Tennis is not a silent sport. Anyone who tells you otherwise has never witnessed tense moments in a game between, say, top-ranked player Maria Sharapova and champion Serena Williams. Or listened to Victoria Azarenka or Michelle Larcher de Brito play. Sharapova’s hallmark screams have been clocked at 102.7 decibels. The loudest women’s tennis grunt on [...]
As the 2012 Olympic swimming trials in Omaha came to a close Monday night and a new round of female Olympians were born, first-time Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin reminded us that each generation of women athletes stands on the shoulders of the last. Moments after beating out 29-year-old veteran Olympian Natalie Coughlin on Wednesday in [...]
Men are skilled and committed, but women are only good-looking and lucky? According to a study conducted by the University of Delaware regarding NBC’s commentary at past Olympic Games, sexist statements dominate the feedback that fans are exposed to. Researcher James Angelini published the study this month in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. As he explained, [...]
As a former athlete and a graduate student in sports studies, I embraced feminism in the 1970s. It seemed to be a natural alliance because I had experienced sports as personally liberating and felt that it offered females the possibility to become accomplished athletes, develop strong and healthy bodies and defy societal views of females [...]
President Obama says he thinks women should be admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club, although he has not yet recommended a boycott. That would be the highest moral ground, but his statement is still important. So how come Tiger Woods doesn’t weigh in on this issue? Because he plays the moral “no” ground. He’s [...]
Today’s tee-off at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia came and went without a single woman arriving at Augusta National Golf Club in the icky green jacket that denotes membership. The club never announces new members; members announce themselves by showing up at the tournament in the aforementioned green. Not having a woman in Augusta [...]
While the Syracuse University men’s basketball team finished their run in the 2012 NCAA March Madness tournament against Ohio State, I watched with a heavy hoops fan’s heart at a bar on campus with hundreds of other Orange fans. As a feminist, though, my enthusiastic support for my school’s basketball team feels problematic at times. I cheer and cry for [...]
ESPN, the cable television sports network, has tipped off the celebration of Title IX’s 40th anniversary early with the launch of Power of IX, a three-month multi-platform initiative dedicated to women’s sports. Considering that this coming Sunday and Tuesday is when the NCAA Women’s Final Four in basketball will be played in Denver, it’s a [...]
When the 30th annual installment of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tips off Saturday, fans will be glued to the screen, wondering if anyone can stop undefeated Baylor and player of the year Brittney Griner. The athletes on the 64 teams in the tournament stand on the shoulders of generations of women who played [...]
No one knew exactly what was going to happen. But as the Penn State Nittany Lions walked onto the field at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, the applause that grew in the stands was loaded. How do you clap for a program led by a man who knew that one of his coaches molested at least [...]
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