Erik N. Jensen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395648
- eISBN:
- 9780199866564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395648.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and ...
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Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.Less
Body by Weimar argues that male and female athletes fundamentally recast gender roles during Germany's turbulent post‐World War I years and established the basis for a modern body and modern sensibility that remain with us to this day. Athletes in the 1920s took the same techniques that were streamlining factories and offices and applied them to maximizing the efficiency of their own flesh and bones. Sportswomen and men embodied modernity — quite literally — in all of its competitive, time‐oriented excess and thereby helped to popularize, and even to naturalize, the sometimes threatening process of economic rationalization by linking it to their own personal success stories. Enthroned by the media as the new cultural icons, athletes radiated sexual empowerment, social mobility, and self‐determination. Champions in tennis, boxing, and track and field showed their fans how to be “modern,” and, in the process, sparked heated debates over the limits of the physical body, the obligations of citizens to the state, and the relationship between the sexes. If the images and debates in this book strike readers as familiar, it might well be because the ideal body of today — sleek, efficient, and equally available to men and women — received its first articulation in the fertile tumult of Germany's roaring twenties. After more than eighty years, we still want the Weimar body.
Anne Pippin Burnett
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199277940
- eISBN:
- 9780191707841
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277940.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book examines choral performance, audience response, and the poetic means used by Greek lyric poet Pindar to control this response. It consists of individual studies of Pindar's eleven odes for ...
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This book examines choral performance, audience response, and the poetic means used by Greek lyric poet Pindar to control this response. It consists of individual studies of Pindar's eleven odes for Aiginetan victors, preceded by a brief survey of the history of the island and the nature of its aristocracy. The discussion focuses in particular on questions of mythic self-presentation in Pindar's choral songs, as exemplified by such non-literary evidence as the pedimental sculptures of the Aphaia Temple, and the parallel ‘narrative’ sections of the odes. The overall concern is with Pindaric techniques for unifying an audience and leading it into a shared experience of inspired success, but there is also a concern with the realities of athletic contest and its celebration.Less
This book examines choral performance, audience response, and the poetic means used by Greek lyric poet Pindar to control this response. It consists of individual studies of Pindar's eleven odes for Aiginetan victors, preceded by a brief survey of the history of the island and the nature of its aristocracy. The discussion focuses in particular on questions of mythic self-presentation in Pindar's choral songs, as exemplified by such non-literary evidence as the pedimental sculptures of the Aphaia Temple, and the parallel ‘narrative’ sections of the odes. The overall concern is with Pindaric techniques for unifying an audience and leading it into a shared experience of inspired success, but there is also a concern with the realities of athletic contest and its celebration.
Eddie Comeaux
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195314366
- eISBN:
- 9780199865567
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314366.003.0008
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations, Health and Mental Health
Drawing from a larger project that explores racial differences in student athletes' academic integration patterns on campus, this chapter ascertains the effect of specific forms of student ...
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Drawing from a larger project that explores racial differences in student athletes' academic integration patterns on campus, this chapter ascertains the effect of specific forms of student athlete-faculty interaction on academic achievement. Specifically, it examines selected faculty interaction measures of academic achievement as well as high school grades (grade point average [GPA]), family income and education, the type of institution (public or private), among others. The chapter focuses on Black student athletes in the revenue-producing sports of men's basketball and football.Less
Drawing from a larger project that explores racial differences in student athletes' academic integration patterns on campus, this chapter ascertains the effect of specific forms of student athlete-faculty interaction on academic achievement. Specifically, it examines selected faculty interaction measures of academic achievement as well as high school grades (grade point average [GPA]), family income and education, the type of institution (public or private), among others. The chapter focuses on Black student athletes in the revenue-producing sports of men's basketball and football.
Allen Jones
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231027
- eISBN:
- 9780823240821
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231027.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This is the story of Allen Jones and his odyssey from the streets of the Bronx to a life as a professional athlete and banker in Europe, but it is also provides a unique vantage point on the history ...
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This is the story of Allen Jones and his odyssey from the streets of the Bronx to a life as a professional athlete and banker in Europe, but it is also provides a unique vantage point on the history of the Bronx and sheds new light on a neglected period in American urban history. The author grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx at a time — the 1950s — when that neighborhood was a place of optimism and hope for upwardly mobile Black and Latino families. Brought up in a two-parent household, with many neighborhood mentors, he led an almost charmed life as a budding basketball star until his teen years, when his once peaceful neighborhood was torn by job losses, white flight, and a crippling drug epidemic. Drawn into the heroin trade, first as a user, then as a dealer, he spent four months on Rikers Island, where he experienced a crisis of conscience and a determination to turn his life around. Sent to a New England prep school upon his release, he used his basketball skills and street smarts to forge a life outside the Bronx, first as a college athlete in the South, then as a professional basketball player, radio personality, and banker in Europe. This book brings Bronx streets and housing projects to life as places of possibility as well as tragedy, where racism and economic hardship never completely suppressed the resilient spirit of its residents.Less
This is the story of Allen Jones and his odyssey from the streets of the Bronx to a life as a professional athlete and banker in Europe, but it is also provides a unique vantage point on the history of the Bronx and sheds new light on a neglected period in American urban history. The author grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx at a time — the 1950s — when that neighborhood was a place of optimism and hope for upwardly mobile Black and Latino families. Brought up in a two-parent household, with many neighborhood mentors, he led an almost charmed life as a budding basketball star until his teen years, when his once peaceful neighborhood was torn by job losses, white flight, and a crippling drug epidemic. Drawn into the heroin trade, first as a user, then as a dealer, he spent four months on Rikers Island, where he experienced a crisis of conscience and a determination to turn his life around. Sent to a New England prep school upon his release, he used his basketball skills and street smarts to forge a life outside the Bronx, first as a college athlete in the South, then as a professional basketball player, radio personality, and banker in Europe. This book brings Bronx streets and housing projects to life as places of possibility as well as tragedy, where racism and economic hardship never completely suppressed the resilient spirit of its residents.
Ignacio Palacios-Huerta
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144023
- eISBN:
- 9781400850310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144023.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter focuses on psychological pressure in a competitive environment. It tests the hypothesis that if incentives become sufficiently large, the performance of professional players should ...
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This chapter focuses on psychological pressure in a competitive environment. It tests the hypothesis that if incentives become sufficiently large, the performance of professional players should become much less subject to the effects of anxiety, distress, and other pressures, perhaps even entirely free from psychological biases. This hypothesis is studied by taking advantage of a unique natural experiment in Argentina that was run for only one season. In the season 1988–89, the Argentine league championship decided to experiment with an unusual point system: After each drawn (tied) match, there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine which team got a bonus point.Less
This chapter focuses on psychological pressure in a competitive environment. It tests the hypothesis that if incentives become sufficiently large, the performance of professional players should become much less subject to the effects of anxiety, distress, and other pressures, perhaps even entirely free from psychological biases. This hypothesis is studied by taking advantage of a unique natural experiment in Argentina that was run for only one season. In the season 1988–89, the Argentine league championship decided to experiment with an unusual point system: After each drawn (tied) match, there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine which team got a bonus point.
Martha H. Verbrugge
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195168792
- eISBN:
- 9780199949649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168792.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, American History: 19th Century
Chapter 9 (the counterpart to Chapter 3) examines major shifts in the debate over female exercise and reproductive health during the second half of the twentieth century. Following a period of ...
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Chapter 9 (the counterpart to Chapter 3) examines major shifts in the debate over female exercise and reproductive health during the second half of the twentieth century. Following a period of relative calm, biomedical experts became alarmed in the 1970s and 1980s about various clinical and asymptomatic reproductive disorders and other problems among active girls and women. During the 1990s and early 2000s, this concern coalesced around the newly-named “Female Athlete Triad”—a “collective syndrome” of amenorrhea, disordered eating, and premature osteroporosis. Chapter 9 summarizes key changes in the science of exercise and reproductive health as well as the efforts of diverse professions to control if, when, how much, and in what way girls and women would exercise. Biomedical researchers and specialists gradually dominated the interpretation, diagnosis, and treatment of female reproductive “dysfunction.” As the clinic and laboratory gained authority over active female bodies, physical educators and coaches had to redefine their roles.Less
Chapter 9 (the counterpart to Chapter 3) examines major shifts in the debate over female exercise and reproductive health during the second half of the twentieth century. Following a period of relative calm, biomedical experts became alarmed in the 1970s and 1980s about various clinical and asymptomatic reproductive disorders and other problems among active girls and women. During the 1990s and early 2000s, this concern coalesced around the newly-named “Female Athlete Triad”—a “collective syndrome” of amenorrhea, disordered eating, and premature osteroporosis. Chapter 9 summarizes key changes in the science of exercise and reproductive health as well as the efforts of diverse professions to control if, when, how much, and in what way girls and women would exercise. Biomedical researchers and specialists gradually dominated the interpretation, diagnosis, and treatment of female reproductive “dysfunction.” As the clinic and laboratory gained authority over active female bodies, physical educators and coaches had to redefine their roles.
Erik N. Jensen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395648
- eISBN:
- 9780199866564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395648.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
After Germany's stunning military defeat in 1918, the physical fitness of its citizens became a national priority, and no one did more to heighten the level of self‐scrutiny and to establish ideals ...
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After Germany's stunning military defeat in 1918, the physical fitness of its citizens became a national priority, and no one did more to heighten the level of self‐scrutiny and to establish ideals more commensurate with the demands of the era than competitive athletes. Male and female athletes provided templates for an explicitly modern body — powerful, streamlined, and engineered for maximum performance — that many Germans believed would liberate the hitherto latent potential in men and women alike. Boxers, sprinters, and tennis players exuded a distinctively postwar spirit, untethered from prewar norms and focused on the aggressive pursuit of self‐interest. They demonstrated to their legions of fans how to negotiate the fast‐paced, restlessly experimental, performance‐oriented world of the Weimar Republic.Less
After Germany's stunning military defeat in 1918, the physical fitness of its citizens became a national priority, and no one did more to heighten the level of self‐scrutiny and to establish ideals more commensurate with the demands of the era than competitive athletes. Male and female athletes provided templates for an explicitly modern body — powerful, streamlined, and engineered for maximum performance — that many Germans believed would liberate the hitherto latent potential in men and women alike. Boxers, sprinters, and tennis players exuded a distinctively postwar spirit, untethered from prewar norms and focused on the aggressive pursuit of self‐interest. They demonstrated to their legions of fans how to negotiate the fast‐paced, restlessly experimental, performance‐oriented world of the Weimar Republic.
Jaime Schultz
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038167
- eISBN:
- 9780252095962
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038167.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This perceptive, lively study explores U.S. women's sport through historical “points of change”: particular products or trends that dramatically influenced both women's participation in sport and ...
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This perceptive, lively study explores U.S. women's sport through historical “points of change”: particular products or trends that dramatically influenced both women's participation in sport and cultural responses to women athletes. Beginning with the seemingly innocent ponytail, the subject of the Introduction, the book challenges the reader to look at the historical and sociological significance of now-common items such as sports bras and tampons and ideas such as sex testing and competitive cheerleading. Tennis wear, tampons, and sports bras all facilitated women's participation in physical culture, while physical educators, the aesthetic fitness movement, and Title IX encouraged women to challenge (or confront) policy, financial, and cultural obstacles. While some of these points of change increased women's physical freedom and sporting participation, they also posed challenges. Tampons encouraged menstrual shame, sex testing (a tool never used with male athletes) perpetuated narrowly defined cultural norms of femininity, and the late-twentieth-century aesthetic fitness movement fed into an unrealistic beauty ideal. Ultimately, the book finds that U.S. women's sport has progressed significantly but ambivalently. Although participation in sports is no longer uncommon for girls and women, the book argues that these “points of change” have contributed to a complex matrix of gender differentiation that marks the female athletic body as different than—as less than—the male body, despite the advantages it may confer.Less
This perceptive, lively study explores U.S. women's sport through historical “points of change”: particular products or trends that dramatically influenced both women's participation in sport and cultural responses to women athletes. Beginning with the seemingly innocent ponytail, the subject of the Introduction, the book challenges the reader to look at the historical and sociological significance of now-common items such as sports bras and tampons and ideas such as sex testing and competitive cheerleading. Tennis wear, tampons, and sports bras all facilitated women's participation in physical culture, while physical educators, the aesthetic fitness movement, and Title IX encouraged women to challenge (or confront) policy, financial, and cultural obstacles. While some of these points of change increased women's physical freedom and sporting participation, they also posed challenges. Tampons encouraged menstrual shame, sex testing (a tool never used with male athletes) perpetuated narrowly defined cultural norms of femininity, and the late-twentieth-century aesthetic fitness movement fed into an unrealistic beauty ideal. Ultimately, the book finds that U.S. women's sport has progressed significantly but ambivalently. Although participation in sports is no longer uncommon for girls and women, the book argues that these “points of change” have contributed to a complex matrix of gender differentiation that marks the female athletic body as different than—as less than—the male body, despite the advantages it may confer.
Robert K. Wallace
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125152
- eISBN:
- 9780813135052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125152.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book describes its philosophy on basketball coaching, the coaching process, and insights into areas that are important. A very important role for the coach is to assist student-athletes in ...
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This book describes its philosophy on basketball coaching, the coaching process, and insights into areas that are important. A very important role for the coach is to assist student-athletes in making their dreams come true. The coach's job is to help them achieve it. The coach does this by preparing them for competition and by giving them the tools to be successful at a high level. This may mean teaching them fundamentals, getting them in shape, or instilling mental toughness. All coaches should be passionate about the sport they coach. There is no greater reward to a coach than to have a group of young ladies go through the process of preseason conditioning, practice, and game preparation and then, on game day, to go out and play the game as “one” and be successful doing it.Less
This book describes its philosophy on basketball coaching, the coaching process, and insights into areas that are important. A very important role for the coach is to assist student-athletes in making their dreams come true. The coach's job is to help them achieve it. The coach does this by preparing them for competition and by giving them the tools to be successful at a high level. This may mean teaching them fundamentals, getting them in shape, or instilling mental toughness. All coaches should be passionate about the sport they coach. There is no greater reward to a coach than to have a group of young ladies go through the process of preseason conditioning, practice, and game preparation and then, on game day, to go out and play the game as “one” and be successful doing it.
David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604737516
- eISBN:
- 9781604737523
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604737516.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This book follows the paths of sports figures who were embraced by the general populace but who, through a variety of circumstances, real or imagined, found themselves falling out of favor. The ...
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This book follows the paths of sports figures who were embraced by the general populace but who, through a variety of circumstances, real or imagined, found themselves falling out of favor. The chapters focus on the roles played by athletes, the media, and fans in describing how once-esteemed popular figures find themselves scorned by the same public that at one time viewed them as heroic, laudable, or otherwise respectable. The book examines a wide range of sports and eras, and includes chapters on Barry Bonds, Kirby Puckett, Mike Tyson, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, Branch Rickey, Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jim Brown, as well as an afterword and introduction.Less
This book follows the paths of sports figures who were embraced by the general populace but who, through a variety of circumstances, real or imagined, found themselves falling out of favor. The chapters focus on the roles played by athletes, the media, and fans in describing how once-esteemed popular figures find themselves scorned by the same public that at one time viewed them as heroic, laudable, or otherwise respectable. The book examines a wide range of sports and eras, and includes chapters on Barry Bonds, Kirby Puckett, Mike Tyson, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, Branch Rickey, Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jim Brown, as well as an afterword and introduction.
Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199290673
- eISBN:
- 9780191700569
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290673.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This work explores the lives of people of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants, how they were shaped by empire, and how they in turn influenced the empire in everything from material goods to ...
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This work explores the lives of people of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants, how they were shaped by empire, and how they in turn influenced the empire in everything from material goods to cultural style. The black experience varied greatly across space and over time. Accordingly, thirteen substantive essays and a scene-setting introduction range from West Africa in the sixteenth century, through the history of the slave trade and slavery down to the 1830s, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century participation of blacks in the empire as workers, soldiers, members of colonial elites, intellectuals, athletes, and musicians. No people were more uprooted and dislocated; or travelled more within the empire; or created more of a trans-imperial culture. In the crucible of the British empire, blacks invented cultural mixes that were precursors to our modern selves — hybrid, fluid, ambiguous, and constantly in motion.Less
This work explores the lives of people of sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants, how they were shaped by empire, and how they in turn influenced the empire in everything from material goods to cultural style. The black experience varied greatly across space and over time. Accordingly, thirteen substantive essays and a scene-setting introduction range from West Africa in the sixteenth century, through the history of the slave trade and slavery down to the 1830s, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century participation of blacks in the empire as workers, soldiers, members of colonial elites, intellectuals, athletes, and musicians. No people were more uprooted and dislocated; or travelled more within the empire; or created more of a trans-imperial culture. In the crucible of the British empire, blacks invented cultural mixes that were precursors to our modern selves — hybrid, fluid, ambiguous, and constantly in motion.
David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617038136
- eISBN:
- 9781621039617
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617038136.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
Female athletes are too often perceived as interlopers in the historically male-dominated world of sports. Obstacles specific to women are of particular focus in this book. Race, sexual orientation, ...
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Female athletes are too often perceived as interlopers in the historically male-dominated world of sports. Obstacles specific to women are of particular focus in this book. Race, sexual orientation, and the similar qualities ancillary to gender require special exploration of the way they impact an athlete’s story. Central to the book is the contention that women in their role as inherent outsiders are placed in a unique position even more complicated than the usual experiences of inequality and discord associated with race and sports. The contributors explore and critique the notion that in order to be considered among the pantheon of athletic heroes one cannot deviate from the traditional demographic profile, that of the white male. These essays look specifically and critically at the nature of gender and sexuality within the contested nexus of race, reputation, and sport. The collection explores the reputations of iconic and pioneering sports figures and the cultural and social forces that helped to forge their unique and often problematic legacies. Women athletes discussed in this volume include Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the women of the AAGPBL, Billie Jean King, Venus and Serena Williams, Marion Jones, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Sheryl Swoopes, Florence Griffith Joyner, Roberta Gibb and Kathrine Switzer, and Danica Patrick.Less
Female athletes are too often perceived as interlopers in the historically male-dominated world of sports. Obstacles specific to women are of particular focus in this book. Race, sexual orientation, and the similar qualities ancillary to gender require special exploration of the way they impact an athlete’s story. Central to the book is the contention that women in their role as inherent outsiders are placed in a unique position even more complicated than the usual experiences of inequality and discord associated with race and sports. The contributors explore and critique the notion that in order to be considered among the pantheon of athletic heroes one cannot deviate from the traditional demographic profile, that of the white male. These essays look specifically and critically at the nature of gender and sexuality within the contested nexus of race, reputation, and sport. The collection explores the reputations of iconic and pioneering sports figures and the cultural and social forces that helped to forge their unique and often problematic legacies. Women athletes discussed in this volume include Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the women of the AAGPBL, Billie Jean King, Venus and Serena Williams, Marion Jones, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Sheryl Swoopes, Florence Griffith Joyner, Roberta Gibb and Kathrine Switzer, and Danica Patrick.
Annie Blazer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479898015
- eISBN:
- 9781479838820
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479898015.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
When sports ministry first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its founders imagined male celebrity athletes as powerful salespeople who could deliver a message of Christian strength: “If athletes can ...
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When sports ministry first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its founders imagined male celebrity athletes as powerful salespeople who could deliver a message of Christian strength: “If athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades, and cigarettes, surely they can endorse the Lord, too,” reasoned Fellowship of Christian Athletes founder Don McClanen. But combining evangelicalism and sport did much more than serve as an advertisement for religion: it gave athletes the opportunity to think about the embodied experiences of sport as a way to experience intimate connection with the divine. As sports ministry developed, it focused on individual religious experiences and downplayed celebrity sales power. When sport became an avenue for embodied worship, it forced a reckoning with evangelical teachings about the body. Christian female athletes, now the largest population in sports ministry, increasingly turned to their own bodies to understand their religious identity, and in so doing, came to question evangelical mainstays on gender and sexuality. What was once a male-dominated masculinist project of sports engagement became a female-dominated movement that challenged evangelical ideas about femininity, marriage hierarchy, and the sinfulness of homosexuality.Less
When sports ministry first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its founders imagined male celebrity athletes as powerful salespeople who could deliver a message of Christian strength: “If athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades, and cigarettes, surely they can endorse the Lord, too,” reasoned Fellowship of Christian Athletes founder Don McClanen. But combining evangelicalism and sport did much more than serve as an advertisement for religion: it gave athletes the opportunity to think about the embodied experiences of sport as a way to experience intimate connection with the divine. As sports ministry developed, it focused on individual religious experiences and downplayed celebrity sales power. When sport became an avenue for embodied worship, it forced a reckoning with evangelical teachings about the body. Christian female athletes, now the largest population in sports ministry, increasingly turned to their own bodies to understand their religious identity, and in so doing, came to question evangelical mainstays on gender and sexuality. What was once a male-dominated masculinist project of sports engagement became a female-dominated movement that challenged evangelical ideas about femininity, marriage hierarchy, and the sinfulness of homosexuality.
Peter Levine
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195085556
- eISBN:
- 9780199854042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195085556.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the participation of Jewish Americans in professional basketball during the period from 1900 to 1950 in the U.S. Most of these athletes first learned basketball in neighborhood ...
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This chapter examines the participation of Jewish Americans in professional basketball during the period from 1900 to 1950 in the U.S. Most of these athletes first learned basketball in neighborhood school yards and Jewish community centers before becoming college athletes, and eventually professional players. This chapter discusses the role of the City College of New York (CCNY) as the breeding ground of Jewish American basketball players.Less
This chapter examines the participation of Jewish Americans in professional basketball during the period from 1900 to 1950 in the U.S. Most of these athletes first learned basketball in neighborhood school yards and Jewish community centers before becoming college athletes, and eventually professional players. This chapter discusses the role of the City College of New York (CCNY) as the breeding ground of Jewish American basketball players.
Peter Levine
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195085556
- eISBN:
- 9780199854042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195085556.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the experiences of Jewish Americans in professional sports in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s. These were especially troubled times in the U.S. because of the Great ...
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This chapter examines the experiences of Jewish Americans in professional sports in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s. These were especially troubled times in the U.S. because of the Great Depression, increasing anti-Semitism at home and Nazi oppression. Despite this several Jewish athletes managed to make names for themselves in professional sports, even in baseball which was considered a sport not suited for the Jews. Some of the more prominent Jewish athletes during this period include Jimmy Reese, Sid Gordon and Buddy Myer.Less
This chapter examines the experiences of Jewish Americans in professional sports in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s. These were especially troubled times in the U.S. because of the Great Depression, increasing anti-Semitism at home and Nazi oppression. Despite this several Jewish athletes managed to make names for themselves in professional sports, even in baseball which was considered a sport not suited for the Jews. Some of the more prominent Jewish athletes during this period include Jimmy Reese, Sid Gordon and Buddy Myer.
Peter Levine
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195085556
- eISBN:
- 9780199854042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195085556.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the Jewish American sport experience in the U.S. since World War II. While the interwar years represented something of a peak for Jewish professional athletes, the 1970s ...
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This chapter examines the Jewish American sport experience in the U.S. since World War II. While the interwar years represented something of a peak for Jewish professional athletes, the 1970s witnessed a decline in sports participation among the Jews. Analysts and historians attribute this decline to the trek of second- and third-generation Jewish families from the city to the suburbs. Sport no longer serves the same purpose today as it once did.Less
This chapter examines the Jewish American sport experience in the U.S. since World War II. While the interwar years represented something of a peak for Jewish professional athletes, the 1970s witnessed a decline in sports participation among the Jews. Analysts and historians attribute this decline to the trek of second- and third-generation Jewish families from the city to the suburbs. Sport no longer serves the same purpose today as it once did.
Mollie Gregory
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166223
- eISBN:
- 9780813166759
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166223.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Stunts are fundamental to the movies. Stuntwomen examines the largely unexplored profession of stuntwomen in the American entertainment industry from the silent movie era to the 2000s. To their ...
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Stunts are fundamental to the movies. Stuntwomen examines the largely unexplored profession of stuntwomen in the American entertainment industry from the silent movie era to the 2000s. To their unique line of work, stunt players bring a combination of skills—athletics, acting, courage, adaptability, and a willingness to take risks. Minorities and women in the profession have battled institutional discrimination, unequal pay, and little access to higher positions. The book describes how stunt work began, its development over the decades, and its inherent dangers. It also charts the history of film and television, the rise of visual effects, and vital social changes—such as the civil rights and women’s movements—that influenced the growth of women’s action roles onscreen and improved opportunities for both actresses and stuntwomen. Most changes have been difficult and slow, however. From the 1920s on, stuntwomen were in a classic David and Goliath battle against the system to gain the work that might injure or even kill them. Since the 1970s, as the number of stuntwomen has increased, they have actively challenged their working conditions, sometimes successfully, but often not. Today’s new generation of stuntwomen has different expectations. Inequities still exist, but these stuntwomen’s talent, audacity, and onscreen feats will prevail.Less
Stunts are fundamental to the movies. Stuntwomen examines the largely unexplored profession of stuntwomen in the American entertainment industry from the silent movie era to the 2000s. To their unique line of work, stunt players bring a combination of skills—athletics, acting, courage, adaptability, and a willingness to take risks. Minorities and women in the profession have battled institutional discrimination, unequal pay, and little access to higher positions. The book describes how stunt work began, its development over the decades, and its inherent dangers. It also charts the history of film and television, the rise of visual effects, and vital social changes—such as the civil rights and women’s movements—that influenced the growth of women’s action roles onscreen and improved opportunities for both actresses and stuntwomen. Most changes have been difficult and slow, however. From the 1920s on, stuntwomen were in a classic David and Goliath battle against the system to gain the work that might injure or even kill them. Since the 1970s, as the number of stuntwomen has increased, they have actively challenged their working conditions, sometimes successfully, but often not. Today’s new generation of stuntwomen has different expectations. Inequities still exist, but these stuntwomen’s talent, audacity, and onscreen feats will prevail.
Steven M. Ortiz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780252043161
- eISBN:
- 9780252052040
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043161.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
Male professional athletes captivate fans and profoundly influence today’s society as part of the $1.3 trillion global sport industry. Although these athletes’ lives and careers are widely reported, ...
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Male professional athletes captivate fans and profoundly influence today’s society as part of the $1.3 trillion global sport industry. Although these athletes’ lives and careers are widely reported, scholarly knowledge about the women who support them—their wives—is extremely limited. Because these women’s voices have historically been stifled, their marriages are shockingly misunderstood. Based on findings from the first and only longitudinal study on the sport marriage, this book corrects the abundance of misinformation reported by all forms of media, dispels undeserved stereotypes, and addresses inaccurate assumptions about the heteronormative sport marriage. It demonstrates how, despite major changes in society and sport since the end of the last century, the fundamental nature of the heteronormative sport marriage has not changed. Sport wives remain isolated and subordinate, even while they make significant contributions to their husbands’ careers. Identifying the sport marriage as a career-dominated marriage, the book allows us into these women’s public and private lives, including their need to conform to unwritten rules and codes, adapt to abundant power and control issues, cope with groupies from all walks of life, and find ways to deal with their oft-justified fears about their husbands’ infidelity. The book shares intimate stories about, and provides rare and unflinching insight into, what it is like to be married to these highly visible men, what it means to be a woman in the male-dominated world of professional sports, and why women remain in a sport marriage at great cost to themselves.Less
Male professional athletes captivate fans and profoundly influence today’s society as part of the $1.3 trillion global sport industry. Although these athletes’ lives and careers are widely reported, scholarly knowledge about the women who support them—their wives—is extremely limited. Because these women’s voices have historically been stifled, their marriages are shockingly misunderstood. Based on findings from the first and only longitudinal study on the sport marriage, this book corrects the abundance of misinformation reported by all forms of media, dispels undeserved stereotypes, and addresses inaccurate assumptions about the heteronormative sport marriage. It demonstrates how, despite major changes in society and sport since the end of the last century, the fundamental nature of the heteronormative sport marriage has not changed. Sport wives remain isolated and subordinate, even while they make significant contributions to their husbands’ careers. Identifying the sport marriage as a career-dominated marriage, the book allows us into these women’s public and private lives, including their need to conform to unwritten rules and codes, adapt to abundant power and control issues, cope with groupies from all walks of life, and find ways to deal with their oft-justified fears about their husbands’ infidelity. The book shares intimate stories about, and provides rare and unflinching insight into, what it is like to be married to these highly visible men, what it means to be a woman in the male-dominated world of professional sports, and why women remain in a sport marriage at great cost to themselves.
Deborah L. Brake
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814799659
- eISBN:
- 9780814789797
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814799659.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
In this first legal analysis of Title IX, the book assesses the statute's successes and failures, using a feminist theory lens to understand, defend, and critique the law. While the statute has ...
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In this first legal analysis of Title IX, the book assesses the statute's successes and failures, using a feminist theory lens to understand, defend, and critique the law. While the statute has created tremendous gains for female athletes, not only raising the visibility and cultural acceptance of women in sports, but also creating social bonds for women, positive body images, and leadership roles, the disparities in funding between men's and women's sports have remained remarkably resilient. At the same time, female athletes continue to receive less prestige and support than their male counterparts, which in turn filters into the arena of professional sports. The book provides a richer understanding and appreciation of what Title IX has accomplished, while taking a critical look at the places where the law has fallen short. The book fully explores the theory, policy choices, and successes and limitations of this historic law.Less
In this first legal analysis of Title IX, the book assesses the statute's successes and failures, using a feminist theory lens to understand, defend, and critique the law. While the statute has created tremendous gains for female athletes, not only raising the visibility and cultural acceptance of women in sports, but also creating social bonds for women, positive body images, and leadership roles, the disparities in funding between men's and women's sports have remained remarkably resilient. At the same time, female athletes continue to receive less prestige and support than their male counterparts, which in turn filters into the arena of professional sports. The book provides a richer understanding and appreciation of what Title IX has accomplished, while taking a critical look at the places where the law has fallen short. The book fully explores the theory, policy choices, and successes and limitations of this historic law.
Lindsay Parks Pieper
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040221
- eISBN:
- 9780252098444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040221.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the ...
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In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender—a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. This book explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Focusing on assumptions and goals as well as means, the book examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify—and eliminate—athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. The book shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. It also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing—ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous—degraded the very idea of female athleticism.Less
In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) implemented sex testing for female athletes at that year's Games. When it became clear that testing regimes failed to delineate a sex divide, the IOC began to test for gender—a shift that allowed the organization to control the very idea of womanhood. This book explores sex testing in sport from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Focusing on assumptions and goals as well as means, the book examines how the IOC in particular insisted on a misguided binary notion of gender that privileged Western norms. Testing evolved into a tool to identify—and eliminate—athletes the IOC deemed too strong, too fast, or too successful. The book shows how this system punished gifted women while hindering the development of women's athletics for decades. It also reveals how the flawed notions behind testing—ideas often sexist, racist, or ridiculous—degraded the very idea of female athleticism.
