After Atalanta

I was compelled by the lure of being in the NYT to think critically about the comments play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger made about the girlfriend of Alabama QB AJ McCarron during the BCS Championship earlier this week. But since my comments didn't quite make the cut, I shall them--and more!--here. I didn't watch the game, didn't hear about the comments until I got queried by a reporter. (And admittedly did not know Musbuger by name--I did recognize his voice though.) I think the reporter wanted me to make some kind of direct link to the status of women's sports and female athletes. And I couldn't do that. Because there isn't really one that can be made. All I could say was the somewhat derivative "well, it's all the same patriarchy." When Musbuger encouraged little boys in Alabama to be throwing the football around with dad so that they too could land a beauty queen like Katherine Webb, he wasn't saying anything new rather he was simpl...

I foresee a future dissertation on the topic of women's arm wrestling. I mean if it's good enough for NPR to cover , some grad student should be snapping it up. I have to admit, the topic seems a bit unusual. The story, which aired on All Things Considered, notes the similarity to roller derby and wrestling (the theatrical aspects of it). But, based on the story's main source, it seems to tip more towards that than athletics. I suspect the same issues will arise regarding self-sexification as a seeming requirement for participation; the empowerment potential of the performance; subcultural aspects; and how the sport will be presented to the general public. Already participants are referred to, at least by NPR (tsk tsk), as "lady arm wrestlers."

I started reading this column with a little hesitation. The end of the Kournikova era? Really? Are not female athletes, including the columnist's celebrated Alex Morgan, still stripping down to promote their bodies, um, er, their sport, um...? Yes, it's still happening. It's still problematic. What's different, as the columnist points out, is that in the Kournikova era there seemed to be no space to which to have a discussion of women's sports. We were polarized. We had to talk about the sexualization of female athletes (or if you were outside of the critical discourse you discussed their hotness factor) and it made it difficult to talk about actual women's sports. But why did the Kournikova era end? What was it about that historical moment that pushed this woman (then girl) to be the most googled, searched for, downloaded entity? What was the sexual tenor of the country (of the western world?) in those years? Or was it just Kournikova? Did she just happen ...

This is a brief follow-up--or in-addition-to--to the post about the lack of larger sized apparel for this summer's female Olympians. Apparently--and I had not been aware of this--several female athletes competing in London have been scrutinized and commented on because of their weight leading into the games. I think this is quite interesting in light of all the press about how equal these Olympics are; how the US team is comprised of more female athletes than male athletes; how every nation finally has a female competitor. US-based media call this the " Title IX Olympics"--somewhat problematically . But, of course, things aren't equal--on either concrete numbers (still more events for men) or in treatment. At the opening of the games Christine Brennan of USA Today declared "Finally--It's all about the women." Yep. It's still about how female they are (i.e., Caster Semenya and whomever else was secretly gender tested during these games or leading u...

There is a tie for the third spot on the women's 100 meters (running) US Olympic team. No solution yet on how to determine which runner, Allyson Felix or Jeneba Tarmoh, will get the spot. Justin Gatlin, the men's 100 meter champion at the trials, suggested they two women wrestle in out--in either Jello or mud. I am sure they appreciated being given two options. Gatlin got a lot of crap for the comment which many have--not surprisingly--deemed sexist. But he said it was taken out of context. Oh--do you mean the context of patriarchy where you think all kinds of comments are permissible? The thing about dominant ideologies is that they all have a little bit of wiggle room; there's a lot of pushing and pulling; and hegemony has been known to spring a leak.

Sadly, I just watched Sam Stosur lose in the semifinals of Roland Garros to Sara Errani. Errani played very well and I kind of like her style. I hadn't paid too much attention to her prior to this run at the French. But I liked her glasses and bandana look from the quarters the other day. She looked tough. Stosur always looks tough because the woman is ripped. But she is not a man. In case you were wondering. Dominika Cibulkova, Stosur's opponent from the quarters seemed to be wondering that after being defeated by Stosur fairly handily . I actually didn't hear the post-match comments or the comments on the post-match comments. Thankfully I have friends who keep me informed while I sit in the library endlessly coding data. This is nothing new, of course. Just a different set of characters. Cibulkova who could not handle Stosur's heavy topspin serve and was put on the defensive by Stosur's amazing forehand, thought this meant that Stosur was man-like in her style....

...against the sexualization of female athletes as epitomized by the Lingerie Football League. It didn;t happen here in the US. But the Australian Minister of Sports had a few choice words for the Lingerie Football League which is trying to expand its brand down under. Those words included: degrading, cheap, and perv(erted). I am sure if the US had a minister of sport, s/he would speak out against the LFL. And the Lingerie Basketball League. And the new inline Bikini Hockey League. Maybe we need a Minister of Sport.

...the Bikini Hockey League . One of the first things one teaches in a Sport Sociology course is how to define a sport and the various criteria that have been used at various times in various cultures. It might be time to add to that conversation about definitions. This league obviously isn't meant to be sport. The tryouts aren't even tryouts. It's a casting call --with no requirement that a potential "player" mention anything about her hockey skills. And the press release reveals that this is all about creating a reality show--not an actual hockey league. Sex it up and dumb it down (for audiences) I guess is the motto of this production.

...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 brea...

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...

...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?

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."

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...

...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.

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 pu...

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 s...

...because there's another naked calendar featuring female athletes. And it's selling out! Not surprising. A little surprising that the women of the Old Boys University rugby team thought it wouldn't be popular, though, and only printed 1,000 copies. At first I thought this was a joke. Not because I am surprised that female athletes would pose naked, but that there is a place called Old Boys University. But indeed there is. It's not a university though--or at least not what Americans think of when we say university. It's a rugby club--co-ed now. Since 1991 I believe. Miss March, Bekki Abernethy is "blown away by the coverage. I walked into the local dairy and saw that my buttocks made the front page of The Dominion Post. And I choked when I saw myself on the South African Sports Illustrated site." Though she acknowledges that there has been controversy, she said even the negative responses bring attention to the sport. Just like all of Natalie Gulbis's...

The Monday morning quarterbacking was all about the Patriots' second half demise yesterday. Nothing about the battle of the locker room bullies. (That I saw. If there was any kind of comment--please send me the link!!) Apparently I was the only one who saw the intrigue in having one team whose harassment of a female reporter made national news twenty years ago take on another team whose harassment of a female reporter made national news just last week. I guess karma really isn't a bitch. Anyway, that's not really what I want to be talking about. I wanted to go back to the Erin Andrews/Ines Sainz comparisons made in the aftermath of Sainz's statements that she had been subject to inappropriate comments in the Jets locker room. The discourse was about whether Sainz was more self-sexualizing than Andrews. And I come down on the "it so doesn't matter"side of the debate. Why? Because our culture is doing a fantabulous job sexualizing these women all on its own...

The New York Times published an article this weekend about American swimmer Amanda Beard and the new stage of her life. She became a mother about a year ago and is working on a comeback in competitive swimming (she'll be competing in nationals this week; her first big meet since failing to qualify for the final races in the Beijing Olympics). I had some initial qualms about this article because I feel it constructs motherhood as some kind of happy ending, a positive life changer; something that drew Beard out of the pressures of her competitive sport life. And this is certainly how Beard is describing her new lifestyle. I just worry because one, motherhood is not exactly a stress reliever and depicting it as such when we are talking about an elite athlete makes it seem like the pressures are too great for women at this level of sport. And two, motherhood generally, from what I have seen and heard, often creates greater pressures and stresses. It is not any kind of escape. But I...

Some time during the past couple of weeks (even though I wasn't blogging, I have been trying to keep up) I read about the growth of women's rugby in the NYT : "Women make up the fastest-growing segments of rugby players in the United States," the writer notes. And most of it is at happening at the college club sport level (though there has been a recorded growth at the youth level as well. Let me say, for the record, that I think club sports are great. But I am a little disappointed that, eight years after the NCAA put rugby on its list of emerging sports, only one university (Eastern Illinois) started a varsity program. Again, there are hundreds of club teams with various levels of institutional support. With the addition of rugby (7s) to the summer Olympic Games roster, we may see changes within the collegiate sports structure. But I wonder about the cultural legitimacy of the sport in this country, and specifically how this will affect female rugby players. What I...