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Don
Imus definitely picked the wrong team to call “nappy-headed hos.” And now,
amazingly, the infamous radio personality is paying for it and losing his
gig. It was 1980 when Coach Vivien Stringer, then coach at the
African-American school,
Cheney
State, voiced a strong protest,
objecting to the lack of TV coverage that African-American female teams
got, along with their being left out of the Hanes Women’s Basketball
Tournament. It was only then that African-American women basketball
players had begun to be nationally recognized at all, helped along by
superstars Luisa Harris, the dominating center of
Delta
State, and Lynette Woodard, the
amazing scorer at
Kansas.
The
media focus has been on the racism of Imus’ remarks, but the sexism should
not be overlooked. All lady hoopsters have trouble being accepted by
American society. They just don’t live up to that “feminine” ideal and
therefore are often seen as freaks, lesbians, mannish -- or prostitutes.
Tattooed women, tough women, they’re just much too much for men like Imus
and his” yukker” guy pals. For years, the Imus show has been centered in
racist and sexist jokes, skits and attitude. Imus seemed totally
mystified to be called out for doing what he’s always done. He has been
casually arrogant, casually dismissive, confident that he and his friends
can insult and dismiss women, certainly black women, with impunity. This
hardly puts him outside the mainstream, which makes all the scrambling
righteous reactions interesting to watch.
This is a culture which has never been
comfortable with its female athletes, insisting that they be (literally)
circumscribed “ladies” -- at least “cute” (white?) like the
Tennessee “Lady Vols.” The Imus show’s
coverage of sports displays a lack of seriousness when it comes to women’s
sports, and beyond that, serving up the worst the culture has to offer in
dealing with women and African-Americans. And this culture -- in 2007 --
deals very badly with women. And badly with minorities. In pop culture,
all women apparently have to be “hos.” That is how they seem to be
perceived -- in rap songs, in music videos, on TV, as lawyers in
courtrooms -- women are expected to dress and act and be a certain
(sexually) female way. There’s been a severe regression away from smart,
independent women. There’s silence on adding an ERA amendment to the
Constitution; silence on women’s and minorities’ precarious economic
status; silence on violence against women. All of the silence makes
sense in a repressed, regressive and undemocratic society. As my sister
said to me, “If you fire Imus, where do you stop?” Because he is one tiny
tip of an iceberg which is absolutely immense.
Women basketball players have been plagued
by accusations of being “wrong” females from the beginning. American
women who engaged in sports in the 1890s, from cycling and rowing to
baseball and basketball, were likely to be considered less than
respectable. Not only were competition and aggression “unladylike,” but
also very “unfeminine” and even racy. At
Smith
College, there were strict
prohibitions against males watching through windows while females played
basketball. And the (official) women’s game was limited to three dribbles
and limited movement to prevent women’s developing too much strength and
power.
In the 1920s, for the most part women were
supposed to be concerned with being carefree “flappers” or homebodies, but
not serious athletes. The dangers were described in an article in
“Harpers’ Monthly” in 1929, which described two “hysterical” women’s
industrial teams playing in thick smoke before a “leering” crowd of
men. By the 1930s and 40s attitudes changed through dire necessities of
depression and war. Strong, capable women were more culturally acceptable,
and this was the context for the great women’s basketball of the
industrial leagues and traveling Red Heads. Basketball became very popular
with African-American women, who had club and industrial teams, as well as
touring teams starting in the 20s, featuring incredible athletes like
Isadore Channels and Ora Washington, in strictly segregated play, but
often with men’s rules. Some have argued that in some ways it is easier
for a black than a white woman to be an athlete. In the black community, a
strong and athletic woman is more acceptable. Or maybe black women have
had more to worry about than their “femininity.”
The Red Heads fielded teams who toured and
played throughout the country until the 1980s. They played great
basketball -- men’s rules -- and often beat men’s teams. Their won-lost
record was about 50% for the 1930 and 40s. They scheduled 185 games in
six months, through 30 states. But a “Collier’s” article in 1947 featured
photos with women players in short shorts and male players reaching to
grab them. The author said the players wore “sassy red slacks” and reminds
the readers: “It’s basketball-not a strip tease!” The tone is sexy and
cutesy, apparently making these athletes more acceptable to male readers.
By the
1950s and early 60s, the “lady” was back and society again frowned on
strong athletes. Attitudes stressing women’s weakness and femininity
reigned. Finally, in the 70s, women’s rules changed to full court play,
Title IX created opportunities, and African-American women were finally
accorded recognition. But when the first women’s pro basketball league,
the WBL, began in 1978, promoters wanted the women to play against Playboy
Bunnies. And when
America’s Olympic women’s
basketball dream team of 1984 took the floor they had not only to win, but
to smile and to sell. And in the present WNBA they get to play in the
summer when the men aren’t using the court.
Sara
Corbett (in her book Venus to the Hoop) has said that women
athletes are still “freakish trespassers in a male arena.” Americans
cannot seem to equate competitiveness and power with femininity. Women are
supposed to appear docile. They still have to struggle for autonomy and
respect even though they have proved themselves as athletes over and over
again. So in 2007 it‘s still tough for ladies to be athletes -- for
strong, sweaty, tattooed, tough women ballplayers to be respected.
Sports, which stress speed, strength and agility, are still considered
male. As long as there is discrimination in American culture, it’ll be
there in attitudes towards women’s sports on shows like the “Imus In The
Morning” program.
Linda Ford is a women’s historian and
bookseller; co-owner of Half Moon Books in
Madison,
NY. She is the author of
Lady
Hoopsters: A History of Women’s Basketball in America (2000).
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