astra_nomer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astra_nomer) wrote2005-07-20 09:32 am
astra_nomer) wrote2005-07-20 09:32 am
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Rant. You've been warned.
I found myself offended by this story I heard on Morning Edition today.
Basically, Frank Deford argues that Michelle Wie's playing against male golfers is bad for women's sports as a whole. By playing against and beating men, she draws attention to herself perhaps, but also draws attention away from women's sports, which already suffer from lack of audiences. And he trotted out the usual arguments about smaller muscle mass and physical differences leading to women being unable to compete fairly with men.
Of course, being a woman who competes with men on a daily basis (careerwise anyway), I felt like he might as well have said that since women's brains are smaller, they can't fairly compete again men intellectually, so why not set up a parallel women's career ladder in the sciences. Then you can systematically marginalize women scientists the way women athletes have been.
Okay, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. But the attitude about the inferiority of women's bodies is all too similar to attitudes about the inferiority of women's brains.
Grrr.
Basically, Frank Deford argues that Michelle Wie's playing against male golfers is bad for women's sports as a whole. By playing against and beating men, she draws attention to herself perhaps, but also draws attention away from women's sports, which already suffer from lack of audiences. And he trotted out the usual arguments about smaller muscle mass and physical differences leading to women being unable to compete fairly with men.
Of course, being a woman who competes with men on a daily basis (careerwise anyway), I felt like he might as well have said that since women's brains are smaller, they can't fairly compete again men intellectually, so why not set up a parallel women's career ladder in the sciences. Then you can systematically marginalize women scientists the way women athletes have been.
Okay, so maybe it's not a fair comparison. But the attitude about the inferiority of women's bodies is all too similar to attitudes about the inferiority of women's brains.
Grrr.
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If all sports had equivalent women's leagues that were as prominent as in tennis, then this wouldn't be an issue.
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Well, yeah. That's back to my "in an ideal world." So one question is whether women playing in the men's leagues when they aren't equal prominence pushes things towards or away from the ideal world, and after thinking about it more, I think it pushes *towards*.
The LPGA has much less publicity and money. Wie playing in the PGA gets her tons of publicity, which bleeds into publicity for golf for women, which perhaps brings LPGA tournaments more publicity and money, which then perhaps eventually means that Wie doesn't *have* to play in the men's leagues.
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