Dream on. Dream until your dreams come true. That statement couldn’t be any more accurate for this story than if someone had gone and shouted it from the rafters during the infamous Bobbie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs match in 1973. Bobbie Jean King was playing for more than a prize, more than pride, she was playing to bring dignity to the sport of tennis, to all sports, for women that sought to reach their dreams in a way that promoted equality between men and women. It’s a fight that is still going on, but King was one of the most up front pioneers of the idea that refused to take the matter of inequality lying down.
The upcoming movie, Battle of the Sexes, is going to highlight the struggle that King had to go through in order to find equal footing in her chosen sport and the trials that were forced upon her and all female athletes as a result. The shocking and appalling behavior of the men within the sport portrayed in the trailer is unfortunately not glammed up as much as you might think, as men were anything but kind back in those days when the idea of female sports came around.
For a long, long time, men have believed that women are the weaker sex. Obviously this is not true but in terms of sporting events the average woman is seen to be a great deal inferior to the average man. The belief that women were not as exciting to watch and are still not is how it is justified that women make so much less as opposed to men in sports. The ratings, the attendance, and many other factors go into just how athletes are paid, but the discrepancy is still very real. There are many upon many ways to settle this dispute and pay women what they are worth, but thus far nothing has really been done about it. There have been amends made to insure that women are in fact getting paid, but overall the issue still persists in nearly every venue.
One of the greatest draws for any sport is the aggression factor that men tend to bring to the sport in question. Men tend to be stronger, faster, hit harder, and last longer than women, which is a big reason why they seem to get paid more. Their matches are often more dynamic and create more hype than women’s matches despite the fact that women have grown increasingly stronger, quicker, and even more aggressive in their sports over the last few decades. There’s no reason why women should be paid so much less, not back then and certainly not now.
The idea of women being less aggressive, weaker, and less appealing to watch than men is a bit absurd. Women have proven throughout the years that they are just as skilled and just as capable of drawing crowds. The only real issue then is the amount of hype that is given to male and female sports. Millions upon millions of dollars will be ladled out for men’s sports, while perhaps a fraction of that will be dished out to women’s sports. Perhaps if each gender received the same funding it would be far different. Stop making male athletes instant millionaires and allow women to share in some of those riches and perhaps things would be a great deal different.
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