Women get mixed messages following Title IX passage
by Patricia Ireland, Knight Ridder Tribune

    Despite Title IX, passed 30 years ago, women and girls in sports still find themselves subject to a highly contradictory social message: be athletic, but be feminine, too.

   Women must excel not only at their sport but also at their conventional social role.

   Particularly in sports like basketball and tennis, where bodies are on up-close and sweaty display, female athletes who hone their muscles and competitiveness as well as their skills face being labeled mannish, lesbian or both.

   In fact, in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, an article on the WNBA highlights alleged attempts by officials to feminize its players and achieve what is described as the “hyper-heterosexualization” of the sport.

   Despite the required tennis skirt and her propensity for tears at Wimbledon, Martina Navratalova’s grunting, short hair, attacking style and muscular, veined arms made her the target of a whisper campaign.

   People were heard saying, “Of course she’s good, but she looks and plays like a man.”

   Whispers became self-satisfied snorts of “I told you so” when Martina came out as a lesbian.

   Wimbledon champions Venus and Serena Williams find unflattering comments lobbed at them about their height, obvious musculature, aggressiveness and unladylike noises.

   Last year Amelie Mauresmo, with her strapping build, forceful play and open lesbianism, was dismissed by Martina Hingis as “half a man.”

   The fear of transgressing traditional feminine norms has so contorted women’s body building that several years ago the sport split into body building and “women’s fitness,” where points are deducted for too much muscle, too little make-up, clenched-fists and not high enough heeled shoes.

   And, in the you-just-can’t-win category: Anna Kournikova, an intelligent, sensitive and business-savvy young woman, has been dismissed as a “dumb blonde.”

   She has been called a pin-up in a way that Andre Agassi never experienced when he, too, had million-dollar endorsement contracts that were out of balance with his low tour ranking and lack of tournament trophies.

   For women to continue moving forward, not only in sports but in other competitive fields as well, we must keep expanding the conventional, constricting view of what’s feminine.

   Let’s stop forcing women to do an awkward balancing act between excellence and gender stereotypes.

   Let’s give women and girls the freedom to excel without looking over their shoulders wondering if a whispering campaign is gaining on them.