Lecture 18 - Little Girls in Pretty Boxes PDF

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Matthew Andrews
Spring 2020...

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Lecture 18 - Little Girls in Pretty Boxes Montreal 1976 • "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" - Joan Ryan •

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Ancient Greek Gymnasium o Sacred place - men would go to develop their mind and their bodies o Did not have gymnastics in the ancient games, but had gymnasiums Synchronized Gymnastics o End of 19th century - artistic gymnastics (more individual) Athens 1896 o Both types of gymnastics - synchronized team and individual artistic Women's Gymnastics Debut - Amsterdam 1928 o IOC demanded men had more athleticism than women's Helsinki 1952 - women finally get their own individual gymnastics events (not synchronized) o Larisa Latynina (USSR) - 2nd most medals in history behind Phelps • Was a ballet dancer (famous in Russia) and modified it into gymnastics 1964 and 1968 - Vera Caslavska (CZE) 1968 Munich 1972 Olga Korbut (USSR) o Gymnastics had blown up-- why? • Slow motion video showed all the talent of gymnastics • Was a response to the women's feminist movement • Americans and Europeans were drawn to sports in which female athletes were small, girlish, and exceedingly feminine ▪ Because of anxieties that women are demanding power outside of the world of sports • Reaction against modern feminist movement ▪ "little girl femininity" ▪ Offered a level of unconscious assurance to an anxious public of the growing power of adult women o Performance of Olga Korbut plays right into this theory • Heavily favored, messed up during best event - uneven bars ▪ When finished, she sat down and cried • TV viewers fell in love with the frail and vulnerable female athlete • Emotion and heartbreak coming from a soviet athlete - emotion and humanity from a Soviet o So popular in US - performed to sold out crowds with the Soviet team Montreal 1976 Nadia Comaneci (Romania) - first 10 in gymnastics; 14 years old o Youngest all-around champion Ever since then-- these two young gymnasts were height of modern feminist movement o Women were threatening the gender status quo-- the public latched on to a sport with small, young, feminine females Olympic Figure Skating o Ice skating has always been popular

First World Figure Skating Championships in 1896 -- same year as first modern Olympics • Happened at the same time-- expressions of the globalization and interconnectedness of the era o Earliest winter Olympic sport • Beginning in 1924 o Sonja Henie (NOR) 3 gold medals • Put figure skating on the global sports map o Americans were best figure skaters in Olympics, Soviets were gymnasts Tenley Albright (USA) 1956 gold, Carol Heiss (USA) 1960 gold 1961 Sabena Flight 548 (1961) o Entire US figure skating program crashed and died Peggy Fleming (USA) (1968) and Dorothy Hammill (USA) 1976 o Ladies figure skating became the centerpiece of the modern winter games o "Ladies Figure Skating" • Female athletes need to exhibit "proper level" of gender-specific behavior • 1992 Nancy Kerrigan US nationals ▪ Announcers described her as looking elegant and like a little angel "Layback spin" - position mimicking sexual arousal o Move required of female skaters-- not men 1994 most popular sports in the US (1994) o Football o Basketball o Ladies Figure Skating o Baseball Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan (1994) o Great televised spectacles of the 1990s o Most significant Olympic story in US history (Norway) o Kerrigan was figure skating Golden Girl-- favorite in US championships • Clubbed by maniac with metal baton day before championships ▪ Was paid by Jeff Gillooly • Was the estranged husband of Kerrigan rival - Tanya Harding o Harding was more athletic, but couldn’t perform the amount of femininity like Kerrigan-- not as slender, didn’t wear as elegant costumes • In an attempt to win Tanya Harding back, Gillooly hatched plan to damage Kerrigan's knee o Lillehammer, Norway (1994) Games • "Feminists' Super Bowl" • Everyone was taking sides • Harding's lace broke right before her performance - 8th place; Kerrigan got 2nd Fundamental assumption that sports are good for you -- good for body and mind o Gymnastics and boxing are opposite-- contribute opposite to the physical well-being of the participants o

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