Pink Sportswear

So, I'm watching the UConn Women's Game on CPTV, and they're doing a pledge drive, due to the loss of several corporate sponsors due to the economic downturn. And what do mine eyes see?

These lovelies:


What is wrong with this picture?

Could it be that UConn's colors are not, in point of fact, pink and white but blue and white:


Now, you could ask, "Why is this a problem?"

And the answer would be, because this isn't a UConn only issue. Almost every team I can think of offers their team merchandise in pink. And the problem with that, from a pragmatic perspective, is that it totally eliminates the whole "wearing your colors" aspect of buying your team's merch.

But then there is this other issue of making sports feminized. Especially, like in the case of UConn Women's Basketball, sports women are playing. Maya Moore and Tina Charles and the rest of the UConn Women's team aren't out there in pink jerseys, maintaining their femininity as they throw down on the basketball court. They are women, and they play basketball. They are women, and they give up none of their femaleness by wearing the blue and white jersey. And yet, in order to make liking sports and expressing a love of a sport or a specific team acceptable to some women, the very distinguishing characteristic has to be pink-washed.

I'm not against women liking pink. I'm just not a fan of pink-washing. I'm not a fan of signifying "women fans" from just fan-fans.

Jay Smooth Continues to Amaze

Or, a brief history of the Stonewall Riots and the start of the Gay Rights Movement:



This kind of reminds me of how "pansy" is thrown around as an insult, when in the Real World, the pansy is one tough flower. Which is kind of the opposite of what "pansy" as an insult is supposed to connote.

Monday Reading List

Thoughtful Masculinities (Theory & Practice) from Walking Vixen. Choice quote:

The frontier of gender, as I see it, is very much in deconstructing and radicalizing masculinities, it’s in really taking to heart the notion that “gender” doesn’t just mean women and trans-identified people.

Traditional Americans by Mustang Bobby, a rebuttal to Pat Buchanan's assertion that 'they' (namely white, middle class Christians) are "losing their country". Bobby's comeback:

You can't lose what you weren't entitled to think was yours alone. And you really can't lose what wasn't yours to take in the first place.

Right on. As an atheist, not having the Christian faith featured prominently in my school system helped give me a piece of My America, in a way my mother didn't have and my father didn't have, in the way my grandfather didn't have and my great-uncle and great-aunts didn't have.

Don't Let A Girl Beat You by Renee. I think the title is self-explanatory, but there is this idea that men are really the sporty ones and girls aren't. Still. And when a girl is really super good at a sport (or many of them), it seems like it is a personal affront to the guys playing against her.

Seven Scenes, For A Reason by Melissa. One of my close friends is what one would consider overweight. She is beautiful, healthy (until she discovered WebMD and began diagnosing herself), and she has a lot of jewelry. I have always thought of my friend as the Fashionista among us, because she always looks so well put-together. I've been envious of her gift since high school. But what occurs to me upon reading this is how she uses jewelry. She has a lot of jewelry; I don't. And now I wonder if what I saw as Fashionistaness, going above and beyond, is really just her spicing up what she can find - being a Fashionista out of necessity.

Things To Remember During the Fall Pledge Drive from Lawyers, Guns and Money. I don't like Ken Rudin. At all. I don't like Ken Rudin at all, and things like this are why. He grates me like very few others, and I much prefer his It's All Politics cohost Ron Elving. In this case, it is because comparing a president's actions to Nixon is kind of like comparing someone's actions to Hitler. Only in extreme circumstances does the comparison come close to illustrating reality, and only in rare moments are those specific hyperbolic statements useful. IE, not here. I'm not a fan of comparisons between Nixon and George W. Bush. I don't think Bush was as amoral as Nixon, I don't think Bush was as talented as Nixon, I don't think Bush was as successful as Nixon, and I think it demeans the truly historic and, frankly, horrific abuse of power and government Nixon perpetrated to drop his name willy nilly.

To whit, Weighing in on White House vs. Fox News: An Apology from Ken Rudin's Political Junkie blog. I still don't like him, but I begrudgingly offer Rudin's apology. If I have to give Rudin something, it is that he didn't go the "sorry if you found what I said/did offensive" route. But he did spend the first couple of paragraphs defending his position on Fox vs Obama Administration.

And, from xkcd:

A Connecticut Sports Story

This story made me blub on my way to work:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

My only complaint - aside from Keith Olbermann's terrible glasses - is the pronunciation of Wolcott. It's pronounced, for whatever the reason, Wulkit; much like Southington isn't pronounced South-ington, but Suthington.

A Couple of UConn Articles

A goodbye to UConn assistant coach Jamelle Elliott:

When Jamelle Elliott stepped to the podium Tuesday for the first time as a head basketball coach, she said her heart began to race.
Not surprising, really. You don't work for a dozen years as an assistant without having aspirations about running your own program.
But the reality of being Cincinnati's new coach wasn't responsible for all her nerves.
When she looked out into the audience, she saw her mentor, father-figure, dear friend looking back her.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma flew to Cincinnati to be with her - commercially, apparently - and Jamelle knew telling him how much she appreciated him wouldn't be easy.

And Renee Montgomery gets President Obama's basketball:

After their game was over and Obama had made one last fadeaway jumper, Montgomery tracked down the basketball. Walking back to the White House, she asked if she could keep it.

“He paused for a good moment to think, so I got nervous,” Montgomery said. “Then he said, ‘I only have this one and it’s my campaign ball, but yes, you can have it.’ Then he asked somebody for a pen, so he could sign it. As he gave it to me, he said, ‘This should be a lesson for everybody to be a go-getter.’”

So cool.

Look Who's The Big East Champs

That's right, the UConn Women Huskies. They beat Louisville, secured their #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and they are the remaining undefeated Division 1 team. In other words, a good night.

Saturday Sesame Street

This video isn't of the highest quality, but it is one of my favorite segments of Sesame Street ever:

I was always really amazed by the double dutch jump ropers, probably because I couldn't even master the one rope.

A Moment in Basketball

I think LeBron James is a cutie and always have, though I will admit that I had thought Carmelo Anthony was going to be the breakout star when both joined the NBA in 2003; I mean, Carmelo had that awesome Syracuse championship game and LeBron didn't even have one year of college hoops under his belt. Obviously, I was wrong about that one. Anyway, LeBron is one of the people I actually unmute television commercials for. All of this leads up to this spectacular shot:


I've seen a lot of basketball in my life; I've been to a lot of games, and in following UConn basketball (both men's and women's, though mainly women's) I've seen some pretty outstanding shots - buzzer shots, shots that looked like they should never even get anywhere near the basket. But that one? Blows them all away. The only thing that would possibly make it better would be if he had made that shot actually during a game.

Final Fours and "Women's" Final Fours

On Saturday, I went to a UConn Women's Basketball game, because I love college basketball and I love women's college basketball more than men's, and because I love UConn's women's team probably more than any other team. It was a blow out, as can happen when one women's team is ranked #1 and the other team is unranked. But that gave me time to look at the banners adorning the XL Center. 
Pretty, aren't they? What struck me, though, was the difference in the emblems of the Men's winning banners and the Women's winning banners. Here are the two competing emblems from 2004, the year both the UConn Men's basketball team and Women's basketball team won the NCAA National Championship:

The Men's banner just says "NCAA Final Four"; the Women's banner explicitly says "NCAA Women's Final Four". This goes directly to what Habladora was saying in her Gender and Profession: Lady Doctors and Male Nurses post. Men are considered the norm when it comes to basketball players. Therefore, the banner doesn't have to explicitly say "Men", because when someone says "basketball player", we generally think of a man. In certain cases, like lady doctors and male nurses, I generally think we should leave gender out of the discussion, because it is a signifier of something out of the ordinary. It doesn't help change who we picture as doctors or nurses; it just modifies the automatic picture that appears at the mention of "doctor" or "nurse". For something like a Final Four appearance, though, I think we should take a different tactic. 

It is a competition, and two separate ones. For that reason, I would like for both the men's Final Four emblem and the women's Final Four emblem to indicate gender. Because right now, it seems as though the ungendered Final Four is the "real" Final Four, and the women's Final Four is an afterthought or less of a concern. And that is true; outside of Connecticut and Tennessee, many women's college basketball teams struggle to gain an audience; and women's teams in general can still suffer at schools like UConn and Tennessee, schools that have one outstanding women's program but whose other programs don't obtain that excellence year after year. Although I'm into language and words and how language and words shape our world and our lives, I wouldn't go so far as to say that making the gendered distinctions among Final Fours will suddenly revolutionize women's sports and make them as recognized and popular and respected as men's sports. But I do think it will help, even just a little bit, even just mostly subconsciously. Because even though it is a little thing, the little things add up; and although the wording on a sports championship banner is a very little thing, it is a representation of the gendered aspect in sports and other professions.

(Fictional) Feminist Icon: Dana Whitaker

Dana Whitaker may seem like a strange choice for a fictional feminist. She is the creation of a man who has often had at best mixed success when it came to creating women characters. She is neurotic; she is insecure; she is worried - at times - about being alone at 34. But I find Dana to be on the short list of my most beloved female television characters, and that is more than partially because she is a strong, capable, wholly impressive woman. Dana Whitaker is one of six brothers, all of whom were obsessed with sports. She was sent to an all-girls school by her mother so that she would not turn out like her six brothers and - as a matter of interest - her father. Unfortunately for Dana's mother, Dana took her education and became the executive producer of a cable sports show, thereby becoming very much like her father and six brothers. And that is the first way in which I find Dana Whitaker to be of a rather feminist persuasion. She went into what is traditionally a male's field, and knew as much if not more than many of the men she encountered about that field. She was proud of her knowledge, and made a career out of it, being surrounded with men who also knew a lot about sports and respected her knowledge and her ability in imparting that knowledge to potential viewers.

I also find Dana Whitaker to be written in a rather feminist light because her story ends in victory, but it doesn't end in romantic love. Sports Night, like all of Sorkin's shows, is built around the concept that work is where families are formed and work is where one escapes to when one cannot succeed in other aspects of life. Everyone is afflicted with the same issues, regardless of gender. Because of that, it is no surprise when Dana comes up with the truly horrendous dating plan, nor is it much of a surprise when her relationship with her first on-screen boyfriend, Gordon, fails miserably. And yet, Dana triumphs. Facing the demolishment of her show due to the selling of the cable company, Dana tells a mysterious man at the bar that "the show didn't fail; but I do feel responsible". Later, when it becomes clear that the mysterious man at the bar is the one buying the network and plans on keeping Sports Night, Dana's joyous cries of "My show is on!" is one of the last moments of the series. Dana triumphs, and the rest of her crew triumphs, because she gets to keep making her show. It isn't a bittersweet ending, with the ever-present cloud of "but she doesn't have a man". She doesn't have a man, but that is more than okay. Because she has these people and she has her show.

Which leads me into another point. Dana's struggle in the first season is in trying to balance her show and her love for and dedication to her work with her romantic relationship. Gordon, her boyfriend, doesn't take her work seriously, and in so doing doesn't take Dana or her concerns very seriously. One of her subordinates, Jeremy, says, "I understand what makes a woman think that any man is better than nothing; I'll just never understand what makes a woman think she's got nothing". And that is Dana's journey; she has to recognize that being 34 and "very much afraid of fish" and afraid that she will not get married is less than she makes it out to be. She has to recognize that she is worth more than the Gordons of the world. And she does. Not well, because she - and the rest of the characters who populate Sports Night - is all too human and is willing to put up with a lot of bad before she finally explodes. But even as she falls, like when she hands off the show to another producer for the evening after a delayed broadcast because Gordon was mad, she still manages to make up for it with the declaration that being executive producer is her job and not her hobby and by saying at an earlier point in time, "The truth is I have a job that involves me and stimulates me and rewards me and takes up a lot of my time and I'm not willing to do my job just a little bit; I want to do all of it. It's a part of me and I'm different without it."

Dana is deeply flawed, and yet incredible. She is intelligent. She is gutsy and daring and vulnerable and brave. And through her, Aaron Sorkin does something incredibly well, and that is to look at this particular woman and the insecurities she has and the issues she deals with as a woman, and why she has those insecurities. This is a woman who loves her job, but feels like she needs a man. And who is, at one point in time, willing to settle in order to be with one. And that isn't a feminist action; but that examination of a particular impulse, an impulse partially created by various forces in society continually bombarding women with how to get a man and how to keep a man and how it is your fault if your man strays, is incredible. And Felicity Huffman is brilliant and portraying a woman who is "an irresistible combination of brilliance inside the office, and something a little less than brilliance anywhere outside of it". Dana's brilliance in the office, combined with everyone's lack of brilliance anywhere outside of it on the show (except maybe Isaac), makes her a lasting and impressionable feminist icon of the fictional variety.

(Parts 1 and 2 of the series)

More Notes on the Olympics

Actually, just one: We kicked France's ass! Thank you, France, for being obnoxious enough to make me want to really root for Michael Phelps. I have an odd loathing of the kid that I feel kind of badly about on some days and not so badly about on others. But when Alain Bernard of the French relay team says shit like, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That is what we came here for", it stirs up a national pride like no other. And so I am supremely happy (as well as more than a little surprised) that Jason Lezak was actually able to chase Bernard down in that final leg of the relay and make him eat those words. I usually feel sorry for the losing team -unless they're the Lady Vols from Tennessee, of course- but nothing gave me greater pleasure than seeing them all dumbstruck by the American victory.

Some Notes on the Olympics

1) I miss Ian Thorpe. While Michael Phelps has captured America's attention and may in fact beat Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics, I care less than if the Australian Thorpedo was swimming again.

2) Why is all the music American? It may be just the events I've caught so far; I mean, I'm not sure about the relevance of beach culture in China or Japan or France, so I'm not sure if there is any music even remotely akin to the Beach Boys, but it just seemed strange that during the beach volleyball match all I heard was American tunes. Same thing with the gymnastics and swimming. It is just odd. I am hoping that it is just the music I know that my brain is picking up on, kind of like the phenomenon of noticing your car's color or type on the road more often than others, but I'm kind of thinking that American culture really is just that prevalent. I blame a friend of mine's blog entry for getting me to even think semi-deeply about the subject.

3) I can blame that same friend for getting me to notice the fact that two of the American saber fencing medalists were wearing flip flops when they were chatting with Bob Costas. I understand the gold medalist's choice in footwear. She was wearing a casual outfit and chose a casual shoe. Same thing with the silver medalist seated next to her wearing sneakers. But the incoming Duke freshman, Becca Ward, wore a very nice skirt and top and flip flops for shoes. That was an odd mish mash of serious and casual and was kind of odd.

4) Congratulations to 18 year old Taehwan Park from South Korea, whose Olympic dreams were dashed 4 years ago when he fell into the pool before the start of his race and thus disqualifying him. He managed to take gold in the Men's 400 metre free-style this time around.

5) Congratulations to 41 year old Dana Torres, who was one of the reasons America got silver in the relay race.

Sexism in Baseball

"There's no sexism in baseball!" Except, along with crying, there apparently is. At least, in baseball reporting. Or, to be even more accurate, in reporting matters that vaguely pertain to baseball, so they can be used to fluff up sports sections across the country instead of gathering real sports news. I'm speaking of, of course, the (in)famous rumor that A-Rod and Madonna are a couple. Maybe they are, and maybe they aren't. But with headlines like "A-Rod's Wife Says Madonna Brainwashed Her Husband", a charming bit of news that popped up on my Yahoo! homepage, the blame sure is on the right head: Madonna's. My newspaper also had a lovely bit of commentary, claiming that while "Derek Jeter dates Brazilian supermodels, Tom Brady has Giselle, and somehow the best that Alex Rodriguez, the greatest ballplayer of our generation, can do is hook up with the anti-ingenue". See what he did there? He made sure everyone knew that Madonna was old.

Reporting later on that "Mrs. Rodriguez jets off to Paris to seek comfort in the arms of celebrated rock guitarist Lenny Kravitz", Joe Palladino's real concern is the idea that there is something "inherently debilitating about being able to hit a baseball a long way". Because getting Madonna, or wanting Madonna, when A-Rod could be out getting the young hotties is wrong. In fact, it is so wrong that it is comparable to Babe Ruth's and Mickey Mantle's alcoholism -and Ted Williams' tendency to spit at fans. Yikes.

And instead of focusing the attention where it should be, that being on a bunch of grown ups playing Musical Spouses (with Guy Ritchie apparently being the poor schmuck without a new partner) in the public eye before any of their divorces are finalized, the media is focusing on the age question. And it is sexist, along with ridiculous, for commentators and sports reporters to cheer Jeter on while he blows through those "Brazilian models" and then scoff at A-Rod for dating -or possibly dating, at this point- someone "old enough to be his mother"; or according to one paper, his grandmother. I wouldn't trust their math.

And, of course, Madonna's old troupe of known paramours is paraded out, as an example of... ...something. How old she is? How unclean she is? Ignoring the fact that we've celebrated guys like Hugh Hefner for years, and that guys are considered studs for dating (and sleeping with) a lot of women, is par for the course. Because she's a woman (by the way, pick up Jessica Valenti's He's a Stud, She's a Slut...; I haven't read it yet, but I really enjoyed Full Frontal Feminism). And because women are held to different standards. So instead of cheering Madonna on in the same way they do Derek Jeter ("Go you! You've got a young one!") or congratulating A-Rod on dating someone who is still putting youngsters to shame with her toned abs and mad musical skillz or, hell, just criticizing them both for reneging on their marriage vows and ignoring that they've both got kids at home, A-Rod is criticized for not cheating on his wife with a younger woman. And Madonna is, as usual, made out to be some she-devil.

School Sports

My sisters, being weirdly participatory for my family, insisted on going to the state championship game for our high school's baseball team. Though the game was about an hour away, much of our town filled much of the stadium. And when our team won (the first state championship game attended since 1985; first won since about 1970), the stadium exploded. The team jumped with obvious jubilee, and they got a parade for their accomplishment as soon as they arrived back in town. The firehouse message board proudly proclaimed them to be 2008 State Champs.

All of this led me to think about school sports programs in general, and sports programs in my town specifically. We take such pride in their accomplishments, award them praise and devotion and caravan across the state when gas prices are on average $4.27 a gallon to support them. And yet, due to the economic downturn the nation is experiencing at the moment, the first thing my town wants to cut from its budget is school sports. Well, the second thing. The first thing is always trash pick up, because that has continually been the one threat that will get a budget passed in my sleepy little town. Especially when it is pointed out that eliminating sanitation from the town budget doesn't eliminate the cost; it simply shifts the cost directly to the tax payer. But now, sports are on the chopping block.

I was never one to participate in sports. Getting sweaty and grimy wasn't exactly something that made me ecstatic. And I very much preferred to spend my afternoons and weekends away from school and school-related events. But that doesn't mean that I don't recognize the use of school sports, or that I don't deplore the idea that we should cut back on the school sports program.

Forget that "student athletes report healthier eating habits, increased parental support, and decreased anxiety and depression". Forget that "participating in sports is associated with higher levels of self-esteem and motivation, overall psychological well-being, and better body image for girls". Forget that school sports can help students, especially in younger grades, develop skills like cooperation and dedication. Forget that in today's scholastic competition, grades alone are not enough for students to be accepted into the top colleges, and sports are a way for many to diversify their application and exemplify some of the qualities they possess that universities are looking for. Forget scholarship options for the select elite of student athletes, people who may very well not have been able to attend college otherwise.

Even if we disregard all of those factors, school sports are still incredibly important. Why? Because we are a nation of ever-increasing obesity, and child obesity is on the rise. And 30-45 minutes every other day (or every day for one semester out of the year) in gym class isn't going to cut it. Sports programs are linked to students "maintaining a healthy exercise program". And in America today, we need to encourage and support anything that does. We need to encourage student interest in running and jumping and generally being active. We need to put more money into a myriad of sports; we need to not only support those sports that garner money for the school system but also intramural sports. We need this outlet to be as readily available as it can be for our students. Because in many cases, the habits children form in elementary school and middle school and high school are the habits they take with them throughout life. Teach a student to love books, and they will become life-long readers. Introduce a child to a sport that engages them and intrigues them, and we will have done one more thing in the war against obesity. Active children, children who are encouraged in their activeness, are more likely to turn into active adults. Let's give these children that chance.