Tag Archive for "Sports"

Posts Tagged Sports

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Senior Male Athletes at Phillips Andover

Phillips Academy Andover, more commonly known as Phillips Andover, is a prestigious and highly selective boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts whose students are known more for the high acceptance rates to elite and ivy-league universities they enjoy than for feminist activism. The high school’s Wikipedia page (yes, it has a long and elaborate one, having been established in the damn 1700’s), for example, boasts that “in recent years, Andover has sent the largest number of its students to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Princeton, and other top-tier colleges ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Brittney Griner

I could seriously not love this woman more. In an ESPN profile, basketball phenom Brittney Griner, who recently became the first openly gay athlete to sign with Nike, talks about the bullying she experienced growing up and the more recent pressure she faced to keep quiet about her sexuality as a college player at Baylor.

“I am 100-percent happy. When I was at Baylor, I wasn’t fully happy because I couldn’t be all the way out. It feels so good saying it: I am a strong, black lesbian woman. Every single time I say it, I feel so much better.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about gender, sexuality, and sports lately for this Atlantic piece. As I mention ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 10 years ago

Here are some female pro athletes who came out years before Jason Collins

While the sports world acknowledges the reality that prominent gay professional athletes like Jason Collins exist, our friends at Buzzfeed remind us that the ladies have been breaking barriers as self-identified lesbians for decades.

Of course, it can’t be overstated how powerful Jason Collins’ coming out is–what the impact will be for other male athletes in football, soccer, baseball, or the profound signal it sends to the African American community. As Garance Franke-Ruta explains, “Female professional athletes are already gender non-conforming. Male ones are still worshiped as exemplars of traditional masculinity.” A high-profile male athlete like Collins coming out can help spark a shift towards embracing wider definitions of masculinity.

But let’s not forget the trailblazing women. As ...

Of ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Back in Steubenville, rape culture is still winning as football coach’s contract is renewed

Ed. note: This is a guest post from Mychal Denzel Smith. He is a writer, social commentator, and mental health advocate whose work on politics, social justice, mental health, and black male identity has appeared in outlets such as The Nation, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Gawker, Salon, The Root, and more.

It seems simple enough: If you participate in the cover up of a rape, especially one that involves minors, you should lose your job. If your job requires you to be responsible for teenagers, then two of those teenagers rape an intoxicated 16-year-old and share photos of the act through social media, and your response is to joke about it with them, it’s not that hard to decide ...

Ed. note: This is a guest post from Mychal Denzel Smith. He is a writer, social commentator, and mental health advocate whose work on politics, social justice, mental health, and black male identity has appeared in ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quote of the Day: “Don’t hide who you really are,” says Brittney Griner

Top WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner casually confirmed she’s gay in an interview with ESPN.

“Don’t worry about what other people are going to say, because they’re always going to say something, but, if you’re just true to yourself, let that shine through. Don’t hide who you really are,” Griner told ESPN, before going into more detail about her decision to come out publicly. “It really wasn’t too difficult,” she said of the decision. “I wouldn’t say I was hiding or anything like that. I’ve always been open about who I am and my sexuality. So, it wasn’t hard at all. If I can show that I’m out and I’m fine and everything’s OK, then hopefully the younger generation will definitely ...

Top WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner casually confirmed she’s gay in an interview with ESPN.

“Don’t worry about what other people are going to say, because they’re always going to say something, but, if you’re just true to ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Fox News host decries American men’s “wussification” after abusive Rutgers basketball coach is fired

Yesterday Rutgers University fired its men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice, after video surfaced of him abusing his players both physically and verbally. In addition to kicking, shoving, and pelting them with basketballs, he used homophobic slurs against them including the f-word. After the video went viral, Rice was quick to apologize for the shameful behavior he had obviously been exhibiting remorselessly and with great vigor for years, but it was too little too late. His swift removal from the post was a victory against abuse in college sports, where student athletes already bear a ton of responsibility and pressure, for which many argue they are under-compensatedt.

Except that Fox News host Eric Bolling doesn’t view this as a positive development, apparently. ...

By zerlina • 11 years ago

A mainstream media conversation about Steubenville and rape culture

I was thrilled to be included in a conversation about rape culture last night on The Ed Show on MSNBC. The segment focused on the problematic media coverage of yesterday’s Steubenville verdict and included me, Professor Salamishah Tillet, and Irin Carmon.

And what happens when you have three out feminists talking about rape culture on cable news?! Magic.

Check out the segment below. It was a privilege to be included in this important and substantive conversation. (The video comes with a transcript.)

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Steubenville text messages and the confusion over consent

I was on Democracy Now! this morning to talk about rape culture, Steubenville, and consent. Check out the segment below.

The first two days of testimony in the Steubenville rape trial are proof positive that we need to teach young people about consent. The testimony about the text messages the defendants sent and received that night, as well as the testimony of bystanders, illustrates that while many of the student witnesses knew what was happening was wrong, but perhaps didn’t have a full understanding that it was rape.

That in no way lets them off of the hook, but it does highlight the need for robust education about the issue of consent–and more importantly, “enthusiastic consent”–as ...

I was on Democracy Now! this morning to talk about rape culture, Steubenville, and consent. Check out the segment below.

The first two days of testimony in the Steubenville rape trial are proof positive ...