We did this!
A big thanks to this lovely community
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the motivation behind my new young adult novel, FAIR GAME. Namely, I talked about the lingering gender inequality that exists in sports and our entrenched notions that men are better athletes than women. I also mentioned that I’d been pitching an essay on the topic to various media outlets, at that point with no success.
For all the people still stuck on the crappy court
There’s always a crappy court. And more often than not, the girls are on it. As someone who’s been teaching about gender for over twenty years, I should have known this. Maybe I did know it. Maybe part of me thought it was something that happened often in the past, but not in the 21
People here had such lovely comments and shared the post and liked it and just generally made me feel like I wasn’t totally coming out of left field (see my sports metaphor there). One subscriber in particular (you know who you are) sent me an e-mail encouraging me to keep going. Keep pitching the idea. Don’t give up.
Sometimes that’s all it takes. Just one voice saying, “Keep going. What you’re doing is important.” I’m so thankful for this community of people who give me that support. Check out the opinion essay here, which was on CNN’s front page yesterday.
I don’t think of what I’m saying in this essay as a particularly controversial argument. In some ways, it’s fairly wishy-washy. I’m arguing that we don’t know for sure if men are better athletes. The question hasn’t been answered definitively. There’s too much white noise in the form of gender inequality in the way to know for sure.
But I can tell you from past experiences that nothing makes people angrier than talking about sports in ways that they don’t agree with, especially when it has to do with gender and sports. And when it has to do with transgender people and sports, which I’ve also written about? Wow. Just, wow.
I’m contemplating a post that does a deep-dive into the angry responses to this essay I’ve received (does anyone want to read that?). I guess it’s a strength of mine that I tend to respond to anger with curiosity or at least, to this kind of anger.
There’s just something so baffling to me about strangers making the effort to go to my website, use the contact page, and e-mail me angry screeds about why I’m wrong. Or stupid. Or, yes, in one case, that I’m a dog. I think it says so much about our culture that this feels not just acceptable but, I don’t know, satisfying? Is it satisfying? I have certainly been tempted to leave angry comments on things I read on the internet. But why would I do that? What’s the point?
But that is not what today’s post is about. Today’s post is about saying thank you to all of you for your encouragement and support. Because of you, I kept pushing and put this essay out into the world. And, yes, I got some angry e-mails, but also one from a woman who was on the first U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team in 1976. That one email more than outweighed all the others. Sometimes all it takes is one voice.
If gender equality and bad-ass women are your kind of your thing, you might like my young adult novel, FAIR GAME. Buy it wherever you get your books. The paperback version of my nonfiction book about sports, THROW LIKE A GIRL, CHEER LIKE A BOY, is available August 9. Check out below for a subscriber-only deal if you pre-order THROW LIKE A GIRL, CHEER LIKE A BOY direct from the Rowman and Littlefield website, here.
Also mark the dates on your calendar for lots of events coming up. Indianapolis folks, working on an event there in August, so stay tuned. Louisville people, books are on their way to Carmichael’s and I hope to get down and sign a few copies next week.
Tuesday, August 15, 5:30 - 6:15, Madison Public Library. Girls vs. Boys: Exploring Gender and Athletic Performance. Follow-up reception and book signing at Red Roaster.
Monday, August 21, 7:00, Joseph-Beth Booksellers-Rookwood. Cincinnati.
Saturday, September 16, Village Lights Bookstore (more details to come).
Saturday, October 21, Kentucky Book Festival, Joseph-Beth Booksellers-Lexington.
Finally, if you haven’t already, I’d so appreciate it if you left a review of FAIR GAME on Amazon or Goodreads. And ask your local library to order a copy because libraries are the most awesome.
First, congratulations on your essay being published! And it’s a great essay, too. How kids are conditioned to play according to their gender is spot-on. When I was about 9 or 10, one of my friends decided to do a cartwheel in the gym. The boys went crazy because she was wearing a dress and so they could see her underwear. I remember thinking it was odd because her plain white panties weren’t any more revealing than a bathing suit, but she was still treated as if she broke some rule. I’m not surprised you got some negative feedback. Too many people (especially men) feel threatened by any change in the status quo. We have straight white men who feel they are a dying breed, hence their antipathy toward people of color and women. To me, the transgenders in sports controversy would be ridiculous if it weren’t so dangerous for transgendered people. We could solve that by doing away with gender in sports altogether, but then what would the “culture warriors” have to complain about.
Anyone who doubts the power of a woman hasn’t heard of the “Brutal Blonde.” I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
https://youtu.be/OstbbWLZXm8