After Atalanta

Of course tennis isn't her favorite game

2012-01-31T09:55:00.002-05:00

Serena Williams said, publicly, in early January, that she doesn't love tennis.
Gordon Smith, USTA executive director and chief operating officer, publicly expressed his disappointment in the comments at a meeting in Atlanta not too long afterwards.
The article made this comment about the situation: "It's not often you hear the USTA speaking candidly about current players."
First, it's not surprising that Smith made an exception for the younger Williams. Serena is continually drawing criticism for her comments--especially when they are not in keeping with the parochial views of the tennis establishment.
Second--of course she doesn't love the game of tennis. It's a hard life. The GF noted, when we were at the Australian Open, sweltering in the stands (which were at least ten degrees cooler than the on-court temperature) that the life of a tennis professional is not all that glamorous. It may look glamorous but it's a lot of travel, a lot of physical challenges and outright physical pain, odd social situations, not a lot of stability, a ton of pressure no matter where you fall in the rankings, crazy heat, separation from family, dealing with the business side of the game, etc.
Serena Williams has had to negotiate all of this--and more--like the racism that still exists in the tennis world, and the world at large, of course. She has not subscribed wholeheartedly to the rhetoric about what and how a professional tennis player's life should be. And I think that ticks people off.
We rarely hear professional athletes discuss--while they are in their playing days--the negatives of their sports and the lifestyles their sports demand. We hear about it afterwards: Andre Agassi went no holds barred in his memoir. Former professional football players have been speaking out about the health issues they have that were and continue to be ignored, for the most part.
Are people worried that Serena is lifting the curtain up and revealing some kind of awful truth about the world of professional sports: that for all the money (if you are one of the best of the best) and the models (if you're Tom Brady) and fame, sometimes it really stinks and it wears on an individual. I don't think she should be called out for saying that out loud.

WPS suspends 2012 season

2012-01-30T15:15:00.001-05:00

I'm actually ok with this news. One, it's better than folding altogether. Two, it's an Olympic year so the big names, the women who would bring many fans to the stadiums wouldn't be around anyway. I think it would have been an emotionally and financially distressful season. Third, I am super busy this spring and summer, so pretty much just watching the Olympics was all I was going to be able to commit to. :)
I think WPS execs made a good decision. Well a good decision in response to a not-so-good one to allow magicJack owner Dan Borislow to purchase and move the Washington Freedom. (Is it weird that I always think of that cartoon characters Boris Badenov when I hear Borislow's name??)

No Boston Breakers for me--or anyone else--in 2012

The Australian Open experience

2012-01-17T07:55:00.001-05:00

We made it over to Margaret Court Arena and saw no rainbow flags. The first day it was late in the day, though, so maybe the protesters had left. It was really hot both days so maybe they made their point and left. Or maybe they figured they were oppressed enough without the weather conditions and are waiting for cooler temps.
We did, however, get to hear the guys behind us use several derogatory terms for gay people while we were watching a match today. Cheers!
We did see Jelena Jankovic play Brit Laura Robson in Margaret Court. And Kuznetsova. And Gael Monfils.
In Rod Laver, we saw Federer beat a qualifer and Wozniacki easily dismissed Australian Anastasia Rodionova. Saw the battle of the French women with Marion Bartoli taking down compatriot Virginie Razzano.

Robson had too many unforced errors.

Jankovic sporting Fila now. (Other players with new labels: Stosur with Asics, Bartoli with Lotto.)

We've been watching on television at night too. The bummer is that it's Australian coverage, of course, and Jim Courier works for them. Quite annoying!

Shall I bring my rainbow flag?

2012-01-15T16:52:00.002-05:00

So I'm in Australia! Got to Melbourne this past weekend after almost a week in Sydney. And today (it's Monday here) we head to the night session at the Australian Open! Roger Federer and Caroline Wozniacki are on the schedule.
Found out this morning that Australian former player Margaret Court, who has an arena named after her at Melbourne Park, has been making some anti-gay marriage statements lately--in the context of her position as a Pentecostal pastor. Apparently these are views she has always held. But perhaps not so wise to make them again publicly right before the start of the Open and during Melbourne's biggest gay celebration: Midsumma. And, according to some gay men we met yesterday who were civilly unionized in Scotland, gay marriage in Australia is a big issue right now
So in protest, people are headed to Margaret Court Arena with their rainbow flags for a visible, yet peaceful and quiet, protest. We have tix for Rod Laver tonight, but tomorrow we have grounds passes and so will head over to check out the scene.

Court says she doesn't hate gay people. And she gave Sam Stosur some advice on playing on her home court.

The benefits of "in your face"?

2012-01-05T10:59:00.001-05:00

Yes, that is an extraneous s there.

Well that was pretty blatant, no?
This story about a t-shirt for Alabama fans to wear to New Orleans when the Tide take on LSU later this week has been sent around various circles I find myself in, engendering resignation and disgust and disappointment.
My initial response--what this post was going to be all about before I read "below the fold"--not that I know where the fold is on blog posts (which is where this story was broken)--was about the relief that blatant homophobia can bring.
Paradoxical, I realize. But in my experience of studying discrimination in sport, I have encountered many obstacles in the way of proving such discrimination when it occurs on a more subtle level. Accusations of overanalysis, over sensitivity, over feminism, etc. are frequently levelled at critics of policies and events that have discriminatory effects. Back-tracking and non-apologies along with blatant denial and less-than-rigorous investigations are the norm.
But "Hey Homeauxs" followed by a statement of violence is pretty blatant.
It reveals the homophobia that persists in our culture at large and, in particular, in sports. It is a teachable moment that most people can understand. I shall use it myself next semester.

There was more to this story. The many who wrote the initial blog post, Kevin Farrell, about the t-shirt found more information about the University's involvement (there was none--they condemned the t-shirt) and the person who was largely responsible for it. And then the blogger published the responsible party's name and contact information. To his credit, the man has apologized profusely and said he did not mean the statement to indicate violence against gay people, rather that is a line in reference to the Alabama fight song. Farrell believes this man but also said that the guy did not understand why homeauxs (sic) was offensive. Let me explain: even when you dress it up in faux French fashion, it is still a derogatory term for gay people when it is used in this (and most) context.
The t-shirt is not being printed. The business owner has asked that his name be removed from Farrell's post because of all the negative attention he is getting from it and because he is genuinely sorry. But Farrell was right in his rationale to keep the information up. If he had not intervened--no one would have. Those t-shirts would have shown up in New Orleans worn by UA fans and students and I would have been writing this blog post from Australia next week, when I have better things to do!
Yes, it's unfortunate that a so-called nice guy is being allegedly punished for his mistake. But it's the 21st century and I hope that the social contract is starting to require accountability for the privilege of ignorance. This is not a legal issue and thus we cannot just look at intent, because there are bigger issues. Good people can act in discriminatory ways and remain ignorant to them. Just like good people can be the victims of such ignorance and discrimination.

Will 2012 be the tipping point?

2012-01-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

I believe somewhat in tipping points--the moment in which society says "no way; no more; too much." Of course certain historical moments refute the concept of the tipping point; i.e. the Holocaust (uh-oh did I just lose that argument?).
But it works some times. Like when women's reproductive rights are threatened, there seems to be a feminist resurgence.
So I thought that maybe last year with the growth of lingerie leagues (football and basketball), we might be closing in on that tipping point. The moment where people wake up and see that the sexification of women who play sports is problematic. There was definitely a response to these leagues. Dr. Nicole LaVoi did a great job commenting on these leagues. But league owners were rather brash and unapologetic in their pursuit of dollars. "Sex sells" was repeated with vigor rather than resignation.
So I am not predicting that the latest "le sigh" moment will be the tipping point. Rather I am just hoping.
Dennis Rodman is starting his own topless women's basketball team. An idea he apparently got from someone else--a cabaret owner who thought a topless women's team would cheer up people when it looked like the NBA season would be cancelled.
Women who try out for Rodman's team have to be at least 5'10 but do not need much basketball playing experience.
So why might this NOT be a tipping point? Well for one it's not a large endeavor that is being advertised to the public-at-large. It is happening at/through a gentlemen's club (oh, the irony of that term). And second, this seems more like a fetish and less like an athletic event. Like those wrestling videos of yore. It's not about the athletic prowess and it seems like it isn't even pretending to be about that.
We shall see how much attention this thing gets.

'Tis the season...

2011-12-31T11:58:00.000-05:00

...for top ten, five, eleven lists. Best ofs. Worst ofs. Shining moments. Glorious defeats. Trends and tribulations.
Given that I too have, in the past, tried to comment on the happenings of an arbitrary (well there's the science of it all I guess)set of days, I shall not disparage it too much.
I will note though, again, the absence of Yani Tseng.
SheWired did their top five women's sports events of 2011 and did not include Tseng's amazing year. They did not leave out golf, however. They included Lexi Thompson who became the youngest female to win an LPGA event (professional).
OK, sure a record was set with this one win. She won the Dubai Masters on the European Tour as well. So a good year for a 16-year old. I guess if we're looking for events, this qualifies. Tseng's accompishments occurred over the course of a whole year. Maybe she lost out on a technicality?
SheWired notes that Thompson's wins have people wondering if we have a new female Tiger Woods on our hands.
Of course Tseng has five majors on her scorecard--two years before Woods earned his fifth major.
Let's note that Tseng is only 22 (23 in January). She joined the LPGA in 2008 (at age 19) and won in her first year on the tour. In fact her win was the LPGA Championship and it made her the youngest player to win that tournament and the second youngest major winner. She has broken records every year since. Money records and win records and age records.

I guess she isn't really an event--she's a force.
So why no props from the press. Why does Thompson's win warrant a place on the list over Tseng?
Well America has been looking for the next female star. And it seems like they prefer one who is white, speaks English, and is heterosexy. And Thompson seems glamorous far beyond her 16 years. Yet wholesome in that American girl next door way.
Tseng is super cute, in my mind. But not in that American, feminine way. And she's shy. And English is not her first language and the American media (generally) does not make the effort with her.
And thus she has gone missing from many of the lists and awards and accolades she deserves.

Retirement for Ruggiero

2011-12-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking about Angela Ruggiero the other day while I was cleaning out my email contacts. (I decided I probably didn't need her email anymore if the one I had was even still valid.) And then I read that she's retiring.
Interesting timing. The national team is in Blaine, MN right now. Well the women who hope to become the national team anyway.
I would hope Ruggiero retired of her own volition and that she didn't get pushed out. I haven't seen her play in a while but she seems good enough to still make it.

I am bummed though. The World Championships happen in April in VT and I was planning on going. I saw her play in the Olympics in 2002 and it would have been nice to see one of the few players who remains from that team.

Big football, bad grades?

2011-12-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

Three U of Oregon professors conducted a study on their campus which suggested that big, successful football leads to general decline in students' GPAs.
I was surprised this story made the New York Times because the study is of just one university.
Now I am all about showing the downside to excessive intercollegiate football programs, but I think one study does not really indicate the whole reality. There is a culture created by big-time sports. But there are questions that remain. Is it only football? What about big-time basketball, like at Butler, (I met an alum over Christmas) where enrollment has skyrocketed?
One of the study's authors said "I teach these students. And I know that on Thursdays there’s this subtle distraction in the classroom, and the game isn’t even until Saturday."
Um, yeah. That happens everywhere. Because in college, the weekend starts on Thursdays. Happened at my undergrad university where football was not as big (though not small). Happened at the small liberal arts college I taught at. Happens at community colleges. Fidgety students are everywhere. Football might exacerbate that, but I think you would have to control for other things.
Kudos though to the authors for having a strong qualitative component to this study in addition to just examinng GPAs. Seems a better way to understand campus culture.

See? A quiet place to study amidst the tailgating chaos.

Poetry Friday

2011-12-23T01:56:00.000-05:00

Last year I posted "Twas the Night Before Christmas" on Poetry Friday.
This year I offer my own version.
Happy Holidays!

TWAS THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Twas the week before Christmas

and all through the house
everything was stirring
especially the f*&^in’ mouse.

New stockings to be sewn
to show the GF I care.
I put a bird on them
for that Portlandia flair.

The wrapping of presents

was nowhere near done.
Multiple trips to the mall--
this is no holiday fun.

Parties to attend
but more invitations turned down.
Have to finish laundry and packing
before we leave town.

The Solstice Fairy came
and she was divine:
got some music, cool gear,
and a bottle of sparkly wine.

Homemade cookies were delivered
and some chocolates too.
Was up to midnight making truffles;
“easy to make”—um, not so true.

Planning the holiday dinner
for the Boston family.
Looking forward to some red wine
and getting woozy by the tree.

But for now there will be
no temporary reprieve.
No chance for a break
until late Christmas Eve.

I throw back some caffeine
ready to hit more stores;
have to forge ahead
and complete these holiday chores.

So on to the Gap, to Trader Joes,
to Banana Republic I go.
To Target and Dick’s
where the lines are so slow.

On to Whole Foods, to Best Buy
for the last-minutes shopping,
then back to the kitchen
for some vegetable chopping.

I spring to my RAV4

with vim and vigor

praying to the holiday gods
the to-do list won’t grown bigger.

But I take this moment now
to send a "happy holidays!"
May we all survive
the seasonal craze.

Wamach wins best athlete

2011-12-21T08:51:00.000-05:00

Oh, sorry. Best female athlete of the year--according to the Associated Press.
Still--good job. First individual soccer player to earn that honor and she beat out her nearest competitor--Hope Solo--by many many votes.
Still I was a little surprised that Yani Tseng didn't get more consideration. She was the fourth-highest vote-getter. (Maya Moore was third.) But I don't know what the criteria is. (The article failed to note that.) And if popularity or the creation of a national stir is on the list of considerations, well then it's more understandable.
I guess voters figured that this was Wambach's year--though she will--barring injury--be playing in the Olympics this summer--another potential stage for excitment and "heroics." And I am sure Yani Tseng can win 12 tournaments again, 2 of which were majors (one--the LPGA Championship--which she won by 10 strokes) and 5 of which were LPGA events. And she did win the United States Sports Academy's female athlete of the year award, after all. And was the LPGA's Rolex Player of the Year--which I think comes with some $$.

Wambach's award engenders a certain amount of melancholy. The WPS is fighting to stay viable despite the post World Cup excitement. Wambach herself has been shuttled among teams; not because of trade deals but because of teams collapsing. And there is question about how many national team players will commit to a WPS team this year given the forthcoming Olympic Games--further endangering the league.
But lest I be seen as lacking in the appropriate amount of seasonal joy:
GOOD JOB, ABBY WAMBACH!

What's that about social capital?

2011-12-16T14:02:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week I mentioned how fandom of women's sports earns one very little social capital. This point was illustrated by a Yahoo contributor article I read a few days later. The author, a female firefighter, talks about how, in order to get by in a male-dominated field, a woman needs to learn how to talk sports and picks teams and be a fan of men's professional sports. And thus she will fit in and be accepted and have something to talk about with all the men folk.

Alternately, she could wear a cheese bra.

Poetry Friday

2011-12-16T13:09:00.001-05:00

Last day of fall semester classes and no feeling of relief. Thus this sentiment has been a prevailing one this week:

RIDICULOUS

Alicia Ostriker

This is ridiculous
said the literary old woman
nobody gives us any respect
the young in one another's arms
are talking on their ipods
the politicians are lying through their teeth
and our husbands are taking a nap

this is ridiculous
said the tulip
all those genetically altered blossoms
those stupid long-lived orchids
that are practically plastic
and those fancy designer grasses
getting more than market share

this is ridiculous
said the dog
now they not only have to walk me
they have to rush up with their
sanitary plastic bags
what is it but old-fashioned
imperialism

WPS gets reprieve (+ being a women's sports fan)

2011-12-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

Despite its inability to add another team to the league, US Soccer has granted Women's Professional Soccer another waiver allowing it to remain a Division I league. Division I leagues are required to have eight teams; WPS currently has five. But, in talks with US Soccer, WPS administrators said there was interest out there for the creation of new teams.
In a recent post commenting on the grassroots efforts of the Women Talk Sports Network to get another team in fifteen days (the deadline originally set by US Soccer for the WPS to add a sith team) I mentioned something about the many issues associated with being a women's sports fan and being a women's sport owner. So I'll elaborate.
Regarding being a female fan of women's sports: it's not so easy. Which doesn't mean it's not a worthy endeavor--just that it's not the same as being a fan of men's sports. There's the problem of where to find sports. Most of us become fans of local college and high school teams--which is great. Many of us have to travel to see professional sports, which I will do. But it's time and money-consuming. I live two hours from Boston and I have gone to see one Boston Breakers game since the WPS. (I saw one when the Breakers were in the WUSA.) I have the best intentions every season, but life gets in the way. And my life is one without children, by the way. If a woman has children, it becomes even more difficult to be a fan of women's professional sports for the same time and money reasons. Women have less disposable income and less free time. And thus it is harder to prioritize sports. And we gain little social capital from our support of women's sports either. We don't get rewarded, generally, for being fans of women's sports in the way we would if we were fans of men's sports. (Not that one can't be both at the same time--it's just that one is afforded more value.) And then there's the whole uneasy merging of the normative families with small children and the queer women--the two groups that comprise the majority of the audience.
This has been an issue for owners. I also argue that the lack of social capital--given the huge investment of actual capital--is a deterrent for women who have the ability to be team owners/investors. Sure, there are plenty of men's professional teams that are not earning money. But the owners--mostly men--get something out of their ownership/investment that is not profit. They get prestige, admiration, etc. Women who own women's team get less of that.
In some ways, ownership is more like charity. And I mean charity in a good way. If there is little likelihood of economic gain, then this is a giving endeavor. And maybe it's one that some women want to be part of. There is an argument to be made that women's professional sports are valuable to the greater society.
But--and this might be a little blasphemous--if I was a woman who had the financial ability to own a professional women's sports team, knowing that it would be more like giving to a charity, I probably wouldn't. If I wanted to support sports for women, I would likely just give to youth sports, my alma mater, Olympic sports groups, grassroots groups aimed at bringing physical activity to underserved girls, or my local recreational association.
It's a difficult situation. Women's professional sports are not a priority and in order to become a priority it seems like it is women who need to make the effort; but women have less economic capital, less time, and less social capital to give away in such endeavors. I do believe that smart and business-savvy women within existing women's sports leagues are the best chance at success for such leagues. But it remains a struggle. And these women sacrifice in order to remain in their positions and committed to making women's professional sports more of a national priority.

Poetry Friday

2011-12-09T12:23:00.000-05:00

Against Transcendence

I

Jesus is the reason for the season
Proclaims my neighbor's bow-wrapped door,
Getting it exactly backward again this year,
The winter solstice only weeks away:
Opaque slate skies, a daylong dusk in the drybrush
Of branches blurring in the woods.
Do you worship God or animals? asks a sticker
From the back of his pickup truck.

Cotton Mather, could he look down
From the tomb of heaven, would be pleased
By the granite sky, the cold Old Testament comfort
Of the faith, and by the faithful,
Bedrock, salt-of-the-earth,
Hunkered down and ready for the rapture.

II

Winter nights enlarge the number of their hours
Wrote a poet with the name of a wildflower—

Of the White Campion, which blooms at night,
And the Starry, petals ascending on slender spines—

The sky filling the frame with its constellations,
The tiny novas flaming like bits of tungsten,

And here below, if the air is dry enough and cold,
There's that taste of metal that comes with snow.

III

Bare limbs and briars, the crosiers of weeds
Burred with their small spurred seeds.

Robert Gibb

Is the Save the WPS campaign a little, um, off

2011-11-29T13:17:00.001-05:00

So I knew the WPS was not in good shape. I retained an unusual amount of optimism about the league's viability throughout the many collapses of teams, losses of coaches, and that whole weird MagicJack fiasco. (OK I started to lose hope during the MagicJack thing, actually.)
So now the league is on the verge of non-existence again. It needs to add a sixth team ASAP or it will lose its Division I league status within US Soccer. (The league is actually supposed to field 8 teams but has gotten waivers in the past.)
So it's crunch time. And though the league had planned on adding a team for the 2013 season there is no telling whether that would have actually happened or if another team would have folded in the meantime.

I kind of buried the lead of the post but here it is:
The Women Talk Sports network--of which I am a (somewhat ambivalent) member--has started a grassroots campaign to save the WPS.
But they aren't asking money from us regular Joanns and Joes. (Smart--because the general public is probably not going to pull together the funds to keep a professional sports team going.)
They are asking for money from Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Maddow, however.

Pause.
My first thought: creepy.
My second thought: really? That's the plan?

Sure WTSN justified this choice by noting that both Ellen and Rachel covered the Women's World Cup this summer. This makes it seem like anyone who expressed an interest would make a viable owner. Jere Longman of the NYT has a lot of interest in women's soccer and was in Germany writing really great pieces about the World Cup. But they didn't call him out.

And the calling out thing is weird. These are the kind of things that happen behind the scenes. This is professional sport. It is a business. Sure celebrities take ownership stakes in teams all the time. But to publicly call out two women who are not in the business of sport team ownership is weird and not very professional. And, it's unrealistic.

And there's the whole we're-not-going-to-mention-that-they're-gay thing.
Women's professional sports have generally liked to ignore the whole lesbian element thing. I am pretty sure the WPS itself would not have called out these two high-profile gay women. In part, because they are gay. Ellen is pretty innocuous but Maddow says some things that are controversial (for which I am eternally grateful). And she will not get a pass for saying those things like other owners who are white heterosexual men would.
There are many high-powered women out there. Business women. (Remember the Virginia Slims tour was funded by a rich woman Billie Jean King had gone to--personally.) Why not call out some of these women? Well probably because it's not a good business practice to publicly shame people for not buying a sports team. I don't think it's a great idea to call on media personalities. In some ways it becomes a conflict of interest for them.

I don't know Ellen DeGeneres or anyone who knows her. Maybe she would be interested. (Also, since we're picking on high-profile lesbians, why not Rosie O'Donnell? She's actually been spotted at women's sports events.)
But Maddow seems a stretch. One, she is not a millionaire (the campaign letter noted that millionaires need to invest in women's sports). Two, knowing what I know about her, and having talked to a few of her friends in the past 24 hours, I imagine that she thinks this is all a little weird too.
This raises a few more issues about women supporting women's sports and normative versus alternative models of sport and ownership. But I think I will end it here and address those later.
I am embarrassed for the WSN. I hope the campaign does not take off. I think it would be an embarrassment if Rachel Maddow had to respond. Don't punish her for covering the Women's World Cup.

Ahh! You want me to do what?

Oklahoma State tragedy

2011-11-19T08:30:00.001-05:00

Thoughts go out to the Oklahoma State community--especially the women's basketball team--which lost their head and assistant coaches last week. The coaches were on a recruiting trip when their plane crashed.
Kurk Budke had turned the team around in recent years. Assistant coach Miranda Serna was a former player of Budke's who had been his assistant for many years.

Poetry Friday

2011-11-18T14:16:00.001-05:00

Because so many were lost in our crazy storm a couple of weeks ago. And because whenever I hear the word "birches" I repeat the first lines of this poem (the entirety of which I had memorized when I was 14).

BIRCHES

Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust--
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
(Now am I free to be poetical?)
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

And for...

2011-11-13T14:17:00.001-05:00

Saturday Night Live.

And Jon Stewart

I don't think the latest crop of Penn State grads will be getting jobs or internships at the Daily Show or SNL any time soon.

Thank goodness for Mechelle Voepel

2011-11-12T08:36:00.001-05:00

Dr. Pants pointed out that the article I raved about yesterday was posted on ESPNW which receives significantly less traffic than ESPN.com.
But Mechelle Voepel's contribution to the discussion of Penn State and the connection of the current situation to the Rene Portland situation did make it to ESPN.
And--as usual--it's very good.
Here's a snippet:
Unfortunately, many universities -- if they're being honest -- need to look at themselves and say, "Do we do all we can to ensure that everyone's compass is directed toward doing what's right, even if that might initially cause some bad publicity for the university or mean sparring with a powerful coach? Do we look out for the powerless? Is our moral code as strong as it needs to be? Where are our true priorities? Who are we most concerned about protecting?"

Those can seem like pie-in-the-sky ideals, and maybe they are. Certainly, they're much easier to commit to in theory than in practice. But if there are lessons to be gained from what's occurred at Penn State, the most important need to be learned by those in the most powerful positions at schools and their athletic departments.

Poetry Friday

2011-11-11T12:30:00.000-05:00

from "18 Days Without You"

Anne Sexton

December 18th
Swift boomerang, come get!
I am delicate. You've been gone.
The losing has hurt me some, yet
I must bend for you. See me arch. I'm turned on.
My eyes are lawn-colored, my hair brunette.
Kiss the package, Mr. Bind!
Yes? Would you consider hurling yourself
upon me, rigorous but somehow kind?
I am laid out like paper on your cabin kitchen shelf.
So draw me a breast. I like to be underlined.

Look, lout! Say yes! Draw me like a child. I shall need
merely two round eyes and a small kiss.
A small o. Two earrings would be nice. Then proceed
to the shoulder. You may pause at this.
Catch me. I'm your disease.
Please go slow all along the torso
drawing beads and mouths and trees
and o's, a little graffiti and a small hello for I grab, I nibble, I lift, I please.
Draw me good, draw me warm.
Bring me your raw-boned wrist and your
strange, Mr. Bind, strange stubborn horn.
Darling, bring me this an hour of undulations, for
this is the music for which I was born.
Lock in! Be alert, my acrobat
and I will be soft wood and you the nail
and we will make fiery ovens for Jack Sprat
and you will hurl yourself into my tiny jailand we will take a supper together and that
will be that.

Thanks, ESPN

2011-11-11T11:30:00.001-05:00

I know it's 11-11-11 but this is not some kind of Freaky Friday, opposite-world post. I am genuinely appreciative of ESPN running this piece:
Luke Cyphers has a column at ESPN.com on how there have been other things within PSU athletics that were not quite right--namely the tenure of former women's basketball coach Rene Portland. Glad people in the media are making the connection.

Here is a particularly good snippet:
Meanwhile, when we examine the Portland era and the Sandusky scandal through the same lens, what we see tells us a lot about institutionalized hate and systems that equate winning with morality, both of which flourished for decades in State College. The administration's failure to step in and do the right thing, the moral thing, created a void in which dozens of young lives, from Portland's players to Sandusky's alleged victims, were disrupted and forever scarred.

Read the rest--it's worth it.

Whoa--that was fast!

2011-11-09T11:03:00.000-05:00

Joe Paterno to retire.
At the end of the season.

Scandal= "retirement"

Scandal = resignation (hmm...)

I may actually watch the game this weekend to see what the atmosphere is like.

Not so surprised by PSU

2011-11-08T11:19:00.000-05:00

Of course Penn State was going to cover up the abuse perpetuated by one of its coaches. Of course the institution that sheltered openly homophobic and not-so-openly racist basketball coach Rene Portland for years--years--would cover up for a former assistant football coach who was engaging in sexual acts with young boys. It reminds me of the stories we hear about corruption within police departments. The denial, the looking the other way behaviors, and the active cover-ups meant to protect one of their own. (I heard Michael Chiklis was very good on The Shield, maybe he would be interested in a leading role on The AD. I think he could pull off Tim Curley. He would have to spend some time practicing being on a witness stand, though.)
I read the headlines a few days ago and thought--well, not so shocking that a man would molest little boys or even that a PSU football coach would do so.
Then more got revealed about the seemingly systematic cover-up of the actions of said football coach.
Because, according to the various and myriad charges, athletic director Tim Curley and the VP of Finances knew about some of Jerry Sandusky's "horsing around" with young boys in the program Sandusky founded to help underprivileged youth.
The two men are charged with, among other things, perjury. They may have lied about what they knew to a grand jury when the investigation against Sandusky began several years ago.
They are also charged with not reporting the abuse to the authorities. This is based on the idea that because they are school officials they are mandatory reporters. They might get off on that one because of some details about who reported to whom and the association of the program with the school. They may not be criminally charged with that one--but they're still guilty. Who hears about sexual misconduct with underage youth and does not report it? Come on.
And now it appears that even the most sacred of Penn State figures, the seemingly untouchable Joe Paterno, is going to be touched by this. Charges have not been filed against Paterno who, when told about Sandusky by a graduate student, did report it to Curley and the VP. But:
State police Commissioner Frank Noonan said that although Paterno may have met his legal requirement to report suspected abuse by Sandusky, "somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child."
He added: "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."

Will Paterno retire just like Portland did?

Dave Zirin published a very good column about the scandal focusing on how such a revered--by the school, alumni, and the community--football program got away (temporarily) with this behavior. This scandal is soo much worse than the other college football scandals we have heard about recently, Zirin notes, especially because Penn State has always been an "outlaw program." Maybe the football program specifically has not suffered from pay-for-play scandals. But I think it's hard to say that the culture within the Penn State athletic department is healthy or safe for anyone who is a little bit vulnerable. I think the way administrators handled the Portland scandal--and I do believe it rises to the level of scandal--illustrates this.

I am a little bit despondent here. College football is out of control. I would give up on it completely; sit on the sidelines waiting for it to pull a Roman Empire and collapse from within; but it just keeps hurting so many people the bigger it gets.

Promoting the Body Issue

2011-11-07T13:59:00.001-05:00

I know I am a little late to the game here but 1) I haven't been checking my After Atalanta email (if anyone knows an easy way to forward gmail to another account please enlighten me) and 2) sick...sick sick sick.
But I did manage to get a copy of ESPN Magazine's third (third, right?) Body issue.
Dr. Pants texted me and informed me that it was a must-see. Dr. Pants is a big Hope Solo fan and Solo did grace one of the covers this year. Me, not so much so I didn't really care much about seeing Solo pseudo nude.
But the article about testicles was too much to pass up. (more on that at a later date)
So I read it. I am getting a little bored of this whole thing actually. (Well except for the testicles article.)
And I wonder if ESPN can sense that the Body Issue just isn't that interesting. That it will never draw the same attention as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
Because was what was sent to my After Atalanta gmail:
The only magazine that can possibly trump the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for popularity has to be the 2011 ESPN The Magazine ‘Body Issue.’ Want big stars without clothes? This one is all you. Hope Solo, Alicia Sacramone, Helio Castroneves, Apolo Ohno, Blake Griffin, Jose Reyes and even a professional bowler. The photos would normally be considered NSFW, but chill out, it’s art!

Included in the email were some of the pictures.
It was sent by Stephen Gebhardt, the director of marketing for the COED Media Group, which is some kind of marketing group designed to appeal to college students. I guess that explains why I was told to chill out because it's art. Still not sure why I received this email. Do they assume because I write a blog I am young and hip? I'm not. (I had to look up with NSFW meant.) And I thought that college kids were, like, so over blogs. It's all about Twitter now, right? (Which reminds me I need to get back to tweeting in an attempt to remain current.)

I can't imagine that this group just randomly chose to promote this issue. That means ESPN must have hired them.
In other words, the "it's art" thing is all tongue in cheek. I think that's a pretty icky thing for ESPN to do. I think it woos some of the athletes and readers with the "it's art, it's classy, it's not the SI Swimsuit Issue." And then it turns around and promotes the product as just the opposite.

I see gendered people

2011-11-02T14:03:00.001-04:00

ESPNW has an interview with Mary Wittenberg who is the current president of the New York Road Runners. And by virtue of her position as president and CEO, she is in charge of the NYC Marathon--which happens this weekend. She is the first female president of the organization--this seems to be part of the reason ESPNW chose to interview her. Here is one of the questions:
espnW: When you're negotiating appearance fees for male athletes with male agents, does it ever strike you as significant that you're a woman running a major men's and women's sporting event?

Here is the first line of her response:
No. I don't think a lot about gender at all when thinking about negotiating appearance fees or putting together the strategy for our pro field.

Oh god, I thought to myself when I read this. Another person who doesn't see gender. Everything is gender neutral. But here is how she finished the question:
What I do think about is always ensuring that we have a really strong women's field. We really highlight the women in New York. Our sport globally does pretty well with keeping men and women even, but that hasn't always been the case, so in New York, where I think about it most is in the strategy around the field -- ensuring a super-strong field and equal prize money. One year we even paid the women more, just to make the point of how important the women are. As you may or may not know, women start the race a half hour before the men, and the entire spotlight is on them.

So she does think about gender--a lot actually. She very purposefully strategizes about gender it seems.
I don't understand these knee-jerk reactions to questions about gender. As if it is so bad to think about the impact of gender on sports. Like it might make people think you are a feminist!
Thankfully Mary Wittenberg does think about gender and about the specific position her race occupies in the global, gendered sportocracy.

Poetry Friday

2011-10-28T10:14:00.000-04:00

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

by E. E. Cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility:whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens;only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

More skirts

2011-10-27T09:52:00.000-04:00

I frequently try to convince people (my students, my girlfriend, random strangers) that the concept of "things are getting better" or "things are better than they used to be" is problematic.
Progress is not one of those straight 45 degree angle lines streaking across a graph. The x and y axes are not so 1) measurable and 2) in sync that we have this perfect progress line.
And this not-so-neat-and-easy "progress" can be applied to sport--women's sports specifically.
Look at the women playing sports! Isn't it great!?
It totally is.
But there has been some backlash--some subtle, some not-so-subtle. There's the obvious crusade against Title IX in the US. There's the rampant, yet largely hush-hush and/or hard-to-prove homophobia. And now there's skirts.
Skirts where none existed before. Skirts in soccer. (Remember the fashion show in 2009 when the WUSA debuted its Puma kit complete with "wraps"?)
Skirts in badminton.
Skirts in running.
And now skirts in....wait for it-----
BOXING!
The Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) tried to give out skirts to its female competitors at the World Championships last year because they are trying to "phase in" the new uniform in international competition. Just in time, perhaps, for women's boxing at the London Olympics next year??
It's pretty difficult these days to say--in most parts of the world--that women should not be able to play sports. But that does not mean people still aren't trying to distinguish women's participation in sport. This attempt is through skirts.
It isn't a mandate from the AIBA--though Poland has required skirts as part of its national uniform because it is "elegant" and gives a "womanly impression."
There seems to be a certain amount of ambivalence--even among the various national team leaders/coaches--about women who box. Yes, women hitting each other does seem a little masculine because hitting each other has always been the domain of men--except when they hit women.
But putting a woman in a skirt does not take away from the fact that she is hitting another woman--for sport.
The skirt is not going to convince the naysayers that it's ok for women to box. It's not going to attract more people to the sport--perhaps a few fetishists (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I am just waiting for the next not-a-skirt-sport to insititute skirts.

P.S. one's a lesbian

2011-10-26T08:56:00.000-04:00

I've had over a day to sit on this story because of other obligations. This has meant that the highly acerbic tone laced with expletives that I was going to use yesterday has been slightly tempered by time.
I'm still a little irked by ESPNW though. I really haven't seen anything to like about this endeavor yet. Shouldn't we be shooting for more than just mere visibility?
Anyway, what got me all hot and bothered (and not in a good way) yesterday was this article about the different paths Hope Solo and Abby Wambach have taken post World Cup.
In case you haven't heard, Hope Solo is on Dancing with the Stars this season. She was also on (one of) the cover of ESPN Magazine's The Body Issue a few weeks ago. She is racking up endorsements (worth millions of dollars)--and turning down offers for photo shoots in men's magazines. In other words, she's making the most of this (likely) brief spike in the popularity of women's soccer. (Let's note, for the record, that Solo pursued her spot on DWTS. Her agent "mined his contacts at ABC" to get her on the show.)
Her success in doing so is not surprising according to a UMaryland consumer psychologist. Dr. Stephen McDaniel:
"Think how unique Hope Solo is. She's very telegenic, she's attractive, she's successful; she's the kind of person that can translate into a personality."
And what's up with Wambach?
Well here is an assessment of the differences between the two from the president of a company that pairs celebrity endorsers with companies:
"Every time you see Hope Solo, she's pumping her fist and clapping her hands and she's got a really great demeanor and a great smile and everything about it is positive. That's not to say the same thing about Abby. I can't really say where Abby is. Abby is not unattractive, but I don't know what she wants to do."
Yes, what is it about Wambach? Not unattractive, but....
Can't....quite...put...my....finger...on...it.
Oh, yeah. She's gay.
Is she out like Natasha Kai? No. But it's not a secret either. She's not trying to pass as straight.
And she's not clamoring after endorsements like Solo because, according to observers, experts, and Wamabch herself, it just isn't her style. She's more quiet. She's more behind the scenes. (And she's doing good stuff too trying to promote the game.)
She also can't sell heterosexy like Solo. But no one will say that aloud.
So where's the space for someone like Wambach? She can sell lesbosexy. (Check out the comments on photos of her.)
But the woman saved the USWNT from an early exit in the World Cup. She was in a scoring drought and pushed through it and then came through big with the US needed it.
But there's little space for a strong, successful female athlete is not heterosexual (or who does not pass as heterosexual).
Yes, Wambach has been with Nike for almost 10 years now. She endorses Gatorade and both she and Solo are recently signed with Bank of America. (Really, Abby and Hope? You thought signing with one of the most maligned banks in the country right now was a good idea?)
But these different paths they allegedly chose are not necessarily all about free will or radically different personalities. Look at them on the field: they are both clapping their hands actually--they are both intense. They pump up their team not in pleasant Mia Hamm way, but in "let's get our butts in gear" (that's the polite version) kind of way. Neither smiles a whole lot during the game. And let's note that Solo's ESPN Magazine cover. Very intense. A little bit with the crazy eyes too. [My roommate glanced at the cover when it was sitting on the kitchen island and asked me "who's that guy?"]
This is not just about choice. This about market. The choices Wambach makes not to be in the public eye as much as Solo are not entirely unfettered.
And ESPNW looks a little naive in its coverage of these "different paths" especially when one of the sources hints heavily at the whole "lesbian thing."

WSF Awards

2011-10-20T10:17:00.001-04:00

The Women's Sports Foundation held their annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards ceremony last night in NYC.
Abby Wambach won best sportswoman in a team sports; Yani Tseng (I guess people are paying attention to her!) won for individual sport.
The US Women's Ski Jumping team won the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award for their activist work in getting their sport included in the winter olympics.
A theme of the evening was Title IX because the Foundation is gearing up for the 40th anniversary.
It was a little disappointing that the :Billie Jean King Contribution Award, which recognizes an individual or organization that demonstrates a lasting commitment and dedication to the growth of sports, fitness and physical activity for women and girls" was given to Visa. Given the current climate of backlash against corporate America--which began right on the streets of NYC, it didn't seem to be the b est choice. I would have liked to see WSF go a little less corporate.

Like a younger, more hipster Ellen.

For all my butchie girls: this is how Abby Wambach dresses it up. The pants are a little too hipster for me, but the woman can rock formal wear too it seems.

Reform through 5 scholarships

2011-10-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

The NCAA in August, during the Presidential Retreat, started talking about some of the ongoing controveries and the need for reform. Everyone else already is, so they should be too.
And they have some ideas, apparently. In September the Resource Allocations Working Group suggested cutting scholarships for FBS (Footbal Bowl Series) teams from 85 to 80. The FCS will have their scholarships reduced from 63 to 60.
They are also considering reducing men's (13 --> 12) and women's (15 --> 13) basketball scholarships.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that will take care of it.

Wasn't there supposed to be a movie...

2011-10-16T07:45:00.001-04:00

...about the Immaculata College women's basketball team?
Why yes, yes there was.
And apparently there is. It was actually filmed in 2007. But the film, The Mighty Macs, which chronicles the 1971-72 team as it made its ways to the NCAA championships, only recently got a distributor.
The movie stars Carla Gugino (Entourage, Sin City), David Boreanaz (currently of Bones but formally of Buffy the Vampire Slayer--his best role in my opinion), Ellen Burstyn (Ya Ya Sisterhood, Big Love), and Marley Shelton (Uptown Girls. Pleasantville).
The movie comes out in limited release (1000 theaters) next week.
You can watch the trailer here. It looks good.

Poetry Friday

2011-10-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

Like the poem, but I'm thinking the translation could be better. Nevertheless...

Bring me the sunflower

Eugenio Montale

Bring me the sunflower so I may transplant it

in my native soil burnt by the sea-salt,

let it display all day to the mirroring blue spaces

of the sky the anxiety of its yellow face.

Obscure things tend towards clarity,

bodies dissolve themselves in a weightless flow

of colors: these then into music. To vanish

is thus the supreme fate of all fates.

Bring me the plant that points to where

pale transparencies rise to the heights

and life itself evaporates like air;

bring me the sunflower crazed with light.

translated from the Italian by Margaret Brose

In golf?

2011-10-12T08:12:00.001-04:00

I flipped on the Golf Channel, which was airing the LPGA's HanaBank Championship this past weekend. It was background and it was on less than two minutes when I heard the British male commentator say that it would have been a "wussy" move if Yani Tseng hadn't pulled out her driver for her tee shot because her playing partner had just done so.
Really, wussy--in golf?
I mean wussy anywhere is problematic. But in golf it seems all the more weird to use such sexually suggestive slang. And in the context of Yani Tseng? The woman is dominating the LPGA. Never heard of the current number one player who has 9 victories this season and has held the number 1 spot for 34 weeks? Well she's not American and she's not white--which means she isn't getting a lot of attention in the American media.
But at least she's not a wussy after all. She hit an amazing tee shot at that hole--and she won the whole thing.

Poetry Friday

2011-10-07T07:53:00.000-04:00

Because I've been teaching transitions in my composition classes...

A Word About Transitions

by Billy Collins

Moreover is not a good way to start a poem
though many begin somewhere in the middle.

Secondly does not belong
at the opening of your second stanza.
Furthermore is to be avoided
no matter how long the poem.

Aforementioned is rarely found
in poems at all, and for good reason.

Most steer clear of notwithstanding,
and the same goes for

nevertheless, however,
as a consequence, in any event,
subsequently,
and as we have seen in the previous chapters.

The appearance of finally
in your final stanza will be of no help.

All of which suggests (another no-no)
that poems don't need to tell us where we are

or what is soon to come.
For example, the white bowl of lemons

on a table by a window
can go anywhere all by itself

and, in conclusion, so can
seven elephants standing in the rain.

Um, yeah, no kidding

2011-10-03T16:48:00.000-04:00

Did anyone really believe that Reebok's special Easytone sneakers were going to firm legs, thighs, and butts? Well if you did--congratulations, you may be getting some money.
Reebok has settled a class action lawsuit for $25 million. A Federal Trade Commission investigation found that claims of what the sneakers could do were slightly exaggerated--as in they couldn't be proven.
I knew though sneakers were trouble from the start. I mean, did anyone else note the irony? In order to get a hot ass, you have to wear ugly shoes. That seems wrong. Also, the commercials were particularly egregious in terms of the sexualization of the female body.
But it's kind of too late now. Those rocker shoes are all over the place. Sketchers has their own version. Not sure if Sketchers will be on the hook as well. It's possible they aren't making the same kind of claims about what the shoes can do. They have chosen not to comment on the settlement.
Reebok is standing behind its shoes though. The settlement does not require them to take back their previous claims; they just can't keep making them--the claims. I think they will keep making the shoes.
No study has found that the shoes make any difference. My surprise was that there was no evidence the shoes do damage. Anecdotal evidence that I have not-so-painstakingly gathered suggests that people who wear the shoes end up with hips and knee and foot pain.

Poetry Friday

2011-09-30T09:53:00.000-04:00

I am teaching an article this morning on the reluctance to talk about racism and the cultural transmission of racism through the lack of exposure to racial minorities. It reminded me of a poem I read by Countee Cullen when I was in high school. But I couldn't find that one. So I am posting this one instead.

To Certain Critics

By Countee Cullen

Then call me traitor if you must,

Shout treason and default!

Say I betray a sacred trust

Aching beyond this vault.

I’ll bear your censure as your praise,

For never shall the clan

Confine my singing to its ways

Beyond the ways of man.

No racial option narrows grief,

Pain is no patriot,

And sorrow plaits her dismal leaf

For all as lief as not.

With blind sheep groping every hill,

Searching an oriflamme,

How shall the shepherd heart then thrill

To only the darker lamb?

Idiocy!

2011-09-29T09:44:00.000-04:00

That was in the subject line of the email I received from JB (minus the exclamation point--I added that myself). There was a link to an article about how the IAAF is changing the rules on what races women can earn world records in.

This is the article I saw initially. Here is what went down: the IAAF decided that women could not set world records in mixed gender races because of issues over being paced by men. They can only set "world bests." (P.S. The rule is retroactive!) This seems to be an issue primarily in road races, especially marathons. And various marathon organizations have come out in opposition to the IAAF's rule, which is scheduled to go into effect in January. But even their collective stance is less than ideal. They suggest having two world records--one for mixed gender races and the other for single sex races. They do argue though that the IAAF's new rule does not, among other things, "respect the history of [the] sport."
Right? Road running is a sport that can be done in a mixed gender group. And the IAAF is now implying that the practice of mixed gender racing and pacing is somehow akin to cheating. But don't men pace off of others? So it's not the pacing; it's the pacing off someone who does not have the same genitalia that is the problem, it appears. Will this mentality spread to other sport governing bodies? Will Danica Patrick be barred from drafting off of her male competitors?
And what about the men who pace off of women in races? Will their wins in their respective categories (age or weight) be disregarded because they employed opposite gender pacing?
It began in idiocy and ends in ridiculousness!

My poor neglected blog...

2011-09-25T14:42:00.003-04:00

I promise I will post more this week.
On the docket:

more on the Atlantic article, including commentary on the concept of amateurism, and the socialism no one wants to talk about
the ridiculousness of the new rules governing records (past and future) set by female runners

Speaking of shame

2011-09-15T19:00:00.000-04:00

So I've been thinking and discoursing a lot about this Atlantic article about the "shame" of college sports. And I have a lot more to say--it's forthcoming (I think).

Since it seems like the corporatization of college sports isn't going anywhere and given the desire of so many corporations to put their names on everything--including just regular, non-post-season, non-bowl games--my father and I decided that one contest in particular needed such a sponsorship.

This weekend's game between Ohio State and Miami: The Scandal Bowl. Sponsored by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

We're open to other sponsors too. Enron? Goldman Sachs? Bank of America?

Another season of scandals--and now what?

2011-09-14T10:17:00.003-04:00

Intercollegiate sports are played all year round--except for a couple of those "summer" months where there are no official contests--but it's always around September, or probably more accurately, mid-August, that the talk of misdeeds among college athletics comes to the fore. Why? Because it's football season.
So we get to hear about the suspensions issued at the end of last season or in the off-season (a la the Ohio State) and then whatever findings were made during off-season investigations into various programs (a la Miami). That is what stays the same--the perpetual/annual misdoings.
Here's what seems to be different. And note that I am not a longtime close observer of college football--I'm more of a foul weather observe; like a tornado chaser--but less thrilling, more disgust-inducing. So I might not be the best person the make these observations. But here's what I think I have seen.
There is more widespread attention to the athletic programs as a whole and to the institutional structures as well when scandals occur. This is in contrast to the attention paid and the wrist-slappings given to individual offenders, i.e. the student-athletes. On one hand it is good that there is recognition that these individuals do not act in a vacuum. But what seems to be happening over on the other hand though is that these scandals--assessed in the aggregate--are being used as fairly convincing fodder that student-athletes should be paid. Because, the argument goes, corporations are paying universities billions of dollars every year to be associated with a school's athletic department and an athletic department is only marketable because it has successful programs, and successful programs are created by successful coaches who recruit successful athletes. Took a long time to get down to the athletes, no? Which is part of the problem. Also, the bigger problem is that educational institutions will lose their tax-exempt status if they start paying athletes. Despite the people who claim it is Title IX and us feminists who will prevent the play-for-pay athlete, I don't why it. Losing tax-exempt status because you want to pay a student to play a game for you so you can get Nike to give you lots of money has pretty large implications--financial, moral, and philosophical.
Some of these issues are discussed in the latest cover story (also a change from the past--very credible, non-sport centered major publications are running feature pieces about these issues) in The Atlantic. I've only gotten through a third of it at this point, but it's pretty interesting and the online version includes videos with the writer about what he learned while investigating and writing the story.

Poetry Friday

2011-09-09T12:17:00.000-04:00

At Summer's End, Persephone

parted the overgrown hedge.
There stood the tree she remembered—
still on its last limbs and still "self-pruning,"
as the tree-surgeon called it—
still the largest sweet gum in the underworld.

From the dogwood, berries dripped,
bright as blood. A frog called out
for company. The owl that hunted it
rowed the deepening dark with muffled wing.
Clinging to the front door of the house,

a moth tried to disguise itself as wood.
How had the gecko guarding the porch light
missed a last mouthful of dust?
Under its pale otherworldly skin,
throbbed a blue semiprecious stone.

In ancient gowns the months
Persephone had lost to the upper world
leaned down from heaven's porches.
There on her own porch, in the rocking chair
where no one ever rocked,

sat the dead weight of September,
the chair ever so faintly ashudder.

Debora Greger

(More on) Why I don't watch ESPN

2011-09-07T08:58:00.003-04:00

I was getting ready for my day Tuesday morning and multitasking. I wanted to find out the score of the Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova match because I had fallen asleep Monday night in the second set.

So I turned on ESPN. And while I was waiting I heard Stuart Scott issue an opinion on the Peyton Manning injury story and whether Manning would play Sunday. But he hedged his bets when he remarked "but what do I know? I'm wearing makeup."
Because apparently makeup has some kind of mystical effect in which the wearer lacks sports knowledge. Now, who else wears makeup? Hmmm...
Seriously. What a ridiculous statement.

[In case you were wondering, Wozniacki won. I had to go look on the internet, because I shut off the television in disgust--and rushed to an appointment. ]

Sad news

2011-08-24T06:16:00.002-04:00

I know everyone is posting about this, but I would be remiss not to at least post a link.
The concept that her diagnosis is not going to affect her, though, as some quoted in certain articles seems to suggest, is a little optimistic. Even if she can temper the disease medically, I am sure it will significantly affect her ability to recruit. Because it is uncertain how long she will be able to continue, I would imagine recruits and their families would be hesitant to commit. Of course, when and if she leaves, there will be a long line of excellent prospects waiting for that position.

What have I been saying?

2011-08-18T18:12:00.004-04:00

Women's intercollegiate basketball is not that far away, my friends. And given my current status as a resident of western Massachusetts, I hear about the progress of the UMass-Amherst Minutewomen all the time. And I cringe every time. Because what exactly is a Minutewoman??
Looks like I am not alone in my questioning of the name, its history, and its effects.

Poetry Friday

2011-08-12T12:21:00.000-04:00

August Peonies

Lallygagging on bent stems, late
this year because of the snow
in May, their rag-tag magenta
cluster-heads freshen the still heat
like a rush of wind in the leaves
or the cool brush of deep sea
crinolines as the ripple kiss
of a breeze opens their bunched petals
just enough to let them breathe
before they ease back
into light repose, poised
at the edge of time-lapse
attention, like us, who lose
momentum in the heavy air
rich with the scent of ripening
wheat that drifts in from the fields
over the slow-moving river
as the afternoon nods and lengthens
into shade, into thoughtfulness,
and the sky deploys an argosy
of softly tinted clouds, fresh
blooms without stems
that sail where we cannot
go, all the way to the edge
of everything where daylight looks
back, once, then disappears.

George Amabile

Brrr...it's cold in here...

2011-08-08T09:57:00.000-04:00

...there must be some sexism in the atmosphere.

I think I perhaps knew something about scantily clad young women (note that they are always referred to as girls) on ice skates who come out during NHL games for various reasons. But I don't watch much professional hockey anymore opting to engage in slightly less cognitive dissonance by watching intercollegiate hockey. So I guess I chose not to think about how hockey--like so many other sports these days--is bringing out the babes to arouse the crowd--and shovel some ice chips.
This article with accompanying video--which is mandatory viewing because the article so doesn't tell the whole story--is about the tryouts the Penguins held recently for the 2011-12 Ice Crew.
Tell me--what do you envision when someone says ice crew in the context of professional hockey. I think mostly men--college age dudes and/or older guys with bellies--shuffling out on the ice in their black sneakers, khakis, and nylon team jackets during the period breaks to take the nets off their posts as the zamboni goes round and round. Then they shovel the ice remnants into the tunnel. And then if there's an ice emergency, they shuffle a little faster out on the ice with buckets of water and various small hand tools to fix large chips or other ice deformities.
I do not think of 20-something women in tight spandex-y pants or short, short skirts and midriff tops, tummies tanned, large smiles on their faces, skating round and round--and then shoveling some ice.
But this is what the Ice Crew for the Penguins is. And it's a highly prized job. Over 50 women tried out this year. Only seven make the crew.
And it's a really hard job. Just listen to one of the women who made the crew who feels "truly blessed" to be on the other side of tryouts which were:
"so nerve-wracking. You're thinking about technique and the words you say, how you portray yourself, and posture. It's a lot to think about."
Lest one thinks this is all about looks--it's not. These women have to go out into the "community." They are hired out for events. Not sure what kind of events. So the words they say are important. Also, they are tested on their ice sweeping skills during tryouts. So maintaining good posture while moving that broom around the cones could indeed be nerve-wracking.
There's just so much going on here.

Let me point out that if you're trying to find out the exact purpose of the ice crew--most often referred to as "ice girls"--you will hard pressed to do so. It seems that most NHL teams have them these days. But I can't seem to find a list of duties or required skills. Some history about the the position and how it came to be? Good luck. You have to wade through pages of search results that are all about showing you their cleavage, their legs, their asses, their tan bellies, how "hot" they look holding shovels, and how they never stop smiling.
They have been equated with cheerleaders. These women must be far more skilled though. Because they have to arouse the crowd without the choreographed dance routines and without ever saying a word. How DO they do it?

Poetry Friday returns

2011-08-05T12:00:00.002-04:00

...with this poem from Matthew Zapruder's 2010 collection Come All Your Ghosts.

5

Come on all you ghosts.
Bring me your lucky numbers
that failed you, bring me

your boots made of the skin
of placid animals
who stood for a while in the snow.

Bring me your books
made of blue sky
stitched together with thread

made of the memory
of how warm
even the most terrible

among us has felt
the skin of his or her beloved
in the morning to be.

Come on all you ghosts,
try to make me forget
one summer lost

in a reservoir and another
I keep in my chest.
Come on all you ghosts,

try to make me repeat
the most terrible thing I said
to someone and I will

if the mind of that someone
could ever be eased.
Come on let’s vote

for no one in the election
of who is next to die.
Come on all you ghosts,

I know you can hear me,
I know you are here,
I have heard you cough

and sigh when I pretend
I do not believe
I have to say something important.

Probably no one will die
of anything I say.
Probably no one will live

even a second longer.
Is that true?
Come on all you ghosts,

you can tell me now,
I have seen one of you becoming
and I am no longer afraid,

just sad for everyone
but also happy this morning I woke
next to the warm skin

of my beloved. I do not know
what terrible marvels
tomorrow will bring

but ghosts if I must join you
you and I know
I have done my best to leave

behind this machine
anyone with a mind
who cares can enter.

Lingerie--not just for football players anymore

2011-08-03T08:12:00.003-04:00

While I certainly do not support the concept and execution of the Lingerie Football League, I see why it exists. It plays on a variety of sexual fetishes and, of course, makes these female athletes far less threatening because of the sexualization and because what they are doing doesn't look like "real" football. Again, not a fan. Wish it would go away. Will write letters or engage in other methods of discouragement to get that to happen.
What did genuinely surprise (ever so cynical) me is the news that there is now a Lingerie Basketball League. I found out about it on some mom blog. Said mom does not seem too upset, after her initial questioning, that the league exists because, once you get past the uniforms, you can see (there's a video) that they are skilled.
Yes. They are skilled. But there are a lot of women who are skilled basketball players. They play at all levels: high school, college, professionally, recreationally, in the pick-up games at my gym. They don't wear bras, and ass-cheek revealing butt huggers, garter belts, and some kind of ribbons that are laced up their legs. In other words, it's kind of hard to get past the uniforms. In fact, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to "get past" the uniforms. After all, the league's reason for existence is the uniform. Why else would it be called the Lingerie Basketball League? And though the writer tries to argue that the uniforms are similar to--if not less revealing--than those worn by beach volleyball players, I'm not buying it. Yes, those uniforms are skimpy--arguably unnecessarily so--but they fit the sport, which is played on a beach.
Other problems with the league:
1) Sure, players have to be good; but they also have to be pretty. They have to fit a type. They are not large forwards planted under the basket ready for the pass or the rebound. As one player said: "we play hard and we look doing it." A prescribed and mandatory looking good.
2) The players are constantly referred to as girls. (Watch the video.)
3) The coverage highlights the pushing and shoving. A "reporter" asks one of the players if the other girls are just too tough for her because she is tiny and so demure. She's also Asian playing with a majority of black woman.
The league seems to be in its infancy. And indeed it's very infantilizing. I hope it goes away before it reaches the Terrible Twos.

In case you didn't believe me...

2011-08-02T15:52:00.002-04:00

...Dr. Mary Jo Kane has a piece in The Nation about the yes-we're-still-talking-about-this debate over whether sex sells women's sports. The answer, as I've noted before, using Kane's research, is no.
Kane opens with a quote from an article by Wendy Parker. While the quote--about a female soccer player who seems non-plussed by her status as Playboy's third sexiest soccer player--is apt, do we really need to support Wendy Parker in her ongoing recovery from feminism and paradoxical support of women's sports?

WPS making a concerted effort

2011-07-28T14:28:00.002-04:00

There have been many, many article about the potential effects of the Women's World Cup on the WPS. I haven't even bothered to blog about them or to even read all of them. They basically boil down to: 1) the WPS will benefit from the very exciting WWC, 2) cautious optimism about the benefits, 3) Americans still don't like soccer and they certainly aren't interested in watching women play it. There may be other categories or subcategories that I am unaware of.
But it seems like attendance at games post-WWC is up. Way up in some venues. Yay!
And it also appears that the WPS is not just pleasantly riding this wave of popularity. They are working that wave.
I just hung up with someone from the Boston Breakers asking me if I am coming to Harvard stadium for the last two home games. I explained that I cannot because I am busy those days. And I was a little curious as to how they got my cell phone number...But good for them for making personal phone calls. I am sure some poor intern gets that job but talk about good experience being in the publicity trenches. And in the end I didn't really care that they had my number (so long as they don't sell it to other less desirable entities!). After all it's better than getting those pre-recorded, pre-election calls from Susan Sarandon, Hilary Clinton, Obama "himself," or some other celeb-like entity.

Inactivity: It's not just for British women anymore

2011-07-24T15:24:00.004-04:00

Is it possible? Are American women's life spans going to dip below those of our mothers' because we don't work out?

Apparently it is possible, according to a study out of the University of Washington.

Not good news for American women. This study follows a report out of Britain a few years ago which showed a dearth of sporting activity among girls and women.

So what's it all about? According to this article, time and money. Because even while we promote Title IX and advocate for equal opportunities for girls, when adulthood hits, exercise is one of the first things to go. Assuming it was ever there at all. But this article says that even adult women who were once quite active, sacrifice exercise when things (i.e. motherhood plus work plus domestic duties plus attempt at salvaging a social life) get busy.
And then when mid-life hits, the effects of a less active life really come into play.
While I sympathize with the issue of making time for exercise when a woman becomes a mother and has even more to juggle, I wasn't too pleased at the way this article presented the issue.
Though the issue of class and access to exercise was mentioned, the woman who was interviewed as being the epitome of this problem (active early in adulthood but then had two kids and a husband) seemed pretty privileged. That she had her second child at age 41 and was married and working suggests a lot of things. She was financially secure. She had good health care. She had control over her reproduction. She had access to exercise, but she chose not to prioritize it. While I agree that prioritizing exercise can be difficult, it is a privilege to have the ability to even consider it as an option.
The article talks about how this lack of physical activity marks a reversal of progress in public health. But it doesn't talk about which groups of women are most affected by this reversal. It is not the white, middle-class mother who is suffering the most. White, middle-class women with two or more children are all over my white, middle-class gym.
Obesity is an issue of class. Poverty means less access: to nutritious food, to exercise (through gyms or recreational sports), to time (because of lack of affordable child care and working more hours for less pay), to healthcare.
I do not think it is the soccer moms, as the article implies, that are at the greatest risk here.

I'm not the only one...

2011-07-16T13:55:00.003-04:00

...who has some reservations about how this WWC is going to dramatically change the women's sports landscape in the US.
WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak talks to some of my favorite people, Mike Messner and Nancy Hogshead-Makar, about how and why the surge in fan interest in women's soccer post '99 and for women's professional sports generall kind of petered out.
The difference, for soccer, is that the WUSA started 2 years after that world cup ended. Too much lag time. The WPS is already in place this time. Hopefully, this will make a difference.
But I too have been skeptical about all the rah-rahing. Some of us have been following women's soccer all along, in the so-called down time--you know when the US won the Olympic gold medal. I worry about fair weather fans. But I worry about no fans at all, too. Boston Breakers 2009

Wow, ESPNW has some weight issues

2011-07-12T12:59:00.003-04:00

I've been lukewarm on ESPNW since its inception for many reasons.
Now I have one more: this article about how fat baseball players are. Well, not exactly an article. It is listed as an opinion piece. Still...
So in light of MLB's All-Star Game and based on some observations, writer Amanda Rykoff is pointing out how large some baseball players are--as in overweight. An additional motivation, as stated in the opening paragraph is "to laugh and poke fun at some absurdities in the sports world."
Let me just own up to the fact that I was observing a young guy in the gym the other day who has clearly bulked up in the last year. He was wearing a UMass Baseball t-shirt. And it made me think "is he too big to play baseball effectively?" Of course he could simply be a fan and not a player. And he isn't fat--just bulky. Still, I thought about how/why larger players can and are prized in baseball. I have theories about the focus on home runs and some masculinity issues, that I won't explore here. But in the end, I just thought that it must be more difficult--if you don't hit the home run--to get around the bases when you are carrying more weight--whether that weight is muscle or fat.
But of course different sports--and different positions within any one sport--require different physiques. As Rykoff herself notes, larger pitchers have been found to be more effective than smaller ones. Unfortunately she kind of presents it in a Barbie-I don't-really-know-what-this-science-thing means way:
"We won't get into the physics of it, and frankly we're not even sure why it's true."
It's problematic that she is implicating all of ESPNW and saying that these women basically don't know what they're talking about here.
Which, in the end, makes the piece look even cattier. While there may be overweight players, their performance cannot be so hampered by their weight that they are grossly ineffective. This is professional sports, people. They aren't paying these men millions to play poorly. If this is a commentary on baseball--that it's a game where overweight people can be successful--then say that.
But you can't say that, right? Because there are plenty of sports where being bigger is an asset--a necessity even. And there are sports where slimming down helps performance even when the sport requires a larger physique.* And there are always trade-offs.
Even as Rykoff keeps a light tone and tries to present this opinion piece as just a little jab at fat baseball players, she is potentially implying so many other things. Fat is gross. We don't want to see it. No athlete should have fat. Having fat makes you less of an athlete and fat athletes reflect poorly on and bring down their sport.
Here's the thing, though. I kind of get it. Even knowing that successful athletes are required to come in all different shapes and sizes, I think it still stinks that male athletes get away with being overweight in a way that female athletes do not. And by get away with, I mean they are criticized far less. That criticism about their weight, when it comes, is made in relation to performance and not aesthetics.
I'm not a proponent of equal opportunity bad behavior, but Rykoff is doing what countless writers and commentators have done to female athletes. It's not right. But if fat is "gross" on a female athlete, and it isn't viewed similarly--or as similarly--on male athletes, well...double standard.
But, unfortunately, this is not the point Rykoff makes. She doesn't even come close to it. It's just a jab. It doesn't make the larger point about how overweight female athletes are treated differently--are less prized--ignored even.
And that is one of my big problems with ESPNW. They aren't doing the hard work. They're taking pot shots and leaving the bigger issues unaddressed. And I think it makes them look bad.

* I saw, last week, an MTV True Life about former high school football player Holly Mangold who is now trying to become an Olympic weight lifter. She slimmed down, which helped her performance, but is still a large woman. I plan on writing more about her and the show later.

Brief WWC comments

2011-07-11T13:36:00.004-04:00

Finally got to watch the Brazil v. US match this morning. I knew the general outcome because the second I got back across the border (from Canada) and had my data plan back, I checked Facebook. I also got the hint that it was a dramatic game, though I refused to check for a score or details.
Even knowing the outcome, it was a pretty enthralling game. So here are my thoughts (in case you were wondering):
1. When you watch a recorded soccer match and fast forward through some of it in the interest of time and getting on with your work day, the ball looks like a ping-pong ball, which just makes you appreciate the distance it travels and the abilities of the players to control it.
2. Abby Wambach: still super cute and now with some goals under her cleats. (Because those uniforms don't have belts--thankfully. Though I'm not sure it would make them any worse.)
3. And speaking of Wambach...the Girlfriend noted this morning "that those short-haired girls are making things really interesting." It's true. Wambach finally scores this tournament and of course gets the tying goal in the last seconds of over-overtime. And it is served in so beautifully (seriously--watch the replay over and over again and be awed) by Megan Rapinoe who is sporting a bleached blond short style. And then there is Amy LePeilbet who made things interesting in that not-so-good way in the game against Sweden. But she redeemed herself against Brazil.
So we asked ourselves: in the context of international women's soccer, is a US player who sports a short haircut (in the present day) tacitly revealing her homosexuality? And before I get charged with being a crazy stereotyping self-hating dyke let me acknowledge that, of course, I don't believe that 1) all lesbians have short hair or 2) that all women with short hair are lesbians or have lesbian tendencies and that 3) there are a range of femininities across the range of sexualities.
OK, but I am talking very specifically about US women's soccer in the early 21st century. None of those three women are explicitly out though there is a lot of chatter amongst those in the know and apparently on Twitter by some of the players themselves. Natasha Kai (with her longer hair) is the only out player (who was not chosen for this national team) and coach Pia Sundhage has also previously come out in an interview. So is the short hair the sign? In a still-homophobic and apologetic athletic culture, does the short hair tell us what we may or may not already know? Their short styles are cute and I would argue cooler and, in those ways, reflect in no way on their sexuality. But if you have ever seen any soccer trophies with the cheap gold figures on the top...those figures have ponytails. The former fan group for women's professional soccer in the US was called the Ponytail Posse. The logos for women's soccer contain ponytailed silhouettes. In other words, short hair is not the women's soccer norm. Sure, they could be non-normative straight women. But even (especially?) straight female athletes feel the pressure to conform to feminine ideals through appearance or behavior (i.e. talking about male partners and boyfriends).
I obviously don't have an answer, just these ramblings musings.
4. Drawing on the apologetic and the construction of hegemonic gender in sports...there are a lot of men on the field at the WWC. I find this constant reference to being "a man down" and playing with "only ten men" particularly interesting/problematic in a tournament where some people have actually been accused of being men.
5. There actually are no men on the field this WWC because all the refs are women too this time. I knew, I knew, I knew this was going to turn bad. I knew that any bad calls, and especially a series of bad calls, would create a backlash. I saw it happen when one of the Women's Hockey World Championships used only female refs and bad calls engendered the quality over equality cries. Just like now. I haven't watch the MWC so I can't compare the quality of referring as it pertains to gender. But I have seen plenty of male umpires and linespeople in tennis mess up some pretty big calls--in both the men's and women's game.
Yes, there were so many bad calls in the US/Brazil game and elsewhere. But I think it's dangerous to say that it's because women just can't handle the pressure of these international games. Is it any different from a minor league ump who gets moved up to the big leagues? If this is a lack of training, then so be it. Hold FIFA responsible for trying to compensate for past discrimination with a too-easy, too-soon remedy.

And finally, a PS. Why are there so many commercials for men's Rogaine airing during the coverage? Does this mean that, defying all previous research and amateur chatter about men's lack of interest in women's sports, that men are watching the WWC this time around? Or are they appealing to straight women to buy the balding men in their lives the product?

WWC Schtuff

2011-07-05T22:12:00.004-04:00

I've been accumulating thoughts about the WWC as I watch--just haven't gotten a chance to get it down.

So I saw--last week--Equatorial Guinea's first game of the tournament. Kudos to the commentators on ESPN for actually mentioning the allegations that several players for the team are men. I have heard other media outlets (NPR's Only a Game, for example) also talk about it. So that's good. Alas one of the ESPN guys, after noting in the pre-game commentary that two of the three accused players were not playing this tournament, urged us all to put that all aside to think about the soccer.
There were other interesting moments in that pre-game; and they seem to involve Brandi Chastain. First, on the shallower and more catty side of things, what's up with the hair? Someone needs to start a blog that deconstructs all of the Chastain's hair-dos this tournament. During this pre-game: several French braids ending in a long ponytail. She looked like a high school softball player. Who is doing this to her? Why does ESPN have such a difficult time with clothing and coiffing female commentators?

But her hair had nothing to do with her seemingly racist comment about how Equatorial Guinea, like of all Africa, is undisciplined. Not all African soccer players--just all of Africa--the whole continent. Probably not what she meant--but that's what she said. The Equatorial Guinea controversy is all tinged with racism, sexism, and colonialism. Doesn't look like the team will make it out of group play, though so I guess things will quiet down for a few years.
Follow up on Nigeria: the overt homophobia is getting a decent amount of press coverage, mostly centering on the coach who has continued to make comments about her amazing ability to purge lesbians from her team.
And FIFA just couldn't ignore it anymore, I imagine. They issued a pretty benign statement about Uche's comments:
"FIFA is against all forms of discrimination," Tatjana Haenni, FIFA's head of women's competitions, told German television channel ARD."We are here at a FIFA event and will point out that it would be best to express oneself neutrally."
Apparently Uche is going to get a talking-to and be reminded of FIFA's official anti-discrimination stance. I hope--though I have my doubts--that this little chat will be more effective than Penn State's little chats with former women's basketball coach Rene Portland, who also had a public no-lesbians policy.

Seems that some of the prominent stars of this World Cup are getting a lot of flack. The USA's Abby Wambach is in a scoring drought--which we hear about ad nauseum. But her place on the team is secure. Even with all the (successful) jockeying of line-ups by coach Pia Sundhage, Wambach has retained her prominent place up front. Germany's Birgit Prinz has not been so lucky. Her slump has resulted in much discussion in the German media and lead to her being taken out of the game against Nigeria in the second half. A theory has been posited by a German scholar that Prinz's performance has been the center of attention because the star's personal life has been kept very personal. As in--no one knows a lot about the team's star. Interestingly it sounds a lot like Wambach. We know about her large family and growing up in Rochester, NY. But not much more. Surprising that rumors about lesbianism float around these so-called private players? Not so much. Surprising that they remain private amidst these rumors? Nope. They are likely going to get criticism for their play regardless. I don't imagine adding aspects of their off-field life to those critiques is an especially appealing prospect.

And finally, an Iranian reporter and photojournalist has been taken into government custody. Maryam Majd was headed to cover the WWC but never made it. The Intelligence Ministry apparently searched her home and took some of her possessions and is currently holding her at an unknown location. Majd is one of the only Iranians to cover women's sports and is also a women's sports advocate. I have not yet heard of a campaign to free Majd or what actions the public might be able to take to help. If I do, I will post them.

Not live blogging the WWC: US v. North Korea

2011-06-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

OK. So I know the outcome of the US's game against North Kore in that I know who wins. I do not know the score. But I had to get work done while the game was airing live and while I would ESPN3ed it while at the coffee shop, ESPN3 was having technical difficulties. So here I sit watching the recorded version. But I made the mistake of going on Facebook during the game. And since I am friends with Dr. Pants, well...I got the gist of it.
No matter. There is plenty to say.
The Girlfriend keeps trying to fast forward through the commentary. But then realized that all the good blog fodder comes in the commentary. So she lets me rewind--and offers her own commentary as well.

So first things first. Holy crap Abby Wambach! Sorry. But I mean...wow...that haircut. She is looking hot. And I had thought I was over my Abby Wambach deeps-sighs-of-longing crush. But it's back. Interesting this more butch look to Wambach. Kind of resembles Amy LePeilbet's hair. She hasn't seemed to have an issue with the semi-butch look post college. Guess we're going to have to get more of those young Germans to pose in Playboy to counter this.

And speaking of semi-butch. Or de-butched. What have they done to Brianna Scurry? Pink plunging neckline dress and straightened hair. She is doing some commentary for ESPN, but she was clearly brought on today to talk about the Hope Solo affair. There was a little human interest piece about Solo and of course the 2007 controversy when she spoke out after being pulled from the game against Brazil saying that she would have made those saves. She reiterated that it was directed at the poor decision of the coach and not Scurry. But it's clear that Scurry has not gotten over it, even though she is a general manager of Solo's WPS team, which kind of shows that it is about talent and not always about the nicey-nice stuff. But Scurry continues to say--as do others--that the best teams are the ones on which everyone is friends. Tony DiCiccio, who noted that he has made a lot of mistakes coaching women, said he agreed with the friend theory. One of the other commentators asked if this was just an expectation on women's teams. Um, yes it is.
Game time!
Hope Solo looks like an eggplant. But I guess her uniform should be just as bad as the rest of the team's outfits. I mean, whoever wrote that these home outfits have that naughty nurse look to them...quite right. Except not that naughty. Actually not naughty at all. Quite staid in fact.

So all the US players wear heart rate monitors Julie Foudy announced. Apparently their conditioning coach is monitoring them at all times. Interesting. There has to be something there about cyborgs and machines and surveillance. Working too hard? Not hard enough?

Play thus far in the first half has not been so good for the US. North Korea is getting a lot more shots on goal and getting away with a lot of fouls. The Girlfriend's theory is that people feel bad for the North Koreans because of their totalitarian government, famine-stricken homeland, and the fact that if they lose, they get sent to the rock quarries. Seriously.

Halftime. No score. Though I suppose zero to zero is a score. Let's put it this way: no one has scored.
Halftime comments.
Um, Brandi Chastain, are you reliving your 80s childhood? What's up with the hair? The side French braid ponytail--not a good look.

Second half. More aggressive play from the US.

And finally a goal by Lauren Cheney. Good things happen when you don't send the ball right to the keeper--5 times. But yay!

And now Buehler. Julie Foudy is very excited by the defensive back's goal. It was a good one.
Whoa--Megan Rapinoe's hair is very blond. No sneak attack by this striker--whose starting position was taken by Lauren Cheney.
Oh, too bad about her goal being recalled.
And it's over. The Girlfriend says she has to root for the US but is worried about the fate of the North Korean players--most of whom are teenagers.
Interesting that there has not been much talk about the treatment of North Korean athletes. I am surprised actually given past international outrage about South Africa and, more recently, China's involvement in Darfur. I don't know about FIFA. No word on homophobia and nothing on North Korea's treatment of its own citizens and athletes.

The second tale: Gender identity in intercollegiate athletics

2011-06-28T15:10:00.003-04:00

I have been somewhat lax in my posting recently, and I know I promised three tales of gender identity and discrimination a while back. My first tale was related to the Women's World Cup and the accusations against Equatorial Guinea based on--apparently--too much skill and "too much" masculinity in some of their players.
Second tale is one that was recounted to me. Thus, technically, it is hearsay. But I also do not think it is that unusual of a situation. Thus it could be completely hypothetical--which it isn't--and still a valuable thought exercise. So here it is. I changed details, just in case, though I don't believe many know about this specific situation.
An intercollegiate women's field hockey player has decided to use male pronouns and change his name to something more conducive to his identification as a non-woman. The player attends a DIII school in the west. He approaches his coach to ask that his new name be used on the roster, announced at games, and that people refer to him using male pronouns. He is not planning on undergoing any chemical transition.
The coach is a gay woman in the middle of her career. She is not explicitly out, though, about her sexuality. She has never told her players that she is gay, but she also does not try to pass as straight.
Coach reacts strongly and swiftly in her denial of the request. She says that it is inappropriate and she will by no means refer to the player as a he or by his new name. She says he is welcome to leave the team. The player has, for now, opted to stay on the team and conform to the coach's rules.
So here is my assessment of the situation. One, coach acted poorly and possibly illegally. Hers was a very reactionary response to a situation that deserved more discussion and thought than her simple dismissal. Two, I believe the coach's reaction has something to do with her own semi-closeted status that is, at least in part, a result of ongoing and pervasive homophobia in women's sports. Even as more and more female athletes come out while playing--or before they even get there--college sports, coaches remain in awkward positions because of pressure from heternormative athletic departments and the fear that being out will negatively affect recruiting and rapport with players. I feel badly for the position this coach is in. But I'm not sure how aware she is of her own bad situation. This seems to be something that many coaches just accept rather than working to remedy saying things like "my personal life doesn't have any effect on my professional life." First, this isn't really true. It's not true in any other professions. And two, it's arguably even less true in a profession like coaching where a coach is spending significant time with her players--on the road, in practice, games, even in so-called off-seasons.
So not only is she now (not) dealing with the issue of the lesbian stigma in sports, she is approached with a new issue: gender identity, which, as we know, is often conflated with sexual orientation. In other words, a player who wants to express a more masculine identity is surely going to set off (false) alarms about a lesbian presence on the team. And it may implicate her.
When Kye Allums came out, his coach did not have as much at stake because he is a straight man. Male coaches may be able to be more supportive of trans players because their own identity is not in question.
It's a problem that more female coaches are not explicitly out. And, in this case, it has a very palpable and harmful effect.
If I knew who this student was, I would advise him to contact the National Center for Lesbian Rights or Pat Griffin of the GLSEN Sports Project's "Changing the Game." But that places a burden on him to become a public figure and jeopardizes his position on the team. It's an unfortunate situation all around.

Homophobia and the WWC

2011-06-22T08:46:00.002-04:00

The NYT's Jere Longman has a very good article today about homophobia in women's soccer in Africa. He focuses on Nigeria, which was one of the teams that accused Equatorial Guinea of using male players.
When I first read the headline, "In African Women's Soccer, Homophobia Remains an Obstacle," I thought to myself "we shouldn't be hierarchizing homophobia in women's soccer." And we shouldn't conclude that everything is exponentially worse in Africa.
After all, homophobia remains a problem internationally. As I recall, I posted something last week about members of the U-22 German women's team posing for Playboy in an attempt to counter the butch image of female footballers. That is also homophobia, folks.
But things are pretty bad in Africa--maybe not all of Africa--but definitely in Nigeria. When I read about Nigerian coach Eucharia Uche's actions and statements, I thought "wow, she's worse than Rene Portland."
Uche, like Portland, has made public statements about how she does not want lesbians on her team. But while Portland's tactics to discourage lesbians on Penn State's basketball team were kind of subversive, Uche is very out about her ways. She brings in Pentecostal ministers to talk about the evils of homosexuality. The team reads the Bible and they pray together. Former team members have been cut, because they were lesbians, despite their soccer skills. In other words, there is no subtlety here. And her players have fallen in line because they either believe what Uche is preaching or because they want a spot on the team and a soccer career. Nigeria's captain and goalkeeper, Precious Dede, won't talk about the issue and says that anything her coach says is fact.
I don't believe in making statements like "it's worse in Africa because you can be killed for being gay." Because someone can be killed for being gay almost anywhere in the world. The difference in Africa is that, in some countries, it is legal to kill someone for engaging in homosexual behavior. Still, the fear of being caught or found out is an unfortunate shared experience whether homosexual behavior is outlawed or not.
And on the issue of male players masquerading as women? Well the Confederation of African Football has dismissed the complaint filed by Nigeria. But Uche has said: “Until it is proved, no one can say a player is a man or a woman.”

Also a good point made by Longman's sources: FIFA is not doing anything to help this situation. They have done good work in recent years trying to combat racism in the sport, but it seems they won't touch sexual orientation discrimination. It is indeed a fraught issue given the religious objections to homosexuality found in countries like Nigeria. But that is no excuse. As we know, religion can be used to condone or support almost any behavior.

Wimbledon is here!

2011-06-20T11:41:00.004-04:00

Wimbledon starts today.

Kim Clijsters has pulled out with a foot (not related to the ankle) injury. Bummer.

But both Williams sisters are present this year. Serena played a warm-up tournament but lost in the second round. She did earn the 7th seed at Wimbledon this year based on her prior accomplishments there.

Here is ESPN's Top 5 storylines to watch on this year.

Thank goodness the local strawberries have just arrived in my neck of the woods. And that someone (not me) had the wherewithal to buy some heavy cream!

Violence: It's not just for Americans anymore

2011-06-17T21:19:00.001-04:00

These pictures show the unbelievable amount of destruction and violence after Boston's Stanley Cup win over the Canucks.

My Oh, Christ moment of the day

2011-06-17T00:57:00.002-04:00

Or "Things that make me go Ugh."

Members of the German women's U-20 team are appearing in Playboy to promote the Women's World Cup.
Also they want to show people that female footballers are not all "butch."
Five of the women ages 19-22 posed for the publication which approached them directly--not through the national team or their respective professional teams.

This is the last line of the HuffPo piece:

Whether or not there's any backlash over these photos remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure: they definitely helped spread the word on the Women's World Cup.

1) I doubt there will be "backlash." And 2) not sure this helps spread the word that the World Cup is happening. I mean are the people picking up Playboy and seeing these women and saying, "Oh, women play soccer? And they have this big tournament? Maybe I'll watch."

So many gender controversies...

2011-06-14T14:17:00.002-04:00

...and so much dissertation left to write.

But when things happen in threes, well it's a sign I have to write about them.

So the three recent gender controversies are ones that I have heard about in the past two weeks. Some have been ongoing. Some are one-time events. The one I am writing about today is about the Women's World Cup and is somewhat ongoing. [The other two are more personal for me. I am going to present them with some of the details altered to protect the innocent. But they are both based on real-life events.]

So today is about the Equatorial Guinea women's national soccer team. People are accusing the captain--and others--of being a man. This is not a new accusation that has arisen in light of Equatorial Guinea's qualification to the WWC. Last year, the Nigerian soccer federation filed a complaint (after their national women's team lost to Equatorial Guinea) with the Confederation of African Football. They accused the winners of having two men on their team. And apparently these are not new accusations. Rumors have swirled around the team for years. The teams from Ghana and Cameroon also made some noise at the qualifying tournament last fall.

In the complaint, though, the Nigerians said that Equatorial Guinea's captain Genoveva Anonma and teammate Salimata Simpore seem to be men based on their leg strength and skill level.

Equatorial Guinea responded that the accusations are "totally unfounded" and "evidence of an inferiority complex." Remember this rebuttal. I'm going to adopt it in future posts.

Anonma, who plays professionally in Germany as well, has heard the accusations, refutes them, and said she has already been gender tested. And she's tired of dealing with this.
I can imagine. I'm tired of dealing of it and I'm a cisgendered, (mostly) gender conforming female.
When I finished the ESPN article linked above, I thought there was going to be something more. But there isn't actually anything pressing happening. All the article was about was the controversy the team has experienced. Nothing on whether the players named in the complaint were being tested or if any investigation is ongoing or forthcoming, or if there is a general buzz about this. Are we just dragging up a lingering issue for the purpose of stirring the pot or generating negative attention to this event in a perverse attempt at publicity? This is an underdog team. Usually the underdogs get great publicity. This could be a story about a tiny African country giving female athletes the support they need to make it to the biggest soccer stage in the world. But it's not...curious (or maybe not so curious).

Tennessee merges athletic departments

2011-06-13T16:14:00.002-04:00

The University of Tennessee announced last week that it will be merging its formerly separate men's and women's athletic departments.
Tennessee was one of the remaining DI institutions that had retained separate departments. Most schools combined departments years and years ago as a way to cut costs.
And most schools, in doing so, made the male athletic director the head of the merged department and the women's athletic director--who was almost always a woman--got demoted.
This was not always the case. When my own alma mater, University of New Hampshire, merged athletic departments in the 1990s, the female athletic director took over the whole department.
And now Joan Cronan, head of women's athletics at Tennessee, is taking over the merged department.

Well, temporarily.
She is the first female AD in the SEC. But Cronan doesn't want to the job permanently. She's just going to oversee the transition. Her title is interim director. She will later serve as an adviser within the department.
It's kind of disappointing that she doesn't even want to be considered for the position permanently and be the first permanent female AD in one of the most powerful athletic conferences. But she has been an AD for over 30 years and my guess is that she's on the verge of retirement. Still, clearly the university thought enough of her to give her the position on an interim basis; to assist in the search for a new AD; and to oversee and give advice on the transition.
Of course, I don't think I personally would be too psyched to see Cronan in the position permanently anyway.
One of her primary motivations in taking the position is maintaining the Lady Vols name and logo. While I appreciate her desire to ensure that women's athletics do not get lost in the transition, we all know how I feel about the "ladies."

Poetry Friday

2011-06-10T11:29:00.000-04:00

THREADS OF HER JOURNEY

Raymond Foss

A tapestry is being stitched
story by story,
step by step, thread by thread
Pictures of her life come alive
with threads of gold,
of silver, of royal purple,
of hope, of faith, of love
her story unfolding
in the fabric, the knitted
tapestry of her life

I guess it depends on your definition of thriving

2011-06-09T13:20:00.003-04:00

I like to see/read stories on women in the so-called non-traditional sports; as in non-traditional for women; not non-traditional as in Ultimate Frisbee (which is not an insult--I like non-traditional sports or sports done in non-traditional ways; check this out).
And so I do read the stories about women playing American football with interest. This one was not the best I have ever read. But it raised a few interesting points.
1. I think the title is a little misleading: Women Thriving in Traditionally All-Male American Football. Perhaps personally as some of those quoted in the story recount. But also noted in the article is that several of the dozen or so leagues have folded. Also of note but not mentioned in this particular piece is that a lot of these leagues are semi-professional and the level of funding is not so good. Players incur all kinds of costs from equipment to travel.
2. The ability of sport to change one's mental attitude was a good point raised during a discussion of one player who noted that sport was like her therapy. This is good news when we hear and see so many negative effects of sports--especially on young children and teens and girls. Even though I frequently experience sport (and other physical activity) as mentally transformative, I forget it can be the norm and not the exception. And I wonder how much this is related to the fact that football for women is not the norm. Maybe the same pressures do not exist as when women engage in traditional sports or when anyone engages in non-traditional sports.; or--again--sports played/experienced in non-traditional ways.
3. Yay for women owning sports teams! The owner of the Baltimore Nighthawks, Tanya Bryan, knew nothing about women's football when she bought the team four years ago. But she remained committed to the sport and providing opportunities for women in Baltimore; and the team is now breaking even. And she gets it:

Most of the time as women growing up we're told not to be aggressive, not to be assertive. It's nice to have an outlet where you can come somewhere and let all of that out. You can be loud, you can hit somebody. You can just let it all go. It's really healthy and the team camaraderie is fantastic."

So it does seem like some are thriving from participation (at different levels) of football. Hope the thriving grows!

What would OSU do?

2011-06-06T12:12:00.003-04:00

I don't have too much to say over the conundrum in Buckeye Land. I do think OSU President Gee's comment about firing Tressel was telling. He said he hoped Tressel didn't dismiss him. This was disappointing from Gee given that he was responsible for eliminating Vanderbilt's athletic department (during his tenure as chancellor) and incorporating it into the Division of Student Life. This move drew both criticism and cheers--from then-NCAA president Myles Brand in fact.
Guess things must be different at OSU. Still it's disappointing that Gee, who reined things in at Vanderbilt, seems more comfortable letting things get out of hand at OSU.
Anyway, two anecdotes related to this situation.
One, this past winter/spring in a new gym (for me) I frequently saw a 20-something guy lifting large amounts of weights and often sporting OSU football gear--t-shirts, shorts--all worn (i.e. not crisp and new). He clearly knew what he was doing in terms of form and routine. He also had an OSU tattoo on his arm. A big tattoo on his big upper arm.
Assumption 1: he went there. And then I went on to assume that he had played football there. The second assumption was not as strong, admittedly. It was a jumping to conclusions kind of moment.
Well you know what happens when one makes assumptions...
I spoke with him briefly one evening (turns out he works at the gym too) and I asked him if he went to OSU. I was going to mention Tressel and the controversy (which was brewing even then) to show that I knew my collegiate football, but then was worried about offending him.
No--he did not go to OSU. He went to a local state school, but he was hoping to go OSU for his masters. But he's always been a fan and goes to the games. Though he doesn't seem to have a strong connection. Not an Ohio native. Not an alum.
Just a super fan from Massachusetts. Maybe the kind of fan who would buy a championship ring. Or maybe those t-shirts he was wearing weren't from the OSU online store...
In other words--fandom fueled this situation too. And it's impossible, at this point, to discern the chicken from the egg. It's a big, foggy cloud of desire and greed and ego and privilege and lack of privilege.
Anecdote 2: While what happened at OSU was pretty egregious--mostly in terms of all those blind eyes--it is certainly not isolated. When I was an undergrad at a school known for its hockey prowess (both men's and women's but I am speaking about the men's team here) there was some selling of gear too. Hockey sticks seemed to be the hot commodity. Players would sell them to students knowing they could get as many as they wanted for free from the athletic department. It's not a ring; they weren't receiving tattoos in return. But it's not really so different. Whether anyone knew about this--besides those of us who lived in the dorms with the players--I can't be sure. The scale of violations at OSU is certainly larger, which is why they got caught. But it this is not a situation limited to OSU or even Big Ten schools or even football.

Poetry Friday

2011-06-03T14:38:00.001-04:00

It begins with a scene from the gym and talks about wine and poetry. Perfect poem!

Whack Report

KIM ADDONIZIO

A woman at the gym today said to her friend, Most people are whack.
Whack meaning crazy, displeasing, undesirable, stupid, of poor quality,
appalling, masturbatory, laid off, weird, or dead.
Most poets, as it turns out, are generally pretty whack
as in mentally ill. Anne Sexton, for example. Robert Lowell, also quite whack.
I myself am whack about sixty-seven percent of the time,
not counting nights and weekends, when it's more like eighty-two percent.
But let us focus on the beautiful wine glass, eighteen percent full
of sane, delightful, and intelligent fruit and acid. A whiff of rose petals.
Black cherry, pomegranate, cassis, devil's food cake. And limestone. Drink me
and taste my ooids, my hot buttered toast. For we must be ceaselessly whack
as in deranged said another whack poet who became a whack gun runner.
Guns are whack. Much of the world population experiences the whack factor
ninety-nine percent of the time, which can cause excessive thirst, diarrhea, death
and other side-effects. After a while, if you keep saying a word, it kind of loses
its meaning. Whack. Whack. Here come the weed whackers, beheading the grass

Impressive changes in minority hiring

2011-05-31T13:01:00.003-04:00

Even my cynical, questioning-of-all-things-teleological self was impressed by this report about the increase in the hiring of minority female coaches in women's basketball. Three years ago the group Black Coaches and Administrators began tracking the hiring of minority women* with the help of Richard Lapchick of University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. Lapchick and the Institute are known for the issuance of various report cards, which detail how well or poorly various sport associations (professional, intercollegiate, etc.) are doing in terms of creating and maintaining racially diverse and welcoming environments.
There are now 23 minority coaches in women's DI basketball; up from 8 three years ago when the hiring report cards started. Eighteen of those 23 coaches are women.
What the article did not say and I am somewhat interested in is how many of those hirings are of women who were already head coaches at the DI level, versus at different divisions and/or former assistant coaches at DI schools. Obviously there has been a net gain. But there are also head coaches going from one DI school to another a la Nikki Caldwell who left UCLA at the end of last season to take the job at LSU. I don't think this so-called lateral move should diminish the score/grade of an institution. It's just a stat I would be interested in knowing. I think it speaks to issues like social and professional networks and training.
On the not-so-good side, it looks like the number of minority coaches in men's basketball is decreasing. There was a 4 percent drop in the number of minority coaches in DI men's basketball.
The BCA would like to see some kind of rule like the NFL's Rooney Rule in place in intercollegiate athletics.

* The article keeps saying minority women, but is that because people are afraid to say black? Or is this report really tracking all racial minorities?

Poetry Friday

2011-05-27T05:13:00.001-04:00

IF I EVER MISTAKE YOU FOR A POEM

No body was ever composed
from words, not the hipsway

of verse, the iambic beat of a heart.
Yet inside you, a sestina

of arteries, the villanelle of villi,
sonnets between your shoulder blades.

If I were more obsessive I'd follow
the alliteration of age spots across

your arms. But I have exchanged
my microscope for a stethoscope

as I want to listen inside you, past
your repetition, your free verse of skin.

How easy it is to fall for your internal
organs. Your arrhythmia is charming

hidden in the ballad of body,
your gurgling stanzas, your lyric sigh.

Kelly Russell Agodon

WaPo no-no

2011-05-25T13:37:00.002-04:00

I'm an overworked blogger (how that happened on my first official week of summer break is curious) so I am largely re-telling what the Women's Sports Foundation said to some if its constituents this morning: the Washington Post assumes too much.
WaPo published a a feature on the status of youth soccer in the US and the debate over whether future national team and professional stars in the MLS should be playing high school soccer and be playing in academies.
It's an interesting debate. In case you care, I am for high school sports. The whole full-time, one-sport training thing is a little much as evidenced by the plethora of disappointed former teen tennis players and their parents or even by the successful ones like Andre Agassi.
But that's not the point. The point is that in an article about youth soccer, one would think we would read about all of youth soccer. But no. This is about boys' youth soccer--exclusively. And it does not acknowledge the huge youth soccer system for girls as well. The author has effectively erased the existence of professional women's soccer in this country as well as the young women who are playing youth soccer and will be the future of the league and the USNT.

I plan on writing a little note to WaPo about this "oversight." If you would like to do so here are the addresses:
Ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com
or the Sports Department: sports@washpost.com

Poetry Saturday (oops)

2011-05-21T15:56:00.001-04:00

HYMN TO EROS

O Eros, silently smiling one, hear me.
Let the shadow of thy wings
brush me.
Let thy presence
enfold me, as if darkness
were swandown.
Let me see that darkness
lamp in hand,
this country become
the other country
sacred to desire.

Drowsy god,
slow the wheels of my thought
so that I listen only
to the snowfall hush of
thy circling.
Close my beloved with me
in the smoke ring of thy power,
that we way be, each to the other,
figures of flame,
figures of smoke,
figures of flesh
newly seen in the dusk.

Denise Levertov

Allums leaves team

2011-05-20T11:12:00.003-04:00

Kye Allums, the openly transgender member of the George Washington women's basketball team, has announced that he will not be playing his senior year.
It is largely due to the two concussions he suffered this season, according to some sources. He has sustained eight during his career. He noted that he might not have been medically cleared to play anyway.

According to the NYT though the university's statement included this passage: "[Allums] has decided it is in his best interest to no longer participate in intercollegiate athletics." That leaves some room for speculation. I would have been speculating anyway given my propensity for suspicion. The statement also included a comment from Allums that he came to this conclusion all on his own.
His announcement last fall, of course, drew a lot of attention--both positive and negative. But due to his injuries he only ended up playing in eight games this season, which may have tempered some of the attention.

Of course the media coverage remains pretty bad. Both the above links (one to Fox News even!) referred to Allums as a male and used masculine pronouns. Good.
But this article from the Daily Mail (UK) was disturbing. It strung together Allums's story, Caster Semenya's, and an American trans man who got pregnant when his wife couldn't conceive.
What? First Semenya is not trans. She has an intersex condition. She does not want to be a man. OK, so both stories are about the not-so-certain nature of gender and sex in sports. But the story of a trans man who gets pregnant. What does that have to do with anything? Did the Daily Mail just do some kind of Google search and smash together the results into one rather incoherent story? Weird. And irresponsible journalism.

Whose line is it anyway?

2011-05-18T07:11:00.000-04:00

Pretty interesting interview with Kathryn Bertine over at the Huffington Post the other day. Bertine is a senior editor at espnW and is trying to qualify for the Olympic Games and has written a book about her attempt to qualify in 2008. ESPN sponsored her quest to do so, but she didn't make it for those games. So she's at it again looking to be a cyclist in London in 2012.
Here's what impressed me: her clear recognition of the skewed treatment of female athletes with sport itself and, of course, the media coverage.
She gives the example of the lack of prize money in women's cycling, but notes that so few cyclists will speak up because of fear of alienating sponsors. Because there's nothing worse, we know, than an athlete who speaks her/his mind. And it's especially bad if that athlete is a woman who is complaining. I mean, she could be a feminist. Horrors! So Bertine, being the only cyclist from Saint Kitts and Nevis (she got dual citizenship as part of her qualifying quest) has taken it upon herself to note this. And she knows her women's sports history too. She likens the shorter race courses to times (apparently not as long ago as some of us would like to think) when there was fear for women's health and safety if they exerted themselves too strenuously in their athletic pursuits.
And she's also aware of the problematic Google search. The search that brings so many to this blog in their quest to see Ana Ivanovic's armpits of Misty May's bikini wedgies.
Even if you just type the words female athlete into Google what comes up is "ATHLETES IN BIKINIS" or "FEMALE ATHLETES ON THE BEACH!" When that's the front-runner on our search engines, something's wrong.

And she notes the problematic aspects of female athletes who model. But she makes a distinction between those showing off their bodies and being proud of their muscles and those who are "slithering on a car."
But it is a conundrum because if female athletes can only pay the bills by modeling then something's wrong in the system, not the athletes.

Right, but how much do we let the system dictate our behaviors? How far do we take it before we opt out? Even knowing that as someone opts out, as some female athlete refuses to take off her shirt and place soccer balls strategically over various body parts, that another--ten others?--will happily take her place. Also, Bertine's distinction of female athletes who model and female athletes who slither is somewhat ambiguous. There is plenty of room between modelling and slithering and many of the those who model, with or without soccer balls (or volleyballs, or tennis balls, or basketballs--or no balls) do proffer the "but I love my body and want to show it off" explanation when they are critiqued for doing so.
What kind of irked me about Bertine's interview was how it ended. After all the acknowledgment about the inequities, she seemed to revert to the espnW party line:
We're trying to take the gender out of sports and just focus on great athletes, especially female athletes because they are so underplayed by the media.

We're trying to take the gender out of sport?
Might want to wait until things are a little more equitable before you try to implement that goal. It's not like taking the gender out of sports is going to be like taking the sugar out of Dr. Pepper. (And since I started with that somewhat off metaphor, we might also want to be aware of the dangers/side effects of the various additives that will replace gender.)
I mean I don't see the need for a men's and women's sports page either. But I think it's a pretty interesting statement from a senior editor at espnW. Note the W at the end.

Yes there is an obesity problem...

2011-05-17T09:21:00.000-04:00

...but tone-up sneakers for kids?? I'm sorry. For girls.

Yep. Sketchers is making and marketing its tone-up sneakers, purporting to tone your flabby ass and thighs, to children.

And what is up with the costumed hot dog and cupcake??

The New WTA Campaign

2011-05-16T11:50:00.005-04:00

The WTA has launched its new advertising campaign: Strong is Beautiful.
And the NYT ran an article about said campaign.

Let me note first that this is not a post with one coherent point or thesis. It is largely a collection of musings about the campaign.

First, strong is beautiful. I said that the other day when writing about Sam Stosur.

But is strong alone beautiful? Probably not if you look at the WTA campaign. Makeup and flowy dresses or bandeau bras which reveal a lot of skin are featured in the ad campaign (which consists of several themed videos and still photos). Many of the players were not recognizable to me. In part this is because I have not been following women's tennis as closely in the past year or so. So the newcomers are not as familiar to me. But I do know who Dominika Cibulkova is and I have seen her play--in Paris actually when I went to the French Open a couple of years ago. And I would never have guessed, from her picture in the campaign, who she was.

Last year a similar campaign came from the WTA--it was called "Women who Hit Hard"--and the current campaign still includes some of those photos and videos (like the one of Kim Clijsters). And at the emergence of that campaign Dr. Nicole Lavoi over at One Sport Voice got a lot of crap for calling the campaign soft core porn. And though I didn't agree with that exact characterization, it wasn't hard to see the problematics aspects of the campaign (which was also featured in the NYT). But I thought of Dr. Lavoi's analysis when I saw the picture of Gisela Dulko in which she kind of looks like a dominatrix. And given my cynical nature, I have a problem believing that the producers are completely unaware of that.

I do appreciate the use of many different players, including Marion Bartoli and Svetlana Kuznetsova who do not have the traditionally beautiful feminine bodies (like say Victoria Azarenka has).

And I was really shocked to see the photo of Francesca Schiavone which, upon first glance, made me think I was looking at a slighter Rafael Nadal. She appeared very masculine in the photo. So I was pleasantly surprised the WTA included it. Are they throwing us queer gals a bone with that one? Are they seeing that this isn't just all about the male gaze?

Maybe. Maybe not. WTA CEO Stacy Allaster said that women's tennis is forging ahead despite the poor economy. She announced that two new multimillion dollar sponsorships are forthcoming. Are they selling these beautiful but strong players to sponsors so they can sell them to us? Probably. Will it work. Hmm....

One final thing. One of the 30-second spots is called Sugar and Spice and follows the childhood rhyme about what little girls are made of. Caroline Wozniacki does the voiceover and adds that things like sweat, fury, and grit are also what little girls are made of. One of the ad execs on the campaign said the commercial subverts the sugar and spice construction.

I don't really see that. It's more additive than subversive. And it's a little bit mandatory: you have to be all these things: sweet and spicy and strong and gritty. Let's note that this version of womanhood is largely constructed on a white, Western, middle class woman (yes, I know Serena Williams and Li Na are both featured in the campaign--but their presence alone does not negate the dominant message which is geared toward a white, Western, middle (to upper) class audience).

Poetry Friday

2011-05-13T23:31:00.000-04:00

LOVE IS NOT ALL

Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolutions power,
I might be driven to sell you love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950)

Gay football players: "Like peanut butter & jelly and cheese"

2011-05-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

Inside Higher Ed ran a piece last week about the experiences of gay intercollegiate football players based on a preliminary research study. I have been meaning to post about it but things in Title IX land last week kept me pretty busy. (Not to mention those piles of papers in need of grading.)
But it's still worth noting, even a week later.
I am, as many know, generally skeptical of progress narratives. (For a related skeptic's take see Diane's recent experience at Starbucks.) And this study illustrates that things are not necessarily getting better, even as we hear more people come out and talk about positive experiences playing sports. I had the pleasure of hearing former Bloomsburg University football captain Brian Sims speak positively of his experience coming out to his team. But it seems, based on this study, that for every Sims-like experience there are many more troubling ones. Like a player who "mangled" his own legs so he could no longer play and thus avoid the physical and verbal abuse from his teammates.
Dr. Eric Anderson disagrees with some of the statements regarding the homophobic culture in sports. He believes, based on his research on gay male athletes, that the culture is changing--and rapidly.
The issue is that generalizations don't work in this situation. Anderson has done research in both the US and UK. His research on soccer players and fans in the UK is hopeful, but not necessarily applicable in the US context. I haven't read his current research which updates--I believe--his 2005 book In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity, based on narratives from gay male athletes.
And comparing football culture to other sports cultures is also difficult. Heck comparing swimming culture to baseball culture is equally problematic. And comparing intercollegiate sports to professional sports. Women's and men's. DI, DII, DIII. So many variables.
In the end, though, information like that gathered in the football study reveals that--no matter what other good things are happening (like Athlete Ally)--there is still plenty of work to do: cultures to change, discrimination to combat, and athletes to help.

Women as sport executives

2011-05-09T09:10:00.003-04:00

From the Globe and Mail, an article that touches on why there are not many women in executive positions in sports. It begins with the story of and commentary from current Women's Tennis Association CEO Stacey Allaster but goes on to mention Canadian hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser who aspires to a position in an NHL franchise front office but recognizes the impediments her gender presents in achieving that goal.
That there are so few women in leadership positions in sports is not shocking, of course. There were, though, two surprising moments for me in this article. Wickenheiser said she doesn't believe that if women gain more ground in the area of sport management that they will make "sweeping changes." The example she gives: women won't take the fighting out of hockey.
Is this a real fear? That women who gain positions of power in sport are going to de-masculinize them? I see that as an excuse. I think it's more simple than that. Sports continue to be a man's world; men want control of it. There is a general belief that women are just not as capable of understanding sports as men are. I think the demasculinization theory is just a scare tactic. Guys who grow up dreaming of being in sports--as athletes, and then as executives when the athlete career doesn't work out (or after it is over)--don't seem all too eager to let girls into their clubhouses.
Second, when asked why there are not as many women in executive positions, Richard Peddie of Maple Leaf Sport and Entertainment made it really simple: babies. Women make "a life decision." Apparently men don't make life decisions. Because having a career, having a family, choosing where to live--I guess those aren't life decisions that men make. Ah, the privilege of getting to do whatever you want without having to make those pesky life decisions.

Sam Stosur: Being apologized for

2011-05-06T15:39:00.003-04:00

Sam Stosur currently ranks in my top three of athlete crushes.
And so her success this past year has made me happy not just for her but for me--because I get to see her more when she is winning. She obviously gets more press as well.
Including this article* by Malcolm Knox, which appeared in an Australian publication. It's a lengthy piece that chronicles her career, her sidelining illness, her resurgence, as well as a one-on-one interview with Stosur herself.
Knox relates his encounter with her:

When she stopped to speak to me, what was most remarkable was Stosur's stillness and clarity. She looked you in the eye. Neither as muscular nor as deep-voiced as she appears on television, she was strikingly normal, if that makes any sense.

READ: She doesn't seem like as much of a lesbian (I was going to use the d-word but I'm holding back) as I thought she would.

Criminy.
Stosur's muscles are amazing. Her shoulders make strong and broad-shouldered like myself a little less self-conscious about our not-so-petite frames. I find them very attractive.
But more than that--they are practical. She needs them given her current profession. One might even say they are an asset.
And as for the deep voice comment. Just ridiculous.
Sam Stosur has got it going on. Malcolm Knox doesn't need to make apologies for how she looks or speaks.

* which I found via a link from Diane's Women Who Serve blog.

Poetry Friday

2011-05-06T09:36:00.001-04:00

OH SUMPTUOUS MOMENT

Emily Dickinson

Oh Sumptuous moment
Slower go
That I may gloat on thee --
'Twill never be the same to starve
Now I abundance see --

Which was to famish, then or now --
The difference of Day
Ask him unto the Gallows led --
With morning in the sky --

I want a girl with a short skirt...

2011-05-05T18:15:00.002-04:00

...and a loooooong badminton racket.
Yep. New rules for female badminton players. Skirts are now required. REQUIRED. Despite my occasional equivocation over skirts because I wear them myself when playing tennis, this is just wrong.
The official peeps at the Badminton World Federation say that aren't trying to sexualize female players, they are just trying to create a standard of dress that will enhance the popularity of the sport.
One professional who is opposed to the new rule says she understands the federation's desire to raise the game's profile but that skirts are not going to accomplish this:
"If people want to see women in skirts, they will go elsewhere--they won't go to watch badminton."
So very true.

It should be noted that the BWF is accommodating various religious beliefs by allowing anyone to wear tights, track bottoms or shorts underneath the required skirt. Small points for that, I guess.

Why can't we just stop counting football?

2011-05-03T11:54:00.003-04:00

Because I said so.
I know that is the mom response. But it is actually true.

Last week's NYT piece about the ways in which schools not-so-subtly manipulate their roster numbers to make it appear that they are closer to providing equitable opportunities than they really are has generated a lot of response. One such response is the suggestion that we not count football in order to make things more equal. This is not in any way a novel "solution." It was proposed when Title IX was passed and football supporters feared for their sport when they realized supporters of women's athletics were going to use the new gender equity law to claim their fair share. Title IX will be the death of football, people claimed.
But the fear was never realized. Football, however, has been the death of other sports and silently hides (a shocking ability given its massiveness: stadia, rosters, coaching staffs, etc.) while other male student-athletes lose their opportunities and everyone turns a glaring eye to Title IX.
I have never understood the logic of not counting football just because it is big. Crew teams are big. We count them. Or the rationale that it has no female equivalent. Field hockey--in this country--has no male equivalent. We still count it.

I am, thankfully, not the only mom voice in the debate. George Vecsey of the NYT wrote a very good column about the corruption within intercollegiate football and, among other things, how it causes schools to play with the numbers while keeping intact all of football's privilege.
I can't imagine that the shenanigans that go on within football teams and athletic departments are going to improve if football becomes even less accountable.

Poetry Friday

2011-04-29T09:18:00.002-04:00

HAPPINESS

Amy Lowell

Happiness, to some, elation;
Is, to others, mere stagnation.
Days of passive somnolence,
At its wildest, indolence.
Hours of empty quietness,
No delight, and no distress.
Happiness to me is wine,
Effervescent, superfine.
Full of tang and fiery pleasure,
Far too hot to leave me leisure
For a single thought beyond it.
Drunk! Forgetful! This the bond: it
Means to give one's soul to gain
Life's quintessence. Even pain
Pricks to livelier living, then
Wakes the nerves to laugh again,
Rapture's self is three parts sorrow.
Although we must die to-morrow,
Losing every thought but this;
Torn, triumphant, drowned in bliss.
Happiness: We rarely feel it.
I would buy it, beg it, steal it,
Pay in coins of dripping blood
For this one transcendent good.

Say yes to the bike

2011-04-28T08:21:00.003-04:00

Some girls, they go get fitted for wedding dresses. I get fitted for bicycles. OK, well I just had my first fitting ever for a bike. And I think I am going to be really happy.
So this whole bike shopping experience has brought up a few issues for me. Thankfully, financial was not one of them because my parents were very generous and financed the bike as a birthday gift. [Thanks, Mom and Dad!]
I have been kind of looking for a new road bike for about a year, and it went far beyond what materials and components I wanted, and though the shop/bike mechanic I eventually chose had a brand I was very interested in, I chose him for other reasons.
Because every other shop I walked into took me right to their women's bikes. Many of which are called, in the catalogs, "femme." (more on that in a second)
Women's bikes are constructed in such a way as to account for the fact that women are generally shorter and have short torsos, narrow shoulders, and smaller hands. And do I appreciate that there is an effort (even if it is a marketing tool, i.e. tap into a new market, a la Nike and many other sportswear/gear companies) to recognize that bikes are designed based on men's bodies.
But, as I pointed out to every guy who took me over to the femme bikes, I don't have a typical woman's geometry. I have short legs and a long torso which makes the shorter top tube that women's bikes have not only useless for me, but detrimental. But it isn't that much of a difference--half an inch, maybe, they say. Well 1) if it isn't a big deal, why have a woman's bike with a shorter top tube, and 2) of course it's a big deal. Moving things just a few centimeters on a bike can make a huge difference, especially when you hit mile 75 of your century. You don't want back and neck pain with 25 miles to go.
So then I got, "well the handlebars are narrower."
Dude, look at me. My shoulders are not narrow. I am not petite (despite my short legs).
So basically every time I walked into a shop, I had to "come out" as a some kind of atypical woman because I have broad, muscled shoulders and arms. I had to point out how not like a woman I am so I could get the right bike. And while this said a lot about their abilities (or lack thereof) as bike experts, it created a certain amount of consternation for me around my body type--and my sexuality (because it's very hard for not think about the sport/physical culture and sexuality connection these days). I fall on the more feminine side of queer women/lesbian spectrum and I am attracted to people who fall more on the masculine end. But I have been read as not feminine enough by some of these people--while others see me as too feminine (for a lesbian). And even though I have never considered altering my workouts, it still feels kind of lousy some times.
I don't have any experience as a straight female athlete. But I have recently come to better understand the female apologetic (the behaviors in which female athletes display their femininity in order to "compensate" for their athleticism). I don't feel as if I compensate because I like skirts and cute shoes (and some sexy heels too), but I have spent a lot of time thinking about this ongoing belief in the incongruity between femininity and muscles (and I'm not talking about those soccer mom biceps). And I have a lot more sympathy and far less judgment of those young women who are trying to find the balance. I'm an adult, not in an intercollegiate sport, and I still feel pressure from my so-called community and from random bike salesmen.
Thankfully, I go for my second fitting later this week with Joe, an older, straight, white guy, who told me right away that, of course, I didn't need the femme bike. Because he knows that fit is the most important thing.

Color me not surprised

2011-04-27T07:11:00.001-04:00

Have I used this title before? Probably.
My little world was abuzz yesterday with the news that colleges manipulate their roster numbers to make it appear they are closer to gender equity than they really are.
The NYT published a report on the issue noting that "many" (not a great figure) colleges use a variety of techniques when reporting their EADA numbers in order to look like they are at (or closer to) proportionality than they really are.
The article gives several fairly egregious examples including the University of South Florida which has some very large rosters--specifically in the cross country and track and field teams. This is because USF added a football team not so very long ago and had to also add opportunities for women. Unfortunately it does not seem that these are real opportunities. Many of the members listed on the track team are not really on it. How this stuff has flown under the radar for so long is kind of amazing. When told about the 75-woman cross country team roster (four times the size of the average cross country team) a former OCR investigator said "Goodness gracious. That would certainly justify further examination." That was a somewhat mild response.
Erin Buzuvis over at the Title IX Blog wrote a thoughtful post about the article. And Dr. Nicole LaVoi at One Sport Voice tied this article into the one by Alice Dreger article I mentioned yesterday.
I will be very interested to see the fallout from this investigation. None of the schools who were revealed and chose to speak to the NYT had anything very coherent to say on the matter. Not sure, now that this information is out, if OCR will go investigate on their own. But remember, anyone can file an OCR complaint that would trigger an investigation; there is no issue of standing because it is not a lawsuit.
Just sayin'.

Line of the day!

2011-04-26T15:27:00.003-04:00

I always feel a little less crazy when Pat Griffin's throughts and writings echo my own.
And I get very excited when Dr. Griffin brings out a little bit of snark.
So she wins today's Line of the Day.
Her post is in reference to the new IOC policy on testing the hormone levels of female competitors. It seems to (but I haven't read the actual policies) be the same or similar to what the IAAF announced a few weeks ago, which I found a little suspect.
The IOC policy prevents other athletes from calling into question one (or more) of their competitors. But it does allow an athlete to seek her own answers!
Here's Dr. Griffin's take on that particular aspect of the policy:

I am trying to imagine a woman stopping by her nearest “specialized medical center” to ask, “Can you tell me if I am a woman or not? I can run so fast, I’ve begun to question.”

Alice Dreger, who previously wrote about the ordeal Caster Semenya went through, has a piece today in the NYT about the new rules and their inequitable application.

USA Hockey wins Worlds!

2011-04-26T15:10:00.003-04:00

Congrats to the women on the USA Hockey Team. They are now the reigning World Champions with a 3-2 victory over Canada.
This article is from my hometown paper--the one I used to write for (briefly)--and focuses on local star Megan Duggan, a key player on the USNT who ended up fifth in scoring for the tournament. (She played at Wisconsin--we'll forgive her for that-- and helped the Badgers to another NCAA title last month. And she also won the Patty Kazmaier Award this year.)
I didn't follow the tournament (held in Zurich) this year, but I am pretty darn excited for next year's tourney, which will be held in my favorite northern neighbor state Vermont.
Maybe I'll do some live tweeting!

Poetry Friday

2011-04-22T07:44:00.001-04:00

"IF I DON'T MEET YOU IN THIS LIFE LET ME FEEL THE LACK"

Amy Quan Berry

Now there is almost no sound and at night I am not afraid.
The next world will be made of paper and everything
will have the capacity to fly. Promise me it will be there
as it is here -— the raspberries climbing the trellis, the rivers
blue scripts. Because every story has two endings, I see your body
breaking down, I see you soaring in the light. Be taken with me.
Come pouring down unified.

The not-so-good commercial(s)

2011-04-20T08:32:00.005-04:00

Dr. Pants told me about the new Acura commercial a few weeks ago and Sean from at sportsBabel sent me the link last week. Apparently, I need to blog about this one.
The commercial features Canadian skier Ashleigh McGivor.

Let's strip the athlete down and then put her in some fancy heels and a black dress.
I mean I get the Acura campaign; sporty sexy is hot. But sexy seems to be covering up sporty here. The car, like the athlete, cleans up well. But the car, unlike the athlete, can perform and be just as sporty in its new polished form.
And the tagline: Aggression in its most elegant form. Well, when you apply it to people who are not supposed to be as aggressive or have to apologize for and hide their aggression by putting on fancy clothes. Well...problematic.
And the same applies to the other version of the commercial featuring Calvin Johnson, an African-American football player. Hide the black man's aggression when you put the snazzy suit on him--and literally the suit is put on him. Neither Johnson nor McGivor dress themselves. They are being transformed into some more elegant and less obviously aggressive.

Surprised by good commercial

2011-04-18T22:57:00.003-04:00

What do you get when you stay up late watching Cartoon Network as you try to unwind from a late-night class?
You get to see a Red Bull commercial featuring Ashley Fiolek, on her motor bike (i.e. in action--not posing) and signing!
Fiolek has garnered attention for being a woman in the historically male world of motocross and for being hearing impaired.
I am now impressed by both Fiolek and Red Bull (though I still won't drink the stuff).

Glad to have found this commercial because I will soon be blogging about a not-so-good one featuring a female athlete. Stay tuned!

A tale of two harassments

2011-04-18T07:20:00.001-04:00

The news you most likely know: Kobe Bryant called a ref a f&^%ot last week. He got fined $100,000. (Which some thought was too much--including Bryant who is appealing the fine.) He offered the standard not-apology, and talked about how the word isn't really discriminatory because it isn't connected to homosexuals anymore. Yep, f*&^$t has nothing to do with gay people anymore. I guess bitch has nothing to do with women either. Geesh.
The (as far as I know) only openly gay man (now, not when he was a player) to ever play in the NBA, John Amaechi, wrote a piece in the NYT about the incident: "...he is telling boys, men and anyone watching that when you are frustrated, when you are as angry as can be, the best way to demean and denigrate a person, even one in a position of power, is to make it clear that you think he is not a real man, but something less."
And that, of course, is very connected to the stereotypes of gay men. As for the apology, Amaechi said: "I am amazed that people still think apologizing in such a way as to make it clear that it was the victims who misunderstood is acceptable. I had hoped that the sorry-if-you-are-oversensitive school of apology would by now have been thoroughly discredited." [Read the whole thing--it's very good.]
Dr. Pat Griffin has also commented on the incident in an open letter to Bryant in which she notes the curious timing of Bryant's actions. The day Bryant exploded was the day GLSEN was filming PSAs with the NBA about not using anti-gay slurs. The PSAs will air during the NBA playoffs this year.
So here's what you might not have heard (I found it because a friend posted it on Facebook--not because it hit mainstream media here in the US): A professional Brazilian volleyball player was taunted with the Brazilian version of the f-word during a game. This link contains the story and the video--which I haven't been able to bring myself to watch yet.
The targeted player, Michael, came out as gay after the game. And his teammates were immediately supportive. Great, right? It gets better. In a recent match, the team wore pink warm-up jerseys and the libero wore a rainbow jersey during the match.
And how did the fans respond? With a gigantic banner that read "Volei Futuro [the team name] Against Prejudice" (in Portuguese of course).
AND with pink thundersticks!
Everyone knows my thoughts on pink, but if there was ever an appropriate moment to re-take the color--this is it (noting too that other countries haven't constructed pink in the same ways we have in this country). There is no video (that I have seen) of this event, which is good because just viewing the pictures (the above link includes more of them) brings some tears to my eyes.

Poetry Friday

2011-04-15T06:49:00.001-04:00

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. This poem pretty much relates how I feel every night I get into bed.

IN PRAISE OF MY BED

Meredith Holmes

At last I can be with you!
The grinding hours
since I left your side!
The labor of being fully human,
working my opposable thumb,
talking, and walking upright.
Now I have unclasped
unzipped, stepped out of.
Husked, soft, a be-er only,
I do nothing, but point
my bare feet into your
clean smoothness
feel your quiet strength
the whole length of my body.
I close my eyes, hear myself
moan, so grateful to be held this way.

One week later: What's up in women's b-ball

2011-04-13T09:24:00.004-04:00

Hey, the WNBA draft was on Monday.
In an uncharacteristic move, I turned on the television in the middle of the day, and it just it happened to be on ESPN anyway and there it was--the draft. Otherwise, I would have had no idea. I mean, I knew it was coming, but I don't pay all that much attention to the WNBA so it was not high on my list of thing to tune in to. But I am glad I did. I didn't know anything about Australian Liz Cambage (love the way her last name rolls off the tongue). I think she is, as I tweeted, going to be an interesting addition to the league. And when Brittney Griner goes pro in a couple of years--two 6'8 players!
But will we watch?
Shannon Owens writes about the troubling phenonmenon of collegiate stars fading into the shadows when they get to the WNBA--not because they are performing badly, but because the WNBA itself remains in the shadows of other professional sports. Owens's column focuses on Maya Moore, the number one draft pick on Monday but speaks to the fate of other #1s. Sure, we still talk about Diana Taurasi, but almost always in the context of her history with UConn (or her positive (false) drug test). But how much discussion is around her ongoing WNBA career?

So while intercollegiate basketball is losing its star--Maya Moore--a new one, according to some sources (ok just the Bleacher Report so here's your shaker of salt), is being born: Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame.
There was talk about then then first-year Diggins last season when Notre Dame made the tournament. But with its appearance in the championships, Diggins has been legitimized as one of the--if not the--next stars.
Personally, I'm not a Diggins fan; she has that Taurasi type attitude that I do not like. But it's nice to have a star who doesn't play for UConn.
One could say that Griner is a star as well. But she will never get the same attention in her remaining two years as Diggins will in hers. Why? Well Griner is a little too masculine for the mainstream. And Diggins is already being referred to as a beauty, a cutie, etc. She has gotten the attention of major music stars like Lil Wayne and Chris Brown (maybe not the attention she wants given Brown's past).
The Bleacher Report notes that Diggins is "already getting an Allison Stokke-like following around the World Wide Web." Um, not necessarily a good thing. Let's not forget that Stokke, the pole vaulter, was not all too keen on the overt sexualization of her that started when she was in HIGH SCHOOL.

Not ready to thumbs up this

2011-04-12T09:21:00.003-04:00

The Women's Sports Foundation posted this article from USA Today on its Facebook feed this morning. It has, as of this writing, one "like." It's about the International Association of Athletics Foundation (IAAF), the organization that governs track and field, and their decision to institute a policy about women with too much male hormone.
This announcement, made in South Korea where the next world championships will take place, is clearly a result of the Caster Semenya fiasco two year ago. Here are the new rules as explained in the article: Women with hyperandrogenism [overproduction of male homrones] will be eligible to compete in female competition if their androgen levels are below the men's range or, if within the male range, they have an androgen resistance which means they derive no competitive advantage.
Here's what I don't know too much about--the construction of these ranges. So I cannot comment on where these lines are drawn or even who is drawing them. I have been taught, however, to question the construction of normal--in both culture and science (because, of course, science is not separate from culture). Experts galore, I am sure, provided significant input into the rule change.
What initially gave me hope was the less invasive testing procedure. Now that there is a hormone range as part of the rules, testing would be easier. Take some blood. Get results. OK maybe blood would be taken more than once. And while the taking of fluids from athletes is indeed invasive, after reading what Semenya and others have been through in these comprehensive gender tests, it seems rather innocuous (putting aside for a moment that the reason behind testing was likely because someone(s) thinks an athlete is too masculine--which is not at all benign).
But it does not appear that these gender tests are over:
The IAAF said it has appointed a panel of international medical experts to review any hyperandrogenism cases. The panel will make recommendations on eligibility to the IAAF.
The process may include referring an athlete "for full examination and diagnosis with best medical practice" at one of six IAAF-approved specialist centers around the world.
[...]
Any female athlete who declines, fails or refuses to comply with the eligibility process will be ineligible to compete in women's events, the IAAF said.

New rules but old procedures? And compulsory ones at that. Suspect females are still going to be forced to undergo invasive exams at the hands of experts pre-approved by the IAAF. Doesn't seem like much has changed.

The creepiness that is the Masters

2011-04-11T06:42:00.000-04:00

Even I'm impressed by the luscious greens and landscaping at Augusta National. But it's almost too lush--and I don't even have HD. What is it hiding? What are they prettying up? Well it's all hiding a heck of a lot of chemicals, I would bet. And then there is the lovely history of discrimination against African Americans and the ongoing discrimination against women. Somewhat old news. The new news: a female reporter was not allowed into the locker room to do interviews. Haven't we dealt with this issue already--repeatedly? Apparently it was a mistake. Security thought women weren't allowed in and so they banned Sullivan. Luckily the reporter's male colleagues shared their transcripts of interviews they did with Rory McIllroy in the locker room. And in other unofficial creepiness...what was up with all the love for Tiger Woods? How quickly we all forget, eh?

Good job, Women's Health!

2011-04-10T07:56:00.002-04:00

Reporter and blogger Jayda Evans posted about a commercial Women's Health Magazine has produced in response to those top ten female athletes lists which feature horses. The commercial addresses a list from 2009 which I wrote about here. But note that it happened again in 2010 (only one horse this year.)

Poetry Friday

2011-04-08T09:52:00.002-04:00

IF YOU FORGET ME

Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

What I've missed

2011-04-07T10:37:00.006-04:00

How did the end of the week come so quickly? And how did all these things build up? It's not so much that I missed the following news/events, it's more that I haven't found a good moment to mention them.
On Tuesday night the Texas A&M Aggies beat Notre Dame in the championships of the Women's Final Four Tournament. Thankfully the score and the quality of play was indeed better than the men's game the night before. Or else I would still be blushing sheepishly and hanging my head.
Erin Whiteside at the Sports, Media, and Society blog (out of Penn State's Curley Center) notes the problematic way Twitter users were comparing the men's game (as it was ongoing and immediately afterwards) to the women's game. As in, even the women can do better than this kind of sentiments. I tried, in my own post about this issue, to note that the complaints about women's basketball never ever being able to be as interesting as men's basketball are false generalizations. I hope this came through.
Also, looks like Gary Blair is the new hip guy in women's basketball. Hope he sticks around for a bit. Nice to get a male perspective that does not come from Geno Auriemma.
In international sports news, the IOC has finally let women's ski jumping into the Olympics. It's anti-climatic but still anger-producing. The power struggle that emerged during this battle seemed to trump the equality issue. There was just no way the IOC was going to acquiesce to the demands of these athletes. They retained control the whole time and added the sport exactly when they wanted to. (Well maybe they didn't want to at all. But the addition certainly happened on their own schedule of meetings and talks and processes.)
Also added to the list of sports for Sochi 2014:
Ski halfpipe
Biathlon mixed relay
Team figure skating
Team luge
This is what Jacques Rogges said after the vote: “These are exciting, entertaining events that perfectly complement the existing events on the sports program, bring added appeal, and increase the number of women participating at the Games." Um, really? Increasing women's participation was a concern of yours? Because it hasn't seemed to be so the past few years. Also, it's not like the new events add that many women to the games. Ski halfpipe, mixed biathlon relay, team figure skating, and team luge are all open to men and women. And of course women's ski jumping with bring in previously banned female athletes. (Let's also note for the record that Nordic combined remains a men's only sport--the only one at the Winter Olympics.)
Of interest is Pat Griffin's latest blog about an ESPN Outside the Lines conversation about Kye Allums, the trans athlete who publicly came out this year, before starting his senior season on the Georgetown women's basketball team. Pat does a very thorough analysis of the segment and the issues and controversies it raised. Check it out!
Also in the women's sports blogosphere, Dr. Nicole LaVoi is expressing her concerns about the Lingerie Football League's decision to start a team in her city--Minneapolis--and especially the decision to usurp the name of a current women's rugby team in the area.
Phew. Shouldn't let these things build up. Lesson learned.

In memoriam: Jessica Nathanson

2011-04-05T20:55:00.004-04:00

I learned this evening that Jessica Nathanson passed away yesterday. I "met" Jessica through this blog. Also a blogger (I was asked not to mention the blog which Jessica did somewhat anonymously), Jessica found me and I found her and we connected over the larger issues of blogging while feminist as well as our commitment to women's and gender studies, creative writing endeavors, and attempts to tame our curly hair. We met once, when Jessica came to Iowa City for a creative writing workshop. I don't know how Jessica found my blog, but when we met she told me that she was initially very curious about this very feminist male writing a blog about gender and sports--until she found "ken" was (and still is) a woman. She supported my endeavors in the area of gender and sport and physical culture. She nominated me to my first and only feminist blog carnival. Several years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought it (some of her blog posts are about her experience of the disease) and was in remission. But it came back recently-- suddenly and stronger. My condolences to her family and to the feminist community, which will certainly feel her loss.