sports

The 2010 FIFA World Cup final is this Sunday! Soccer/football and music have a long and wonderful history—championships have official songs and teams have unofficial anthems and chants, from the obvious (Queen's "We Are the Champions") to the unexpected (Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone"). Most of the songs here are about European teams, because I tried to choose ones that got far in the World Cup this year, but you can find more at this database or this plainly and accurately titled blog. If you're looking for some good old-fashioned male objectification, the ladies at Kickette can help you out there. Throw on your kits and prepare for inappropriate nationalism!

Ben Roethlisberger. He's a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers! He's the youngest Super Bowl-winning quarterback in NFL history! He's one of the NFL's highest-paid players, with a $102 million dollar five-year contract! He's a rapist! And he's not just an All-Star on the field, folks, he's also our second Douchebag Decree All-Star! (Applause.) Roethlisberger, right, with a fan in Milledgeville, Georgia. Someone please submit this photo to this blog.

When it comes to women and sports, we've got a long way to go before we reach the promised land of gender equity. Still, when you consider that Title IX just passed in 1972 and that we've got some seriously kickass women athletes to look up to in the wide world of sports today, well, it could be worse. So how are we doing when it comes to women, sports, and advertising? Well, let's start on a high note:

Women are making their entrance into cricket as players, team owners, and purveyors of sexism and White privilege?

... cuz we need you.

On May 1, a pair of tennis-playing girls—sisters Karli and Tonya Timko—won the won the boys AA Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League doubles title. Let me take that back: They didn’t just win. They freakin’ dominated. As singles players on the boys team, they rolled over their opponents all year, dropping only two sets between the two of them. When the season came to a close and titles were on the line, the sisters teamed up as double partners again and hammered their finals opponents, Tin Chu and Drew Gallatin of Thomas Jefferson High, by a total of 6-2, 6-1.

According to their own statements in the press, the sisters, who play for Chartiers-Houston high, have been playing on the boys’ tennis team because there haven’t been enough girls to field a girls’ squad. That dismal state of affairs is a worthy enough topic for conversation, but let’s save that for another time. What I want to take a look at is the media coverage of the sisters’ victory.

Let’s open up the ol’ cyber-mailbag, shall we? This week, two Friends of Jock Bitch (FoJB? FoJobs? That sounds weird.) were kind enough to send in a couple of links to articles of interest.

So, Selena Roberts’ Alex Rodriguez book, A-rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, hit the shelves yesterday—earlier than its original release date, due to the jib-jab ratcheted up by the recent reportage on leaked bits of the book. I would be remiss in not mentioning A-rod, but, really…I don’t want to read it. God, please don’t make me read it. OK, I’m gonna hafta read it.

You know what kills me? As a woman writing about sports to other women, I often feel like I need to explain things.

A couple parting items to chat over between hoops playoffs this weekend...

Hi there, sports fans. My name is Jonanna Widner, and for the next couple months I’m going to be doing the guest-blogging about the nexus of sports and feminism. Said guest blog will fall under the name "Jock Bitch."

To start, I thought I’d just sort of spell out my relationship to/with sports, which hopefully will explain why I think sports are a feminist subject, and serve as an introduction to the philosophy behind this Jock Bitch.

First off, I am a huge sports fan. I do not qualify as a sports nut, mind you, as that would entail endless hours of trolling web sites for obscure statistics about how many strikes C.C. Sabathia throws per inning when pitching at dusk when the wind is coming from the south, but let’s just say ESPN is often the first TV station I turn to when the TV comes on. Let’s also say I’ve been known to Tivo basketball games to save for later, and that I cry regularly due to some sports-related catharsis or other. Last minute heroics are always good: Show me a walk-off home run and say good-bye to the Kleenex. And that’s only during the regular season.....