One good thing about television stations’ mega-coverage of the Olympics is that women’s events are shown a lot. Often within close temporal proximity to men’s events. Comparison is inevitable. And interesting. Consider volleyball. Now the women, when they dive for the ball, they do this really neat shoulder roll: it’s smooth, efficient, and really cool …
Category: sports
Feb 21 2018
Snowmobiles Rule – Only in Canada. Pity.
Snowmobilers are often presented as enjoying the natural beauty of the North. Oh please. Not at the speeds they drive. Not while their exhaust pipes spew fumes into our air. And their engines roar at a volume that must be endured by everyone within five miles. And their tossed beer cans litter the forest until …
Feb 14 2018
Taking Tiddlywinks Seriously
Imagine a game of tiddlywinks being played by men. Imagine it televised. And broadcast to the whole world on any one of over a dozen Tiddlywinks Channels. Imagine a play-by-play description of the proximity and angle of orientation each tiddlywink, relative to the pot; of the exact positioning of each man’s squidger, relative to each …
Jan 03 2018
“Daddy, daddy, the house is on fire!” “Not now, sweetie, the game’s on.”
So about this guy in Taiwan who drops his child in order to catch a foul ball at a baseball game… I don’t know whether to be more appalled at the man’s action or at the media’s framing of it. Am I appalled that we condition our males to value sports over parenting? That they’d …
Jan 01 2018
Toller Cranston on Janet Lynn
[obviously written a while ago, but this shit keeps happening…] Toller Cranston, as Janet Lynn takes the ice: “You wouldn’t know by looking at her that she’s a housewife and mother of three.” What? Would he have said of Kurt Browning, “You wouldn’t know by looking at him that he does stuff around the …
Nov 11 2017
The Soaps vs. The Game
While both ‘the soaps’ and ‘the game’ have been criticized as poor viewing choices, only the soaps have been dismissed as fluff. However, a close examination reveals that, in fact, the soaps have more heft than the game. In both cases, the central theme, and that which drives the action, is winning. In the soaps, …
Sep 25 2017
Toller Cranston on Janet Lynn
[Obviously written a while ago, and yet … this shit keeps being said.] Toller Cranston, as Janet Lynn takes the ice: “You wouldn’t know by looking at her that she’s a housewife and mother of three.” What? Would he have said of Kurt Browning, “You wouldn’t know by looking at him that he does …
Jun 06 2017
Things they’ll never tell you about basketball — and sexism
Things they’ll never tell you about basketball – and sexism
Apr 11 2016
Women’s Soccer Team Paid 4X less than Men’s Team DESPITE …
ESPN reports acknowledge that although the U. S. women’s soccer team generates almost $20 million more revenue than the men’s team, the women are paid almost four times less. Source here.
Feb 23 2014
Dangerous Sports
I haven’t really kept up with the sexism in the Olympics, mostly because the nationalism bothers me so much I don’t even watch them anymore, but I suspect there are still some sports in which women aren’t allowed to compete. Perhaps because of the tired, old, and fucking patronizing ‘You could get hurt!’ This from …
fiction
