Women's athletics have come a long way from the beginning of sports until present time. Women had never really gained any respect from the media, and also their male counterparts. Over time, women tried proving their abilities by competing in similar sports as males, but this did not help the case as males still looked inferior to women in athletics. Tennis became a popular sport for women to excel at and to possibly be better than men. In 1973, the famous Battle of the Sexes match between Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King was the main event that sparked interest in women's athletics. Billy Jean King end up beating Bobby Riggs in the tennis match. The significance of that is now we saw that women could actually keep up with the men and now just maybe they have a better chance for equal opportunity in sport. I believe from that moment right there is where we see a dramatic change in how people perceive women's athletics. Billy Jean King not only represented women's tennis but women's sports as a whole. All this is happening right after the United States had passed Title IX in which they were trying to get more female athletes participating in sports. This event open up the options even more for women. Although the Battle of the Sexes was a big deal to sports and media, there is still speculation even to this day that Bobby Riggs may have thrown the game and let Billy Jean King win. I believe that is blasphemous, and that even when a woman gets her chance to shine, people still doubt the legitimacy of the match. All in all this was a stepping stone for women's athletics to prove that women has a say in sports and can be the voice of sport rather than it just being men. Billy Jean King opened up the eyes of many young women aspiring to be great at sports and that is just what was needed in that time period to revolutionize sport for both genders.
- Eddie Hodges
In my opinion women do not have as much attention in sport. I think this was the match that broke the barrier to start the discussion of women being able to compete with males athletically. I still do not believe that women have equal opportunity in sport. As we discussed in class today at some school women are being told that they cannot compete with males in football. I think that if a girl wants to play football she should be able to try out and play if she has the ability to be on the team, and help the team succeed. I do think that saying Bobby Riggs through the match is just an excuse to bring up that it was not legitimate that Billy Jean King beat him in a match. If it were true it would have been true it would have been brought up when Bobby was still living so that he would be able to answer to that question if he threw the match or not.
ReplyDelete- Brandon Focht
I also agree with Eddie in the thought that Bobby Rings did not through the match on purpose and simply lost. All the same, I was reading an article a while back that relates to this topic on women's feminism monuments. The article talked about the Rothschild family along with the Rockafeller's and other influencial families of america and their attempts to give women more rights in america. Their main scheme was to increase the power of the feminist movement in order to get moms into the working world and out of the house. In doing so they would change the american family and children would begin to go to school at a younger age (K-12). By doing so the government would now become the parents because they would control what a child learn for about twelve years. I realize this idea is way to far out there to be taken in a credible light. Still, I thought that the idea was pretty interesting considering it relates to the Billy Jean King conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteJay Clark
While the Battle of the Sexes Match was extremely monumental in the progression of women's sports and how they were viewed in the public eye following the match, I think it's important to remember a few things. First, Billie Jean King was not trying to prove that women were better than men by winning the match. She noted that if the roles were reversed and men were receiving unfair treatment, she would have been fighting for their rights. With that being said, I believe that the win by Billie Jean King had a much bigger impact at the time than she realized. After the win, women realized that they could compete at the highest level and started to believe, if they hadn't before, that they deserved as much respect as men. However, women still do not receive completely equal treatment in the sports world. They don't make as much money or get as much media attention and I'm not sure they ever will as long as they are objectified in the media.
ReplyDeleteBen Mathey
The Battle of the Sexes was an extremely influential event. Billie Jean King's triumph over Bobby Riggs showed that not only could women compete with men at the top levels of professional sports but that they could win. King's victory provide the impetus and inspiration for millions of women across the country to aspire to do and be who the wanted to be not just in sports. This is why I think the match was so important because it changed millions of people's perspectives on what women could do in comparison to men. It would be interesting to see a battle like this today with modern tennis players. Could Serena beat Federer or Nadal? I don't know enough about tennis to say either way however I know the event would be a riveting a matchup regardless of who wins.
ReplyDeleteMax Perry
I agree in the sense that The battle of the sexes match between Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King was definitely a monumental moment for women in sports. My belief is that in every cultural struggle there is always a moment where there comes a breakthrough. If you look at Jackie Robinson playing Major League Baseball was a breakthrough for minorities in sports period.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do believe that the Bobby Riggs Billy Jean King match only helped out the sport of tennis. I don't think anyone ever question whether women can play tennis at a high level versus other women but they maybe questioned whether they can play versus men. That still didn't prove that they can play in a men's league because that's just something that isn't going to happen. The point of e battle of the sexes should've been more to promote women sports and women's leagues instead of the men vs. woman battle because that battle still hasn't helped popularity of women professional leagues.
Jude Adjei