They Say / I Blog

Coach wears high heels: Pau Gasol on gender and the NBA

Men’s major league sports coaches are proven leaders, role models, iconic authority figures, sometimes even larger than life. And, up to now in the US, they’ve always been men, but that may be about to change. San Antonio Spurs (NBA) player Pau Gasol talks about that possibility in this May 2018 essay in the Players’ Tribune.

Gasol, “An open letter about female coaches”

Changing the culture: Kate Harding on accountability for sexual misconduct

Every day, it seems, there is a new revelation of sexual misconduct by a public figure, and every day we’re less shocked, more sickened. What can we do? How can we move forward? These are not easy questions, but they need to be addressed. Author Kate Harding proposes some concrete steps in this November 2017 Washington Post essay. 

Read it here: Harding, “I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign”

 

First and goal: Claire Wallace on a woman’s place in football broadcasting

Something must be wrong with my TV. The video of my football game is perfectly clear, but the announcer’s voice is too high-pitched. Oh. Wait. The announcer is a. . . . WOMAN?! Avid football fan and fantasy writer Claire Wallace responds to the historic milestone with shock and delight in this September 2017 Huffington Post article.

Read it here: Wallace, “A woman’s place is in the broadcast booth”

 

Give us a twirl: Sendhil Mullainathan on sexism in sports journalism

If you follow professional tennis closely, you may get an impression that the men on the circuit are covered very differently from the women. It’s more than just an impression, though; there is empirical evidence to show just how large the disparity is. Harvard University economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan wrote this examination of the topic for The Upshot, a New York Times blog, in September 2017.

Read it here: Mullainathan, “Sexism and shopping: Female players get most of the odd questions at the U.S. Open"

 

Ugly talk: Meredith Simons on sexist comments in the news

It’s a time-honored strategy, and unfortunately, it works very well. Newsworthy women, from Hillary Clinton to Lady Gaga to Kellyanne Conway and beyond, are often publicly skewered not for their statements and ideas, but for their clothes, their hairstyles, and their bodies. Writer and law student Meredith Simons explores the harmful effects of such public discourse in this January 2017 Washington Post article.

Read it here: Simons, “Don’t like what a woman is saying? Call her ugly”

It’s natural: Chelsea Johnson on natural hair and the art of persuasion

You’ve probably had the experience. There is something you care about so deeply that you can’t imagine how its importance wouldn’t be obvious to everyone else. And yet, when you talk about it, you see the ‘so what?’ cloud forming on the faces of your conversation partners. Sociology graduate student Chelsea Johnson had this experience when trying to explain her dissertation topic—black women’s hair—to other academics and social scientists, so she decided to share some strategies she learned about “the art of persuasion” in this August 2016 blog post on The Well.

Read it here: Johnson, "What explaining my natural hair to PhDs taught me about the art of persuasion"

 

Clothes or costumes: Laurie Frankel on parenthood and gender choice

What to wear on the first day of school. Who doesn’t stress out over that decision? Novelist Laurie Frankel was stressed out plenty about her first-grader’s first day, but the child was calm and certain. This September 2016 New York Times article describes what happened.

Read it here: Frankel, “’From he to she in first grade”

The ‘mistress’: Jessica Bennett on the persistence of a demeaning word

Do you remember the sex scandal a few years ago about the counterterrorism expert and her lover? No? How about the affair between the decorated general and his mistress? That one might ring a bell. In fact, in both cases, we’re talking about the same two people—Gen. David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell. New York Times writer Jessica Bennett discusses the media’s use of the stigmatizing word “mistress” in this June 2016 post in the Times Insider blog.

Read it here: Bennett, “’Why do people still use the word ‘mistress’? A reporter reflects”

#MoreThanMean: Jumana Bambot on women journalists and online harassment

If you have seen Twitter, you know that tweets can be brilliant, hilarious, informative, helpful, entertaining, and also very vulgar, threatening, and abusive. Women sports journalists are among the targets of the most vile and violent harassment. Ms. Magazine and editorial intern Jumana Bambot call attention to the situation and suggest a strategy for improving it in this May 2016 blog post.

Read it here: Bambot, “Watch What Happens When Men Read Abusive Tweets to Female Sports Reporters”

Draft on tap: Danielle Harris on women and the military draft

There is a bill right now in the US House of Representatives that would require women to register for the military draft upon reaching the age of 18, just as men are currently required to do. This proposal is sure to ignite a firestorm of debate, and DePaul University student Danielle Harris is among the first to weigh in on the issue in this May 2016 editorial in her school newspaper, the DePaulia.

Read it here: Harris, “Combating sexism: Women and the military draft”