Recently in Sports Category

Defender Elizabeth Lambert of the New Mexico Lobos has been all over the news because of her seriously rough play in a recent game against BYU. Here's the ESPN footage:

Plenty of publications have been framing this, predictably, as some sort of girls gone wild phenomenon, as if women can't be violent without also being eroticized. Others, of course, are just calling Lambert a bitch.

As a former athlete myself, and one who wasn't afraid to throw a body on someone for a rebound, I'm horrified on two levels. First, Lambert is totally out of line. I didn't play soccer, but even I can see that this kind of play is straight up wrong and shouldn't be tolerated by refs, coaches, or teammates. It's one thing to get tough on the field. It's another to punch someone in the back or drag them to the ground by their hair. That's not sport, it's violence.

But second, of course, I'm pissed that the media coverage is trying to take what amounts to an athlete crossing the line and turn it into some big gendered controversy. A girl who is violent?! Holy mackerel, load up the YouTube and set it to a sexy soundtrack! Who knew that those women folk could express anger? This one must be a bitch. So. Annoying.

Approximate transcript after the jump.

Mark Schmitt has a moving piece at the American Prospect on being the father of a daughter and baseball player under Title IX, and the broader implications of what the amendment has meant and means today in our efforts towards social justice and equality.

It's about time.

Whether you're at the parade in New York today yet again celebrating the Yankees World Series win or cursing their existence, there's one thing I think we can all be happy about - Yankees broadcaster Susyn Waldman made history last Wednesday by becoming the first woman in history to broadcast a World Series Game.

h/t to reader Cathy.

Check out this really interesting read on urban planning, bicycling, and, yup, gender in Scientific American. The bottom line:

"If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed 'bikeability indexes'--just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female," says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.

It turns out that if an urban center wants to increase its bicycling, it has to consider recent studies on gender difference in bike lane usage. "Despite our hope that gender roles don't exist, they still do," says Jennifer Dill, a transportation and planning researcher at Portland State University.

Women, generally-speaking, are less likely to utilize bike lanes set in high-traffic areas, but in parks, low-traffic roadways, and the like, they are nearly 50% of riders. The enduring gender role differences also play a role here. Women who need to strap on some kids, groceries, or other precious cargo, need urban infrastructure that makes that easier (who wants to be carting a toddler around in the middle of honking, dangerous traffic?). European cities, many of which are more consciously planned around safe, cargo-laden biking, have much higher raters of women riders.

Of course, I also know some NYC-based badass women bicyclists (Christy Thornton!), who are neither risk-averse, nor lugging babes, so I wonder how they would feel about assumptions like these. Your thoughts?

Thanks to perfectlyskewed for the heads up.

Mark Whicker, a sport columnist at The Orange County Register, had a terrible idea for an article: use the imprisonment, systematic rape, and forced pregnancy Jaycee Dugard was subjected to by Phillip Garrido as an excuse to talk about moments from the last 18 years of sports that Whicker wanted to rant about. Then, Whicker actually wrote this article. Someone actually approved it. And the Orange County Register actually published it. In case you needed evidence of the institutionalization of rape culture.

It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.

Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.

She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while.

She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.

Now, that's deprivation.

Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido's backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.

How long before she fully digests the world she re-enters? How difficult to adjust to such cataclysmic change?

More than that, who's going to explain the fact that there's a President Obama?

I'm sorry, how does any of this, including Obama's presidency, matter in comparison to the hell Dugard was put through by Garrido? In what world is missing events in sports history the relevant "deprivation" Dugard experienced? How can a person write a sentence like this: "I know you've had trouble digesting all this so far, but they also built a basketball arena at USC. Honest to God." You think the building of a basketball arena will be hard for this woman to digest? Seriously Whicker, how clueless are you?

Unsurprisingly, Whicker and The Orange County Register got a lot of negative, outraged feedback on the article. So Whicker issued an "apology."

It was not my intention to do so. But it's obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on those who read, buy and advertise in our newspaper. ...

I'll try to earn back the trust of those customers in my future endeavors.

Whicker is sorry he lost the paper paying customers and probably advertisers? That's what he apologizes for? There's no overstating how messed up Whicker's priorities are. You know we live in an overwhelmingly oppressive patriarchal and misogynist world when Garrido can imprison Dugard for eighteen years and enough people can fail to understand the weight of the sexual and reproductive violence she experienced that both the original article and subsequent "apology" could be published.

Mark Whicker can be contacted at mwhicker@ocregister.com. Contact information for plenty more people at The Orange County Register responsible for the publication of these articles can be found at this page.

h/t to Vanessa's friend Mary Alice.

Previously: Friday Feminist Fuck You: Philip Garrido

South African gold medalist Caster Semenya, who was forced to undergo sex determination testing to continue her running career, has now received a feminine makeover.

After dealing with sex-determination testing, bigoted comments from other athletes, and her family's interrogation by the media, Semenya was determined to be biologically female.

Athleticism is stereotyped as a strictly male trait. The public's discomfort with female masculinity led to the expectation that as a woman, Semenya must compensate for her threatening athleticism with femininity. As Courtney said, "The public's reaction to her performance and body are flash points for our continued discomfort with admitting that the world does not come in such simple dichotomies as we safely like to think it does."

"You" magazine simply changed Semenya to fit the dichotomy. And at the end of the day, women must express femininity as seen on a magazine cover to gain true acceptance.

Related:
Sex-Determination Testing in Track and Field

It's inspiring to see 17-year-old Melanie Oudin kicking ass and taking names at the U.S. Open, isn't it? This powerhouse from Marietta, Georgia is staring down her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

After her latest win over Russian opponent Nadia Petrovato, Oudin told the Times: "Today, there are no tears, because I believed that I could do it. It's like now I know that I do belong here. This is what I want to do, and I can compete with these girls no matter who I'm playing. I have a chance against anyone."

She may have to test her belief against Serena Williams, who is also still in for singles. We'll be watching...

Check out Kai Wright's fantastic article over at The Root about Caster Semenya and the absurdity of what she (and other female athletes) have put through by gender identity testing.

The International Association of Athletics Federations has demanded Semenya, who won the 800-meter gold last week, submit to a sex test; bookies are taking bets on the results. But whatever the IAAF's shameless doctors conclude, the verdict about Semenya is already in--she's a monster. What remains is to determine what type of monster we're gawking at. A hermaphrodite? An intersexual? A genetic boy whose parents raised him as a girl? Or just a mannish woman, after all?

If "science" concludes the latter, Semenya can keep her medal. Her humanity, however, has already been sacrificed to Western culture's desperate, frightened effort to maintain the fiction of binary, fixed gender.

Read the rest.

Courtney also weighed in on the case.

Rena Kanokogi with her gold medal - one she should have won in 1959

The New York Daily News has an interesting profile of a Brooklyn woman who was stripped of her first place medal in judo after judges realized she was a woman competing against men. (And beating them - which I suspect was the real issue.)

[Kanokogi] vividly recalls the moment she took on her opponent in the New York State YMCA judo championships.

She was an alternate, and had to step in when a male team member was injured.

Although women were not explicity barred from the YMCA contests, no female had ever tried to take part. Because her hair was as short as a boy's and she had an athletic build and tape around her breasts, Kanokogi's gender wasn't questioned until she won her fight - and her team won the contest.

She was pulled aside and forced to admit she was a woman or else her teammates would have been stripped of the title.

"It was very demeaning, painful," she said.

Now, fifty years later, the medal that was taken from her in 1959 has been restored. The New York State YMCA gave her the medal last week to make amends, and to honor a lifetime of work on behalf of women and sports: After losing the medal Kanokogi went on to fund the first female judo world championships and worked to get women's judo into the 1988 Olympics.

I promise I'm not just posting this episode of WBAI's Healthstyles because I'm interviewed on it. The awesome Tristin Aaron of the Women's Media Center guest-hosted this show and interviewed me, Jaclyn Friedman, and Jennifer Block - author of the great book Pushed: The painful truth about birth and modern maternity care. Tristin, Jaclyn and Jennifer are some seriously smart and compelling women - so please give a listen.

According to the New York Times, Gold medalist Caster Semenya, a track and field phenom from South Africa, is undergoing sex-determination testing to confirm her eligibility to race as a woman. The testing is being conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport's governing body.

There is plenty of useless speculation and a few fucked up quotations in the article from other athletes:

"These kind of people should not run with us," Elisa Cusma of Italy, who finished sixth, said in a postrace interview with Italian journalists. "For me, she's not a woman. She's a man."

Mariya Savinova, a Russian who finished fifth, told Russian journalists that she did not believe Semenya would be able to pass a test. "Just look at her," Savinova said.

Of course sex can not be determined by looks alone, and gender is not something that we get to decide for others, as Cusma suggests. "These kinds of people" is language taken straight from the bigot's handbook. I think both of these athletes should be asked to do an empathy-determination test, not to mention be schooled in sex, gender, and biology.

Their first reading could be a new book by Gerald N. Callahan, Ph.D.: Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of the Two Sexes. He reports that every year more than 65,000 children are born who aren't obviously either boys or girls. He writes, "In truth, humans come in an amazing number of forms, because human development, including human sexual development, is not an either/or proposition. Instead, between 'either' and 'or' there is an entire spectrum of possibilities.'" The book is really beautifully written, highly accessible, and visionary in its own right. For more on this topic, I also suggest Anne Fausto-Sterling.

The ambiguity of sex may not even be at play with Caster Semenya, but the public's reaction to her performance and body are flash points for our continued discomfort with admitting that the world does not come in such simple dichotomies as we safely like to think it does. My heart goes out to Semenya, who meanwhile has to deal with this shit instead of celebrating her victory and reveling in the moment.

Alice Dreger, a professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University, appropriately, has the last word in the NYT article, and I'll give it to her here as well: "At the end of the day, they are going to have to make a social decision on what counts as male and female, and they will wrap it up as if it is simply a scientific decision. And the science actually tells us sex is messy. Or as I like to say, 'Humans like categories neat, but nature is a slob.' "

Thanks to so many readers for the heads up.

Via OutSports, we find out that Australia's national rugby union team, The Wallabies, have joined forces with gay rugby union club the Sydney Convicts to fight against homophobia. (At left is David Pocock of The Wallabies.)

The campaign - This Is Oz - touts itself as "celebrating diversity and challenging homophobia," and uses its online photo gallery to feature athletes (and everyone else!) holding up messages supporting GLBT rights.

h/t Morgan.

The president of the International Olympics Committee announced yesterday that women's boxing is going to added to the 2012 Olympics in London.

While I'm thrilled about this news, I just don't understand why women ski jumpers have had to struggle so hard to get a spot in the Olympics over the last several years. In fact, a group of women ski jumpers are set to appeal in court in November to the decision made not allowing them to participate in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. You can sign their petition here.

(Random disclosure: I know the woman in the pic on the left, Alicia "Slick" Ashley, and she rocks the house. She volunteered for GGE when I was there, teaching our girls how to box; as a 5'5'' world champ, she made me all the more sure that smaller women can kick ass too. Awesome.)

Contrary to popular belief, a new article in the NYTimes highlights a trend among youth sporting events--girls events tend to draw more crowds and bring in more revenue than boys events.

The article is comparing traveling teams and tournament sporting events, where a number of groups noted that girl's event were more likely to draw parents (and therefore revenue) then boys sports.

As the popularity of youth tournaments has intensified over the past decade, a peculiar trend has emerged: girls' sporting events tend to attract more relatives and generate more revenue for tourism than similar events for boys. And that is drawing increased attention from economic development officials.

...

Although Schumacher said he and others did not keep statistics on the economic impact of girls' sporting events, many of his 500 members nationwide have reported anecdotally that such events are often more lucrative than those for boys. He and others mentioned several possible reasons, including a tendency among parents to be more protective of daughters; a heightened interest in girls' sports; and the increased attendance of mothers at games.

I hope this will inspire more investment in girls sports.

The World Outgames, an LGBT sporting event, was the target of a bombing this week.

A member of the Seattle Frontrunners was injured from shrapnel when an explosive device was thrown onto the track during competition at the World Outgames in Copenhagen.

Dean Koga's right hand was injured and he required stitches after the bomb, believed to be a small incindinary device, exploded right before the start of the men's 4x200 relay at Osterbro Stadium, according to eyewitness reports.

Copenhagen police were criticized by participants for their slow response time - they took 30 minutes to arrive on the scene. Eventually they apprehended one suspect and are looking for another.

Danish police arrested a 31-year-old man caught after tossing the third bomb and charged him with a hate crime, according to Danish media. The suspect was carrying a backpack containing another half-dozen or so bombs, Koga said he was told by the police. The devices that exploded on the track were described as being powerful, about 9 inches in length, with a blue plastic covering and a fuse that was burning after it landed.

Participants and attendees were understandably shocked and frightened by the attack, but the games went on and Koga was back on the track the next day.

This follows another incident earlier in the week when three Outgames attendees were attacked by two men shouting "homo pig."

This violence is a reminder that even a relatively mainstream event like the Outgames is not just a chance for queer folk to have some fun together. It's still a political statement in a world where our communities are faced with such an intense amount of hate.

It is after many years of blogging that I cringe every time another woman is forced through a "trial by media," because she has brought up rape charges, especially when it is against someone that is high profile and loved by all. Our newest example is accusations against Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisberger. He has a lawsuit against him for allegedly raping a woman in a hotel last summer in Lake Tahoe.

Obviously, it would be premature to speculate the outcome of this lawsuit as this story has just out and I have learned that it is best to reserve those judgments for after the facts come out...or don't come out as the case may be. However, the story about the media and it's coverage stays the same. We can still evaluate the way the media portrays women when they bring about rape charges, the extent to which the general public will defend and accept athletes that have been accused (or down right guilty) of sexual assault, sexual abuse and/or domestic violence and lastly, why ESPN has failed to cover the story.

The story has only been out a few days, but people are already asking if she is "woman scorned," or comments on news sites continue to decry that she is "crazy and imagined it." Rape apologists will deny anything that makes their heroes look bad, but the evidence is clear, when a woman brings up a rape lawsuit publicly, she is considered guilty of lying or is deemed "crazy," "delusional" or "money hungry" before given any legal proceedings whatsoever.

Twenty-three year old Giorgia Boscolo just became the first female gondolier after nine centuries of exclusively male rowing in the canal in Venice. Boscolo had to pass a grueling six-month, 400 hour course, but told reporters that she had no fear that she couldn't handle the physicality of the job: "Childbirth is much more difficult." Boscolo is the mother of two.

Her father, also a gondolier, has doubts about her participation in this historically male tradition: "I still think being a gondolier is a man's job, but I am sure that with experience Giorgia will be able to do it easily," he said.

Damn skippy Papa Boscolo. Better get used to waving across the canal at your diesel daughter.

Thanks to Tiffany for the heads up.

The the first woman to work in the pits for Indy 500? Awesome.

An Australian 15-year-old is set on sailing around the world, and in the process, establishing herself as the youngest woman to ever do so. From her website:

Jessica Watson is setting out to become the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the World...Inspired in her turn by Kay Cottee, the first woman to sail solo non-stop unassisted around the world and by Jesse Martin, the youngest person to do so, Jessica Watson has set her sights on shattering Jesse's record. In the process, Jessica hopes to inspire young sailors, adventurers and everyone with a dream in their heart.

From my lil' Brooklyn apartment, this sounds like crazy talk, but I sense that Jessica has the resources to do this safely and that her family and community are behind her. Also from the site:

In her quest, to reach what is considered the absolute pinnacle of sailing Jessica will pit herself against mother nature and all she can deliver including the notorious Southern Ocean as well as the physical and psychological demands of eight months alone at sea. In doing so, Jessica wants to show that even the most gentle among us can achieve great things and with determination and the support of those around us can live our dreams. Jessica hopes that her journey can inspire others to take that first step and be all they want to be.

I'm not sure exactly how Jessica's eight month journey in a yacht around the world is going to translate as inspiration to everyday folks, but I also don't want to hate on her because it sounds like a really difficult and courageous thing to be doing. Always a little too practical for my own good, I just keep thinking: "How much is this shit going to cost?" (That info--surprise, surprise--is not featured on the website.)

Apparently she'll be blogging along the way.

Thanks to Max for the heads up.

Trigger warning.

The University of Tennessee has extended a scholarship offer to Daniel Hood, "Mr. Football" at Knoxville Catholic High School.

Hood certainly has all the athletic credentials: he led Knoxville Catholic to a 15-0 record and a class 3A state title. For his prowess, he got himself 27 scholarship offers from schools across the country. Indeed, Hood's football highlight film on Rivals.com has been watched 17,594 times.

But then schools caught wind of the horrifying details of his 2003 conviction (something they began to refer to as his "character issue"). Hood and an older friend, 17-year-old Robert Sanrico, who is currently serving 10 years in prison, raped and kidnapped a 14-year-old girl (Hood's cousin no less). Excerpts of the court transcript are here, but I warn you that they are highly disturbing.

All 27 of those scholarships disappeared once schools learned of Hood's legal record. But it appears that UT has managed to look past it. "We didn't go about this lightly," UT coach Lane Kiffin said in a statement Tuesday. "We spent a lot of time researching the issue and talking to a lot of people who are well-respected in the community. Everyone spoke very highly of Daniel. He's a very bright young man who wants to move past this incident and be a good representative for the team, the university and the community."

According to UT athletic department director of public relations, Tiffany Carpenter, the victim wrote a letter on Hood's behalf urging the university to admit him.

This is incredibly difficult for me to process. I won't judge Tiffany Carpenter's choice to forgive and even encourage her cousin to move on. I recognize that every person who experiences sexual assault has to heal in her own way. It does make me wonder what kind of support she's gotten through this whole process (this is the only time she's mentioned in the coverage).

But even more, it underscores the ways in which we still don't take sexual assault seriously in this country. I'm not a fan of criminalizing minors, but this incident is so violent and the punishment so lax (Hood went to a rehab center for a short period of time) that I can't help but feel like this kid's football talent has overshadowed any actual rehabilitation and reflection that he sorely needed and still needs to do. No one mentions if he actually got ongoing therapy, if he has gotten involved in sexual assault prevention efforts, or come to any kind of conclusions about why he committed such a dehumanizing crime against his own relative.

Were he not a football player, he would probably be stuck in a dead end job with no respect, no college scholarships, and no opportunities. (Not optimum, by the way. Just truth.) If he were a young man of color, well, we all know that his punishment would have looked far different. Instead, he's a white guy with a natural talent for throwing a pig skin, and as a result, he'll get a free college education and, quite possibly, could make millions in the NFL. All that money and glory will make the heinous sexual assault of his youth seem like a bad dream. I hate that athletic talent is valued more in this society than women's bodily integrity, therapeutic healing from violent crimes for both the perpetrator and the victim, or sexual assault prevention.

Fuck football.

Email Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek at chancellor@utk.edu if you want to express your opinion about this issue.

Thanks to Christina for the heads up.

Correction: It appears that Tiffany Carpenter is the PR rep for UT Athletics, not the victim. This was misreported in one of the pieces I read. Thanks to Regann for the info.

Thought we'd give y'all a little feel good story for the end of the week. Mackenzie Brown was the first female in Bayonne, NJ Little League to throw a perfect game - and against a team of all boys, no less.

She'll get to throw out the first pitch at Citifield (the new baseball field home to the New York Mets that all of my sports fan friends are having a complete fit over) tomorrow when the Mets play the Washington Nationals.

Awesome.

*Also covered by community poster limasbravo!

Should pole-dancing be approved as an Olympic sport? According to the Collette Kakuk, founder of the Pole Dancing Association, yes. She believes pole-dancing should not be marginalized or shamed, but brought into the light as a difficult, healthy and competitive activity that makes you fit.

I guess my question would be, would making pole-dancing an Olympic sport bring to light some of the horrible treatment of exotic dancers and give them a standard wage with some worker rights? Most of the participants in the PDA appear to be white and as the article discusses as a sport, pole-dancing generally attracts middle to upper middle class housewives.

But this is interesting. Thoughts?

(Thanks to Daffodil for the link.)

It's that time of year. Yes, the birds are starting to chirp and the crocuses are peeking their little colorful heads up through the dry, brittle grass. This, I am very excited about. But what has me even more excited at this exact moment is a different kind of spring fever--the college basketball kind. It's March Madness baby and I'm hooked.

Game after game, March Madness means watching hungry, passionate college basketball players give their absolute all to try to stay in the tournament. As if that weren't reason enough to be hooked, it seems like each and ever frickin' game manages to come down to some last minute shot or over time (or series of them). They're all heartbreaking and exhilirating at the same time. The worst is when I actually catch one of those sappy personal profiles on one of the players (like a player for Siena whose dad has MS but makes the eight hour trip to the games anyway). Then his subsequent loss can literally bring me tears.

Yeah, that's right--his. I haven't seen one women's NCAA game.

What is our responsibility as feminist consumers when it comes to women's sports? Am I an asshole for getting so excited about men's March Madness but not making an effort to watch women's games? The path of least resistance is obviously just watching the dudes' games--after all they are publicized, televised, discussed, bet on, and celebrated. But have I just been jumping on the band wagon? Can I get as excited about watching women's basketball without all the ancillary hype?

Thinking out loud here, but would obviously love your thoughts sporty gals...

Oh, and for an incredibly offensive p.o.v. on the subject, check out 670, a Chicago-based radio station. Thanks to reader Matt for the heads up.

So women finally get a national pro women's football league, and in order to participate, they have to wear their skiivies. It's called the Lingerie Football League and tryouts, unfortunately, are coming to a town near you.

As far as I can tell, this is a new project of the assholes who have been bringing us the Lingerie Bowl, a half-time spectacle during the Super Bowl, for the last few years. I wouldn't know because I'm always obsessively watching the Puppy Bowl.

A Denver Post reporter who tries out (and comes off as completely lacking in a feminist consciousness) writes:

Heading into Friday's Denver Dream tryouts, my main question was, "What exactly are the producers looking for: models or athletes?"

It seemed like a logical question for the fledgling enterprise that boldly calls itself the Lingerie Football League and promises to present scantily clad girls in 10 cities battling it out on the gridiron. Would the emphasis be on the football or on the lingerie?

I'd attempted to get an answer from the LFL prior to tryouts but was given a response that would make any PR agency proud: "We've been fortunate to find girls who are athletic yet very beautiful."

Gross all around. This is objectification at it's most pernicious--give women an opportunity to participate in a sport that they haven't had the chance to do for pay and publicly previously, but only let them do it if they're stereotypically pretty and willing to do it in their underwear.

Thanks to Cinnamon for the heads up.

As this Wednesday, February 4th, was National Girls and Women in Sports Day, our friend Nancy Goldstein has a post up on Broadsheet about how the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) has taken a big hit from the recession; teams are being mandated to cut their rosters from 13 to 11 players. Here's a snippet:

It's terrible news whenever any organization eliminates 20 percent of its workforce and people suddenly find themselves unemployed in a weak economy. But as the WNBA struggles, and if it folds, it's taking along something else with it: the hopes of the first generation of Title IX-era female athletes who went through high school and college thinking they might someday actually be able to make a living playing a professional team sport.

The WNBA currently represents the only significant women's professional team sports franchise in the U.S. (The Women's United Soccer Association failed after only three seasons, in 2003, and women's football and softball have never taken off, despite several attempts.) And its inception in 1996 changed the scene for aspiring women athletes.

"For me personally, knowing that the WNBA was there as a possibility made a difference in my goal setting as a high school student, my work ethic as a college athlete and my fulfillment as a professional athlete," says Kara Lawson, 26, who chose to pursue basketball over soccer after the WNBA's inception during her sophomore year of high school. Lawson was one of coach Pat Summit's stars at the University of Tennessee prior to being picked fifth in the 2003 WNBA draft, and is now a point guard for the 2005 WNBA championship Sacramento Monarchs, as well as an analyst for ESPN.

Lawson's comment really resonated with me. It reminded me of when I was the coordinator for a girl's basketball league in Brooklyn - after their season ended, our organization (GGE) brought the girls to see New York Liberty team play, and I've honestly never seen a group of girls look more excited and inspired. So these cutbacks are not only a threat to the very existence to the WNBA, but possibly an even bigger threat to the girls out there that aspire to achieve their best in life by watching their favorite ball players on that court.

On a more positive note for the sports fans - what female athletes inspired you growing up? (Or inspire you now?)

Ugh.

Transcript after the jump.

From The New York Times:

As the wife of a former N.F.L. player with degenerative dementia, Eleanor Perfetto finds herself performing the most basic tasks for her husband, Ralph Wenzel: she feeds him, bathes him and tries to explain all that is happening to him.

She could not, however, attend a meeting Thursday night in suburban Washington between N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell and former players, the third in a series of discussions regarding the later-life care of retirees. As Perfetto tried to enter the room, Goodell told her the meeting was for players only.

But the problem wasn't just that the meeting was for players - it's that it was for men. Goodell told the NYT reporter that women being present could impede the discussion.

Perfetto and the wives of other players with dementia criticized their exclusion, adding their voices to a debate over the care of retired players that has been the subject of two Congressional hearings.

"We wives are the voice of players with dementia, because they can't speak for themselves," Perfetto said. "They are only allowing players healthy enough to attend. That means they're getting a very slanted view of what it's like out there."

So sexism is stopping what could be a comprehensive discussion. Nice. Though I'm betting this isn't just about keeping women out - it's about keeping caretakers out. These women are the ones who know best what is happening to their loved ones - shutting them out isn't just sexist, it's irresponsible.

A guest post from my awesome friend, Kate Torgovnick!

Earlier this year at Bothell High School in Seattle, two photos made their way across the student body via text message. The first featured one of the school's cheerleaders topless; the second showed another cheerleader in the buff. When the school's co-principals found out about the photos, they suspended both cheerleaders from the squad--asking the first to forfeit her pom-poms for 30 days and the second to leave the team for the entire year. Conveniently, the football players who were suspected of circulating the photos weren't punished at all.

Last week, the parents of the two girls decided to sue the school, calling for them to wipe the incident from the girl's permanent records, reinstate them to their positions on the squad, and apologize for not punishing anyone else involved in the incident. "My clients fully realize what they did was stupid," said Matthew King, the lawyer for both families. "But there should have been some punishment meted out to those who were in possession of the photos. It seems the girls are getting the brunt of it."

"When you sign up to be a cheerleader--or for any student activity--you agree to certain codes of behavior," fired back school district spokeswoman Susan Stolzfus. "We consider them student leaders, and we want them to be role models."

Stolfus does have a point. But if these photos were of women in the math club or student council, it's hard to imagine that the photos would have had the same appeal or incurred the same punishment. For anyone who follows cheerleaders in the news--and as the author of CHEER!: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders, I do--this incident sounds remarkably familiar. Remember the Fab Five cheerleaders from McKinney, Texas? They terrorized their school for months, but what seemed to set off an investigation (and national media attention) was them taking photos of themselves fellating penis-shaped candles at a sex store. Or what about the Carolina Panthers cheerleaders who in 2006 were making out in a bar bathroom and got in a fight with another patron who was waiting to use the stall? They were both dismissed from the team after newspapers ran with the story.

So why all the interest in cheerleaders gone wild? Cheerleaders are American icons, up there with the bald eagle and the McDonalds arches--they appear in every city, in almost every high school, which is our culture's lowest common denominator. Think through all of the images of cheerleaders in American pop culture. They fit neatly into two categories: the chaste A-student and the miniskirt-wearing slut. For every squeaky-clean Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell, there's an Ali Larter in Varsity Blues, strolling into a room wearing a whipped-cream bikini. For every Claire on Heroes, whose safety is the key to saving the world, there's some anonymous women in Playboy's video special Cheerleaders and College Girls (not the other way around). Cheerleaders straddle the fault line between virgin and whore. They're a group onto which our culture projects its very complicated beliefs about women--that we can only be one extreme or the other.

So should these teens be punished for taking nude pics? In my opinion, no--they've no doubt learned their lesson. Is it a school's place to punish students for sexual activity? I just don't think so. But what I think schools can and should do is recognize that, so-called "sexting" is something their students are no doubt doing. It couldn't hurt to remind teenagers that a photo they think will be kept private can very easily make the rounds with just a click of a send button. And not everyone bounces back like Paris Hilton.

Women's involvement in sports incites "you go girl" enthusiasm from feminists round the globe. I don't blame them--the image of little ladies running around a soccer field, having fun, or high school athletes gaining a sense of community and tenacity by sweating up and down the basketball court is truly inspiring. I was a serious high school athelte (lacrosse and basketball) and some of my best memories of adolescence take place on the court or the field.

BUT, and this is a big BUT, there is an ugly story that often goes untold. Many young women involved in sports end up disordered--whether over-exercising or under-eating. It's not just in appearance-based sports, like ballet or gymnastics. While researching my book, I found that women involved in cross country running were among the most at risk. In one NCAA survey of college women athletes, 70% reported aspiring to lose their periods. That's not a sign of dedication to your sport, ladies, it's a sign of delusion. Menstruating is one of the first signals of a healthy female body at the college age.

The worst part is that so many coaches and trainers don't know a thing about these issues. Some are downright disasters. I was speaking on a college campus recently and had a couple of young women approach me from the volleyball team, complaining that their coach weighs every single member of the team every Monday. She substitutes the words "big" for unhealthy and "thin" for healthy, and chastises girls who gain weight for any reason. Not. O. Kay.

Sports have the potential to empower and energize us, but we must beware of crossing the line between dedication and disease.

I'm sure most of you have seen the news that Sarah Palin has been appearing with "a small group of high-profile feminists," including Oregon NOW Vice President Linda Klinge and former Ms. magazine editor Elaine Lafferty. (More about that later.)

Rather than focusing on who or what is or isn't feminist, let's just step back and look at the policies Palin stands for. Not the talking points or labels. Let's examine what she's actually saying on the stump this week:

Palin went on to suggest Obama discriminated against women employees in his own Senate office, as opposed to GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

"There is a difference between what Barack Obama says and what he does," she declared. "Out on the stump, he talks about things like equal pay for equal work, but according to Senate records, women on his staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get. What is with that? Does he think that the women aren't working as hard? Does he think they're 17 percent less productive?"

"I know one senator who does pay women equal pay," she added, referring to McCain

It's completely fair to call out Barack Obama for not having more women at the highest (and highest-paid) levels of his campaign. I grant that (and have linked to this point before). BUT beyond the anecdote about their campaign staffs, Palin declines to mention that McCain voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, and supports the right of businesses to discriminate on the basis of gender. This has a much greater impact on American women than what he pays his own staff.

Instead, she said if elected she would pursue policies such as flexibility in labor laws so women could engage in more telecommuting and would push for a tax code "that doesn't penalize working families."

"Working mothers need an advocate, and they will have one when this working mother is working for all of you," she said, as the crowd cheered.

...Except that, again, her running mate has supported paid family leave in theory, but not in practice. Obama has pledged to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, while McCain...

There's a really interesting piece, previewed online but set to appear in this weekend's NYT Play Magazine, about Oregon basketball phenom Jaime Nared. An excerpt:

The story of the kid who's "14 going on LeBron," as Sports Illustrated described the California basketball phenom Demetrius Walker in 2005, is not a new one when the kid in question is a boy. Girl sports prodigies are stock characters, too, though the athletes have tended to be gymnasts, figure skaters or swimmers, kids who excel at what Côté calls "closed sports -- sports in which you learn a very specific skill and competitors don't try to prevent you from performing that skill." Given the post-Title IX explosion in girls' basketball and the emergence of the W.N.B.A., the girl who's 12 going on Candace Parker is just around the corner -- maybe she's already here -- and that's a mixed blessing.

I'm hoping, by the way, that the article's title "Scary, Isn't She?" is poking fun of those who see an athletically gifted teen girl as "scary." Otherwise, I'd like a word or two with the headline writer over at the Times.

While our community bloggers have been doing a fantastic job of covering the sexism during this Olympics season, we find this gem:

One of the most popular sports at the 2004 Games did not give medals out to its participants. Admiring Olympic cheerleaders became a favorite pastime for many who attended the Athens Games, and the cheerleaders' popularity led the Beijing Olympic Committee to put together their own cheerleading squads...

So why can't we see Olympic cheerleaders on television? This is the $100 question that I have been asked several times over the last few weeks, and the answer is? There is no good answer. The only thing I can think is that the IOC and/or NBC received complaints after the cheerleaders' first appearance four years ago (although NBCOlympics.com does feature many photos of the women)....

I don't see what the big problem is. The cheerleaders are there to entertain fans, why can't they also entertain the fans who aren't lucky enough to have a ticket? They have already become very popular with Olympic enthusiasts, so why pretend like they don't exist? We want more! (Emphasis mine)

The answer to your question, sir, is in this very picture that came with the article. Trust me, I'm no hater of cheerleading (I actually almost joined the squad in my Brooklyn high school), but this piece really creeps me out. It's almost turning the lack of cheerleaders at the Olympics as some sort of inherent right to voyeur that's being taken away from the drunk, objectifying fans of the world.

Photo via Getty Images. h/t to Kathryn

As a follow-up to Kayla's community blog post... Reader Anna tipped us off to the fact that the Sydney Morning Herald covered the gold medal victory of Australian women's 4x200 relay swim team with the following illustration:

Anna writes, "Yeah... they just couldn't resist. Even when women are the best in their field they still receive a pejorative term!" As far as I can tell, the caption has since been changed to "The Fab Four." Much better.

(More from Courtney on what it means when we call a woman a "gold-digger.")

In other sexist Olympics coverage, Hoyden About Town highlights this photo accompanying coverage of the Brazilian women's volleyball team. (The Sydney Morning Herald is once again the guilty party.) And this is just... disturbing.

On a more positive Olympic note, colleen on the community blog writes about her love for softball player Jennie Finch.

If you missed the New York Times op-ed this last weekend on the "sex test" at the Olympics game, be sure to read it here. Jennifer Finney Boylan, an English professor at Colby, analyzes the Olympic history of testing whether athletes were "legitimately" female. The Olympic committee's struggle to define female--by chromosome? by secondary sex characteristics? by genitalia?--is a fascinating microcosm of our larger societal struggle. Boylan writes:

Maybe...Olympic officials have to learn to live with ambiguity, and make peace with a world in which things are not always quantifiable and clear.
That, if you ask me, would be a good thing, not just for Olympians, but for us all.

Beautifully, beautifully put.

This story in the NYTimes definitely brings up some interesting debates in the gender and sports arena. Basically the Olympics has a shady history of trying to verify female athletes gender identity. This ranges from forcing the athletes to strip naked and inspected by judges to other varied tests including chromosomal typing and hormone testing.

At first, women were asked to parade nude before a panel of doctors to verify their sex. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, officials switched to a chromosomal test.

For a period of time these tests were mandatory for female athletes (not male ones). The NYTimes article suggests it was due to fears that male athletes would pose as female athletes and have an unfair advantage over their competitors. It seems this has only actually happened once, however, and it was not discovered with any of these tests. For this years Olympic games, a lab is being set up in Beijing that is prepared to investigate any gender-based claims if they arise, as they no longer require these exams of all female athletes.

Wha wha, why are women fighting like big smelly men on the basketball court?

You gotta love writers that try and justify sexism by saying, men are gross, you don't want to be like them anyway. Because it is clear that talented women go into sports, because they want to BE men. Could you think any higher of your own gender?

Nein.

via Scott, this is a truly disgusting story out of my home state:

A fellow student-athlete at Iowa alleged she was sexually assaulted by two football players on October 14, 2007. Within 36 hours of the assault the victim reported the incident to the highest levels of the Iowa Athletic department. Including athletic director Gary Barta, head football coach Kirk Ferentz, associate athletic director Fred Mims, and a faculty member. According to the victim's mother all of these individuals encouraged the victim to allow them to handle an on campus investigation rather than reporting the assault to authorities.

Left to handle the investigation, the mother states Iowa officials did nothing for over three weeks. In fact, one of the alleged perpetrators even moved in three doors down from the victim, and the victim says she was constantly harassed by the men and received no protection from university officials. Ultimately, she contacted the local police on November 5, over three weeks after the assault. This finally prompted an action from Iowa. On November 13, Coach Ferentz announced that the two players charged with sexual assault were suspended. Although he did not disclose why the two men were suspended. This was almost a month after he became aware of the sexual assault allegations.

Scott pointed out to me that this Iowa case sounds a lot like U.S. v. Morrison. In that case -- which went all the way to the Supreme Court -- Christy Bronzkala, a student at Virginia Tech was raped by two football players. The college punished one of the athletes but not the other, and when a state grand jury failed to charge either man with a crime, Bronzkala sued under the Violence Against Women Act. (VAWA initially had a clause that said women could sue their abusers/attackers in federal court. That provision was struck down when Bronzkala lost her case.)

Looking back, the thing that is most striking to me now about U.S. v. Morrison is what a sadly typical tale it is. I mean, just yesterday the SAFER Blog posted on a Clemson football player who -- despite accusations that he punched his girlfriend and threw her down the stairs -- will remain on the team. It becomes so painfully clear, after reading story after story like this, that in 9 cases out of 10, college authorities value their athletes more than the women on their campus.

UPDATE: In a previous version of this post that MovableType must have gobbled up, I also linked to our posts on the DeAnza rape case, and some of Cara's great blogging on this issue -- and put in a plug that you should totally go sponsor her for her blogathon fundraiser to benefit RAINN.

I'm ashamed to admit this is four days overdue. But better late than never. Monday, June 23rd marked the 36th - yes 36th - anniversary of Title IX, the U.S. law stating that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Title IX has been largely associated with the rights of girls and women's to participate in sports in school, but most don't know there's 9 other issue areas that are really important:

• Access to Higher Education
• Career Education
• Education of Pregnant and Parenting Teens
• Employment
• Learning Environment
• Math & Science
• Sexual Harassment
• Standardized Testing
• Technology

In the meantime, check out Courtney's Thank You Thursday to Title IX and all of the wonderful stories in comments of how Title IX affected Feministing readers. Feel free to add more in comments here.

Yes, that's right. Because she kicked ass, parents wanted her off.

The article concerned 12-year-old Jaime Nared, barred by The Hoop [a private Beaverton basketball/sports facility] from playing basketball with the boys team that she had played with since second grade.

The Hoop's decision was prompted by the parents of opposing teams shortly after Jaime embarrassed an opposing team by putting up 30 points. The complaining parents' stated concern was that their sons were not playing as well because they had been taught not to be rough with girls.

Nevermind that according to Nared's coach Michael Abraham, the 6-foot-1 student can more than hold her own: "Listen, she's a girl's girl, but she plays tough. She's no cupcake. She gets knocked down and takes a charge."

The problem is that boys won't be "rough with girls," the problem is that parents would rather use sexism to get a girl kicked off a team rather than see their kids play a fair game.

Watch the video here.

Thanks to all the readers who gave us the heads up on this one!

Shortly after women ski jumpers rallied in Vancouver this winter while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was in town, it looks like they're now filing suit against the Vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 Olympics:

The women ski jumpers say not being included in the Games is a violation of the women's rights under Canada's bill of rights.

The lawsuit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court, says the failure to include a women's ski jumping event in the Games is discriminatory and based on stereotypes of the types of activities suitable for women.

Last year, the women also filed a suit with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who compromised to press the IOC to change its mind. And the Vancouver organizing committee had told the IOC it didn't want to include women's ski jumping because of budget constraints, and the IOC voted in 2006 to not allow women ski jumpers in the Games because the sport hasn't developed enough. Not to mention the International Ski Federation has stated in the past that the sport "isn't appropriate for ladies" and could damage their ovaries and uterus. For reals.

In the meantime, badminton was approved in 1985 by the IOC to be given full-medal Olympic status.

Check out the Let Women Ski Jump in 2010 campaign for more info on this ridiculousness.

...for pushing superficial bullshit onto their players.

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Please...no.

As a skilled instructor guided them, the WNBA's new class of rookies spent part of their orientation weekend learning how to perfect their arcs...It was not Lisa Leslie or another veteran teaching basketball fundamentals but a cosmetics artist brought in by the league last month to teach the rookies how to arc their eyebrows, apply strokes of blush across their cheekbones and put on no-smudge eyeliner to receive the right attention off the court.

As part of the rookies' orientation into life as professional athletes, the WNBA for the first time offered them hour-long courses on makeup and fashion tips.

These courses are part of the WNBA's new effort to market their players more effectively. And, of course, that means focusing on their looks. Marj Snyder of the Women's Sports Foundation, says, "The problem is if only 8 percent of the coverage is on women, and the vast majority of the time we're talking about who they're married to, what clothing they're wearing, what kind of parents they are, there's not much room left to say, 'What a great athlete.' " But instead of fighting back against this superficial focus, the WNBA is embracing it.

Renee Brown, the WNBA's vice president of player personnel, said the league aims to show its players as "mothers, daughters, sisters, nieces and entrepreneurs" and their "womanhood" is important to promote the league.

"You're a woman first," Brown said. "You just happen to play sports. They enjoy dressing up and trying on outfits, where back in the day, everyone just wore sweats.

"Call it what you want. We're just celebrating their womanhood."

So long as "womanhood" means adhering to traditional gender norms. When "womanhood" means being a kick-ass athlete, I guess it's not worth celebrating.

I love me some good news to start the week off with!

Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.

Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later.

Patrick said of the win, "It's a long time coming. Finally... knew there was a good reason for coming to Japan...I want to thank my team, the fans and everyone who supported me."

UPDATE: Reader Krista mentions that Patrick also won in spite of a new rule aimed at the women in Indy car, which says that that lighter drivers have to carry ten more pounds on them. (Of course, the three lightest drivers in car racing are all women.) Patrick responded to this rule last month: "There's no weight limit in football...There's no height limit in basketball...And what about the strength aspect? What are they doing to fix that? As a smaller driver, I have to work harder in that area."

Boxer Laila Ali and BMX racer Kim Hayashi at the Women's Sports Foundation 2007 Annual Salute to Women in Sports.

I love good news. A report by the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport shows that girls are involved in sports in record numbers.

The report outlines research pertaining to the benefits of girls' involvement in sports and physical activity, as well as the barriers that they encounter.

Nicole LaVoi, one of the report's authors, says “The research within the report confirms that many good things are happening when it comes to girls and physical activity. Girls are participating in organized sports more than ever and at all levels -- from organized youth sports, to interscholastic sports and up through Olympic competition."

For more information on women and girls in sports, check out the Women's Sports Foundation.

Check out this great piece from William Wolfrum (who also blogs at the fabulous Shakesville) on the five-year anniversary of Martha Burk’s protest at Augusta National. Give it some love.

No joke.

While the Steelers are getting quite the rep for violence against women as of late, the team managers have turned a blind eye to a player slapping his girlfriend because what he was trying to do "was really well worth it."

While Cedrick Wilson was released from the team for punching his ex-girlfriend on Wednesday night, James Harrison was decidedly okie dokie to stay after assaulting his girlfriend earlier this month.

On March 8, Harrison was charged with assaulting his girlfriend, Beth Tibbot, in her Ohio Township home. According to a police affadavit, Harrison broke down a door, broke Tibbot's cell phone in half as she attempted to call 911, then slapped her face with an open hand, knocking off her glasses. He was charged with simple assault and criminal mischief and faces an April 3 preliminary hearing before a magistrate in Bellevue.

When the team was questioned as to why one player is being released while the Harrison isn't, they replied that violence against women should basically be condoned on a case-by-case basis:

In Harrison's case, Rooney [team chairperson] said the player was trying to take his son to be baptized.

"What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it," Rooney said of Harrison's initial intent with his son. "He was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn't want to do it."(Emphasis mine)

Beating a woman up is okay as long as it's "well-intentioned"! When the team was accused of condoning Harrison's actions, they released a statement saying: "To clarify the comments made earlier regarding the conduct of our players, in no way do we condone domestic violence of any kind. . . Each incident must be considered on a case-by-case basis. In the situation with James Harrison, he contacted us immediately after his incident and has taken responsibility for his actions." Not too convoluted, huh?

The Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh is attempting to reach out the Steelers about giving the players training on intimate partner issues. In the meantime, email the Steelers or call their administrative offices at 412) 432-7800 and tell them that condoning violence against women in any case is not okay.

Thanks to Breanna for the link.

Contributed by Sarah Murray, Women’s Sports Foundation

The party is ON in Vancouver at the end of the month. The women’s ski jumping consortium is hosting a....ummmm….rally of sorts for Jacque Rogge and his International Olympic Committee (IOC) cronies who will be in town for a Coordination Committee meeting.

The IOC continues to deny women the opportunity to compete in ski jumping on the Olympic level, despite support for inclusion by the Canadian Olympic Committee, the International Ski Federation (FIS) and every upright walking human who has bothered to pay attention to the issue. Not surprisingly, the IOC’s decision making Executive Committee is made up of 14 men and just one woman. The FIS, in contrast, actually voted 114 to 1 to recommend the inclusion of women. (Was the Devil’s Advocate allowed to vote? Actually, the one dissenting vote came from the representative from Switzerland – headquarters of the IOC.)

The IOC has dished out a heap of lame excuses for why they won’t allow women to jump, including: not enough global participation, and “technical merit,� calling women out for not being strong enough skiers. Truth be told, there are 142 female ski jumpers from 16 countries registered with the FIS, competing internationally. As for “technical merit,� it’s hogwash! Women are absolutely killing it in ski jumping! Lindsey Van, a member of the U.S. team set the 90M hill record for the exact jump that will be used in Vancouver by jumping 105.5 meters. The record for men on that same jump is currently 99 meters. As sweet as that fact is, the point is not about who jumps farther. Equity and justice shouldn’t hinge on performance. How about adding the sport because it’s the right thing to do?

If you live near Vancouver, check out wwsj2010.com to find out how you can join the rally. Or, if you can’t attend, go to the site and help the gals out by signing their online petition to the IOC. They’re looking to get 5,000 signatures before the end of the month. Better yet, strap on some ski and go learn how to jump!

Athletes for Equality will be at the Vancouver Art Museum plaza, Sunday Feb 24 1pm, with a 2pm press conference to follow.

Especially in sports, out of all things. Come on now, little ladies!

A Kansas Roman Catholic high school banned a female referee from officiating a boy's basketball game because as a woman, and shouldn't be put in an authority position over the boys. Yes, really.

The good thing is that Official Michelle Campbell has support behind this ridiculousness; her fellow male ref walked out with her in protest when the school told her to leave, and the Activities Association is considering banning the school itself from playing in games.

The school is operated under the Society of St. Pius X, which has the following under their "FAQs":

'Feminism refuses the true nature of woman, confuses the natural and supernatural relations between the sexes and embarks upon a deviant path at the end of which the suicide of thought and the death of womanhood is inevitable,' Father Leo Boyle answered.

On whether a wife should be submissive to her husband: 'Husbands will consequently take responsibility and leadership, even when they feel inadequate, and wives will take delight in denying their own will and obeying their husbands,' Father Peter R. Scott answered.

Hmmm...suicide of thoughts or denying of will - I vote for deviancy!

In my not so humble opinion, I think that sports are pretty homoerotic. People can decide if they want to agree with that or not, but watching men talk about or watch sports tends to border on homosocial, but oftentimes homosexual tension. So for those of us that already kind of know that, the thought of two men kissing at a sporting event wouldn't shock us, but it wouldn't revile us either. However, lest we forget, given homophobia's strong hold on so much of the country, there are other people that are not as comfortable.

Take this for example. This is a picture of two men embracing after a tough sporting event, where they came out victorious. Now, to be real, they are not kissing, just excited that they won. It is a tense moment that is full of complicated emotions. But this picture caused a controversy, because readers Courier-Journal (in Kentucky) consider it inappropriate.

Some of the comments registered by angry, offended and/or baffled readers: "Awful," "an embarrassment," "horrible decision," "poor judgment," "distasteful," "a mystery" and "shame on you."

I have to admit I was a little baffled by the response. Aren't sports the province of the ubiquitous fanny pat? Aren't players in each other's faces all the time during athletic matches? Yes and yes. So what's a little game-time hug in that universe?

Well, apparently this photo crossed a line for some readers, some of whom demanded an apology and/or an explanation.

It is interesting how gray the space between what is considered an motivational pat on the ass and "inappropriate" touching. I think it is OK to acknowledge that these different types of behavior can be relational to each other. But given the context of homophobia, it is hard to break out of what is considered acceptable "straight male" behavior. I think this is one of the reasons it is difficult for players to come out as gay for fear of being deemed too inappropriate to still be a respectable athlete.

Thanks to Maz for the linkage.

You may remember the horrendous story from The New York Times about how female Jets fans are routinely harassed and abused at Giants Stadium:

At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.

When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men. (Emphasis mine)

Charming, right? Well it seems that maybe (maybe) something will get done about it.

Dennis Robinson, who recently became chief executive of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (which is responsible for Giants Stadium security), has blocked access to the stadium ramps where the majority of harassment takes place and is considering long term measures such as limiting alcohol sales. Yeah, I'm sure that will go over well.

While it's great that steps are being taken, there's no easy fix to change the sexist sports culture and mob mentality that breed harassment and assault against women. Any ideas?

It is not exactly shocking that sporting events tend to be laced with sexist actions, specifically, the mob mentality that seems to proliferate when a group of men get together and get *really* excited about their team. Big sporting events are one of the times you get a nice vivid play by play of the ways that sexism, nationalism, homo-eroticism and woman-hate all go hand in hand together. So although this story is not exactly shocking, it is disgusting.

At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.

When one woman appeared to be on the verge of obliging, the hooting and hollering intensified. But then she walked away, and plastic beer bottles and spit went flying. Boos swept through the crowd of unsatisfied men.

The mood of previous Gate D crowds — captured on video clips posted on YouTube — sometimes bordered on hostile, not unlike the spirit of infamously aggressive European soccer hooligans. One clip online shows a woman being groped by a man standing next to her.

Lovely.

via NYTimes.

Women's Sports Foundation founder Billie Jean King and figure skater Michelle Kwan, recipient of the 2007 Billie Jean King Contribution Award.

So I forgot to mention this, but last week I got to go to the 2007 Annual Salute to Women in Sports--an event given by the Women's Sports Foundation. It was frigging awesome.

I didn't realize how much work the Women's Sports Foundation--which was founded by Billie Jean King--does for women athletes. They even fund the fabulous Girls for Gender Equity, where Vanessa used to work.

The event, which I had to get all shmancy for, featured this incredible Grand March of Athletes--where women from over 50 sports took to the stage, including Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Gretchen Bleiler, Michelle Kwan and Laila Ali. It was super inspiring, and even got me a little teary-eyed at times.

I think I'm so used to thinking of women's sports in relation to Title IX and assholes who are trying to dismantle it, that I forget how incredible and positive the stories of so many women athlete are.

So, dear readers, who is your fave female athlete? Mine right now is Anne Marie Saccurato cause she sat at my table during the dinner and was just generally bad-ass.

I am shamefully late on writing about this and I meant to write about this two weeks ago when the Wimbledom actually ended, but, ey, better late than never. I will be honest I don't know much about sports, but I always watch Serena and Venus Williams play tennis. First of all, because of how they have made history by overcoming serious odds and making it in a sport that has been historically dominated by white people. Also because of the nasty way that the media has covered them in the past and how they may disappear, but always come back, defy the media and whooop some butt. This clip of Serena at Wimbledon still has me tearing. I just had to share.

Serena unfortunately lost in the quarter final. Venus, on the other hand, ended up winning the tournament as the lowest ranked player to ever win Wimbledon.

Seriously, inspiring.

This weekend marked the 35th anniversary of Title IX being passed. Check out this HuffPo ode to the law.

Let's also not forget the other areas surrounding Title IX that are generally overlooked by the media (because sports is, ya know, more gripping?): sex discrimination within higher and career education, employment, math and science, technology, learning environment, standardized testing, education for pregnant and parenting students, and sexual harassment.

Happy Anniversary, Title IX!

Here's some cool women-in-sports news:

A rookie fresh from the minors is about to change the face of baseball: A female umpire is set to work a major league exhibition game for the first time in almost 20 years.

Ria Cortesio, ready to start the season in Double-A, will be on the bases Thursday for a game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs in Mesa, Ariz.

"I'm looking forward to it," she said Monday night. "There will be a lot more people in the stands than I'm used to."

No female umpire has ever worked in the majors during the regular season. Pam Postema was the last woman ump to call big league exhibitions, back in 1989 - she was in spring training for two years before getting released.

Cortesio, 30, is the only female umpire in professional baseball.

The Canadian International Football Association has supported a decision made at a Quebec match in which an 11-year old Muslim girl was removed for wearing her hijab.

The reason behind the ban was that according to national rules, a player is restricted to just a shirt or jersey, shorts, socks and kicks. How a hijab (specifically a headscarf) actually interferes in a match is unbeknownst to me.

The team forfeit in protest after the girl was dismissed from the game, and understandably. Prohibit an 11-year old from playing a sport for her hijab? Just fucked up.

Wimbledon was the only grand slam tennis event not to pay men and women equally. Those days are over. Sweet.

On a somewhat (ok, not really) related note. I heart Paul Bettany SO bad.

The ladies of the slope are finally taking the leap. Let’s hope that will soon be literally as well as figuratively.

Almost exactly a year ago, I covered the infuriating reality for professional women ski jumpers; ski jumping is the only Olympic sport that women aren’t allowed to compete in because it’s apparently not “appropriate for ladies� and could potentially (but not really) damage their ovaries and uterus. (And I thought it was the woman who controls her own body...) Well, it looks like women ski jumpers are finally mobilizing to get in the game.

They have filed complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission on the basis that not allowing them to jump is gender discrimination, which should be prohibited at a venue that’s being constructed with millions of Canadian money. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are now saying the reason is that there aren’t enough pro female ski jumpers to compete in the games, but female ski jumpers say it’s a crock.

While there are predictions that the complaint won’t amount to much considering the fact that the IOC had already made its decision, I have hopes; after all, it is Canada.

For Super Bowl Sunday yesterday, Susanna Gagnier pitched her new book titled Putting on the Blitz: The Football Book for Women, which seems more like advice on how to impress men rather than actually learn the ins and outs of the sport.

It includes ways to make watching football “romantic,� and claims that knowing about football will create a serious bond between your man and yourself. (Given that you’re straight and that he actually likes football.) Single? You’ll better understand how the “big tough male psyche� works and land yourself a man!

One thing I found interesting was her contention that football allows men to actually step out of their gender role rather than breed what some believe is a hyperaggressive, heteronormative masculinity:

In fact, Suzanna reports that research studies have found that although society requests men to be tough and emotionally unexpressive, one of the few places a guy can express his emotions is during a football game.

‘Yes, it's true,’ she says, ‘on the football field and when watching a football game, men can hug, and dance, they can cheer and jump for joy, and even cry tears of sadness. It's remarkable to watch. It turns out, during a football game, whether a man is playing the game, watching it from the stands, or watching it in his own living room, men are free to express every emotion possible.’

So now it’s a safe haven for masculine-free behavior? I dunno about that. Thoughts?

Contributed by Courtney E. Martin

The New York Times reported on Sunday that communities in the Binghamton, NY area are booing a court ruling that requires the area cheerleaders to shake their moneymakers for female sports teams as well as male.

In fact, half the squad at Whitney Point High School dropped out when the news hit, and the remaining eight, the Times reports, “now awkwardly adjust their routines…�Hands Up You Guys� becomes “Hands Up You Girls.� Amanda Cummings (yeah, the last name is brutal), the cheerleading co-captain, explained, “It feels funny when we do it.�

Excuse me if I’m not moved by the difficult struggle to change one word in a frickin’ cheer and excuse me further if I believe that “feeling funny� is probably the sign of long overdue progress.

According to my good friend who is researching a book on college cheerleading, Kate Torgovnick (some of you may recognize her as a former Jane editor), these women don’t just stand around and look cute anymore. Cheerleading can be a physically demanding and emotionally grueling sport.

So why, may I ask, would cheerleaders not be down to support their fellow lady killers who put it all on the line in other sports? You’d think that watching their friends and peers box someone out or sink a mean baseline shot would be inspiring, not grounds for turning in their pompoms.

Well this is just lovely.

A Tennessee teen has filed a lawsuit after she was dismissed from a weightlifting class--the principal of her school removed her, saying he was afraid the male students might try to rape her. Seriously.

[Then-prinicpal Bob] McCracken said in a deposition that he was afraid [Ambrea] Phillips might be sexually assaulted in the class.

"Having a female with 35 or so male students in an isolated area from the school, it sets a very liable situation in my opinion," McCracken said in the deposition.

Three days after kicking Phillips out of the class, McCracken changed his mind and reinstated her.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley asked [school attorney Arthur] Knight if the principal was wrong in removing Phillips from the class.

"She is up there with a bunch of football players, a 24- to 25-year-old coach, the only girl — there is a safety issue there. It was a hard call for the principal to make," Knight answered.

Okay, assuming that the fear of rape was actually the principal's reason for removing the student (which I really don't know that it was), then why punish the potential victim rather than the potential rapists? By the way, it seems kind of terrible that this prinicipal has such a low opinion of young men--does he think any group of guys presented with a woman will just go into rape-mode? Disgusting.

Mike Newell, manager of the UK’s Luton Football Club, verbally attacked a woman official on Saturday simply for being a women. When football official Amy Rayner made a call that Newell wasn’t happy with, Newell commented at the post-match press conference:

“It is bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have but if you start bringing in women, you have big problems. . .This is Championship football. This is not park football, so what are women doing here? It is tokenism, for the politically-correct idiots. . . I know that sounds sexist but I am sexist, so I am not going to be anything other than that."

Newell publically apologized to Rayner today, conveniently on the same day that Luton has called an emergency board meeting to discuss his status. Let’s hope they can his misogynist ass.

This is pretty fucking terrifying.

But the 40-year-old former heavyweight champ promised an entertaining show Friday night when he launches the "Mike Tyson's World Tour" in Youngstown.

At a news conference at an Italian restaurant, Tyson said he would likely go just four rounds and that future stops on the tour might include bouts with women, possibly professional boxer Ann Wolfe.

Wolfe, from Waco, Texas, is 21-1 with 15 knockouts.

"She's such a prominent, dominant woman in the boxing field," Tyson said.

When asked if he was joking about fighting women, Tyson said, "I'm very serious."

As Zuzu points out, not only is this completely nasty because of Tyson's history of domestic violence and sexual assault, but it also ignores a little thing called weight class.

Wolfe's promoter Russ Young, said, "No state would sanction that. She would be outweighed by 60 to 70 pounds. Ann would never entertain the idea."

But, Tyson implores, "It's all fun." Clearly.

Oh, and if you're not content getting beat up by Tyson for charity, you can now be the lucky girl who gets to pay to have sex with him.

From the Eagle Tribune:

Gloucester High School field hockey player Jill Lukegord is yet another casualty of the death of common sense. She is a casualty of the logical consequences that follow from blindly bowing to the gods of political correctness.

Holy shit? Did this young field hockey player die in some horrible PC accident?

...Lukegord broke her finger last week in a game when she collided with another player - Adam Izzicupo of Saugus. "He ran me over and then threw me to the ground," she said. Yes, Izzicupo is a male. He was the only male in the game. He is one of just three male field hockey players in the entire Northeastern Conference. And he wasn't breaking any rules.

Via Nerve.

A new study says that the length of a woman's ring finger "could be an easy way to tell if she has future sports potential." Obviously.

Researchers at King's College London conducted a study of 607 adult female twins in the U.K., comparing finger measurements with a woman's achievements in sports.

They found that women with ring fingers longer than their index fingers — a trait commonly seen in men — performed better at running and sports involving running, such as tennis and soccer.

File this under...huh?

I was glad to see that The Associated Press is covering the growing popularity of roller derby, but I was kind of annoyed by one thing...

“Girls in skimpy outfits crashing into each other has an appeal,� said Emily Rems, the managing editor of Bust, a women’s pop culture magazine in New York. “There is a kind of Amazonian aspect to it, and the new roller girls enjoy that and embrace it. They’ve taken control of their image.�

Couldn't they have gotten a better quote from BUST? I mean, the rest of the piece talks about the sport in a more serious way, but the one quote from a feminist magazine has to talk about skimpy outfits? I know, there's no pleasing me these days.

A group of Irish women boxers are looking to participate in the Olympics, but skeptics are being douchey about the idea.

But former world flyweight champion Dave Boy McAuley, from Larne in County Antrim, has his doubts.

Flat noses, cauliflower ears and possible brain damage - it's a tough, rough sport, he said, and women just are not built for it.

...But to Dave 'Boy' McAuley, women boxing is a step too far.

"It is a tough, rugged sport, punches are not vitamins, women are not built to take that sort of punishment," he said.

Unless it's domestic violence of course. Sorry, not ok.

But Anya Norman, who works with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, calls bullshit.

" Girls have not been out of boxing, they have had a pause since the 20th Century, we had female boxing in the Olympics in 1904," she says.

Norman hopes that the 2012 Olympics will step up...as do we.

I interviewed her before she headed out for Chicago to participate in the Gay Games back in July.

I just heard from her, and there's good news and there's bad news. Bad news, first. Nancy never made it out to Chicago because her oldest brother was diagnosed with lung cancer in June. In addition, Nancy also wanted to participate in the first World Outgames in Montreal, and because of financial restraints, Nancy chose to compete in Montreal.

Good news. She just got back and she won 2 gold medals! One gold for the Women's Grand Master's Division (ages 45-59), and the other gold for the Overall Women's Master's division (ages 35-59). Alright!

Just in case any manly-men out there were feeling threatened by racecar driver Danica Patrick's Rookie of the Year status and admirable fourth-place finish at the Indy 500... Not to worry! Deep down, she's a girly-girl.

That's right. Patrick is the spokeswoman for Secret deodorant, which is apparently now strong enough for a woman who allows herself to be packaged and sold as a nonthreatening feminine ideal who happens to drive real fast. Proctor and Gamble must have offered her an amazing amount of money, because prior to inking her deal to represent Secret, Patrick made a point of not endorsing beauty products, choosing instead to lend her name to ads for antifreeze, windshield wipers and washer fluid.

Today she's an advertiser's dream: A properly feminine sports heroine.

Other sports marketers agree, ticking off Patrick's attributes as if she herself were the product. She can be sexy, of course. But she also can project wholesomeness, an extension of the high school cheerleader she once was. She's 24, but her petite size and playful nature help her relate to children (see "Danica Divides Decimals" in Scholastic Math magazine).

Secret has made the "product" interactive by creating an advergame -- a recent marketing trend that brilliantly combines advertisements and video games, two media that are particularly good at objectifying women. Today it launched "Danica's Secret 500 Challenge," in which Patrick will "show the boys who's boss."

I'm torn. I don't think women should have to adopt stereotypically masculine attributes in order to be taken seriously as athletes, and I think it's great that Patrick is proud of her more traditionally feminine qualities. But those qualities seem to have been exaggerated by marketers to the point where she's a caricature, almost a dippy cheerleader who's just hanging out in the garage with the boys. Thoughts?

Today marks the opening day of Gay Games VII in Chicago, Illinois. More than 12,000 members of the global lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community from 70 countries will be taking part in the Games all week. And Nancy Brigham, 49, of the San Francisco team will be one of them, competing in the women’s bodybuilding/master physique portion of the Games for women ages 40-49.

Nancy won a gold medal in Sydney in 2002, and is looking for another gold this year. She’ll be competing on Tuesday. So if you’re in the area, give the girl some support! The closing ceremony is Saturday, July 22.

And when Nancy is not at the gym training, she’s at Brigham’s Therapeutic Massage. The private practice she founded in 1988.

Here’s Nancy…

From Ed Carpenter, an IRL driver four slots below driver Danica Patrick:

"I think Danica's pretty aggressive in our cars...I mean, you know especially if you catch her at the right time of the month."

Who knew being on the rag would help you on the road?

Thanks to Mike for the link.

Check out this great interview with Jemele Hill, the only black female sports columnist found in a survey done by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

Hill says that she has "pretty much heard every racist and sexist insult there is." Make sure to check out the whole thing.

With the U.S. Women’s Open kicking off today, it looks like there’s a new theme that’s attracting the audience this year: fashion. Ooh ooh, I got a joke. What does fashion have to do with golf? Nothing, but we’re talking about women’s golf, silly!

While I’ve always personally wanted an excuse to wear argyle socks (and don’t you just love the word “knickers�), this new style of fashion described is not-so-original and a wee “slutified� -- the three descriptors from the article that stand out in my mind are “mini-skirts,� “tight tops� and “pink.� (There’s also the “funky headscarves,� but that’s more cheesy than anything.)

Don’t get me wrong; I love short, tight gear and rock it all the time. But it really gets my knickers (a different meaning this time) in a twist when focus is put on the athletes' sexual appeal or something so stereotypically "female" as fashion to legitimize a women's sport.

Thoughts?

Cause what's a little domestic violence compared with America's favorite pastime?

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, 25, has been charged with assault and battery after he assaulted his wife in front of numerous witnesses.

Courtney Knight, 26, who witnessed the alleged attack at 900 Boylston St. with two friends, said in a telephone interview that Myers seemed "really angry."

"He was dragging her by the hair and slapping her across the face," Knight said. `"She was yelling, `I'm not going to let you do this to me anymore.' "

Knight said the 6-foot-4 -inch, 240-pound ballplayer dwarfed his wife, whom police report at 5 feet 4 inches and 120 pounds.

"She's a real small girl," Knight said. "It was awful."

Knight said Myers was undeterred by the presence of her and her friends.

"He had her on the ground," Knight said. "He was trying to get her to go, and she was resisting. She curled up and sat on the ground. He was pulling her, her shirt was up around her neck. . . . He could have cared less that we were there."

Nice guy, huh? But here's the best part.

Mike Teevan, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said the league has no policy requiring suspension of players charged or convicted in domestic violence cases.

"We're obviously very concerned about it," Teevan said. "But it was an off-field incident and it's the player's private life. We're going to let the legal system run its course."

His private life? He beat the shit out of his wife in the middle of the street. That's fucking assualt, not his "private life."

John McEnroe has come out in support of equal prize money for men and women at Wimbledon.

"There should be no argument when they are at the same event at the same time, that there should be equal pay," McEnroe said during a teleconference arranged by U.S. broadcaster NBC.

..."The opportunities that are being given to young girls and the thought that they can be in position where they can make as much money as a man, which doesn't really happen in any other sport, sends a good message," McEnroe said.

"I have to point to (former tennis champion, women's tour pioneer and equal-pay campaigner) Billie Jean King, because if it weren't for her, these girls wouldn't have that money in the first place."

I heart him.

Bringing attention to the previous post is appropriate, as today marks the 34th anniversary of Title IX being passed into law.

While most assume assume that the law is solely related to sex discrimination within athletics in schools, there are a number of other Title IX areas that are often overlooked. This includes sex discrimination within higher and career education, employment, math and science, technology, learning environment, standardized testing, education for pregnant and parenting students, and sexual harassment.

While athletics is an area that needs just as much attention as the others, we need to recognize that this law is not just about sports. Title IX is about finding a safe place that all youth need to feel comfortable and capable within their educational environments.

Happy Anniversary, Title IX!

A teenage girl in Germany was recently forced to strip by police in a semipublic area so that she could be searched for weapons. Blogger Lyssa, who alerted me to the story, says that the teen sued but "the court decided that it was perfectly legitimate to let a 17-year-old hop around with her knickers twisted around her knees to prove that she didn't pose a threat to the football match."

Lovely.

Check out Lyssa's full post on the story here.

A teenage girl in Germany was recently forced to strip by police in a semipublic area so that she could be searched for weapons. Blogger Lyssa, who alerted me to the story, says that the teen sued but "the court decided that it was perfectly legitimate to let a 17-year-old hop around with her knickers twisted around her knees to prove that she didn't pose a threat to the football match."

Lovely.

Check out Lyssa's full post on the story here.

In a post-Title IX world, with more and more women playing college sports, universities are trying to figure out what to do when female athletes get pregnant. Current policies are all over the place.

Some agreements protect the scholarships of pregnant players for at least a year and require the athletes to notify their coaches as soon as they learn they are pregnant. Other policies state bluntly that if a player becomes pregnant, she will be dismissed from her team.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the NCAA's bylaws state that an athlete is allowed a sixth year of eligibility if she becomes pregnant (even though I couldn't find any mention of pregnancy in the bylaws). However, the NCAA also allows colleges to strip scholarships from athletes who voluntarily withdraw from their sports. But is pregnancy a "voluntary withdrawal"? I'm guessing that if a woman is a committed college athlete, her pregnancy probably isn't planned. Sure, having sex is voluntary. But so is playing a pick-up game of basketball. And if athletes suffer injuries during a pick-up game, they're still eligible for "medical redshirt" status.

Which is how college athletic departments should deal with pregnancy -- the same way they deal with injuries that require months of recuperation. A woman shouldn't have to choose between continuing her pregnancy and keeping her athletic career, even though getting pregnant (while it's often an accident) and blowing out your knee aren't exactly the same thing.

One advocate suggests that colleges form support groups for pregnant athletes, to offer guidance and then ease the transition back to the playing field after she's given birth. In essence, granting this type of medical redshirt would be more like allowing maternity leave. Sounds good to me. Like it or not, college athletes, at least at major universities, are employees. They're paid (in the form of scholarships and perks) in exchange for their "work" for the university. So bring on the maternity redshirt!

While I must admit I couldn’t help giggling when this columnist told golf prodigy Michelle Wie, “You go, girl!�, at least he pointed out the lack of support and respect that she should be getting from fellow professional golfers.

U.S. Open Champion Michael Campbell was asked last week about Wie being given a sponsor’s exemption to play against men in a European Tour event this coming fall. He replies:

"I can go two different ways with this question. I can be politically correct and say it's wonderful to see Michelle Wie at a European Tour event and promote it. Or I could say she's got to prove herself that she can win on the women's tour before she can have a chance to play on the men's tour. . . Michelle Wie is obviously a wonderful talent, but she needs to prove herself."

Of course, because women need to go that extra mile to prove that they’re “just as good as the guys.� Ugh.

As if yesterday's post on the asshats that were dressed like Duke lacrosse players at Beta Breakers chanting "No means yes," was not enough, this just troubles me so much further. The women's lacrosse team of Duke is planning on wearing bracelets saying, "innocent" in their game against Northwestern. The complex system of issues this brings up for me is profound, but when it comes down to it, all I can think is how stupid of them. This is indeed the type of solidarity that often makes our culture intolerable for me.

via AP.

In a show of solidarity with the Duke University men’s lacrosse team, members of the school’s women’s team plan to wear sweatbands with the word “Innocent� written on them.

The university canceled the rest of the season for the highly ranked men’s team because of a woman’s complaint she was raped in March at a team party where she had been hired to strip.

The women’s plan to wear sweatbands on their arms or legs was reported Wednesday by The Herald-Sun of Durham. The teams plays Northwestern in the NCAA semifinals Friday.

The university has no objection to this, but you know damn well if they were wearing armbands reading, "Kill those Nazi rapists," they would. But really, this is not only an example of how (white in this case) women are complicit in their own oppression but also involved in the silencing and vicitimization of women of color. I mean they are making themselves look so stupid to stand in solidarity with accused rapists. Have gender relations in upper middle class white world shifted such a small bit? I mean really?

Would David Usher tell us this is an example of feminism "taking over" Duke? My head spins in horror.

Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols basketball team, is the first woman coach to break the $1 million mark in her contract.

The new agreement raises Summitt’s total compensation package to $1.125 million for the 2006-07 season and an average of $1.3 million for the life of the contract.

...Summitt just completed her 32nd season as the Lady Vols coach. She surpassed the 900-victory plateau and currently stands as the winningest coach in Division I with 913 victories.

Sweet.

And not the cute kind either.

In celebration of Mother’s Day, Major League Baseball players will be using pink baseball bats for a week-long program to raise money for breast cancer.

Derek Jeter, David Eckstein and Marcus Giles are among dozens of players who intend to try them Sunday. This is the first time pink has been approved for bats — dyed at the Louisville Slugger factory, they're usually black, brown, reddish or white.

Kevin Mench was among several Texas players who wanted their mother's names burned on the bats. The Rangers slugger, who homered in seven straight games earlier this season, also planned to have a bat for his grandmother, who died from breast cancer.

That’s really sweet.

Louisville Slugger president John Hillerich said "the thought of these big macho men, swinging pink bats to help women with breast cancer ... what a novel idea.� Whatever, pink is totally macho.

While Iranian women have been fighting for the right to attend soccer games for some time, it looks like pressure from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reversed the decision.

Last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that he would allow women to attend sports events (but sitting in a separate section of the stands) because their presence would “promote chastity.� However, Ayatollah’s status stands above the president’s, which led Ahmadinejad to reverse his decision.

This comes just a month before the national team plays in the World Cup.

Sigh.

Violet Palmer, one of the NBA’s first female referees, is set to be the first woman to officiate an NBA playoff game.

For Palmer, 33, working the playoffs is a goal she has been working toward for years.

"I wasn't sure I could reach it," Palmer said. "I knew I had the ability but this is the top of the pedestal for me."

The prize money at Wimbledon this year will be to $1.17 million for the men’s champion and $1.1 million for the women’s.

Wimbledon is the only grand slam tennis event not to pay men and women equally.

I don't know, I actually prefer women only gyms too. These women in Dearborn, Michigan had joined Fitness USA because they promised certain days would be women-only (many of them don't feel comfortable working out in their headscarves, but feel more uncomfortable working out without them in front of men, understandably). They have recently taken issue with the gym's new policy that no longer provides gender segregated days to work out.

So far, about 200 Muslim women with Fitness USA memberships have signed a petition asking the chain to return to gender-specific days for the entire gym or to put up a divider so men and women can't see each other while working out.

Though Islam is guiding their concerns, Saidi and other Muslims stress that people of other faiths, including Christians and Orthodox Jews, share similar concerns. Moreover, with the Islamic population growing, Muslims argue it makes good business sense for local companies to accommodate their faith.

Like other local Muslim women, Saidi said she joined Fitness USA last year because managers repeatedly made verbal promises that there would be gender-specific workout days at some of the facilities.

I would be pretty pissed if I was on contract based on an agreement that was not upheld, especially if it was a religous or cultural belief. I could just see the gym folks being like, "what's the big deal?"

via Detroit Free Press.

Give it up for Effa Manley, the first female Baseball Hall-of-Famer. She co-owned a Negro League team with her husband, and ran the business end of the team for more than a decade.

Manley used baseball to advance civil rights causes with events such as an Anti-Lynching Day at the ballpark. She died in 1981 at age 84.

"She was a pioneer in so many ways, in terms of integrating the team with the community," said Leslie Heaphy, a Kent State professor on the committee. "She's also one of the owners who pushed very hard to get recognition for Major League Baseball when they started to sign some of their players."

Awesome.

Being a big ski lover, I was pretty pissed when I saw this shit. For some odd reason, ski-jumping is the only Olympic sport that women aren’t allowed to compete in.

Siblings Alissa and Anders Johnson are two of the best ski-jumpers in the world. Alissa is ranked ninth among the top female jumpers, which is 141 spots higher than her brother in the men’s ranking. However, it’s her little 16-year old bro that is training for the Olympics, and not her.

So why can’t she join her brother, who has repeatedly said that Alissa is the better athlete? Gian-Franco Kasper, head of the International Ski Federation, had a pretty explanatory answer:

"Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women. Don't forget, [the landing] it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters to the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

And it only gets worse. The reasons given to Alissa were a bit more in detail:

"So far, we've been told every excuse in the book. That it's too 'dangerous' for girls. That there aren't enough of us. That we're not good enough. That it would damage our ovaries and uterus and we won't be able to have children, even though that's not true. It's so outdated, it's kind of funny in a way. And then it's not."

Oh, so that’s why it’s “medically inappropriate”! It’s more appropriate for a lady to become a mommy than to become the best female ski-jumper in the world.

Sigh.

Well half the peopled polled by the Japanese Sumo Association said they are against women entering the mound.

The 2,000-year-old national sport has always banned women from the ring, though the origins of the ruling remain unclear. It was believed to be based on beliefs in Shinto, Japan's native region, that women are impure.

Impure? Women being allowed on the mound (I just have to keep saying that, I love it, mound snarf snarf) became an issue recently when the first female mayor of Osaka wanted to present the medal to the winner. She was banned from being allowed to do so and a male vice-governer did so instead.

Why? What is the big deal?

via SLAMsports (oh yeah, slammin).

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, but if you want some feminist analysis of the always-talked about commercials, check out Bernie at PopPolitics.

After reading this, I’m kind of glad I skipped all those football parties.

Take, for example, the second ad after kickoff in this year’s Super Bowl: Burger King introduced us to “The Whopperettes” (click on “Super Bowl Spectacular” to see the ad). While the ad features women doing a musical number, the women are not overtly sexualized (although one of them is swimsuit model Brooke Burke) and the ad initially has a gender-neutral and somewhat satirical “it’s an extravaganza!” feel. The women, after all, are dressed up in ridiculous outfits representing the many ingredients in a Whopper.

But as the ad continues, its message becomes disturbingly clear -- and it’s nothing new: women are to be consumed by men. The bizarreness of the ad is that Burger King has found a literal embodiment of this idea -- which, of course, is the foundation for most Super Bowl advertising.

Yikes. Make sure to check out the rest of the post; it’s a whopper. (Couldn’t help myself, sorry.)

Michaela Hutchison of Alaska’s Skyview High School is the first girl in the country to win a state wrestling title competing against boys. Kudos!

Amid chants of "C'mon, Michaela" and "Girl power," Hutchison earned a 1-0 victory Saturday over Colony High School's Aaron Boss.

She scored an escape with 16 seconds left to beat Boss for the second time in two weeks. Family and friends mobbed Hutchison as she walked away from the mat with a bloody nose, while the crowd rose in a standing ovation.

Awesome.

While football is generally seen as the epitome of American masculinity, it looks like women football fans are increasing like a mofo.

While this article by USA Today had to focus on clothing in order to make this increase in female football fans interesting, we find that women’s gear made about 15% of the NFL’s total merchandise sales for the 2005 season compared with 3% in 2004.

The reason for the increase in sales may not even be due to the increase of female fans, but due to a larger production of women’s gear in general. "We've finally listened to the cries of women who wanted NFL product," said Eddie White, vice president of sports marketing.

Nevertheless, women account for 43% of NFL fans, according to Shannon O’Toole, author of the book Wedded to the Game: The Real Lives of NFL Women. The article failed to mention that the book is not about female NFL fans, but is actually about the lives of football players’ wives.

While it’s great that women are being recognized as fans of football, it bothers me that they’re feminized as much as possible in the process, whether it’s discussing their football fashion habits or “wedding” them to the game. After all, we wouldn’t want the “manliness” of the game turning them butch or anything.

The new A&E show Rollergirls is airing on Monday, and I’ll admit I’m very curious find out what the show will actually be about.

On one hand, the huge billboard ad I saw in the middle of Manhattan was pretty ridiculous; all of the rollergirls were lined up, looking like Miss “Punky Bruiser” above in their schoolgirl skirts and busty boobies. Just check out the website. On the other hand, these ladies look like some kick-ass bitches who I would normally be a number one fan of.

The thing is, can we really expect much from a show that comes from the same producers as Laguna Beach?

Side note: Make sure to check out the Gotham Girls Roller Derby, New York’s only all-female roller derby league. It’s interesting to see the pics on their site and the difference between what’s real and what’s marketed.

And that’s an understatement.

It looks like Jean Van de Velde, who lost the British Open in 1999, is apparently upset about the decision by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R &A) to allow women to qualify for the Open. In retaliation to this preposterous idea that women should be allowed to play with men, he’s applying to play in the Women’s Open next year, reports Reuters.

Van de Velde's feelings are that the R & A should be attending “more important matters,” and questions why women would even want to enter a competition they would have no chance of winning. “Where do we draw the line?” he asks.

“If they allow me to, I’ll definitely go and play, just to make a point. I would be very happy to use the ladies locker room.” He also jokingly said he would shave his legs and wear a kilt if it meant him being able to enter the competition. You have got to be fucking kidding me.

Former Ryder Cup player Barry Lane is applauding Van de Velde, saying that “If 100 men decided to take the same stance and they all qualified off the ladies’ tees, they could take most of the Women’s British Open’s spots.”

A bit cocky, are we? So if that’s true, why are they so up in arms about women entering the tournament? After all, they’re going to lose anyway, right?

Sounds like our Frenchman is the sore loser to me. I could go on, but I don’t trust myself with this potty mouth of mine.

While I find high school homecoming court crap to be a tad ridiculous, I was pleased to find that Lincoln High School’s football team has a female kicker who, during halftime, walked across the field in her uniform to be crowned. Awesome.

Lentz is a senior at the school in Charleston, West Virginia, and decided to join the football team this past summer. “I’m the only girl, but it doesn’t bother me.” says Lentz. “The guys do a really good job of holding the line back.” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool.

It seems like this kick-ass, er, kicker deserves some royal treatment.

The Houston Chronicle had a great piece yesterday on the Women’s Bassmaster Tour (WBT). Of course, I immediately thought of the lovely Vanessa (above). When we were kids, she was terrifyingly gleeful as she stuck dirt-covered worms on fishing hooks while I cowered in the corner of our cousin’s boat. Ew.

My fishing-fear aside, seems like women are making great progress in pro bass fishing. While the top men in the sport still earn much more than the women, author Doug Pike believes that this could change:

Maybe this time, maybe in this sport, there's a chance that women and men will compete on equal ground (or water, as the case may be) for equal money. Men don't cast any farther or straighter than women, and nobody could argue straight-faced that either sex is better equipped intellectually to know when or where or why bass bite.

The WBT is on a roll, and women will be quick to benefit from this fledgling relationship. With the superpowers of ESPN and the Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society in their corner, they have an unprecedented opportunity.

This is the best shot women have ever had at shining bright lights on themselves and their angling abilities, and my guess is that they'll make the most of it. To have any chance at equality, they eventually will have to mix it up with the men. Each of them is ready.

Nice. Now if they could only do something about the worm-factor.

A UK study revealed on Wednesday that women know more about soccer than men:

“Research found that 59 percent of women could correctly identify the offside law -- one of the game's hardest to comprehend -- as opposed to just 55 percent of men.

Also 65 percent of women correctly used the title assistant referee, while 40 percent of men wrongly referred to the official as a ‘linesman’.”

In your face, boys!

P.S. I know nothing about soccer.

Remember Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, and the champion of the Let-Women-Into-Augusta campaign? Well it looks like she's got a new bee in her bonnet: a new ad for the NHL's comeback season.

According to espn.com:

"The spot opens with a quote from Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu: 'A clever warrior is one who not only wins, but excels at winning with ease.' A bare-chested player sits on a wooden bench in the glow of a candlelit room with a backbeat of drums and rattling sabers. He is approached by a woman in a bra and gauzy robe, who touches his shoulders, asks 'Ready?' and helps him put on his shoulder pads and jersey. She says 'It's time,' and he heads to the ice to the cheers of a man and young boy in the stands. The ad ends with "My NHL, coming 10.05."

Burk claims this ad is sexist and sent "letters of protest to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics" before the ad debuted this week. She was quoted as saying, "The woman is a sexual ornament, in my view...It's appealing to adult men while trying to masquerade as something for kids. That's deeply offensive to me. As a mother of two sons, they see enough sex and violence anyway. Why put it in warrior terms? That's offensive, let alone the sexism."

The NHL claims the ad is "very respectful of women [because] the woman is a spiritual and physical trainer for the warrior, and his mentor."

Who do you believe? Offended? Not so much?

This story is just nuts.

The University of Iowa has a bit of a controversy on its hands over their pink visitors’ locker room.

Several professors and students joined the call Tuesday for the athletic department to do away with the pink showers, carpeting and lockers — a decades-long Hawkeye football tradition.

Critics say the use of pink demeans women, perpetuates offensive stereotypes about women and homosexuality, and puts the university in the uncomfortable position of tacitly supporting those messages.

"I want the locker room gone," law school professor Jill Gaulding told a university committee studying the athletic department's compliance with NCAA standards, including gender equity.

For decades, visiting football teams playing at Kinnick Stadium have dressed and showered in the pink locker room. The tradition was started by former Iowa coach Hayden Fry, a psychology major who said pink had a calming and passive effect on people.

Apparently the current pinkness of the locker room wasn’t quite enough:

But as part of the stadium's two-year, $88 million makeover, athletic officials took the former coach's interior decorating ideas to another level, splashing pink across the brick walls, shower floors and installing pink metal lockers, carpeting, sinks, showers and urinals.

Wow. Why don’t they just draw vaginas all over the walls?

Now, I’m sure folks will criticize those opposed to the pink locker room, saying that it’s not a such big deal. But get this: a professor who objected to the locker room on her website got death threats. Over a locker room. Now tell me it’s not a big deal.

Like being a woman in sports isn’t hard enough without having to worry about a burka.

Women in Iran, even those participating in sporting events, have to cover body contours and hair with long gowns and scarves so that they are properly covered in front of "strange men" in public.

The restrictions make it impossible for Iranian sportswomen, including those in judo, karate, taekwondo and horse jumping, to attend international competitions.

In order to tackle this problem, women's activist and head of Women's Sports Federation Faezeh Hashemi arranges games for Muslim women in which they can compete internationally without being watched by a male audience and TV cameras.

Talk about jumping through hoops. Jeez.

In case you like tennis. (Or even if you don’t; I sure as hell have no interest in it.)

The French Open recently decided to pay equal prize money to both men and women.

This now leaves just Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam to pay women less.

And believe me--there are many. (Yeah, yeah, I know this is about sports...but generally when I think hazing, I think Greek.)

Six women pleaded guilty yesterday to hazing for their roles in a boozy college field hockey initiation in Cumberland, Md., that left an 18-year-old hospitalized with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit.

The six current and former Frostburg State University field hockey players each were fined $300, given suspended 60-day jail terms and placed on a year's probation.

On Dec. 3, the victims were urged to drink so much beer and liquor that one was hospitalized with a 0.365 percent blood-alcohol level, court documents showed. The freshmen also were pelted with flour, ice and eggs, and made to sit in their own vomit and urine, according to court documents.

As of late, women bowlers are kicking ass nationwide, and with good reason.

It has only been a year since the Professional Bowler's Association (PBA) began admitting women as members, and two female bowlers in particular have played record-setting games this month. New York's Liz Johnsons' victory has made her the first woman to win a PBA Tour regional, and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard from Texas is the first woman to 300 back-to-back games in her first round of match play. The PBA is anticipating that these records will entice more female bowlers to compete in the future.

Let's hope so. Bowl on, ladies!

This is just awesome.

Curly Grrlz Board Sports is a skateboard company created with the sole purpose of providing girls with awesome skateboards and accessories.

Ever wonder why girls had to skate on guys skateboards or why nobody ever made cool skateboards for girls? So did we! That’s why we did. These aren’t spin-offs from a boy’s line, mind you, but are specifically designed for girls.

Sweet. The Curly Grrlz site also features accessories, a blog, a Curly Grrlz street team, pics of girls doing their thing, and an “emerging talent” section where the coolness of 9 year-olds will put you to shame.

I had a skateboard when I was 8 years old; it was pink and black and had flamingoes on it and I fucking loved it. Unfortunately, I was never a graceful child and busted my ass pretty much immediately. My subsequent skateboarding endeavors were limited to riding around my block sitting on the board. Yes, I am that lame.

Props to Gwen for letting me know about this. (Though I'm jealous, Curly Grrlz sent her a sticker that says "Girls NOT skateboarding is a crime." I want it.)