Battle of the Sexes is one of the turning points in the history not just for women’s sports but also for women’s rights. This was a tennis match in between a male player, Bobby Riggs, and a female player, Billie Jean King. Riggs, who was called “the male chauvinist pig”, was 55 years old and King was 29 years old at the time of the match. Riggs was addicted to gambling and saw an opportunity to make some money and to gain popularity out of this match while showing the world that women are not as good as men. However, King was in a movement that wanted to show the world the exact opposite. What King was trying to show was that women are as strong as men but in different ways. Not many people know about the Battle of the Sexes and almost no one has heard about the “Mother’s Day Massacre”. That was another tennis match in between a male and a female player. Bobby Riggs and Margarethe Court, at that time the world number one female tennis player, played against each other and Court lost 2-6 1-6. Court’s loss gave King the courage to go out and beat Riggs for his comments about women after he beat Court. (Greenspan, 2013)
The match was held in Huston, Texas at the Astrodome. It was a Thursday, September 20th, 1973. Billie Jean King was not going to play this match against Bobby Riggs unless she could decide on the
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It was not that long time ago, when one retired male tennis player said in his interview that Serena Williams, the greatest women’s tennis player with 23 grand slam trophies in the Open Era, would be ranked 700th in the world, if she would be playing against men. (McEnroe, 2017) Everyone knows that McEnroe has a big mouth but he said that while Williams was pregnant which was very inappropriate towards her. A lot of comments like this one started coming out because women were getting more and more recognized and some men just could not handle
Billie Jean King is a pro tennis player who wanted the pay in sports to be equal for women. She won many tournaments such as Wimbledon women’s singles, U.S. Open singles and the French Open. “...first woman athlete to win more than $100,000 in a single year” (“Billie Jean King”). Billie Jean King noticed that women were not winning the same amount of men in prize money. Billie Jean King criticized the prize money that the women would recite. “... women were receiving
Billie Jean King is known as not only one of the best female tennis players of all time, but also as one of the leading activist in the LGBT community. Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California. As a child King decided that she wanted to be the best women’s tennis player in the world, and she accomplished her goal in 1967. She went on to win multiple grand slams and went down as one of the best to ever play the game. King was married for 22 years from 1965 to 1987 even though she came out as lesbian in 1981 amid a lawsuit from her former female lover. King was one of the first openly gay athletes and she did not shy away from the public scrutiny that came along with it at the time. She lost all her sponsorships
The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities written by Joan Z. Spade and Catherine G. Valentine is a book about the sociology of gender and the construct thereof. The writers use a metaphor of a kaleidoscope to illustrate their interpretations of the topic. A kaleidoscope is a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of colored glass or paper, whose reflections produce changing patterns that are visible through an eyehole when the tube is rotated. Utilizing the similitude of the kaleidoscope, this collection presents gender as a result of always transforming patterns get under way by prisms that underlie change, both straightforward and complex, bringing about an extensive variety of possibilities. The book
Before the 1970’s, several colleges and universities declined female applicants (Happy Birthday 16). Females were discriminated because of their gender or because of their weakness. They were sexually harassed before Title IX and the statement “boys will be boys” was often used to excuse the boys’ behavior (Happy Birthday 16). Boys did not get in trouble for discriminating girls. Girls were excluded from youth leagues and other sports programs (Anderson). Women did not get the chance because most people said they were not interested. Many women helped Congress to forbid gender discrimination in public schools (Obama 10). This was a start for gender equality for girls in sports and education.
“The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media Digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of women’s soccer around the world, Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields.
The retrenchment of African American women’s freedom was arguably one of the most polarizing events of the 1880s that caused moral and ethical dissent between black men and women. The lack of leadership roles given to women in various religious, and political groups, led to the creation of the Black Women's (convention) Club Movement. With men in control of the religious sphere, the convention allowed women to attempt to do a better job than the men. The intersectionality of gender and religion by means of analysis provides the patriarchal notions of masculinity a multi-faceted platform to analyze Marcus Garvey, Father Divine, and the role women played in each of their strategies. In the analysis of these two characters it becomes clear that they are not as different as they may initially seem, ultimately not undermining Deborah Grey’s notion that .
They’ve been so desensitized to having to say anything towards an athletes background that sometimes it can come across as negative or in this case sexist. In the article “Is Some Olympic Commentary Sexist?”, Claire Bates portrays commentators as sexist and demeaning towards the women Olympic athletes. Bates gives us many examples as of what the announcers choice of words is. Bates indicates that there are countless occasions where the male commentators or articles suggest the women of the Olympics are second to the male athletes.
...ing on strong: Gender and sexuality in twentieth-century women's sport. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
The first perspective is that women are disadvantaged at any sport. Some people reiterate the difference of men and women in sports. This is influenced by strength and the natural power men hold, comparable to women. Rodriguez questions “Is this because female athletes don’t have what it takes to make it in the world of sports or could it be more of a social issue?” This perspective seems to be a social issue based on the notable skills women acquire vs. the apparent judgments of gender issues. The second perspective is the idea that women deserve and inherently earn their right of equal attention and equal pay. “Sometimes, the secret to equality is not positive discrimination, it 's equal terms. It 's the shrug of the shoulders that says "what 's the difference?" The moment worth aspiring for is not seeing people celebrate the world-class female cricketer who competes at comparatively low-level male professional cricket, but the day when people are aware that she does, and don 't find it notable at all” (Lawson). Lawson makes it a point to confirm the biased notions against women in sports and relay an alternative worth working toward and fighting for. Both outlooks can be biased but only one has factual evidence to back it up. The second perspective reviews an ongoing gender issue. This problem is welcome for change depending on society’s
Battle of the Sexes (2017) GOING IN In 1973, a tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs became the most watched televised sporting event of all time. Riggs was past his prime and in and effort to regain the lost spotlight, he claimed that even at the age of 55 he would be able to easily beat the best female tennis player. Billie Jean King (one of the women he challenged), was both extremely successful and an outspoken advocate for gender equality.
Sports, in general, are a male dominated activity; every “real” male is suppose to be interested and/or involved in sports in the American society. However, it is not expected of a female to be interested in sports and there is less pressure on them to participate in physically enduring activities. These roles reflect the traditional gender roles imposed on our society that men are supposed to be stronger and dominant and females are expected to be submissive. As Michael Kimmel further analyzes these gender roles by relating that, “feminism also observes that men, as a group, are in power. Thus with the same symmetry, feminism has tended to assume that individually men must feel powerful” (106).
The issue of the supposed dominance of men over women in society has generated cemented opinions and heated controversy. Proponents of sexual equality point to the leveling of educational and vocational opportunities between the sexes as proof that women have become equals to men, such as the recent fad of working moms and stay-at-home dads. Moreover, they highlight the power and status of women in professional fields and government, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In addition, fans of female progress celebrate the successful establishment of women's sports leagues, such as the hyped WNBA, or Women's National Basketball Association, and the implementation of women's weightlifting in the Olympic Games on par with men. While advocates of women's power in society assert that the opportunity, status, and athletic parity available to women prove complete sexual equality, these arguments, while valid in some aspects, fail to analyze or take into account the balance of power in cross-sexual relationships.
As we discuss the articles of Anne Fausto- Streling, “The Five Sexes, Revisited” and Marjorie Garber, “The Return to Biology” in class we came to see how these two articles could bring up such controversy. As they question our perspective on human nature as we have always known it to be, from “The Five Sexes, Revisited” stating “absolute dimorphism disintegrates even at the level of basic biology” (176), to “The Return of Biology” saying “Society mandates the control of intersexual bodies because they blur and bridge the great divide” (184). We see many different aspects on how human biology or culture is more than what meets the eye. All I can begin to say is everything we, as the human species, do revolves around dimorphism no matter the questions or contradictions that may arise. The idea that only two sexes exist is still firmly maintained in our society as how things are suppose to be aka the “norm”.
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.
I do not pretend to be a complete expert in the vast world of men and women. However, as one of these creatures, I decided early on in life to do my best to figure out the relationship between us and our counterparts. This was very interesting to me because, unlike most people, I do not believe that we simply "evolved" to become what we are today. I believe we were created the way we are by a very big God who knew what He was doing, and did it for a purpose. After a mere 18 years of observation, I have concluded that we as humans are trying to look too deeply into the purpose of "man" and "woman." We make the relationship too complicated. We need to stop prying into why men like football and women like quilts, and simply accept that we do. That is the way it is. And as I shall point out, that is the way it is best.