some media coverage of the streak most of it imp...

I don't even know why it took this long for someone to turn one of the other lesbian-fan dominated events into a big lesboganza. But this year in San Antonio where the women's Final Four is being held, an enterprising lesbian from San Diego is hosting a big par-tay for all the women loving women out there. And it's being hosted by Curve and Hersportsfan.com (a website for female fans of women's sports). And the honorary chair is the only truly out coach, Portland State's It's called the Final Four Fling and promoter Jody Sims is hoping to make the Final Four a Dinah Shore-esque event. So now the only question is which group is more queasy about being associated with lesbians: women's golf or women's intercollegiate basketball? Doesn't matter, really. Throw them a party (loosely) affiliated with a sporting event, and they will come.

...energy. You thought I was going to say time, right? But no, this column from the Toronto Star highlighting the 10 hottest "babes" of the Vancouver Olympics raises so many issues and I just don't have the energy to address all the hackneyed arguments about why it's so ok to run these types of columns. So just two things. The author, Rosie DiManno, makes a point of noting her gender in the introduction saying that political correctness landed this column topic in her lap over those of her male colleagues. I've said it before, and now I must say it again, just because you're a female sports journalist does not mean you have any kind of commitment to women's sports or an inherent progressive (not that decent equitable coverage is an especially progressive notion) feminist philosophy. One of the arguments about why there is such poor coverage of women's sports is that sports media is a man's world. Adding more women, some argue, would make things bet...

...be keeping pressure on the NCAA to keep itself disentangled from Focus on the Family. As noted last week, the ads on NCAA.org have been removed but there is still the possibility that television ads will run during the men's NCAA tournament on CBS which has an advertising deal with Focus on the Family. Here's a video explaining the situation in greater detail. It also includes, at the end, how you can (and should!) contact the NCAA to voice your concern.

I've been thinking a lot about bullying lately. I live in an area under intense scrutiny for a recent bullying event that lead to a suicide in a local school. It is the second such incident in about a year in my area. The film Straightlaced about teens who do not observe conventional gender norms and often confront bullying because of it is being shown at a local theater this weekend, partly in response to these incidents. And these things have made me think about Johnny Weir. He was pretty much overlooked in Vancouver. This was not surprising. The US Skating Federation has never really appreciated his outspoken ways and neither have other conservative factions of the international skating community. This was his last Olympic games. His style of skating is not rewarded under the current scoring system (which is desperately in need of another overhaul I think. Curling is easier to understand than how jumps and spins and footwork elements are scored!) I have been watching Johnny Wei...