Female Sports Before the 2nd Wave

Never Meant to Play Sports

Life before Title IX for women in sports was terrible. Why would it be anything else? Sports were never created with the intention of women playing them. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, said in the early 1900s, that “the Olympic Games must be reserved for men.” It must be, in his words, “the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism” (McDonagh and Pappano, 39):

The final line of this assertion speaks directly to what sports meant for women: watching, following, and cheering on men whenever they played. “Female applause” was their “reward”.

This belief, that women should not play, or rather should not play on a major stage, stems from the idea that women and men are on opposite ends of the physical spectrum. It stems from the idea that women would never be able to play at the same level of physicality, intensity, and athletics as men (Mangan and Park, 289). The understanding that males and females are physically different triggered stereotypes of male and female physical attributes, in addition to developing the notion that males and females were on the opposite end of the physical spectrum.

Men further attempted to displace women from excelling in sports out of fear: as Lorber argues, “Men feared that they might be challenged or even displaced in governance of the basic social order…. Overall, they feared that they would lose control of public, political, social, and economic affairs” (Mangan and Park, 282). Men sought to assert their societal dominance over women through sports. They boasted about their involvement in sport as a proof of masculinity, especially if their gender identity seemed threatened. For instance, as explained in From Fair Sex to Feminism by J.A. Mangan and Roberta Park, composer Charles Ives feared that his musical interests made him seem effeminate. When he was asked what he played in his youth (an open-ended question), he simply replied “shortstop” with no mention of his musical interests (Mangan and Park, 283). This fear of losing identity and purpose drove men to continually promote their athletic dominance, making it harder for women to enter this space.

Prior to 1972, Mangan and Park argue, not only were women discouraged from playing sports by men, but they were also criticized (in regard to their athletic ability). In fact, male performance was often the standard against which female performance was measured (Mangan and Park, 285). If women performed well in male-heavy sports, their femininity was questioned. Women should not perform well in football or basketball was the thought. And so, men made sure women did not expand outside of a small subset of sports like tennis or gymnastics (Mangan and Park, 286).

Men always dreamed of dominating the sports space, dating all the way back to 1892 when the Chicago Graphic declared: “Football is typical of all that is heroic in American Sport… the capacity to take hard knocks which belongs to a successful football player is usually associated with the qualities that would enable a man to lead a charge up San Juan Hill” (Mangan and Park, 290). Being dominant in sports, for men, was associated with being a leader, having perseverance, courage, and determination. These ideals for men in sports have continued into modern day conversations, as sports are believed to teach young men valuable lessons like leadership and hard work. The quotations to left are from women from 1900-1956, expressing their thoughts on their inability to participate in sports. Evidently, females wanted to play sports, they just weren’t able to (Mangan and Park, 290).

Essentially, men believed they were physically better and naturally born to play sports, while women were naturally born to applaud them and clean the dishes (McDonagh and Pappano, 30).

Although men are physically bigger, have more upper-body strength and muscle mass than women, this does not mean they are athletically superior to women. Some physical attributes associated with women as a group – such as lower center of gravity, lower weight, and a greater percentage of body fat – are athletically advantageous. For example, in swimming, a woman’s higher body fat provides more buoyancy and protection from frigid waters. Also, lower weight allows for women to have an edge in super endurance running.

Prior to Title IX, Senator George McGovern exclaimed “prejudice against women [was] the last socially accepted bigotry” in 1971, representing the discrimination women constantly felt during these years (McDonagh and Pappano, 77). As the Second Wave Feminist Movement began to develop in the late 1960s, women soon began to fight for equal rights in sports as well. They were tired of being an afterthought, and Title IX (passed in 1972) was the first step in changing the way women were seen in sports.

 

 

 

Sources:

Mangan, J. A., and Roberta J. Park. From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras. Cass, 1987.

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

 

The Guide to Title IX

“You Have a Right to Nonsexist Education”: How Title IX Changed the World

Title IX states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Sadker, Myra, and Elsa, 5).

In 1972, Title IX was established to provide everyone with equal access to any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, including sports. This means that public schools and universities, which are federally funded institutions, are legally required to provide equitable sport opportunities to girls and boys. This is why these institutions now have the same number of women’s sports as there are men’s sports.

To highlight the importance of this law for women in sports, let’s look at some numbers. Before Title IX, one in 27 girls played sports. As of 2016, two in five play. Today, woman after woman is breaking barriers and shattering records across a multitude of sports in a multitude of arenas (“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America”). The US National Women’s Soccer Team (USNWST), in particular, has won back-to-back World Cups. The progression to this point began with Title IX.

Since the passage of Title IX, there has been a steady increase in the participation of American women at the Olympics; in the 2016 Olympics, hundreds of girls were present and made history, benefiting from this law. Since the 1972 Winter Olympics to the 2016 Winter Olympics, 26 competitions have been added for women to participate in (“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America”).

Former Women’s Sport Foundation CEO Donna Lopiano attests to the change Title IX generated for the United States: “We give more opportunity to women in this country, and it’s not even close. You are seeing the effects of that in these Olympics” (“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America”).

It is important to note that in terms of the quality of participation of these women, it is not enough for there to be equal opportunity to participate in a sports program if “participate” means just going through the motions. Women should have equal opportunity to receive the benefits of the program through interested participation. Title IX opened the door for women who want these benefits to receive them (McDonagh and Papano, 24). The passage to the left from Sports Illustrated notes the serious discrimination women faced in 1973 if they wanted to participate in competitive sports (Postow, 287).

Organized sports are extremely valuable to society. Sports are intimately linked to our national cultural identity and embraced as the physical manifestation of American prowess and power. They allow for an individual to have a sense of individualism, of feeling like they belong to a group in a unique way. Sports hold a special place in American culture and are seen as an important tool for bettering individuals and society (McDonagh and Papano, 26). The central role that sports have played in America tell us something about why Title IX was so important: it exponentially increased the opportunity for women to enter this secular space of society and feel like they belong with the men. In American culture, sports matter.

Overall, Title IX’s impact on women’s sports is profound. The law allowed for increased funding and institutional opportunities for females in sports. Since 1972 to now, there has been a 545% increase in the percentage of women playing college sports, and a 990% increase in the percentage of women playing high school sports (“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America”).

During the 1970s, The Guide to Title IX handbook (the cover is seen to the left) served as a “public service announcement” to readers to remind them that everyone, particularly women, “have a right to nonsexist education” (Sadker, Myra, and Elsa, 4). Created in 1974, the guide goes through all the aspects of Title IX and informs women on their rights under the new law. Hoping to reduce discrimination against women and to enforce the law in a more direct manner, the handbook goes through what it means to have a nonsexist education, what it means to not have discrimination in sports, and encourages young women to stick up for their new rights. A revolutionary law that changed the educational and sporting lives of young women, this guide helped to increase awareness of the law and promote young women to join sports.

All in all, the impact of Title IX was immeasurable for women. It opened doors for them that most thought closed prior to 1972, and more and more women are taking advantage of this opportunity to play sports every day. Sports have helped women in almost every facet of life, from creating leaders on the field and translating these gains to other aspects of life. This is seen in the photo to the right, where a girl from 1978 exclaims how sports have impacted the rest of her life. And the relationships these women are able to develop through sports are ones they will carry with them for the rest of their life. As 1976 Olympic gold medalist Ann Henning has said, “I owe a lot to sports. If I didn’t get into athletics, I have this feeling, I don’t know why… that I wouldn’t be too neat a person…. I know there things I can have and be, which I never would have realized if I hadn’t gone into athletics” (Postow, 149).

 

 

 

Sources:

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Postow, Betsy C. Women, Philosophy, and Sport: a Collection of New Essays. Scarecrow, 1983. 

“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America.” Women’s Sports Foundation, 11 Oct. 2019.

Sadker, Myra, and Elsa Bailey. A Student Guide to Title IX. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1976.

 

Societal Pressures on Women in Sports

Societal Pressures of Athletic Women

When Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano set out to write Playing with the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports (see below) in 2008, their goal was to challenge a male-dominated sports culture after years of very few women doing so. Even with Title IX in 1972 and Billie Jean King’s monumental win over Bobby Riggs in 1973, women still feared playing sports and performing well because of what society would think of them: “Actual performances of female athletes has been handicapped by cultural messages dissuading women from competing. Bold women have historically challenged barriers. They are the few, however” (McDonagh and Pappano, 36). Amidst a hailstorm of negative messages surrounding women in sports, women during the 1970s set out to change the image of what it meant for females to be athletes.

Women who excelled at sports were perceived as freakish.

Women who excelled at sports were perceived as anomalous.

Women who excelled at sports were perceived as eccentric.

The 1987 edited volume From Fair Sex to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras, edited by J.A. Mangan and Roberta Park features a number of articles on the history of women in sports, illustrating that athletic excellence was in fact possible for women only at the risk of being considered a freak. The ability for women to be accepted as athletic stars was dependent on “the emergence of a strong ideology which could counter the prevalent one,” according to Kathleen McCrone (85). Championship talent for women was considered a social challenge because women would have to violate the widely held notions of female “anatomy and destiny” (Mrozek, 289). Women were supposed to have smaller, weaker bodies.

Male athletes were often treated as freakish, anomalous, and eccentric as well (Mrozek, 287). However, their acceptance of these stigmas accelerated at a much faster rate than that of women (as exemplified in the quote to the right). These male athletes were glorified for their success, while a woman was considered a “tomboy” or a “lesbian.” As Janice Kaplan writes in Women and Sports, it seemed clear that girls had babies to show they were women while men had footballs to prove they were men.

How did women go about changing this stigma? They put their nose down and steered straight into the stereotypical onslaught of what it meant to be a female athlete. 

To get involved in sport, women began to accept their female identity while remaining a top athlete. To blur these lines, Renee Richards (a professional tennis player during the 70s) unintentionally intimated that women in sports are not only girls, but also full of masculine impulses. She says, “We’re proud to be women and don’t want anyone questioning our sex” (Kaplan, 95). Women learned that the best way to survive and excel in sports culture was to flaunt their sexuality, realizing that their male counterparts could never take this away from them.

Women began to realize how playing sports would change their lives, following the message that sports can bring joy to their lives. Getting involved in sports, for women, soon became more than a symbolic assertion of female vigor and possibility. Sports became motivation for women to achieve anything in life. Once a woman did the impossible in sports, why not do it in everything else in life? Women started to love themselves and get in touch with their feminine energy.

With this newfound respect and realization of the powerful impact of sports, women began to get involved and get to the top of sports. By 1978, three of the top five women listed as “Most Admired” in Seventeen magazine were athletes – a major change from the late sixties when actresses dominated the female scene (Kaplan, 49). Mothers during this time, who grew up in a different era where sports were not meant for women, began to realize the massive impact of sports as well. One mother quoted this about her daughter playing tennis: “She’s not the best one out there and she’ll never win a fortune, but tennis is going to make her a real person. She’s learning to take the hard knocks as well as the breaks. What more can I want from sports for my girl?” (Kaplan, 173). The photo above from Kaplan’s book illustrates this idea as well (Kaplan, 200).

During the 1970s, a new society for women began to form for women in sports, one where playing sports with the men could change one’s life.

 

 

 

Sources:

Kaplan, Janice. Women and Sports. Viking Press, 1979.

McCrone, Kathleen. “Play up! Play up! And Play the Game! Sport at the Late Victorian Girls’ Public Schools.” From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras, edited by J. A. Mangan and Roberta J. Park, Routledge, 1987, pp. 97-129.

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Mrozek, Donald. “The Amazon and the American ‘Lady’: Sexual Fears of Women as Athletes.” From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras, edited by J. A. Mangan and Roberta J. Park, Routledge, 1987, pp. 282-298.

 

“The New Image” of Female Bodies

The New Image of Female Athlete Bodies

During the early 1930s and 1940s, a woman being athletic and excelling in sports was deemed unseemly behavior for women, as reinforced by multiple claims and books. In 1934, Inez Haynes Irwin published Angels and Amazons. This book was his interpretation of the rise of women to public prominence, focusing on traditionally important fields like English and math. However, there was a noticeable and key absence of discussion on women in sports. In 1943, Amram Scheinfeld argued that “women were clearly inferior to men in all physical regards, such as strength and endurance… her muscular system has a more limited range for development” (Mrozek 283). Scheinfeld’s views were supported by comparing males and females to roosters and hens, claiming that “hens would be no match for roosters in some blood contests” (Mrozek 292). He also notes how female horses often scored fewer victories than male horses at the track.

As noted in previous posts, J.A. Mangan’s and Roberta Park’s From Fair Sex to Feminism (seen to the left) highlights how the great female athletes of America always risked being considered a freak, or eccentric and a tomboy. 

Janice Kaplan in Women and Sports notes how prior to the 1970s, women were holding themselves back just as much as societal pressures were. Kaplan notes how “what held women back… was their own image of themselves and the well-learned precept that they should always consider how their bodies looked rather than how they felt” (Kaplan, 17). Girls were used to thinking of their bodies as “someone else’s property” (Kaplan, 49).

The quote to the right, from Kaplan’s book, highlights these differences.

How were women going to change their psyche around participating in sports and block out the stereotypes of society? It starts with women changing the way they saw their body. Jean Williams in A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport notes how during the 1970s and 1980s, an aerobics boom meant a growing body-consciousness where women cared about how they felt for themselves, not for men. The body was something to be worked on, and an increasing number of private gyms during this time helped accommodate women fitness to follow the famous female athletes (Williams, 254).

This charge was led by women athletes who wanted to break down male-only barriers in sports despite the anguish and humiliation they would face. Following Billie Jean King’s monumental win over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” in 1973, the typical women stopped relating to “do-nothing beauties” and rather “[identified] with an energetic champion” (Kaplan, 18). In 1973, when virtually any male was deemed superior to any female at virtually anything, this event was symbolic. As McDonagh and Pappano note in Playing with the Boys, “The world saw a talented, muscular, and competent young woman close out distractions to win in tennis” (McDonagh and Pappano, 16). After Riggs had insisted that women belonged in the kitchen and the bedroom, and not the tennis court, the world took notice that female players were just as compelling as male players.

The new image of athletics had a great impact on the average women, and a boom of women finding ways to engage into physical activity began. And these women were proud of themselves. Kaplan recounts in an interview, with a woman who completed a marathon, how she was ecstatic how her “little body” ran 26.2 miles (Kaplan, 54. Women soon realized to love themselves and their athletic bodies, and this new image of a female athlete changed the way women sports forever.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Kaplan, Janice. Women and Sports. Viking Press, 1979.

Mangan, J. A., and Roberta J. Park, editors. From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras. Routledge, 1987.

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Williams, Jean. A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

The Hero of the Female Sports Movement: Billie Jean King

“Billie Jean Evens the Score”

When Seventeen magazine polled readers in 1975, by no surprise to anyone, Billie Jean King was found to be the most admired woman in the world. Following her iconic win over Bobby Riggs in 1973, King’s winning ways offered strength to other women worldwide (McDonagh and Pappano, 36).

Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano describe the circumstances of the match well in their book Playing with the Boys. King was about to face Riggs in a $100,000 winner-take-all tennis match. Riggs at this point was “an over-the-hill 1939 Wimbledon champion who appeared goofy and cocky” as he baited King into accepting the match (McDonagh and Pappano, 31). Claiming men wrote him fan letters about the match and constantly surrounding himself with sexy young women, Riggs had the intention of putting King “in her place” (McDonagh and Pappano, 32). Riggs was a 55-year-old former champ, while King was a 29-year-old at the top of her game and number one in the world for women’s tennis. Nonetheless, in 1973, this was a time when virtually all males were deemed superior to any female in sports. It was a symbolic event. The photo above depicts King during this match (Collins, 45).

King, focused and ready to play, went on to dismantle Riggs in three straight sets. The female sports world and the way society saw female athletics was never the same. For female athletes at this time, having athleticism and beating a male was bigger than sports. King’s win was a win for female equality in all aspects of life. As McDonagh and Pappano state, “When a woman wins big, she pushes the boundaries… offering with each performance a revised vision of female social status… challenging the presumption… of men’s physical – if not mental, emotion, general – superiority over women” (McDonagh and Pappano, 37). With her aggressive style of play, somewhat dubbed “masculine” and a “man’s game” at times, became a model for other talented women. She spread a new definition of what a woman could be in the world of sports. She made it acceptable for women to push themselves (McDonagh and Pappano, 38).

King’s rising popularity following this match was evident in social media as well, specifically in Ms. Magazine – a popular feminist periodical at the time. King received so much national attention for her match that Ms. made her the cover of their 1973 July edition, entitled “Billie Jean Evens the Score”. The cover is posted to the right, showing a beautiful photo of King smiling. The title article associated with King allowed for the female society to really get to know their newfound hero (Collins, 39). She comments on how she wasn’t focused on a family at this time, and she never smoked. More importantly, King used this article as an opportunity to promote female power. As she says, “I keep telling the girls… we’re still getting hassled by male officials, and we still have to fight twice as hard as the men to get fair treatment. We haven’t made it yet,” following her win (Collins, 101). King remained focused on grabbing the young girls and making sure they felt liberated from men’s grasp on the tennis and sporting world. She wanted to make a change for all females, and never felt satisfied with her efforts. She was constantly traveling around the country, making appearances on different news outlets, and promoting female athletes (Collins, 103). This quote from this article, to the right, highlights her constant fight amidst the discrimination (Collins, 103).

King did much more for female equality and female athletes beyond defeating Riggs. During her career, King was a closeted lesbian married to Larry King. In 1981, however, her secretary Marilyn Barnett filed a public palimony suit against her for hiding their love affair. Although King felt ashamed about this, she did not let this lawsuit impact her social efforts of helping women worldwide achieve equality.

Her ability to avoid total disaster upon this disclosure of her lesbian relationship while maintaining her marriage with Larry King even suggest that by the 1980s, sexual fears surrounding women athletes have been muted (Postow, 56). King effectively forced re-examination of what it meant to be female, and to be an athlete.

The combination of King’s athletic excellence and her growing activism in social, economic, and political affairs expanded the opportunities for females to truly be outstanding female athletes.

 

 

 

Sources:

Collins, Bud. “Billie Jean King Evens the Score.” Ms., July 1973, pp. 39-43, 101-103.

Postow, Betsy C. Women, Philosophy, and Sport: a Collection of New Essays. Scarecrow, 1983.

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

“Mirrors (for Billie Jean King)” by Nikki Giovanni

“It was [NOT] a Mistake” 

Nikki Giovanni, to the right, is one of America’s foremost poets who writes about those who fought for social justice, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and, of course, Billie Jean King. Giovanni felt outrage over the palimony suit against the tennis superstar made by her secretary Marilyn Barnett in 1981, revealing their hidden love affair during the 1970s. In her 1993 poem “Mirrors (for Billie Jean King),” Giovanni expresses outrage over this lawsuit and her anger over King’s admitting her affair was a mistake. King was an American idol and female hero at this point, and Giovanni felt King’s sexuality strengthened her position in society and aided her cause to fight for women’s equality.

Before discussing the poem in depth, however, it is important to note why looking at Giovanni’s poem is important in explaining King’s effort to create a change. As noted in Motion American Sports Poems by Noah Blaustein, “if you want to know what was going on in a culture at any given time, read the poets. Poets write about the subjects available to them” (Blaustein, xviii). By understanding how Giovanni felt about King’s situation, as expressed through her poem, we can begin to understand how many other women felt about King.

In her poem, Giovanni writes: “The face in the window… is not the face in the mirror… Mirrors aren’t for windows… they would block the light…” (lines 2-3). Giovanni is metaphorically juxtaposing mirrors and windows to describe her feelings that a person’s private and public life are not the same.  A mirror allows someone to see into a person’s private life, while a window allows someone to see into someone’s public life: “Windows / show who we hope to be… Mirrors reflect who we are…” (lines 3-4).

Private lives should remain private (23). Giovanni does make an important distinction, however, between things that are private that are not right, about which one should NOT remain silent: “There are things… / like abused children… that is public pain… // like people in wheelchairs… who need sidewalk access” (22). But then there is King’s particular situation, which should be kept private. Giovanni writes, “… BUT THINGS… like love… and promises / made after midnight… … / have no place… in the courtyard… … // Childish adults want to break / mirrors… want to shatter lives….” (23). These lines speak to the private life of a person that should be kept a secret. King’s case did not involve battery or abused children, situations that should be open to the public and tried; her situation involved the love she held for someone else. Giovanni notes that King’s sexual desires are her own and nobody’s business. When Barnett revealed love letters from King to the media, the world was able to see into King’s mirror.

Giovanni then goes on to idolize King and her sexuality, hoping to express to King that she should love who she is and not regret her actions. She writes, “One of my heroes… is a tennis player… who has the courage of her game… and her life…” (23). King meant so much to women and created a change for all female athletes to accept being a gritty, tough female athlete. By looking at the way Giovanni writes about her after experiencing her impact during the 1970s, readers can appreciate King’s true impact on women.

Finally, the poem urges King to not regret who she is and the love she felt during this time for another women. She writes,  “… but It Cannot Be A / Mistake to have cared… It Cannot Be An Error to have tried /… It Cannot Be Incorrect to have loved” (23). Giovanni uniquely highlights her desire to tell King that she made no mistake in loving Barnett by capitalizing each letter . King needs to understand how much she changed women’s lives for the best, and how much she changed female sport culture. The final section of the poem, seen above, exemplifies how much King meant to society in a beautiful way.

 

 

 

Sources:

Blaustein, Noah, and John Edgar Wideman. Motion: American Sports Poems. University of Iowa Press, 2001.

Giovanni, Nikki. “Mirrors (for Billie Jean King).” Those Who Ride the Night Winds, Quill/Morrow, 1993, pp. 22–24.

 

Works Cited

Blaustein, Noah, and John Edgar Wideman. Motion: American Sports Poems. University of Iowa Press, 2001.

Collins, Bud. “Billie Jean King Evens the Score.” Ms., July 1973, pp. 39-43, 101-103.

Kaplan, Janice. Women and Sports. Viking Press, 1979.

Markula, Pirkko. Feminist Sport Studies: Sharing Experiences of Joy and Pain. State University of New York Press, 2005.

Mangan, J. A., and Roberta J. Park. From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras. Routledge, 1987.

Giovanni, Nikki. “Mirrors (for Billie Jean King).” Those Who Ride the Night Winds, Quill/Morrow, 1993, pp. 22–25.

McDonagh, Eileen, and Laura Pappano. Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal in Sports. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Postow, Betsy C. Women, Philosophy, and Sport: a Collection of New Essays. Scarecrow, 1983.

“Title IX and the Rise of Female Athletes in America.” Women’s Sports Foundation, 11 Oct. 2019.

Sadker, Myra, and Elsa Bailey. A Student Guide to Title IX. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1976.

Williams, Jean. A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

A Brief History of Rape Law

A Brief History of Rape Law

The fist rape law emerged in Babylon during c.1900 BC. The Code of Hammurabi dictated that if a man forces sex upon another man’s wife or if a man forces sex upon a virgin woman that “is living in her father’s house,” then “that man should be put to death” (Gold). This set a legal precedent that rape was merely a form of theft and vandalism, since women were considered property. Hence, the idea of a husband “forcing sexual intercourse” upon his wife was deemed the man’s legal right. Ancient society viewed rape as morally depraved, not because it caused the woman harm, but because it harmed male honor. Society viewed raped women as damaged goods and no longer marriageable assets. Speaking toward this idea that rape was merely an issue of one man damaging another man’s property, Winnie Tomm concludes that “by contrast, rape of a single woman without strong ties to a father or husband caused no great concern” (Tomm). This view remained constant for centuries until English law in the 1600’s created the first shift in society’s perception of rape by re-defining the criminal act as “the carnal knowledge of any woman above the age of 10 years against her will” (Gold).

These two laws were combined in the United States. Common law in the US declared that “a person commits rape when he has carnal knowledge of a female, not his wife, forcibly and against her will” (Gold). The law’s structure and general concept mirror English law quite closely; however, the Code of Hammurabi’s shadow belied the underlying morals. The qualification injected into the center of the law, stating that rape is only considered a crime when it is committed outside the bonds of marriage, alludes to the principles in ancient Babylonian law that define women as male property. United States’ past common law can be broken down as follows: “Carnal knowledge“ was further defined in US law in 1954 via Copeland v. State trial, which declared that “it shall not be necessary to prove the actual omission of seed, but the crime shall be deemed complete under proof of penetration only” (Copeland v. State). “Forced and against her will” indicates that the incident is not considered rape unless it meets both of these qualities beyond a reasonable doubt. It must be thoroughly proved that the woman was violently forced (the court often demanded to see physical injury to satisfy this aspect) and that the woman  in no way desired sexual intercourse at the time (Kilpatrick).

Because “non-consent” was an integral element of the crime and because the US law

states that a criminal is innocent until proven guilty, the burden fell upon the woman to prove that she offered no indication of consent. Society pre-judged women in rape trials as guilty of promiscuous behavior, so to provide irrefutable proof of victimization was a Herculean feat. At the time, when a woman was raped,  she would enter the legal system addressed as a defendant and witness. She was not declared a victim unless at the close of the trial the man was found undeniably guilty of forcing sexual intercourse upon her without any indication whatsoever, of her desire for said intercourse (Kilpatrick).

Women were forced off the streets and forced into silence. Women knew that if they were the object of a sexual assault, the law would not protect them (Bevacqua). Then, the Second Wave feminist movement began. Women started encouraging each other to speak out and act out against the injustices they faced. Writers like Susan Griffin in 1970 began shocking people out of their complacency about rape calling it a “form of mass terrorism.” Griffin wrote about how rape restricted women’s lives because they lived in terror, in abject fear of going out alone: “[women] will not be free until the threat of rape and the atmosphere of violence is ended, and to end that the nature of male behavior must change” (Griffin). Anti-rape activists worked within the Second Wave feminist movement to address the issue of rape on a variety of levels: consciousness raising, support, and legal changes.

Three of the various ways in which feminists brought awareness to the rape epidemic and the need for change were through consciousness raising groups, large public events, and poetry. In the late 1960’s, women began gathering in small groups and sharing their personal stories about rape incidents and other traumatizing experience. These little gatherings were called consciousness raising groups. On January 24, 1971, The New York Radical Feminist group held their first Speak-Out, a large public gathering where women could share their stories with each other. This event was so successful that The New York Radical Feminist group held a follow-up conference about rape that April (Rose). More events like this emerged throughout the nation. A series of marches began in 1976 called Take Back the Night marches. Numerous women participated in these rallies to protest sexual assault and fight for the right to walk the streets at night without fear (Hibsch). However, events like these and physical get togethers were not the only forms of consciousness raising. A third form was poetry printed in radical publications and read aloud in community poetry readings. Such poetry is the primary focus of the posts to follow.

First Take Back the Night March

Support of rape survivors was another important strategy. Community gatherings, as mentioned above, provided a significant degree of moral and emotional support to rape survivors, but one of the critical breakthroughs that arose from the Second Wave feminist movement was the establishment of rape crisis centers. The Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR) opened the first two rape crisis centers in 1971, located in California and Washington DC (Kilpatrick). According to BAWAR’s website, their founding mission was, and still is, to “establish a place where rape and incest survivors could receive quality counseling and advocacy they need” (BAWAR).

Finally, the most crucial need that anti-rape feminists devoted themselves to resolving was legal change. Spearheaded primarily by the National Rape Task Force, a subsection of the National Organization for Woman, feminists began campaigning relentlessly to redefine rape as a crime of violence (National Organization for Women). And, in 1974, Michigan created the first successful attempt to legally redefine rape. Known as the Criminal Sexual Conduct Law, this bill not only established a broader definition of rape, but it also outlawed spousal rape (Bevacqua). Other states followed Michigan’s example, and finally in 1996, Georgia, the last of the fifty states, outlawed marital rape as well (Degnan). Today, due to changes made in 2012, the FBI defines rape as “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person without consent of the victim” (Savage).

Even with the incredible changes, catalyzed by activists in the Second Wave feminist movement, the war against rape has still yet to be won.

 

 

 

 

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“The Jailor” by Sylvia Plath

In her poem “The Jailor,” Sylvia Plath discloses the intimacy of domestic rape through the lens of a horror story; thus, she exposes rape for what it is: a terrifying truth.

Plath writes each example of the ways in which the husband torments the wife in a declarative manner, horror the wife faces as irrefutable fact. “I have been drugged and raped” ( line 6) is past tense and passive voice with a hidden agent that gives the voice a tired, dragging tone. The exhausted tone in which the narrator presents the shocking words “drugged and raped” kills the possibility the narrator is exaggerating. They appear factual. Another statement about the narrator’s torture enters in the next line: “seven hours knocked out of my right mind” (line 7). “Right mind” can either refer to the idiom describing a person who is “calm, reasonable, and sane.” Or “right mind” could literally refer to damage being done to the right hemisphere of the brain as the word “knocked out” possibly entails. The right-side of the brain controls attention, memory and reasoning, and damage to this region can lead to severe problems in these three skills. While this statement’s implications seem almost too horrendous to be true, the line’s tone assures otherwise. By presenting the number “seven” at the beginning of the sentence, the narrator presents the statement as a fact.
Next, in line sixteen, the narrator calls out “O little gimlets!” ( line 16). “Gimlets” are screw-tipped tools made for piercing and boring holes. Direct address shrouds her words in a tone of exasperated melancholy, and makes her cry seem exaggerated. But with the proceeding line, “he has been burning me with cigarettes, (line 18) written yet again as a declarative statement, the narrator clarifies the painful lack of hyperbole behind her speech. Her husband is in fact boring holes into her flesh with cigarette buds. In this line, “he” functions as the subject noun. “Me,” the narrator, functions as a lowly object. Syntactically, “he” holds tremendous power over the narrator; thus, the narrator is trapped as the object that the “he” gets to torment at will. Even the syntax presents further evidence to speak truth about the narrator’s situation. In the end, the narrator claims “I die with variety – / Hung, starved, burned, hooked!” (lines 34-5). She lives in a cage. That is a fact she may grieve but cannot refute. She lives in a cage, but at least her death is complex and rich with allusion. She is “hung” like laundry. She is “starved” because she is his chef. She is “burned” because she slaves away in the kitchen. She is “hooked” because “hooked” is another name for marriage. She is suffering and dying, but she does not contest these facts. For such is the way of an abusive marriage. 

 

Plath takes common images of married life and distorts them though unnerving diction to portray the disturbing truth about an abusive marriage. Jarring imagery assaults the first line “my night sweats grease his breakfast plate” (line 1). “Night sweats” has several likely references. “Night sweats” are often linked to stress and anxiety correlated with feelings of worry, fear, and dread as “night sweats” can also be a symptom of certain drugs or diseases. Drugs are mentioned again in line six, “I have been drugged and raped” (line 6). “Night sweats” could also be a vague reference to “sex sweat,” for sex is also mentioned in line six. “Grease” suggests sexual lubricant, as well as bacon grease on a breakfast plate. These equivocal definitions tweak the normal picture of a housewife serving her husband breakfast to an image of a sickly, terrified sex slave serving breakfast and her body to her master.  A sickly distortion of a common image occurs in the fifth stanza as well. “The fever trickles and stiffens in my hair” (line 21) points to sickness and to sweat, once again, yet the “stiff” product in her hair suggests a link to a common trend at the time for housewives to fill their hair with expensive hairspray, and style it in a way that would please their husband. A second reference to a common trend emerges in the next line: “my ribs show. What have I eaten?” (line 22). Skinniness was considered beautiful at the time. But as opposed to her stiffened hair and slender frame alluding to glamor and beauty, Plath’s diction portrays the woman as skeletal and diseased. Plath portrays the wife as one who feeds off of the “lies and smiles” ( line 23) that she presents to the world. She is a woman who ingests the insubstantial façade of marriage as her only source of nourishment. And because of this, her ailments fester and grow worse. But it is not just she who interacts with the facade, for as the metaphorical “armory of fakery” (lines 30) suggests, “fakery” is her husband’s  weapon of choice, one of these weapons being “his high, cold mask of amnesia” (line 31). Height equates with power. When it is her word against his, society will always believe him. So, when he dawns a “mask of amnesia,” whatever he claims he “doesn’t remember” the rest of the world will believe never existed. Thus, the wife is forced to continue playing a role in this lie that is her marriage, until death does, she part.

Plath employs elements of horror and descriptive metaphor to depict the prison cell that is an abusive marriage and to explain the wife’s hopelessness and surrender.

He is “the rattler of keys” (line 5) ends line five. “Rattler” in this case is used in the literal sense as “one who rattles keys” as the title “The Jailor” indicates. “The rattler of keys” contains an eerie auditory component. Even the sound of those keys trills out the power that the jailor lords over his captive, revealing the woman’s caged state and her captor’s authority over her. The poem continues.  The speaker says, “something is gone” (line 11). It is a simple declarative sentence. Vagueness and a sense of absence comes from the nature of the indefinite pronoun “something.” A period ends the line, a period that indicates the quiet before the storm, the moment of suspense. The next line offers sudden clarity. The narrator’s “sleeping capsule” (line 12) is gone. A “capsule,” a pill that is the woman’s key to a kind of escape. Her only means of freedom is gone. The appositive “my red and blue zeppelin” describes the capsule’s color and literal shape, likening it to a zeppelin, which makes the following line, “drops me from a terrible altitude” (line 13) serve a dual purpose. Because that line proceeds the word “zeppelin,”  being dropped “from a terrible altitude” serves as an allusion to the Hindenburg accident. And because the subject of the sentence is a sleeping capsule, the line also plays on a common idiom, as in “to drop off to sleep,” like being dropped “from a terrible altitude.” This combination of references makes the argument that while the pill forces her into a sleep that would have been filled with nightmarish dread, anything is better than remaining stuck where she is at “a terrible altitude.” Sleep was her protection, and unconsciousness her armor. Now, her “carapace smashed, / [she] spread[s] to the beaks of birds” (lines 14-5). “Carapace” means a shell-like coat of protection not unlike a bug would have. She is now at the mercy of anyone who wishes to harm her, so she surrenders. In the words “I spread,” “I” functions as the noun and indicates that the woman “spreads” herself out in a vulnerable position as an act of surrender. She has given up. Her hopelessness continues into the final stanza. It begins with a mere fragment: “that being free” (line 41). Even her conception of freedom is fragmented. In the end, this is a poem about a woman who is chained to a man that abuses her so much that her soul has been picked clean of hope and her only salvation is death.

The auditory elements, grotesque imagery, the hopelessness all play a part in this
horror story. But the one element that makes “The Jailor” a truly terrifying tale is the fact that there was a time when this story was not uncommon.

 

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“Rape” by Adrienne Rich

“Rape” by Adrienne Rich

Image of Adrienne RIch from the New Yorker

One of the most influential books published during the Second Wave was Adrienne Rich’s collection of poetry Diving into the Wreck. In “Rape,” one of the key poems in this collection, Rich tells the story of a woman recounting the details of her recent rape to a policeman. This story takes place in the early 1970’s, in an era when men scoffed at women who claimed they were raped and would often accuse them of adultery. Even the woman in Rich’s poem knew that because of the policeman’s pre-judgments, she would be found “guilty of the crime / of having been forced” (Rich, lines 14-5). Through breaks in repetition and opposing descriptions, Rich conveys an image of hierarchy that displays the disturbing reality that the victims of rape are themselves treated as criminals.

The line, “he has access to machinery that could kill you,” (Rich, line 7)  places “he” as the subject of the independent clause, “you” as the direct object of the adjectival dependent clause, describing “machinery.” Sovereignty belongs to the subject noun in any clause, but supreme power belongs to the subject that reigns over the independent clause. Adjectival dependent clauses act in service to the noun or pronoun they describe. In line seven, the clause “that could kill you” is the humble servant to “machinery.” This along with the fact that “machinery” functions as nothing more than a lowly object of the preposition, forces “you,” the inferior noun in the dependent clause, to the bottom of the totem pole. “You” is powerless. Even line seven’s syntax alone explains that “you,” the rape survivor, exists in a state of the complete and total mercy to “he,” a police officer, the man. In this way, Rich employs syntactic hierarchy to express the reality of the situation. “To him” (Rich, line 14) stars line 14. Even though “to him” is a mere adverbial prepositional phrase, its physical placement at the front of a line, gives it power. “You have to confess” (Rich, line 13) may be the core of the sentence, but because it lies buried at line thirteen’s end and because of the enjambment, line thirteen has a less definitive tone. Syntactically, “you” should be the sentence’s focus. Truly, Rich argues, the rape victim should be the focus and her will should be justly served, yet, once again, the male figure denies her that right. The male figure steals power. His will, the will of the patriarchy, is served by the female in the end. Rich presents the entire story in an experiential way and uses second person point of view to augment the potency behind these demonstrations of power. Once line two introduces the possessive pronoun “your,” all that follows put the reader directly into story. Whatever happens to “you,” the injustice, the subjugation, effects the reader on a more personal level; thus, the reader tends to pay more attention to declarative sentences and tends to feel more demand from imperative sentences.

“Rape” poem by Adrienne Rich

Rich employs parallelism and repetition to illustrate structure, which she proceeds to break in order to express the wrongfulness about the patriarchy’s criminalization of rape victims. Rich utilizes this technique first in lines two and three, “he comes from your block, grew-up with your brothers, / had certain ideals” (Rich, lines 2-3). The first two verb phrases mirror each other. Both lines follow the pattern transitive verb, preposition, possessive pronoun, object of the preposition. Both lines end with the same possessive pronoun and a word that begins with the letter “b.” Line three breaks this parallelism. Not only does “had certain ideals” (Rich, line 3) stand apart poetically but, due to its placement on a separate line, “had certain ideals” stands apart physically as well. Rich, creates this separation for two reasons. Fist, whereas the first two lines include an element each that the rape victim shares, line three does not possess such an element. This emphasizes the simple, though crucial, point that the rape victim does not share “his ideals.” Second, Rich uses this separation to highlight the great significance behind the man’s “certain ideals.” Line three is the shortest line in the entire poem, for it is the preface for what is to come. “Had certain ideals” foreshadows that those ideals will play a critical role in the lines to follow. In the end, it is because of the man’s “ideals” that the poem later states “he thinks he knows you […] He knows, or thinks he knows, how much you imagined; / he knows, or thinks he knows, what you secretly wanted,” (Rich, lines 21, 24-5) metanoia correcting “he knows” to “thinks he knows” in order to underscore the word “thinks.” It is because of the man’s “ideals” that he prejudged the person before him and “thinks” she is the criminal. It is because of the man’s “ideals” that no matter what the rape victim says or does or argues or proves, she will be condemned by the law. “His blue eyes,” (Rich, line 16) is further defined in the appositive as “the blue eyes of all the family / whom you used to know,” (Rich, line 16-7). Anadiplosis connects the single policeman to “all” through the repetition of “blue eyes.” It is just the eyes of the police officer that look at the woman with condemnation and apathy. It is the eyes of everyone. Everyone, her entire society, looks at her who was raped with condemnation and apathy. The only word for word repetition that Rich never shifts or breaks occurs at the end of the poem, “and if, in the sickening light of the precinct” (Rich, line 27 and line 28). All repetition and parallelism until then possessed some qualifying feature or further distinction. Lines twenty-seven and twenty-eight do not, for unlike the others, Rich presents these lines as an unbreakable truth.

Picture of Adrienne Rich

The everlasting truth resides in the word “sickening” and in the way that the parenthetical  “in the sickening light of the precinct” interrupts “and if, […] / your details sound like a portrait of your confessor” (Rich, lines 28-9). Throughout the poem, Rich presents various claims about the unjust nature of the patriarchy, and as she makes each argument, she provides slight glimmers of hope that change is possible. Until Rich describes the sick feeling that interrupts the woman’s thoughts when she confronts an institution made to protect mankind, an institution made to condemn womankind. Even if the women changed the officer’s “certain ideals,” (Rich, line 3) even if the woman got “to know him,” (Rich, line 6) even if the woman convinced him of her innocence, her feelings towards the institution she faces and the way such feelings interrupt her thoughts would never change.

To solidify the image of the rape victim’s powerlessness against the authority that wrongs her, Rich makes intentional diction choices to describe the two characters present in the scene. While the police officer’s description cloaks him in tainted power, the woman is left naked by comparison. Blatant opposition occurs in line one when Rich uses the predicate nominatives “prowler and father” (Rich, line 1) to define the cop. The word “prowler” evokes the image of a bestial creature that prowls in night looking for prey or something to steal. A “prowler” is untrustworthy. The word “father,” however, is meant to represent a man who acts the leader and protector of his home and children. A “father” should be trustworthy. Unnerving slant rhyme is the only similarity between these two descriptions. Rich employs these two words to expose the hypocritic nature of the cop’s identity and to begin illuminating the woman’s helplessness in comparison. The reference to the cop being “in” a “silver badge” (Rich, line 4) is a form of metonymy that represents a “police uniform.” The metallic badge functions as subtle reminder that the one who stands before the woman is not a man but a cog in a great and terrible machine. This slight reference to the cop’s position within the machine makes the woman appear even weaker, for, the cop belongs to that same machine that Rich alludes to on line twelve. Line twelve describes the woman as having “the maniac’s sperm still greasing [her] thighs” (Rich, line 12). “Greasing” is a metaphor in itself. The connection between “sperm” and “grease” illuminates the intentionality behind the word “maniac” appearing so similar to “mechanic.” The man who raped her also belongs to that great and terrible machine, the patriarchy. Imagery in the fifth line of the cop being “on horseback” (Rich, line 5) stages the cop as seated above the rape victim. The cop looks down upon her. This physical depiction joined with the simile in line eight, “like warlords,” (Rich, line 8) paints a portrait of the officer’s tyrannical power. “Among trash” (Rich, line 8) continues the imagery. All else in the portrait is depicted as garbage beneath the stallion’s feet; hence, the rape victim is garbage too. These descriptions position the officer and the girl on polar opposite ends of the power spectrum.

In the 1970’s, men and women usually inhabited opposing ends of the spectrum, but society back then deemed raped women the lowliest of all.

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