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Updates from me & OOYL
You can catch me on the most recent episode of the Women’s Sports Weekly podcast. Listen here:
Paid subscribers have been hanging out in our open threads during Unrivaled games. Join us!
Two events for paid subscribers are also forthcoming. Our first book club meeting is Wednesday, and we’ll be discussing my book Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League. We’ll be joined by my co-author Lyndsey D’Arcangelo and Linda Stamps, a founding member of the NWFL’s Columbus Pacesetters. On Monday I’ll send out a Hail Mary syllabus with related reading, bonus material that includes original NWFL game programs from 1974, and a link to join our Zoom meeting Wednesday.
I’ll also be hosting a Zoom screening of the documentary The Herricanes, which is about the NWFL’s Houston team. We’ll be joined on Zoom following the film by filmmaker Olivia Kuan and Marty Bryant, a founding member of the Herricanes. That event requires registration, and that link will also be in Monday’s newsletter.
For access to these events, upgrade to a paid subscription!
Links and memes
I have a lot more fun stuff this week than I had last week.
The new professional Women’s Lacrosse League has announced its four teams—the Boston Guard, California Palms, Maryland Charm, and New York Charging. The league is sponsored by Maybelline, and the Guard video introducing its team featured some cosmetic product placement: before captain Charlotte North can get on a Zoom call to say hi to her new teammates, she must put on her Maybelline matte powder (credit where it’s due, at least North didn’t put on a full beat, which would clearly not align with her day-to-day presentation).
I wrote about these beauty campaigns seeping into the world of women’s sports just last week. Pay attention:
These two things — traditional beauty brands capitalizing on women's sports, while gender-marginalized athletes come under systematic attack — cannot be separated. While these marketing campaigns look progressive under capitalist framing, the reality is much more complicated. When examined against the current political climate, in which gender panic and “transvestigations” in women’s sports abound, this platforming of traditional femininity by female athletes becomes something more sinister, echoing the Victorian ideals that have policed women’s sports for over a century.
Gritty with a Pride flag: something I didn’t know I needed
Syd Colson and Theresa Plaisance are back:
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