After Atalanta

I kind of got blogged out with all the Dubai stuff but in my hiatus I missed one of the major stories: Andy Roddick's withdrawal from the men's tournament. Roddick, who was the defending champion, withdrew in protest over the denial of Peer's visa. I almost thought this was an Onion-esque joke when I first heard it. Because there doesn't seem to be a lot of cross-gender support in professional tennis--and there never has been: recall the Billie Jean King/ATP riff in the 70s. If Andy Ram had been denied a visa, one could see perhaps see a little more of a direct connection to Roddick's actions. I'll admit to not being a Roddick fan. I liked him when he first came on the tour and was coached by Tarik Benhabiles. I liked him when he dated Mandy Moore. But when he hooked up with Brad Gilbert and then Connors, I thought he started to become the stereotypical arrogant male athlete. But you have to give him credit for this act. There seems to be nothing self-serving i...

So this article about the Dubai tournament does not cite boycott as the primary reason for Peer's visa denial, but one of several reasons. It seems that the main concern was security--as in fear of violence. Not the same thing as a boycott. If no one shows up, there wouldn't be much need for security, eh? Attention though has now been turned to the pending Andy Ram situation with the ATP already stepping in asking the UAE do "do the right thing."

As Diane at Women Who Serve noted yesterday , the reason for Shahar Peer's visa denial by the United Arab Emirates was because tournament organizers feared a boycott by fans. I was a little surprised by this revelation because I didn't think tennis was all that popular in the United Arab Emirates in the first place. And given Islamic rules on the presence of women in not a lot of clothing, I would think it just wouldn't be a huge issue because not a lot of people would turn up anyway. Weren't all these issues raised when the announcement about WTA tournaments in the Middle East (Qatar and UAE) was made? To me it seems the issue would not be losing a lot of fans, but of finding a lot of people gathering in protest. As has been reported elsewhere, next week Israeli Andy Ram, who is arguably less well-know than Peer, is slated to play in Dubai. No word on how that situation is playing out.

1. A new study in Britain by the Women's Sports and Fitness Foundation has found that more women need to get active--now! In the US we like to talk about "progress" and the numbers of women participating in sports and other physical activities; especially using 1972 (the passage of Title IX) as a reference point (even though women did engage in sport before then--sometimes we forget that). But there is no Title IX in Britain and now it seems that more and more women are not engaged in any physical activity. The study estimates that if the current trend on non-activity continues, there will be 1.25 million fewer women engaging in the recommended amount of exercise just one decade from now. One of the obstacles: image. Apparently being sporty is not sexy and though women want to be thin, they do not want to be athletic-looking. Having an athletic body (well a cetain type of athletic body) is not as much a problem in the US and certainly athletic is not equivalent to un-sexi...

This is a very interesting and well-done article about the difficulties women in Israel face trying to find time and space to work out in a culture which does not support women's physical development--especially when it gets in the way of their duties to family and community. We can see some similarities in the obstacles American women face when they want to be active: carving out time during the day between household, community, and occupational duties. But there are sooe obvious differences as well: many American gyms have daycare; a fit female body is a status symbol in our culture and thus encouraged for certain women; and we often don't have the same community obligations--to entertain when a neighbor pops in, for example. [So few neighbors are popping in on one another these days.] An additional problem with the concept of Israeli women working out is the need to do so in sex segregated facilities. The article actually focuses on the one facility, The Eden Club, in a ...