“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.