[Day 9] Athletics
One hundred and sixty one years ago, a group of women and men drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, stating that "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman..." Their immediate goal of equal voting rights for women in the United States has long since been met, but this statement still rings with a tragic amount of truth.
Three years ago, when rageprufrock first began the project that would grow into 14 valentines, she spoke about how women are praised and worshiped, torn down and degraded. We live in a world where our bodies are revered for the ability to give life and derided for leaving behind the appearance of adolescence, where we can rise to the highest offices of power in some countries and are deprived of basic rights in others.
We are told to be strong, to stand up for ourselves, told that we can do anything, be anything - but only to a point, always to a point.
Around the world, women die from lack of basic medical attention, from infanticide, from starvation beyond their control, from starvation inflicted upon themselves in a twisted attempt to be beautiful. We are beaten, raped, murdered, told in so many horrifying ways that we are lesser that we don't matter.
Forty years ago we declared that Sisterhood is Powerful, and it still is. We must remember that, must continue moving forward.
It's 2009 and we've come so far, but there is still more work to be done. We deserve better, and we can do more. We're strong. The next fourteen days is meant to remind us of that. It's our time to take back our bodies.
V can stand for vagina, like Eve Ensler's groundbreaking monologues. V can stand for violence, under whose auspices all women continue to make a home.
V can also stand for victory.
Athletics
In Nike's 1995 ad, If You Let Me Play, young women and girls stare at the camera and tell us that if we let them play sports, they will be less likely to get breast cancer, less likely to suffer from depression, and more likely to leave a man who beats them. The ad was powerful because these are facts. Women and girls who are physically active have lower rates of heart disease, osteoporosis, and contract fewer STDs. Additionally, they are more likely to do well in school and more likely to attend college, particularly if they are women of color.
In the 30 plus years since Title IX passed in the United States, insuring equal funding for girls sports, female participation in college athletics increased from 15% to 42%. We've gained a professional basketball league for women, and seen the US Women's Soccer team soar in popularity and acclaim. We've lauded and cheered for Billie Jean King, Mary Lou Retton, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mia Hamm, and Venus and Serena Williams to name a few, seen their faces on our televisions and on the covers of magazines ranging from Sports Illustrated to Time.
We've covered a lot of ground, but there's still a long way to go. The WNBA is operated at a loss, with salary caps that are literally a fraction of what men in the NBA are paid. Colleges offer millions of dollars less each year in scholarships for women, and recruit far more men. Female athletes are sexualized to a staggering degree, focusing on their sex appeal rather than their abilities and talents. While coaches of women's teams are now paid more than they were in the pre-Title IX era, those positions are now being filled more and more often by men.
We can do better than that.
The Women's Sports Foundation was founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King, and is dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through physical activity. They promote all sports and physical activities for women of all ages and skill levels and are acknowledged as the expert resource on all women’s sports issues. They provide grants and scholarships for female athletes, honor excellence in the media coverage and depictions of women and girls in sports, and provide opportunities to take action on a local and national level.
They are athletes, they are activists, and they are tireless.
[Today's essay courtesy of bunnymcfoo]