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Paperback
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Julie Foudy
The sculpted speed of Marion Jones. The grit and agility of Mia Hamm. The slam-dunk style of Lisa Leslie. The skill and finesse of these sports figures are widely admired, no longer causing the puzzlement and discomfort directed toward earlier generations of athletic women. Built to Win explores this relatively recent phenomenon-the confident, empowered female athletes found everywhere in American popular culture. Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin examine the role of female athletes through interviews with elementary- and high school-age girls and boys; careful readings of ad campaigns by Nike, Reebok, and others; discussions of movies like Fight Club and Girlfight; and explorations of their own sports experiences. They ask: what, if any, dissonance is there between popular images and the actual experiences of these athletes? Do these images really "redefine femininity" and contribute to a greater inclusion of all women in sport? Are sexualized images of these women damaging their quest to be taken seriously? Do they inspire young boys to respect and admire female athletes, and will this ultimately make a difference in the ways gender and power are constructed and perceived? Proposing a paradigm shift from second- to third-wave feminism, Heywood and Dworkin argue that, in the years since the passage of Title IX, gender stereotypes have been destabilized in profound ways, and they assert that female athletes and their imagery are doing important cultural work to that end. Important, refreshing, and engrossing, Built to Win examines sport in all its complexity. Leslie Heywood is professor of English at Binghamton University. She is the author of Pretty Good for a Girl: An Athlete's Story (Minnesota, 2000), Bodymakers (1998), and coeditor of Third Wave Agenda (Minnesota, 1997). A former track and cross-country runner who is currently a competitive powerlifter, Heywood is a vice president of the Women's Sports Foundation. Shari L. Dworkin is a sociologist and works as a research fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University.
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| A thought-provoking analysis |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Heywood and Dworkin draw on a variety of sources in this thoughtful examination of female athletes, including content and textual analysis and critical and gender theory. Their writing is scholarly and thouroughly researched, yet will also be interesting to non-academic readers. The commentary on various advertisements and other cultural artifacts such as the movie "Fight Club" are very good, as are their explorations of the conumdrums and contradictions encountered by women athletes over how they represent themselves and are represented by others. They also touch more generally on how gender roles and images have changed, not just for women but for men as well.
This is a must-read for women athletes, those who support them, and anyone interested in the topics of sports and gender.
--Vince Prygoski, author of "Worst to First, or, a 'Shock'ing tale of Women's Basketball in Motown" (available from Amazon.com)
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