After Atalanta

I know I'm a slacker blogger whenever Dr. Pants sends me a link to a blogworthy story/article/column. Sorry. This one is especially good because it's about female fandom, soccer, and sex objects--and people who say dumb things.  This time is was an employee of Major League Soccer (MLS) who disparaged avid female soccer fans basically by calling them unsexy. A few issues about this statement: First, as the author of this opinion piece on Bust Magazine's blog notes, women do not exist for the sole purpose of being sexy for men. Second, can soccer in the US really afford to be disparaging fans? Haven't we heard over and over how unpopular soccer is in this country? Third, a question: so what's this all about? I haven't seen or heard of similar critiques of female fans in other sports. And there are some pretty avid fans out there of, for example, various NFL teams. Is it because these avid soccer fans are wearing team or country colors and not pink, deep V-...

I have seen several articles/editorials since Caster Semenya has resumed racing. But this one is by far the best. (I won't even link to the really problematic one from a male sportswriter from Kenya who seemed to have some sympathy for Semenya's situation but in the end he deemed Semenya not-quite-woman and stated that she should bow out gracefully from her competitive career.) I recommend the above-linked editorial from the New Statesman in which writer Laurie Penny starts with Semenya's racing kit last week (it was pink!) and shares some (rumored) information about the extent of the testing Semenya was forced, by the IAAF, to undergo. If you have to look that hard and take pictures...guess gender isn't that obvious after all.

I haven't written anything recently about pinkification, because I have said (probably more than once) before it places one in the not so pleasant position of appearing to be pro-cancer and maybe even anti-woman. Nonetheless, I find it difficult to refrain from infusing some critical commentary when the issue comes up. This one is not a diatribe. I just happened to come across news that the University of Alabama (whose softball team just won the SEC regular season and tournament and got a #1 seeding in the NCAA tournament) has renewed its contract with Nike . (This isn't even going to be an anti-Nike post!) As part of said contract (which runs through 2018!) Nike will provide 'Bama with apparel, equipment, coaching gear, and shoes. They will also: will allocate funds...for the athletic department's annual Power of Pink initiative in which the company will provide specific "pink garments" to be worn by each women's sports team at one contest per year. ...

I went to a hockey game! My first collegiate women's game of the season. Yea! My team lost. Boo! Also irksome was that it was the "Stick it to cancer" event which meant that everything was pink. Pink shirts and shorts and pj bottoms for sale. Pink programs--which I refused to even pick up. Thankfully my father snagged me a normal one. And pink tape on the players' sticks and socks. Oh, and pink scarves on the female coaches. The male head coach--no pink. What was interesting was that all of the verbal announcements in the pre-game ceremony, etc. only talked about cancer--not breast cancer. So either we're afraid of saying the word breast at a hockey game or this is a general fight cancer event which means the whole pink thing is even more bizarre. And speaking of pink, when I saw this year's ball persons uniforms at the Australian Open I bet (only myself which isn't as fun) that it would take Pam Shriver less than one hour to comment on the color. And I wo...

Or maybe it's the new red--depends on what the usual color of boxing gloves is. I feel as if I have devoted a lot of blog space to the pinkification of women's sports and so I am not seeking out the pink stories, but when things come my way--in 3s--it's hard to ignore. So the latest is something called Pink Gloves Boxing. And it was featured on NPR's Morning Edition today . NPR! Guess it's time to write a letter. Pink Gloves Boxing is a fitness enterprise started by two former football players who started to train women in boxing. They have developed a whole package that they now sell to gyms. And the package includes not just information on training routines but the gear which includes: dog tags, t-shirts, and pink gloves--of course. The thing is, this program doesn't sound to me like it's any different than programs that already exist in gyms. My gym has a boxing class and many gyms have cardio boxing/kickboxing. After all, as the story states "There...

I got through one day of October--one day!--before feeling compelled to blog about all this pink stuff. (But haven't actually had time until today which means I had to stew through all this NFL goes pink and Tom Brady's pink cleats, etc, etc.) I have done the whole pink complaint thing before and thought I would just let it go this October. But, as we know, breast cancer awareness is a year-round campaign ('cause there might be an unaware person out there who is transformed by that pink spatula at Target) so sport teams--especially collegiate teams with trot out pink laces, shirts, arm bands, etc. during their respective seasons. And I have done that post before (perhaps more than once). And I have talked about the issues with breast cancer charities before. I was worried about being pro-breast cancer or anti-woman or something, but I read an article in the Boston Globe Magazine Sunday ( here's a television segment that goes along with the article) about pink backlash f...

Title makes it sound like this might be a regular thing, but no, I was just feeling alliterative and I have some small and unrelated things to mention. 1. So, the Elena Delle Donne interview* on Outside the Lines was only so-so. I don't think I realized that even though OtL is scheduled for a 1/2 hour, it's not really a half hour show. Delle Donne, I felt, did a good job explaining things. There wasn't really anything I hadn't already read about on ESPN.com that the interview provided, however. I thought it was quite interesting that her parents were not interviewed for this show. There was footage of her parents from years ago. I guess the one thing that I learned, or perhaps sensed is a more accurate term, is that there is a lot of upheaval in the Delle Donne household over Elena's leave of absence from basketball. She said it was a very tough summer for the family and the absence of her parents from the interview make me think that things are not quite settled ye...

The title makes it seem like I am going to say something truly profound about these issues. But not really. 'Cause I've said a lot of it before. But it's Monday; I just got back from Denver, and I'm feeling blog-lazy. So I'll just repeat my basic rant that is always engendered by articles such as this one that report--always with a hint of surprise--that female fans of men's professional sports comprise a pretty significant portion of the consumer base for apparel and other fan gear/accessories. Yes, sales of women's NFL jerseys are up and appear to be equal to those of men's and youth. I get the different fit for women--though I'm not so sure some men wouldn't benefit from different fits either. Women are not the only ones with prominent breasts these days. Ideally I would like, at the very least, a gender-neutral sizing system. Why I am a men's small but a women's large kind of confounds me. Anyway, cut is one thing--color is another: A...

I do very much enjoy the sports I play, but I have to admit that I also enjoy the gear associated with the sports I play: for example my new silver Adidas, 6-racket (I only have 2) bag with backpack straps. Sure everyone makes fun of how big it is; one of my teammates referred to it as a hockey bag. But it's pretty cool. And it's probably a little intimidating too. It makes me look like a better player than I actually am. The intimidation thing may have had an effect on the woman I played last night who only won three games during our match. [More likely it was the extreme humidity that had a greater adverse effect on her than me.] Anyway this is all to lead into a discussion of the availability of gear for women, which, I know, I have done before. But this month Her Sports + Fitness has their first ever gear guide devoted exclusively to women's gear. I haven't seen it yet. Maybe someone who goes to Barnes and Noble a lot might pick it up for me. It reviews apparel, eq...

Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. There are thousands of events going around the country today and in the coming days and weeks as part of the celebration. Organizations like the American Association of University Women and the Women's Sports Foundation, college teams, and local community groups sponsor various activities and speakers or offer admission to games. Before I get critical, I want to say that a lot of these are great events exposing girls to higher levels of competition as well as the different types of sports available. Often events include interaction with older female athletes creating a role model/mentoring relationship. But some of the rhetoric around this day is a little troubling. For example, in Syracuse, NY this weekend the Orange are turning pink . Yep, the women's basketball team to celebrate NGWSD along with engaging in a breast cancer awareness campaign will be wearing pink t-shirts during warm-up and pink shoelaces throughout the game. W...