Feminism

Because I Played Sports (via SportingNews.com) informs us that Kacy Stuart has been cleared to play on her school's football team.

The Women's Sports Foundation held its Annual Salute to Women in Sports Tuesday night in New York City. The event raised more than $1 million that will be used for "grants and educational and advocacy-related programming." Star female athletes of course attended in abundance, more than 70 of them. Gina Carano was there, and her experience shows us that we still have much work to do before female athletes will get the recognition they deserve, especially when it comes to combat and strength sports.

Kacy Stuart, like Jaime Nared, is, so it seems anyway, too good for her own good. Kacy, who is 14 and just starting her first year of high school, can kick 50-yard field goals (something many National Football League kickers struggle with). Despite having this hard-to-come-by skill, Kacy was dismissed from her school's football team because she is a girl (video story). Fortunately, Kacy's mother is fighting back; but she needs help. Please use the information posted at Because I Played Sports to contact the school and let them know that it is inexcusable to deny talented female athletes their dream, that is, to prevent them from doing what nature—or Providence if you will—gave them the drive and the ability to do.

Much has been written about Kacy's plight, but I think it is Kacy who sums up her situation (and that of many other female athletes) best: "People were built for different things. I'm built to be a kicker. I just don't understand why people don't accept the fact that I like football and I want to play football" (quoted by 11Alive).

I've talked many times, here and elsewhere, about how the formidable physical potential of women is beginning to manifest itself. Indeed, it's now obvious that women can do far more in the physical arena than previously conceded, and what is most frightening to reactionaries, women may soon be routinely competing with, even outperforming, men. Thus it is no surprise that some, disturbed by this emerging, ominous challenge to traditional gender ideals, are laboring to keep it in check—by edict if necessary. (Special thanks to Megan for bringing Jaime's story to my attention.)

A Wall Street Journal article informs us that more than 40 percent of the athletes competing at the 2008 Beijing Games were female; what is more, that figure is expected to reach 50 percent at the 2012 London Games. Yes, it's overdue, and areas other than just numerical equality still need attention, but this is good news all the same.

Indeed they can. (The football trainer gets that much right anyway.) As promised, part two of the Al Jazeera report:

This Al Jazeera piece about Muslim female athletes is fascinating, and it features some truly amazing women:



I'll post the second half next week.

Once again, we are able to glimpse the emerging power of female muscle. This time it is arm-wrestling: cheerleader vs. football player. Behold as she easily outmuscles him:



The others in the clip seem surprised at the outcome. They needn't be. Seeing a female athlete overpower a male athlete isn't all that rare anymore, and I expect it will soon be so commonplace that no one will think twice about it.

This is Brittney Griner, a 6'8" high school junior and basketball phenom. The clip explains the rest:

This clip is from an exhibition match between two experienced wrestlers: Lauren, aka roguexkitty6, then 18 years old and 115 lb, and a 140 lb 28-year-old male. It lasts about four minutes:



You'll notice that Lauren used not only skill to defeat her opponent, she outmuscled him as well. She was the better, stronger athlete that day. This is not something we're used to seeing. Of course, competition between male and female athletes is still rare, too rare according to Playing With the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports.

Intra-gender athletic competition and strength training are making a huge difference: female athletes are getting bigger, faster, stronger by the day. Moreover, I see no reason right now to think there is an identifiable limit to what women can achieve relative to men. Eventually, though, inter-gender athletic competition will become necessary. Competition is a potent mechanism for development, one that can't be ignored.

More so now than at any other time in history, women are able to explore their physical potential unfettered by simplistic notions about gender roles. Thus, it's perfectly reasonable to expect that we'll soon be seeing even more instances of women competing successfully against men on the wrestling mat.

Well, Playboy has posted their response to the brouhaha over their February cover. Since much of the criticism was misguided to begin with, their riposte is, for the most part, immaterial. So make of it what you will.

I did, however, run across one snippet, something Playboy got essentially correct, that is worth repeating here:

Is Wonder Woman a feminist icon? If you say so. Is she a sex symbol? Without a doubt. Are the two mutually exclusive? Creator William Moulton Marston would have found the question laughable. The false dichotomy that separates female sex appeal from female intellect and strength of character hobbles feminism, and that’s been Playboy’s view for over 50 years.

Indeed, feminism's worst enemy may well be the sexual puritans who masquerade as feminists.

I should say something about the February 2008 Playboy cover, which features a nude Tiffany Fallon recast as Wonder Woman with the help of some body paint (NSFW link). Much has been said about it already, but the view presented here is often missed, and thus merits repeating.

There is, namely, nothing wrong with seeing Wonder Woman as a sex symbol—so long as her role as a symbol of strength isn't forgotten in the process. She can happily be both. The two things, in fact, are inextricably joined together.

So the question becomes, What qualifies Ms. Fallon to be Wonder Woman? Put another way, Where are the muscles? the athletic accomplishments? the fighting skills? Alas, they are not to be found; Tiffany Fallon is no Amazon: beautiful yes, perhaps a good person too, but not a symbol of strength, not by any stretch of the imagination.

That's where Playboy got it wrong, and where the outrage, if any, should lie.

In this video clip we see bodybuilder Isabelle Turell doing a 405 lb deadlift for 3 reps:



How's that for a display of raw strength? Forget about pretty good for a girl... it's pretty good, period.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday season. See you in 2008!

This New York Sun article about Wonder Woman brings something to light that is often overlooked, "To Marston, it was always very clear: Women weren't simply as good as men — they were better than men." I see plenty of support for that in this interview with Dr. Marston; and it seems reasonable to conclude that Wonder Woman, rather than being a mere symbol of equality, was meant to symbolize, and usher in an era of, dominant female strength.

Conversely, too much is made of Marston's polyamorous relationship and interest in bondage and submission. Those things no doubt were, along with the two women Marston shared that relationship with (especially his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston), important to the development of Wonder Woman. But this is nothing to be troubled by unless you're a wowser (and don't be fooled into thinking so by those who market sexual puritanism under a guise like feminism); indeed, there is substantive meaning behind many of the "sexual" images found in his stories.

When, for example, a bound Wonder Woman silently articulates Aphrodite's Law, "When an amazon girl permits a MAN to chain her bracelets of submission together she becomes as weak as other women in a man-ruled world!" the not-so-hidden meaning seems clear enough. But just in case, here is Marston in his own words (from the interview linked above): "The Amazons once surrendered to the charm of some handsome Greeks and what a mess they got themselves into. The Greeks put them in chains of the Hitler type, beat them, and made them work like horses in the fields. Aphrodite, goddess of love, finally freed these unhappy girls. But she laid down the rule that they must never surrender to a man for any reason. I know of no better advice to give modern women than this rule that Aphrodite gave the Amazon girls."

William Moulton Marston was, at least to some extent, ahead of his time, and just as the New York Sun article says, his ideas went beyond plain feminism—affirming, instead, the superior strength (in all senses of that word) of women. Those views were personified in Wonder Woman, and perhaps that is the secret to her lasting appeal.

Additional sources: "Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation of Wonder Woman."

"A word about the title of this book. The British traveler Richard F. Burton called Dahomey 'this small Black Sparta' for its militarism and subordination of the individual to the state. Its amazons resembled the women of Sparta in one respect: their bodies were hardened from childhood by physical exercise. Footracing, wrestling and spear-throwing were sports they probably shared; the Greek girls also threw the discus. (The African girls were more demure: they did not compete naked in public.) Spartan women kept in shape to breed male warriors, Dahomean amazons to kill them.
  Here, then, is the amazons' story."

(Amazons of Black Sparta : The Women Warriors of Dahomey, from the Introduction.)


Amazons of Black Sparta is an utterly fascinating book, certainly a must-read for anyone who frequents this blog. In this well-written, erudite account, Stanley Alpern takes us to a time (not that long ago) and place where traditional notions about gender are turned completely on their head and exposed for the sham that they are. Here you will learn about women who were the elite soldiers of a kingdom's army, and among the most feared soldiers on an entire continent. These women warriors were indeed formidable, and the professional soldiers who fought against them didn't hesitate to make that clear in their reports.

This book is a gold mine of gender-stereotype-demolishing facts. Perhaps chief among these, and spotlighted in the excerpt above, is how the Dahomey warrior women built their bodies, starting from a young age, into lethal weapons through intense physical training; observers frequently noted the Amazons' solidly muscled frames and superior strength, and even conceded that the women warriors of Dahomey were more powerful than their male counterparts. That translated to the battlefield—the ultimate test—where the Dahomey warrior women consistently showed themselves to be superb fighters, easily the equals of the men they fought alongside and against.

Moreover, the stories of the Amazons' skill, bravery, and perseverance in the face of often insurmountable odds will amaze you. They truly were remarkable women. It will be good for more people to learn about them, and Amazons of Black Sparta serves that purpose well.

But there's a dark side to this book too, though it's no fault of the author's. Life isn't always pretty, and the world of the Dahomey warrior women starkly reminds us of that. Dahomey was, in fact, a totalitarian, war-making state with ties to slavery and human sacrifice. We see also throughout the book European colonialism for what it was: a horrible, corrupting influence on the African continent. And it should come as no surprise that racism sometimes rears its ugly head in the comments of white observers.

The Amazons, of course, had their faults as well. The book doesn't gloss those over either. Yet you never lose the feeling that these women were special. Often expected to do the impossible, they marched proudly off into battle when certain death awaited many of them. It's hard not to admire the Dahomey Amazons, even knowing they could be ruthless at times.

The book comes with ample notes, bibliography, and index. It would be a worthwhile read for anyone interested in African history, military history, gender studies, or Amazon feminism. I can safely say that you won't find many books that are as eye-opening as this one, or as well-written.