Browse

This Friday, in an effort to promote thought about how to support women and movement (and/or sports/exercise) in a meaningful, fully inclusive, liberatory manner, I want to point to Maria Tallchief.

Tallchief is the first Native American woman who 'made it' as an internationally recognized ballerina. This clip gives a short background:

Because it's Friday and I'm so sure none of us want to get all deep and "think-y" on a Friday--I'm gonna declare today "Support Movement Friday," which basically boils down to, I'm going to scour the internets for the coolest video/pics of women 'doing movement' and post it here. You are then going to ooh and ahh over the amazing fantastic beauty that is women moving--and then we will talk together to find ways to support ALL women in "movement."

One of the biggest issues for women athletes these days is the extreme hyper-sexualization many sports require women to participate in while competing at a highly advanced level. For example, car racer Danica Patrick has been very straightforward (and quite successful) about embracing her more 'feminine' side while letting her racing skills speak for themselves.

Let's saddle up the wayback machine, kids, and travel to the year 1866. It was this very year, when baseball was deemed too difficult and violent a sport for ladies to play, when the Vassar Resolutes hiked up their giant, heavy skirts to run the base paths anyway. I found this photo of the Resolutes (and, OMG—can you believe they were called the Resolutes?) in an advance copy of Jennifer Ring's Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball, which will be available from the University of Illinois Press in March 2009...

One of the big reasons so many women make the choice to not participate in sports is because "sports" is defined as a thing that very specifically and consciously denies women a place in. For example, I was discussing Sean Avery with my partner earlier in the week and he expressed the belief that on the whole, hockey is one of the least sexist sports out there.

 NHL player Sean Avery was recently suspended for six games for making disrespectful comments about his former girlfriends while Jon Favreau, the chief speechwriter for the President-elect, goes unscathed after he gropes the breast of a cutout of Hillary Rodham Clinton.  What's the best response to public figures making controversial comments and embarrassing poses?

Hear ye, hear ye! It is hereby declared that:

1) If you have been known to refer to yourself as "A-dog";

2) If you are such a jerk that even hockey players are embarrassed by your behavior;

3) If you spent the off-season interning at Vogue;

4) And, most importantly, if you publicly refer to your ex-girlfriend as "sloppy seconds"...

Hello! My name is La Macha, and I'll be guest blogging at Bitch for the next bit! Usually I post at Vivir Latino with the unrivaled mami blogger; Maegan "la Mamita Mala" Ortiz. I thank the amazing Debbie for allowing me this opportunity to post here!

While I'm at Bitch, I'll be blogging about sports related 'stuff.' Now, before you roll your eyes and skip over my posts, let me just say--there's a reason that my 'column' will be posted under Team Queer: Movement and Sports Through A Bent Lens. I know that there's a reason so many women don't like sports because on many levels, I am those women myself. So I will be spending a lot of time uncovering (and encouraging YOU to uncover for yourself) reasons that 'sports' in general are a major turn off to women.

Not a good week for the ladies, sports-wise. First up, in order of horrifying: The Chicago White Sox haven't been doing so hot, so they initiated a little "slumpbuster" that involved taking two female blow-up dolls and arranging them in the team clubhouse with baseball bats jammed into various orifices. Surrounding the dolls with players' bats, the team also stuck a sign on one encouraging players and clubhouse visitors to "push."

The title of this post is the song title of another provocatively-titled entity (or problematically-titled entity, depending on whom you ask), 3 Leg Torso, a band I saw perform tonight. I've never been good at describing genres, but I'll call it a mashup of Klezmer/Chamber/Gypsy/Circus/Carnival/(see, this is why I don't write music reviews). The point is, it was one of the best shows I've seen in years. My mouth hurt afterwards because I had a perpetual smile through almost the whole show. Equally impressive was the opener, Fish Tank Ensemble. Please check them both out.   

Earlier in the day, I let my friend Ben convince me to accompany him to a professional basketball game between the Portland Trailblazers and the San Antonio Spurs.

Allow me to set the stage (even though really, you had to be there to understand)...