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A Locker Room of Her Own: Celebrity, Sexuality, and Female Athletes

Online ISBN:
9781621039617
Print ISBN:
9781617038136
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi
Book

A Locker Room of Her Own: Celebrity, Sexuality, and Female Athletes

David C. Ogden (ed.),
David C. Ogden
(ed.)
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Joel Nathan Rosen (ed.)
Joel Nathan Rosen
(ed.)
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Published:
3 June 2013
Online ISBN:
9781621039617
Print ISBN:
9781617038136
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi

Abstract

Female athletes are too often perceived as interlopers in the historically male-dominated world of sports. Obstacles specific to women are of particular focus in this book. Race, sexual orientation, and the similar qualities ancillary to gender require special exploration of the way they impact an athlete’s story. Central to the book is the contention that women in their role as inherent outsiders are placed in a unique position even more complicated than the usual experiences of inequality and discord associated with race and sports. The contributors explore and critique the notion that in order to be considered among the pantheon of athletic heroes one cannot deviate from the traditional demographic profile, that of the white male. These essays look specifically and critically at the nature of gender and sexuality within the contested nexus of race, reputation, and sport. The collection explores the reputations of iconic and pioneering sports figures and the cultural and social forces that helped to forge their unique and often problematic legacies. Women athletes discussed in this volume include Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the women of the AAGPBL, Billie Jean King, Venus and Serena Williams, Marion Jones, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Sheryl Swoopes, Florence Griffith Joyner, Roberta Gibb and Kathrine Switzer, and Danica Patrick.

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