You might remember reading about South African track star Caster Semenya over the summer, the athlete who won a Gold Medal in the 800 meter race at this year's IAAF World Championship-- and then became a lightning rod for controversy when she was accused of being less than completely female. 


The Sports Ministry of South Africa has announced today that Caster will be retaining the medal and prize money that she won while setting a world record for the 800 meter run last August, and that the results of her 'sex-verification testing' are a private matter, with final outcome still pending. 

Poor handling of these matters by athletic officials resulted in a personal roller-coaster that no athlete should be subjected to, highlighting the need for a revision or tightening up of procedures and policies relating to gender at every level of coaching and administration. 

In other words, the IAAF needs stand fast with a well-understood policy, and it needs to be upheld by every level of coach, official, and athlete in order to spare future athletes the experience of being second-guessed so publicly. 

I think that good will come from all of this.  Every conversation about gender that makes its way onto prime-time TV brings us one step closer to a revised popular attitude about women, gender, and sports. 

And these conversations have been popping up a lot lately.


With all the heated talk about women's sports lately, it can be easy to forget how controversial and violent men's sports often get.    

Take, for example, the story of University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert, who has been at the center of an internet firestorm since videos of her tripping and knocking over competitors began spreading around the internet. 

For every blogger who was inspired to make a misogynistic comment about the video, another has risen to question the standards of aggressive sport behavior and of gender performance being pulled into focus. 

The whole world is watching their blogroll and Youtube comments... some of them might actually be learning something!

Image from Wiki Commons

Today, President Barack Obama has said that he is still weeks away from a decision on a new military strategy in Afghanistan.  Americans are hopeful that a well-considered and properly executed plan will bring stability to the Middle-East, but many (myself included) are even more concerned with ending the loss of American lives and exorbitant Military spending.


In this display created for Veteran's Day in my hometown of Toms River, N.J., there is a miniature flag in the ground for each of the 5,000+ soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since U.S. military action began in those countries at the beginning of the decade.

Many critics are skeptical, however, because of the president's track record in other recent efforts.  Certain 'pet projects' may well have distracted  Mr. Obama from with dealing truly pressing issues like loss of life overseas and our much-needed but difficult-to-pass health care overhaul.

First it was the Olympics that got Obama distracted.  Our president wanted the games to come through his hometown of Chicago in 2016, so he took a trip to Denmark in an effort to convince voting members of the International Olympic Committee that Chicago was the place to be in 2016... but it didn't work out.  Meanwhile, the issue of an exit strategy in our Middle Eastern engagements has been left hanging for nearly a year.


Losing the Olympic bid for Chicago might be a blessing in disguise-- the need to build facilities and prepare for a swell in tourism often distracts host cities and nations from tending to the needs of their people.  And we have plenty of issues to take care of right now...

In retrospect, it seems a little insensitive to compete with Rio de Janeiro, which defeated Chicago and is now set to be the first city in South America ever to host the Olympics.  Critics worry, understandably, that Mr. Obama was picking his pet projects unwisely and neglecting more important issues.

Round two of such criticism came over the past two weeks, when the president very publicly endorsed democratic candidates for governor in hotly contested New Jersey and Virginia elections.  Both of Mr. Obama's favored candidates were defeated by Republicans, and the revised military strategies failed to materialize.

Today, Barack Obama told American reporters that is "very close" to a decision on the next step in his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, a war that he hopes "...not to hand off ... to the next president". 

It's great to finally have a president who is even considering an exit strategy, but I still wonder if Mr. Obama may have have already left our servicemen out to dry a few months longer than neccesary. 

When the wars are over and soldiers are home, that's when we can worry about hosting another set of Olympic games.  Till then, we've got bigger fish to fry.

Did anyone happened to catch Texas A&M's newly released media guide for the 2009-2010 women's basketball team?  Or Florida State's women's basketball team website?  Oh how times have changed since I was a college athlete.

The Seattle Times reporter Jayda Evans recently wrote about the newly redesigned women's collegiate media guides and websites with an overt feminized message.  One has to question if this is some kind of attempt to re-brand female basketball players based on widely accepted views that if you're a female college athlete who plays basketball, odds are you're a lesbian.  Evans article examines this seemingly new wave of over-feminizing female basketball players as a way to mask "butchness." (Yes, even the WNBA has attempted to sex up feminize its gals).  Evans highlights Training Rules, a recent documentary film by Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker about former Penn State coach Rene Portland, who supposedly touted three rules for her female players: No drinking. No drugs. No lesbians.

Here's the trailer clip from Training Rules



Evans writes:

"The film is fascinating in its inside look at how homophobia has a choke hold on women's sports in general. How it's used against each other in recruiting, tagging programs as full of lesbians, and how schools/coaches over feminize themselves to not appear lesbian. All under the "innocent" veil of wanting to show women athletes can be "powerful, beautiful, strong and accomplished." Or, to put it more simply, heterosexual, too."


As a former high school basketball player and collegiate track athlete, I've experienced first-hand the turmoil female athletes (whether they identify as lesbian or not) endured at the hand of coaches and peer athletes.  These same athletes, who were also my friends, were labeled as "butch" and "lesbos" and misjudged accordingly because of what others assumed or "saw." 

In high school, I was called a "man" a "horse" and a "dinosaur" for the way I appeared on the basketball court and track.  My legs were huge. I'd curse when I got upset. I was faster than all the other girls (and some guys).  And at times, I walked around with a head scarf wrapped around my head because 1) it was hella comfortable during track meets and basketball games, and 2) it was hella cold in Cleveland, Ohio.  The folks who called me a man, horse, or dinosaur learned somewhere that if the fastest girl or best long jumper in the state didn't act (or hell, look) like a lady or wasn't girly in nature and in stature that she, that I, must be the opposite of that; manly, animal-like, and monstrous.  Some people's logic is the epitome of #epicfail.

The sexualization and over feminization of female athletes is nothing new, and neither is the ridicule female athletes experience because who they are and how they act don't measure up to another person's standard of womanhood.  I share in Evans position that dressing up these women for a website or media guide is offensive because it works to undermine the ability each one of these athletes have worked to master since childhood. And I'll take it a step further; the fact that these universities are promoting an overtly feminized "illusion" is asinine and creepy (Texas A&M coach Gary Blair adjusting his tie in the picture above is just all kinds of weird).

Whether these women like to wear dresses or not, or whether they identify as homosexual or heterosexual isn't the issue.  The problem is disconnect: What does wearing a silky prom dress circa 1999 or posing in a sultry manner while wearing a black cocktail dress have to do with how many boards these women can grab per game or how accomplished they are on and off the court?  What does one thing have to do with the other? If my school or coach would've ever suggested that I pose wearing a dress or high heels for the sports media guide/website so as means to appear "powerful, beautiful, strong, and accomplished," I would've laughed hysterically in their face and redirected them to my stellar grade point average, field goal percentage stats, and scholarship awards instead. 

Don't play me for a fool.

When the game means more than wind sprints and foul shots. When it takes on a different connotation. When it becomes as much about how these women look as about how they play and hustle on the court. When young girls, hoping to one day play for schools like Penn State, Texas A&M, Florida State, or the WNBA, think that part of being a powerful, beautiful, strong, and accomplished female athlete means looking good in a dress or high heels, then society--touting tolerance in the guise of fear and cowardice--has officially failed its daughters.

The day we start asking our men's teams to pose for media guides and websites in Rambo outfits with machine guns strapped to their backs to appear, you know, "manly" instead of appearing like, you know, basketball players is when you'll catch me on the first flight to a desert island. Ok, maybe that was kinda an exaggeration of epic proportions, but arguably not as ridiculous as female basketball players posing for "glamour shots" in collegiate sports media guides.

*head desk*

Los Angeles is bustling city that is known for its movie stars, sunshine, and traffic.  For those who have ever visited the 2nd most populated city in the US, you know that there are tons of pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, and other non-driving citizens of the City of Angels.  These very people are gaining momentum to bring Ciclovia(bike way) to Los Angeles.  An organized community and open space gathering that is to occur every Sunday in Los Angeles where major streets and intersections will be temporarily closed down to allow anyone without a car to take a stroll, ride a bike, or walk their dogs throughout the city.

The movement originated in Bogota, Colombia 30 years ago when activists and city officials organized major street closures on Sundays to alleviate the terrible traffic and car congestion in the city.  It also gives neighbors a chance to get acquainted with eachother and brings a sense of community to the once crowded streets of a major city.

Last fall a small group of bicyclists, pedestrians, and open-space activists teamed up to bring a weekly community/traffic free gathering to Downtown Los Angeles.  LA's version is called cicLAvia(get it?) and is aiming to get the first cicLAvia in the spring of 2010.  So far, they've launched small scale events with help from the LAPD to gauge how different communities would react as well as to figure out the most effective routes.  New York, Portland, and San Francisco already have versions of a Sunday road closure and Los Angeles looks to have their very own Ciclovia very soon.

For more information be sure to visit the official cicLAvia blog.

There's been a lot of talk about the BYU versus New Mexico Womens Soccer match last week, you know where New Mexico player Elizabeth Lambert got into some punching, pulling, kicking on the field with numerous ladies on the BYU team.  

If you haven't already seen it (or seen it enough):



Yes, this is entertaining.  No, Lambert is not demonstrating in any way good sportsmanship that should be encouraged.  However, many writers in the sports blogosphere seem to have taken a liking to Lambert.  The general suggestion is that good or bad, women's pro soccer got some major publicity.     

Here are a few examples from some sports blogs:


What do you guys think about this?  I know when we were talking on here about Whip It and the unfortunate need for the women involved  (Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page) to exploit their sexuality through marketing to get male viewers, and I feel like there might be some kind of similar vein here. 

But then again, I don't know.  Liz Lambert definately DOES come off pretty tough, and that may not be a bad image.  Especially when it combats the preconcieved notion that women's soccer is boring or that women are weak.   

I'm curious what anybody else thinks.  Opinions?