After Atalanta

 I have many thoughts on the news that the Harvard women's ice hockey team was a space of abuse, intimidation, humiliation, bullying, and general badness. I am having trouble organizing them and figuring out where to begin. There is so very much to say. My organizational strategy is to create multiple posts. This first one is about my interest in this particular case and a little bit on Katey Stone, the Harvard head coach who unapologetically created this toxic culture and women as ice hockey coaches more generally.  There is a lot to say about every revelation of dysfunctional and destructive team cultures. They exist far more widely than most people likely believe--at all levels of sports, and they are all multi-faceted (i.e., emotional and physical abuse, racism, other forms of discrimination and violence). This one for me, though, was especially provoking because I did my master's thesis on coaches in DI women's ice hockey in the early 2000s. I interviewed players from...

The current issue of ESPN Magazine, which appeared on stands this week, features a very good article on homophobia in college recruiting. The story originally was published online at the end of January and thus has been well-covered in the blogosphere. But I would be remiss not to mention it--especially since several people have emailed me the link to the story thus making me think that it's kind of my bloggerly duty. "On homophobia and recruiting" co-written by Luke Cyphers and Kate Fagan acknowledges, actually focuses on the subtly of homophobia in recruiting. It's a major point that needs to be highlighted in this way. Homophobia is not dead just because fewer people shout dyke or fag to your face (or to your back as you walk down the street). And every coach knows overt homophobia will not be accepted by most administrators and recruits these days. The language cues center mostly on a family values and morals rhetoric. Not news to many of us. But again, glad to ha...

Every morning I receive in my inbox a google alert for women's sports (along with offers for Viagra, Christian dating sites, and a chance to help out some former royal from Malawi). I scan the headlines and pass over things like BGSU women's lacrosse MVP banquet and most of the stuff published by the Bleacher Report (unless I am feeling ornery and in need of pointing out some ridiculousness). This morning, reading the headlines in my alert, I had a pang of blogger jealousy. Someone had come up with a title that was very After Atalanta-esque--and it wasn't me! And it was about softball--and lesbians. How could this be? Well because it was Dr. Pat Griffin who wrote the piece "Can Jennie Finch Even Say Lesbian?" and so I feel much better now. And especially so after reading it. Griffin calls out all (or most) of the people who have been speaking up in the wake of the astounding revelation that Elena Kagan once played softball--and the messages that sends. And Griffin...

Wow, this is the kind of post that just gets me so...excited! So I missed the whole Wall Street Journal printing pics of SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan playing softball--on their front page! I did see said pics in various postings/blogs around teh internets. And of course I have been around for the remarkable silence around her sexuality--besides that whole denial thing by the White House. This situation seems to be getting stickier every day. And I could pontificate about political strategy and the ins and outs and in-betweens of the closet. But I'd rather talk about softball! And lesbians! And lesbians who play softball! Because you gotta love the New York Post chiding the more snooty and allegedly high brow WSJ by publishing an article about the connection between lesbians and softball. And even getting one my favorite (former) softball-playing lesbians and sexuality and sport scholar, Dr. Pat Griffin, to comment on it. Why yes, Virginia, there are lesbians who play softball! And ...

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

If you're the ACC (or any other conference) you probably aren't so keen on acknowledging your lesbian fan base at this, the most exciting time of the year for intercollegiate basketball--despite the many benefits of lesbian fandom. This isn't a new issue certainly. There has been a lot of reporting on various WNBA teams and the level of attention (or inattention) they pay to their lesbian fans--of which there are many. But this article addresses the lack of marketing to lesbians by basketball conferences. This is despite that fact that there are marketing strategies in place that target other fan groups like youth and families. At this point, such a denial of a lesbian fan base is just bad business. Especially given the money lesbians spend when they travel to sporting events, including the conference tourneys and the NCAA games. Other entities recognize this: bars and restaurants hold lesbian-friendly events when tournaments are in town. Unfortunately, the basketball confe...

So there are--don't be shocked now--lesbians who play professional tennis. And they display various levels of lesbionica. Sure we can kind of tell (well some of us anyway) who they are using our super stealth and highly (over?) developed gaydar. Some are out, some are in the closest, some are in some kind of unacknowledged but out state. But there isn't a whole lot of range no matter their status. Most of them retain some version of acceptable femininity wearing skirts, keeping their hair longer, not mentioning girlfriends or putting them in the players' boxes. Sure Martina Navratilova seemed to get more butch as she grew older--but she was still wearing skirts when she retired. She returned to the tour seemingly more comfortable creating her own terms. I am not going to get into the whole "choice" debate here, because that's not the point. The point is the lesbians on the tour do not seem to reflect the range of lesbian performance out here in the real world ...

Tom Hanks made famous the first part of that with his line in A League of their Own and the Seattle Mariners establishment has made infamous the second just this past weekend when it admonished a lesbian couple for kissing at a game . Details are a little controversial. Apparently an usher told the couple that a mother with a young son (or maybe multiple children--details keep changing) had complained and that the couple should cease and desist or they would be asked to leave. They stuck around--to take pictures of all the heteros kissing without any interference from (pseudo)authorities. And to lodge a formal complaint. I can't figure out if Safeco Field has a "kissing cam" which pans the crowd and if it stops on you--you kiss. Other sports venues certainly do. Regardless of whose kissing is being promoted and whose is demoted, it was blatant discrimination. This is a pretty tired rant and I am pretty tired myself today so it might not have the full force of my cynicism...

Well this controversy is actually old(er). It began last year* in Rochester, Minnesota when a lesbian couple sued their athletic club (scroll down a bit to see the news blurb; slightly longer story here ) because it would not give them the family rate on their membership. A judge dismissed their civil lawsuit which cited sexual orientation discrimination and the couple is now appealing, asking that the lawsuit be reinstated. According to the club rules, no one can get the family membership unless they are legally married. And here we see what seems to be the theme of the week: it's not us (health club, IOC) who are discriminating; it's just the rules. Of course no lesbians, except those in Massachusetts, can get married. The health club doesn't seem to care. This whole story is a bit surprising to me. Every health club I have belonged to has extended their family or couples rate to my partner and me--even when I lived in Iowa! And I always thought Minnesota was more liberal...

LSU announced a couple of weeks ago now that they had found a new head coach for the women's basketball team. They hired Van Chancellor, a former WNBA, Olympic, and intercollegiate coach. I did not blog about it then because all I had to say about it was this: I am certainly not surprised LSU went with a male coach.* I am pleased that at least it is a coach who has substantial experience coaching women's basketball but I think LSU could have made a strong statement by hiring a woman and I worry about the repercussions the Chatman incident will have on other hiring decisions. But I had nothing else of substance to say about the decision. The New York Times, however, has delved a little deeper . The article examines the decline of female head coaches and cites the big names in the sport sociology/sport management field who all, not surprisingly, agree that the fear of predatory lesbians is a huge factor in the lack of women head coaches in intercollegiate athletics. This is still...

Can I get a whoop whoop for Sheryl Swoopes?! Swoopes came out as gay today and not because she was pressured but because she said she was tired of hiding her relationship with her partner. (Of course the partner is not named but I expect her identity will be revealed shortly.) I was initially wary of the way the article read. Swoopes could be read as being somewhat vague or even exhibiting "apologetic behavior": she says she has not always been gay, that her homosexuality was not the reason for her divorce, that she doesn't want to "throw it in people's faces." This was my initial reaction only because it is not the out and proud and going to get married Rah Rah lesbianism that perhaps many are accustomed to (and afraid of?). But this of course is a good thing, I realized. Swoopes shows us that there are many ways of being gay. She presents the view that is often not voiced: not everyone thinks being gay is an innate characteristic and that just because it...