Playing With the Boys - Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports

[...]... race This is not to say that the racial component of his sexism is unimportant or irrelevant to an analysis of sex discrimination in sports Rather, it is merely to assume that the starting point for an analysis of sex-segregated sports policies and the harm they impose on all women is assumptions 5 6 | Playing with the Boys about sex difference first, as a foundation for an examination of how other ascriptive... Bush in hosting a two-time Super Bowl MVP known for handling clutch situations with clearheaded cool Sports and Sex Equality This book addresses the issue of sex equality in the context of sports We live in a society in which key elements are gendered as male.12 Winning is male Power is male Money is male Physical dominance is male And big-time Las Vegas–lined, network-covered, sold-outvenue, sponsor-rich... ascriptive characteristics, such as race, nationality, and disability, necessarily intersect with sex difference discrimination A full analysis of the intersectionality dimension of sex discrimination in sports would go beyond the scope of this book Our aim is to begin the conversation about intersectionality in sports by addressing the foundation of that intersectionality: sexism in sports in general and... longitudinal scope than any other piece Yet the queen was not introduced into the game of chess, which originated in India, until 500 years after people had begun playing Interestingly, historian Marilyn Yalom argues that the introduction of the queen as the most powerful piece on the board reflected the growing recognition of female political authority in Europe during the Middle Ages, as living queens,... ‘‘pitchmen in the history of radio, if not broadcasting.’’19 Although famous for ridiculing the elite and the powerful in the celebrity world of politics and entertainment, he struck a low blow when he mocked and degraded the mostly African American women basketball players as ‘‘nappyheaded ho’s.’’20 Clearly racism was intersecting with sexism in his attack on these 1 8-, 1 9-, and 20-year-old women The outrage... Athletics Is Not a Special Case The culture and the structure governing organized sports should not exist apart from the fairness and equality mandated in other sectors of American life Hold organized sports accountable in this way, and a system out of balance is revealed, one in which male superiority 3 4 | Playing with the Boys is not merely presumed but artificially constructed and enforced, not only... professional sports programs make it a legal requirement The ‘‘real’’ problem, we came to see, is the very notion of dividing the athletic universe into ‘‘male sports ’ and ‘‘female sports, ’’ which has long seemed the most obvious and natural thing in the world And yet, when we began looking at the roots of this and the effects, we found something surprising: Dividing sports by sex—segregating organized... This book presents, therefore, a multidimensional argument which coalesces around a single belief: organized athletics are a critical arena for gender equality The next frontier in the long history of achieving equal rights for women in the United States is sports. 25 The Problem: Coercive Sex Segregation The Three I’s We begin with the observation that the organization of sports in American society is. .. insisted women are not physically strong enough to handle the stress of higher education, that letting women use their brains too much shrinks their uteruses, rendering them infertile.14 This bias was born from the gut anger some express at the notion of women serving in the military, particularly in combat No wonder children once giggled at the very idea of a woman firefighter or police officer In other... singles divisions (the men’s division is limited to 256 participants and women’s to 128) in which the men race to nine; women race to eight.51 Why? Such well-worn practices of sex segregation in the organization of sports, regardless of a game’s physical demands, do nothing more than reinforce sex role distinctions, thereby constructing and preserving images of male superiority rather than reflecting . alt="" Playing with the Boys This page intentionally left blank eileen mcdonagh laura pappano Playing with the Boys Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports 1 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes. otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data McDonagh, Eileen L. Playing with the boys : why separate is not equal in sports / Eileen. it all carry the day. xv Acknowledgments | This page intentionally left blank Playing with the Boys This page intentionally left blank 1 What’s the Problem? Egalitarianism is the philosophical