Empowering Women in Sports: Gender & Sexuality in Athletics | Fitness Motivation & Team Spirit

I found this book both interesting and informative. What I found particularly compelling was how the author weaves together the influences of sexuality, athleticism, class and race in the struggle to promote the opportunity for women to participate in competitive sports -- and in the efforts to stop that from happening, or shaping it afterward. I happened to read it just prior to the 2016 Olympics and I could readily see how those factors are still at play in ways that range form how differently male and female athletes are dressed for competition (female beach volleyball players in tiny bikinis, male beach volleyball players in tee shirts and gym shorts, as one of many examples), and how the press so differently reports on male and female athletes. It thus is a "history" that is extremely helpful in understanding not just the past but what is going on today.