Thursday, February 25, 2010
Woman wins bowling championship, no one shows up
Kelly Kulick becomes first woman to win a championship in an American ball sport, competing against men. And no one seems to notice.
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Hey, I knew about this! I think it's more a case of bowling being a fringe sport these days than of blatant sexism. As far as Danica Patrick being popular goes, in terms of popularity and sponsorship, bowling is to car racing as tabletop roleplaying is to computer gaming.
ReplyDeleteThe other aspect to that is sexist, though: our society tends to expect successful female athletes to be pretty and plays up their looks to a vastly greater degree than they expect their male athletes to be handsome and emphasize their looks. Kobe Bryant and Lebron James do not strike me as particularly handsome guys, but it has no effect on their marketing pull and nobody ever brings it up, whereas if a female athlete is plain in appearance, it gets commented upon, especially in the form of suggesting that she might be gay, which is of course both irrelevant and stupid.