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"It's a person": An ethnographic analysis of gender and power in coed softball

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"It's a person": An ethnographic analysis of gender and power in coed softball

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“ It’s a Person": An Ethnographic Analysis of Gender and Power in Coed Softball
by
Faye Linda Wachs
A Dissertation Presented to
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Sociology of Southern California
May, 1999
Copyright 1999 Faye Linda Wachs
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UMI Number: 9933769
Copyright 1999 by
Wachs, Faye Linda
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, written by
.......................
wider the direction of h. Dissertation
Committee; and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted b y The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dean of Graduate Studies
Date „ . . ^ r c h _ I j _ 1 9 9 9
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
OWr — _________
Gtairperson
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Abstract
This dissertation uses the sub-world of coed softball to explore how people “do gender”
or define relational gender relations. Currently Western culture is in a transitional
moment during which traditional gender ideologies are being challenged and redefined.
In order to study the process of gendered power relations, ethnography, specifically
participant-observation, was undertaken in five softball leagues in the Southern California
area. Understanding how gendered ideologies, bodies and practices interact to construct
experience in this situation is the focus. Gendered ideologies were made material in
bodies and corporeal experiences of participants. In turn, this reenforced gendered
ideologies and practices. At the same time, bodies’ performances challenged gendered
ideologies and the efficacy of gendered practices. Many interactions revealed how
reproductions and challenges are negotiated in bodies, ideologies and practices which
sometimes simultaneously represented contradicting and competing ideas, values and
assumptions. Specifically, a paradoxical situation in which equality of opportunity was
predicated on assumptions of gender difference was apparent. Third wave feminist
theory offers many interesting possibilities for understanding this situation. Implications
for research, living in a coed world and coed softball are addressed.
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iii
Table of Contents
Chapter 1- Introduction and Theory I
Gender, Sport, and Power: A True Story I
Feminist Theory, Gender, and Power 6
Corporeal Experience, Leisure, Pleasure, and the Limits of Gender 24
Coed Sports 30
The History o f Coed Softball 34
Research Questions 35
Chapter 2- Methodology 37
The Research Process 37
The Researcher as Participant 54
Overview 70
Chapter 3- Surveying a Gendered Field: What it Takes to Play Softball 71
The Setting 74
The Rules- Legislating Gender? 78
Participants 84
Reading the Body: Experience and Gender 95
Bodies and Pleasure 113
Overview 115
Chapter 4- The Reproduction of Gender 118
The Gendered Rule Structure 120
Who’s in charge? Authority and Gender 128
Gendered Assumptions, Expectations and Ideologies 141
What People Do 151
Protecting the Women 165
What People Say: Discursive Reproduction of Gendered Ideologies 175
Overview 184
Chapter 5 -“Chicks Rule”: Challenges to Dominant Conceptions of Gender 186
Coed Sports, Rules and Gender 186
What People Do: Bodies, Resistance, and Gender 189
Challenging Gendered Assumptions and Expectations 202
What People Say: Chicks Rule! Verbal Resistance and Celebration 211
Are Male Bodies Superior? Throw Like a Girl Doesn’t Mean
What it Used To 216
“Can you watch him while I bat?” Postmodern Families and Teams 225
Overview 228
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Chapter 6- Negotiations- 230
Formal Authority and the Enforcement of Rules as a Negotiation 234
What People Do 233
Negotiations and the Body 242
Discourse- What People Say 244
Overview 260
Chapter 7- Conclusion 262
Third Wave Feminism 268
Appendix A 279
References 285
Endnotes 298
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Tables, Figures, Diagrams
Table 3.1- Minimum Skills Required for Each Position by Ability of Player 96-7
Figures 3.1, 3.2,3.3- Ability Level of Participants 100-1
Figures 4.1,4.2- Position by Gender 154-5
Table 7.1- Reproductions, Challenges, Negotiations 268
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Gender, Sport and Power
“ First andforem ost...all play is voluntary activity. " Johan Huizinga, 1950 p.18
“ It's not about winning or losing. I t ’ s about having a good performance. ” Gordon Park,
teammate. 1997
" Throw Like a Girl Doesn 't Mean What it Used To ” slogan on teammate K athy’ s favorite
softball shirt worn to games throughout the study period.
Recently I attended an open softball practice organized by a man, Jerry, who manages
both coed and men’s leagues. We decided to play a practice game. In order to keep the
two teams together we played the coed softball team versus the men’s team. Several of
the men present had never played coed softball before. Throughout the game, many of
the men “complimented” the four female players on our performances. One man said,
“Gee, I didn’t know girls [never mind that we are all in our mid to late twenties] could
play softball... You should keep at this.” Another man complimented me on my
pitching, saying, “Where did you learn to throw like that?” Still another watched the four
of us throwing and observed, “I didn’t know girls could throw that hard!”
Other men were not so complimentary. Several made snide remarks about our relative
abilities. One of the most galling remarks involved Kathy, the coed team’s exceptional
shortstop. Up until the third inning, no one had hit the ball to shortstop. Finally a man
did. Kathy made a good, but routine play on the ball. One man turned to another and
said, “Hit it at the shortstop, she needs a confidence builder.” Kathy was incensed. She
glared angrily at him and told me privately that she was looking forward to throwing him
out as often as possible. I was more baffled. Was he heckling her for playing well?
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Later in the game the same man was playing second base and blew a double play. He
could have tagged Kathy easily as she came into second base (he was too far from the bag
to tag it and chose not to pitch the ball to the shortstop). Instead he threw the runner out
at first. He argued that it should have been a double play because the reason why he
chose not to tag her was to “avoid hurting her.” I have seen Kathy hit by bad hops on
balls coming at her in excess of eighty miles an hour, slide hard into bases, and be cleated
by men outweighing her by more than one hundred pounds. She played college softball
as a catcher. The claim that she might have been hurt by a tag was ludicrous and
insulting.
Essentially his argument was that she should have been out because he was a man and
she was a woman, and if he had attempted to tag her, he would have invariably gotten her
out. He employed discourses of male protection of females as the justification for his
failure to tag her. As a man, he believed that he had to protect the weaker female from
potential injury. It is interesting that he chose to characterize Kathy as physically weaker
when confronted with the superiority of her play. Incensed by his sexist remarks, Kathy
turned her game up a notch and threw him out three times that night. Despite all of the
women’s demonstrations of competence, he giggled about and deprecated the play of the
women present for the rest of the game. Evidently, he found women’s presence in this
forum inappropriate. But why?
Some of these men had taken a different tone, encouraging us to play and being what I
assume they thought of as nice and considerate. But their authoritative tone, as if we
needed their approval and encouragement, seemed to suggest that they thought of
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themselves as experts. They assumed they were the authorities and gatekeepers who
granted access and approval. Clearly we were coming into their world, and it was great
that we had learned the skills to be almost as good. This assumption was problematic for
some o f the men who very obviously weren’t better. The man who insulted Kathy was a
vastly inferior player to her, and he was not as skilled as three out of the four women
present. His inability was inconsistent with discourses of male physical superiority. Did
he feel threatened by demonstrations that men are not inherently superior?
Given women’s historic exclusion from sports and the proliferation of single sex
sports, direct comparison between men’s and women’s performances has been
impossible. In the post Title IX world, in sport and in the culture at large, coed
environments mix traditional ideologies of gender difference with the reality of the wide
range of performances and abilities across both genders. How does this play out on the
field? The complexity of this interaction gives a preview. One man “defended” his
territory by attempting to reinvigorate ideologies of difference and female inferiority,
despite and because o f evidence to the contrary. Other men allowed entre to “their
world,” but clearly marked themselves as the authorities or experts. The women used
their performances to counter verbal attacks, but bore the “compliments” in silence.
Regardless of initial beliefs, the participants were forced to make some adjustments to
their gendered beliefs and behaviors because of the coed environment.
This interaction points to something problematic in late twentieth century North
American culture, that gender is always already here. Any interaction between individuals
is structured by perceptions of others’ identities. This identity is comprised of a set of
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social characteristics. The history of power relations in Western culture structures some
features o f one’s identity as socially relevant and defines what about them is “other.”
Gender, for example, is one characteristic in Western culture which is always defined.
Individuals are always expected to adequately and clearly demonstrate their gender to
others. A successful display of dominant gender characteristics makes one normal, while
to fail to display appropriate gender characteristics can mark one as deviant. While,
“what is your ethnic identity?” may be considered a rude question, it is often asked in
public forums and official forms. By contrast, “are you male or female?” is not a
culturally acceptable question once one has been seen. Why is this? Gender is assumed
to be encoded into the body. To question someone’s gender is to mark a failure on the
part of the individual to successfully play the adult role of male or female. There is a
cultural expectation that all men share a particular set of characteristics that
unequivocally mark them as male, while all women share a different set of characteristics
that unequivocally mark them as female. These differences are mutually exclusive and
relationally defined, as part of what makes one a man is not being a woman and vice
versa (Connell, 1987).
The assigning of gender is problematic because in the history of Western societies,
fundamental difference has always implied hierarchy, with one category being the
superior or normal category, and the other being marked as the inferior, or abnormal
category ( Foucault, 1978). In addition, dichotomous thinking leads one to define the
categories relationally, viewing them as opposites. While many social assumptions about
gender are debated, the assumption of difference and specifically of male physical
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superiority underlies and informs most, if not all of the debate surrounding ideologies of
gender in Western culture today (Cahn, 1994; Connell, 1987; Hargreaves, 1994; Laqueur,
1990; Lorber, 1994). When this assumption is challenged by some schools of feminist
thought, these challenges maintain the idea of a gender dichotomy, as it is frequently
argued that women’s bodies have different abilities and skills which should be equally
valued and promoted (Grant, 1993). The assumption of difference implies that the limits
and abilities of all bodies are to some extent inherently determined by sex. Furthermore,
the assumption of male physical superiority implies that all bodies designated as male
have the potential to be “better than” all bodies designated as female. This “better than”
implies stronger, faster, and more athletically competent. While feminist theorists debate
the relative merits of ideologies of equal opportunity versus the valuation of “natural” or
experiential differences as a means to eradicate social inequities (Grant, 1993; Gould,
1997; Tong, 1989), this assumption of difference creates a paradox. Because
assumptions of sex difference underlie how opportunities for participation are structured
and inform the discourse around these opportunities, gender becomes a social category
which invariably plays some role in the shaping of skills and abilities of bodies, in the
language used to describe bodies, and in the framing of events (Lorber, 1994). Hence, the
limits and abilities of bodies are shaped by gendered power relations. The sub-world of
coed softball provides a forum in which broader understandings of gendered power
relations in North American culture can be explored.
Studying gendered power relations does not mean that one ignores the effects that
other axes of identity, like race, class, and sexuality, have on the individual. Certainly,
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one’s social location is not determined by a single axis, but by the inter-relationship of
many axes (Collins, 1990). Hence, the experiences of a black working class female may
overlap with a black working class male, but will also have unique characteristics because
of differences along the axis of gender. This subject can be studied in the “micropolitical
practices” which make visible the contradictory and multiple constructions of
subjectivity, along with the intersections of these social categories (de Lauretis, 1987;
Martin, 1994). There are a number of ways to perform an analysis of social categories.
One can choose to study particular intersections, such as upper class white homosexual
men, or a single strand of the axis, such as race. To study a single axis is not to disavow
the inseparability of these intersections; rather, it is simply an analytical tool used to
focus research and explicate power relations.
Feminist Theory, Gender and Power
Over the past one hundred years, two different ideas about gender difference have
undergirded feminist theory and broader cultural ideologies about gender. In both first
and second wave feminism the idea of difference is primary. Gender difference is
debated as predicated either on natural gender differences (nature) or on inequitable
opportunities (social/cultural).
Sport and Gender Difference
It was not simply an assumption of difference, but the assumption of women’s relative
“frailty” when compared to men’s vitality, which dominated social thought at the turn of
the century and is still pervasive today (Hargreaves, 1994; Vertinsky, 1994). These
theses operate in conjunction with ideologies of gender difference which promote the idea
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that men and women are complementary parts of the same whole, or are oppositional in
nature. Essentially gender is defined relationally with what is male defined as what is not
female and vice versa (Connell, 1987). Therefore, if men are strong and aggressive,
women are weak and acquiescent (Synnott, 1993). Modem sport was popularized at the
turn of the century in part as a means to redefine and reproduce masculinity in distinction
to femininity, or to redefine relational gender differences (Hult, 1994). Changes in the
class structure and the rise of the middle class in conjunction with industrialization and
urbanization changed patterns of work and family life. These changes threatened
ideologies of masculinity and male superiority. As more men and women both worked
outside the home, and first wave feminism threatened to grant women some of the same
rights and privileges as men, ideologies of masculinity “needed” to be reinvigorated.
Ideologies of gender, class and race intertwine in these assumptions as women’s
participation in the paid labor force only became an ideological issue when middle and
upper-class women entered the workforce. Women of color and working class women
have had a long history of employment, often in the homes of the middle and upper-class.
Along with these changes in the political economy came fears of social feminization
as public critics worried over a lack of male role models for young boys and the effects of
women’s entrance in large numbers into the fields of education and social work. Thus,
the fundamental assumption of gender difference as necessary and desirable undergirded
social interactions. Success in sports was one way to symbolically reinvigorate gender
difference and male physical superiority (Crosset, 1990; Kimmel, 1990). Sports offered a
publicly visible forum in which some men could symbolically display the superiority of
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all men while also providing sufficiently masculine role models for boys. Boys’
participation in sports countered fears of social feminization by providing an area in
which they could “behave like men” without threatening class or race lines. Sports
provided an arena in which boys could experience perceived “masculine” values like
competition, while also learning obedience to superiors and unquestioning adherence to
hierarchical authority. While it was clearly acknowledged that sports would make boys
into men (Messner, 1990), this was not seen as contradicting men’s "natural" physical
superiority. The beginnings of the paradox of gender difference are evident here. If men
are "naturally" physically superior, why is it necessary to shape their minds and bodies
through sports?
Because masculinity is defined in relation to femininity, what it means physically to
be a woman is defined in contrast to what it physically means to be a man (Connell,
1987; 1995). While ideologies of race and class could limit which men had access to the
hegemonic or dominant form of masculinity (Connell 1987), ideologies of natural
difference as exhibited in sport were used to prevent women (and subordinate men) from
participating in many public forums, including sports. Paradoxically this was assumed to
reflect natural gender differences, rather than construct them.
First Wave Feminism
First wave feminism, refers to turn of the 20th century feminism and the suffrage
movement, arose in reaction to these types of ideologies. First wave feminists were
concerned primarily with limitations placed on women’s public roles and issues central to
women’s bodies. Reducing inequities created by power imbalances were codified in a
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call for equal rights. Issues, like the vote for women, eventually became central to the
movement. In addition, issues of health and the body, in particular the control of
reproductive rights, were central (Tong, 1989; Wollstonecraft, 1975). Calls for equal
rights, therefore, had to engage with assumptions of natural gender difference.
Often, first wave feminism did not challenge ideologies o f natural difference, but
instead attempted to coopt them. Women’s differences were valorized and used to create
a separate sphere in which women were experts, and this expertise was used as a reason
to include women in public life (Lemer, 1994; Tong, 1989). Often the assumptions by
both men, who opposed women’s entrance into social life, and first wave feminists were
that natural biological differences accounted for differences between men and women.
Feminists of the time often coopted assumptions of women’s greater nurturing capacities
and humanity as support for women’s voting and women working in professions like
social work.
While these arguments advanced women’s public role in society, these groups often
overlooked the needs and issues of working class women and women of color (Buechler,
1990). These women already worked, but generally in the homes of the white middle
class. While coopting biological arguments of femininity may empower those women
who met the dominant ideals, this type of maneuver reinforced biological arguments of
women of color and working class women’s inherent inferiority. Biological arguments
allowed stigmatization of these women’s behaviors while masking how economic
disadvantages necessitated them. Thus while first wave feminists challenged institutional
relations of power by negotiating dominant ideologies, often this privileged particular
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women who conformed to classed and raced ideals. This is evident in early struggles for
women’s sports (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Hult, 1994).
First Wave Feminism and the History of Sport
For the first 20 years of the Century arguments centered around the idea that women
should not play sport for a variety of reasons including medical fears grounded in
Victorian ideals of female frailty, that sport would harm women’s reproductive
capacities, fears that competitive sports would harm women’s humanistic nature, as well
as paranoia surrounding lesbianism (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Hult, 1994;
Vertinsky, 1994). Such arguments merged the biological and the social. Biological
arguments centered on women’s physical inferiority. In particular, women’s reproductive
capacities were viewed as limited and fragile and it was believed that physical exertion,
like running, could destroy a woman’s ability to bear children. Cultural arguments
centered on women’s roles as nurturers and humanists. The belief was that participation
in sport would erode women’s humanism and make them like men. If women’s supposed
humanist values were integrated into sport, this would debase sport’s competitive virtues
(Carroll, 1986). The assumption that women will humanize sports and that this is bad for
both sports and men makes specific relational assumptions about the nature of all men
and all women. Further, such assumptions reveal how only a specific type of sport was
and is valued and promoted.
The paradox becomes more complex. If women’s nature was to nurture, why would
sport alter this? If sport could alter this, then women’s nature must be a social construct.
If it is a social construct, its validity can be challenged. Clearly, what was being
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articulated is that men and women are different and these differences must be maintained.
The implicit paradox was the proposition that suggested that men and women are
“naturally” different, but that gender is constructed out of experience. What logically
followed was the idea that one’s “true nature” could be corrupted through practices.
Men’s “ true nature” as competitive, worldly, and strong could be brought out by sport
participation, whereas, women’s “ true nature" as humanist, nurturing, and physically
weak would be corrupted by sports participation. At the same time, success at sports
provided proof of men’s physical superiority, whereas women’s relative absence proved
her inferiority. By separating men and women and proscribing different forms of
behavior, men and women were taught to respond and interpret social situations in
divergent ways which were consistent with relational and oppositional definitions of
gender. The inter-relationship between ideologies of capitalism, masculinity, success,
and competition acted to reinforce specific historical and political relations of power. In
particular the privileging of victory over quality of experience paralleled capitalist values
(Riguer, 1984).
Just as in other spheres of life, rather than challenging the "natural difference"
paradox, many women in sports coopted it (Cahn, 199r4; Parratt, 1994). Beginning in
approximately 1880 and popularized in the 1920s and 30s, adapted models of sports for
women which not only reflected physical differences but also supposed moral
differences, were developed, supported and promoted primarily by middle class female
physical educators in women’s colleges (Cahn, 1994). There was a strong movement for
female control o f women’s sports as feminists feared (and often rightly so) that women
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would be exploited by male promoters if they were involved in public displays of sport or
any professional sports. This exploitation took the form of the sexualization o f female
athletes, athletes forced to perform in various stages of undress, and the hiring of athletes
for their attractiveness, rather than their athletic ability (Cahn, 1994; Hult, 1994). This
movement was further intensified by a backlash against women’s sports participation
which forced women who were interested in playing and promoting women’s sports into
a separate ghettoized sports structure. To protect women from exploitation or censure,
women’s leaders developed adapted versions of institutionalized sports to be played by
women apart from the male gaze. In some cases, this was reflected in more participatory
versions of sport as opposed to competitive models, in others it reflected adaptive models
of the men’s games such as women’s basketball, women’s softball and so forth (Cahn,
1994; Hult, 1994). While reserving some space for women’s influences in alternative
forms of recreation as exemplified in the existence of baseball, basketball, and play days
at women’s colleges (Cahn, 1994; Berlage, 1994; Hult, 1994; Parratt, 1994), this model
tended not to challenge concepts of male physical superiority. Nor did it create equal or
equitable access to sports for women, especially working class women and women of
color who did not have access to women’s colleges (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994).
Women’s participation in these sports did not challenge ideologies of male physical
superiority as it could be asserted that women learned to play fundamentally different
games from men. Because these versions of the game were the "women's" version, by
definition, they were viewed as inferior or requiring less skill and strength. Working
class and women of color, while often the victims of exploitation by unscrupulous
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promoters, were able to enter the realm of professional or paid sports. Their
performances sometimes challenged dominant conceptions of difference. Athletes like
Babe Didrickson provided visual demonstrations o f the inaccuracy of some of these
ideologies of difference. Often these women’s challenges were downplayed, and they
were seen as exceptions, or not “normal” women (Gregorich, 1993). Such challenges
were quelled by the 1930's and 40's as separate spheres for men’s and women’s sports
were institutionalized and maintained (Cahn, 1994), thus signaling the ascendency of the
“difference” model and the temporary defeat of equal opportunity.
Second Wave Feminism
In the second wave, feminists for the most part rejected biological essentialism, or the
idea that there is a gendered biological essential nature. Often, however, this was replaced
by cultural essentialism. Second wave feminists often seek a unifying experience to
create a universal category of woman and to explain women’s universal oppression
(Ortner, 1974). Experiences of female subordination (Rubin, 1976), mothering (Gilligan,
1982; Rich, 1986; Ruddick, 1984), and women’s experience in the sexual order
(MacKinnon, 1979; Rubin, 1975) are common postulates of forms of universal
experience. While some second wave feminists focused on creating a separate space for
women’s issues and experiences, other second wave feminists aimed to equalize
opportunity in order to eradicate inequities and differences. Examples of the latter
include discussion o f pay inequities (Acker, 1989; Kessler-Harris, 1990), reproductive
rights (Faludi, 1991; Fausto-Sterling, 1985), and gender inequities in housework
(Goldscheider and Waite, 1991; Hochschild, 1989). For these feminists, power is
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understood as denied to women through an invalidation of women’s bodies and
experiences. Reclaiming this experience, especially bodily experience, would empower
women. While many have conceptualized current debates among feminists as between
those who favor the valorization o f difference and those who favor struggles for equal
rights, some feminists critique the validity of such a framing because it necessitates a
dichotomous view and debate over issues which may not be in opposition to each other
(Scott, 1988). Sport, in fact, illustrates this well. Others worry about the dangers of
positing gender difference, and argue that even when based on culture, a
reconceptualization of men’s and women’s differences does little to change the actual
status or experiences of women. How can the articulation of gender difference promote
equality of opportunity or experience if the notion of equality is predicated on categorical
difference? Finally, among difference feminists there is still an assumption of a
measurable or sustainable difference between the categories of men and women, as well
as a specific common experience within the categories (Gilligan, 1982; Ortner, 1974;
Rich, 1986). This type of assumption overlooks the wide range of experiences,
characteristics and preferences which may make some women and some men more alike
than different and also implies two unitary, consistent and coherent categories of woman
and man.
At the same time, the construction of experience and meaning around gender in North
American culture does contribute to the creation of gendered ways of knowing, doing and
acting (Kessler & McKenna, 1978; Thome, 1993). However, if one attempts to predicate
women’s differences on these experiences, the argument becomes tautological. The idea
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that if women are treated differently, they act differently, and therefore they are different,
is a vast oversimplification of social relations and ignores other important determinants of
experience. Basing arguments for women’s equality on their differences from men can
backfire, because arguments centering around difference can just as easily be used to
support unequal treatment, as exemplified by adaptive sports models in the pre-Title E X
era.
Working class women and women of color often take issue with the idea that there can
be a single unifying women’s experience given the intersection of other axes of power
like race, class, and sexual orientation (Collins, 1990; hooks, 1984; Spelman, 1988).
Additional critiques focus on the fact that while there has been much discussion of
reproductive rights and women’s sexuality, assuming a common experience has been a
tool of oppression (de Beauvoir, 1952; Tong, 1989). Over the past ten years, discussions
as to how social practices shape the limits and abilities o f bodies given ideologies of
gender difference, have proliferated.
During recent years feminists and social scientists have suggested that equality within
the current structure is unattainable because the categories of man and woman carry with
them cultural assumptions which shape and structure individuals’ opportunities,
experiences, and practices (Grant, 1993; Lorber, 1994; Kessler & McKenna, 1974; Tong,
1989). Even if legislative barriers are removed and opportunities created, ideologies of
appropriate gender behavior(s) will not necessarily be challenged or changed. This is
exemplified by the current debate over the enforcement of and challenges to legislation
like Title IX. Though Title EX has had a huge impact in closing the gender gap in high
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school and college sports, debates over equality and charges that boys and men suffer in
the wake of such legislation exemplify how ideological barriers to equality remain. A
further stumbling block in social constructionist arguments is that they paradoxically
accept and maintain the categories of man and woman as a given, while simultaneously
asserting that these categories are in no way biologically predetermined (Grant, 1993).
These problems are approached differently by radical feminist scholars. Initially,
radical feminist theory had focused on issues of the body and sexual oppression of
women (Tong, 1989). The pornography wars codify some of the problems of early
radical feminism. Are women’s bodies always already oppressed in a patriarchal culture?
Can there be cultural representations which are empowering as well as constraining for
women? While feminists like MacKinnon (1989), Dworkin (1985), and Elshtain (1981)
debate the effects of the sexual order and the meaning and dangers inherent in sexualized
representations of female bodies, a new brand of radical feminism has emerged. Instead
of focusing on the effects of representations of bodies and how this impacts experience,
these feminists discussed how gender is constructed through enactments of gendered
norms and practices (Bordo, 1993; Butler, 1993, 1990). For these feminists, gender and
sex are not separate, as both are part of understandings and enactments. This does not
mean that the idea of biology is rejected. Rather, they note that biology is always formed
and interpreted through the lense of culture. These theorists focus on how gender
oppression can only be conquered when gender as a category is radically altered or
destroyed (Grant, 1993). Feminist theorists like Judith Butler (1993; 1990) and Susan
Bordo (1993) reintroduce the body and experience as essential elements to the study of
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power. Employing Foucault’s concept of power as constitutive as well as repressive,
these theorists demonstrate how gendered social relations are written on the body through
the repeated enactment of norms and practices. Gender is constructed and affected by
culture, social and economic conditions, and their intersections (Butler, 1997). For
feminists who theorize in this ways, the problematics of power and gender are embodied.
The binary nature of sex is problematized as always already informing discourse about
bodies and gender (Grant, 1993). Specifically, they problematize the ways in which
binary thinking constructs relational definitions o f gender (Connell, 1987; Kessler &
McKenna, 1978). Though few question relational definitions of gender, social scientists
are beginning to problematize such relations as simplifying complex social relations into
opposites when, in lived experience, there is a great deal of overlap and ambiguity (Kane,
1995; Thome, 1993). Such feminists demonstrate the inter-relationship between bodies
and cultural practices. An adoption of the norms of emphasized femininity perpetuates
gendered power relations both by constituting the body in conjunction with dominant
cultural norms of femininity and by creating a system of self surveillance through which
women monitor their bodies’ success in the adoption of feminine norms (Bartky, 1988;
Bordo, 1993). Sexuality and the performance of gendered heterosexual norms construct
not only male and female bodies, but also dichotomously opposed heterosexual bodies
(Rubin, 1984). Because of the focus on corporeal existence, changing the terms of
existence, practices, and interpretations of practice is crucial to altering the gender order
(Heywood, 1998). In ways that are similar to Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, these
theorists present the body as a medium through which culture and relations of power are
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expressed and reproduced (Bordo, 1993). Through repeated performance of gender,
gender becomes inscripted on the body such that all thought and actions are predicted on
gendered conceptual structures (Butler, 1993; 1990). In North American culture, sport is
one such performance.
Second Wave Feminism and Sport
The 1930's adaptive model of women’s sport necessitated by the backlash against
women’s challenges to exclusionary practices remained intact until the 1970's. In sports,
this meant that men and women did not have to be provided with equality of opportunity
as it was assumed that women were less interested in sports and that women’s bodies
were less appropriate for sports. With the passage of legislation such as Title IX, which
provided equal opportunities for women in federally funded institutions like public
schools, new opportunities for women’s sports were created. Despite increases in
equality of opportunity, however, social conceptions of masculinity and femininity
continued to limit and shape individuals’ desire to participate in particular sports, and
opportunities for participation (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994). An unanticipated result
of such demands for equality meant that women’s athletic departments were often merged
with men’s. Subsequently, women coaches, administrators, and educators lost jobs,
power, and control over women’s sports (Hult, 1994). In 1972, prior to the colonization
of women’s sports, over 90% of women’s college programs were administered by
women, and over 90% of women’s college teams were coached by women. By 1992,
following the NCAA overthrow of the ALAW, the numbers of women administering
intercollegiate programs declined to 17%, and the number of women coaching women’s
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sports declined to 48% (Acosta & Carpenter, 1994). While no one questioned the
validity of men coaching women’s sports, women were and still are almost entirely
excluded from coaching men’s sports, ostensibly for the good of the athlete (Staurowsky,
1990; Theberge, 1993), and despite reports by female athletes of abuse by male coaches
(Heywood, 1998; Nelson, 1994).
While the advent o f equal opportunity models would seem to validate female bodies
as equivalent to males, it does not challenge the socially constructed assumption of
physical difference in ability by sex. Such differences in ability are (re)produced by
inequitable access to experience at sports. There are several factors which limit women’s
access to sports experience. The first factor involves the quantifiably fewer opportunities
for women and girls to participate in sports relative to men and boys. The Women’s
Sports Foundation reports that while significantly more women and girls are participating
in sports, at the high school level, boys still outnumber girls three to two (1994). Second,
males and females tend to be channeled into different types of sporting activities. As
described by Susan Greendorfer (1993), young boys are channeled into activities which
promote eye-hand coordination necessary for most popular team sports, whereas girls are
instead encouraged to pursue activities which involve grace, balance, and cooperation.
This gives boys a decided advantage as they grow and participate in hegemonic, or the
most culturally valued masculine sports. Regarding softball, even men with less
experience than other men have most likely had more opportunities to develop the types
of skills necessary for the game than women. While much of this research on children is
ten years old, these children are the adults in my study today.
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Third, public cultural representations of sport tend to focus on women playing “female
appropriate” sports and men playing “male appropriate” sports (Blinde et al., 1991;
Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988; Kane, 1988). “Male appropriate” sports tend to be
competitive team sports in which victory is based on overpowering or scoring more than
an opponent. “Female appropriate” sports are sports which involve individual
performance. Winning involves being ranked higher by a panel o f judges. Other sports
which contain some elements of both, like tennis, are coded as neutral and are considered
appropriate for either gender.
Fourth, when girls attempt to join with boys in sports, they often find themselves
ignored, placed in devalued positions (positions to which the ball is rarely hit), and they
do not receive the same instruction and encouragement as the boys. In Gender Play,
Barrie Thome (1993) describes how, except for the one exceptional athlete, the few girls
who tried to join the boys for softball were ignored or demeaned. Landers and Fine
(1996), in their ethnographic analysis of T-ball, demonstrate how coaches specifically
demeaned girls’ abilities to play and spent more time and energy teaching the boys. It is
therefore not surprising that many of the girls in their study found T-ball to be a distinctly
unpleasant experience.
Fifth, girls and women who participate in sports are often stigmatized through
accusations of mannishness and lesbianism (Cahn, 1994; Hult, 1994). This points to an
unresolved cultural paradox that if sports are supposed to teach the values which make
boys into men, it is hardly surprising that women or girls who are successful at sports are
deemed “mannish.” After all, this merely means that they have learned the bodily
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comportment and competitiveness necessary for success at Western sports. Accusations
o f mannishness are the equivalent of being told to “mind one’s place.” Such accusations
imply that if a woman acquires the necessary body comportment for success at sports, she
is no longer a “true woman.” Hence, to be successful at femininity one must not be
successful at “male appropriate” sports. Mannishness in women is often equated with
lesbianism, a highly stigmatized social identity. While women’s sports have provided a
haven and meeting place for some lesbians (Cahn, 1994), certainly sports do not “make
women into lesbians." Such a view further implies that lesbianism is an undesired social
state. This allows for a double stigmatization of both gender and sexuality, and provides
a means of culturally controlling women’s participation in sports. All of these factors
contribute to women generally having had less experience at “male appropriate” sports
than men.
Finally, given dominant cultural ideologies of female bodies, a woman’s relationship
with her own body can affect, limit, and shape female sport participation and physical
activity. Duncan (1994) notes how the self-surveillance of women’s bodies inhibits their
sports participation. When one considers how the body necessary for most of the
“respected” sports is inconsistent with emphasized femininity (the most valued form of
femininity), it is hardly surprising that women have difficulty in being comfortable with
having a sporting body. Because size for women is always problematic (Brownmiller,
1984), the muscles necessary for sport can be as abhorred as making one appear “fat.” In
addition, the way of moving necessary for success at men’s sports is inconsistent with
emphasized femininity. Essentially women are being asked to choose between sports
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ability and femininity. The social rewards for femininity are high and the sanctions for
failing to meet it are severe. By contrast, with the exception of a few top level athletes,
the rewards for success at sports for women are few. Further, the social stigmatization of
female athletes acts as a powerful sanction. In order to understand the power of these
sanctions one must understand the treatment of athletes in North American culture. The
media is one common way in which Americans experience sports. Thus, understanding
how media accounts frame discussions of sports and athletes is essential to understanding
the importance of sports in North American culture.
Sports and Popular Culture: The Mass Media
Cultural forums which present sport to the public reproduce, normalize, empower and
promote specific conceptions of gender. The symbiotic relationship between sports and
the mass media (Jhally, 1989) makes the media one of the cultural forums in which
information about and images of sport are widely produced, constructed, normalized,
hierarchicalized and disseminated. This dissemination involves a number of complex
power relationships such that only particular types of information are presented. This
normalizes and privileges specific ways of being. Historically, this forum demonstrates a
number of gendered assumptions which undermine acceptance and power in women’s
sports. Mirroring women’s opportunities to participate in sports, women’s sports receive
quantifiably less, and qualitatively worse media coverage (Blinde et al. 1991; Duncan et
al. 1994; Kane, 1988). The lack of media coverage of women’s sports makes it appear as
if many fewer women are participating in athletics than actually are. Because most of
today’s profits come from media contracts, the exclusion of women’s sports from the
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mass media means less money for women’s sports. Because the technical aspects of
covering women’s games (graphics, camera angles, number of cameras, etc.) are inferior,
the event itself is perceived as less noteworthy. Second, media coverage tends to focus
on men in “male appropriate” sports and women in “female appropriate” sports (Duncan
& Hasbrook, 1988). This creates an idea that some sports, primarily individual, non
collision, graceful sports are more appropriate for women, while other sports such as
team sports and collision sports, are more appropriate for men. Potential rewards are
limited by these conceptions. Further, it makes it seem as if one’s gender essence affects
the type of sport one should play. This creates a situation in which gendered ideologies
are reproduced in the bodies of athletes. The idea that men are large, strong, and
powerful and that women are small, delicate and graceful is perpetuated by sports media
which feature primarily men and women who conform to these stereotypes. This means
that one is likely to see men playing baseball, football and basketball, while male divers
and gymnasts receive little publicity. Female gymnasts and figure skaters are shown as
icons of female athleticism, while female softball players and field hockey players receive
minimal exposure. (Though women’s basketball has recently begun to receive increasing
media coverage).
This normalizes the ideal of sexual dimorphism, that a successful man is big and
strong, and a successful female is graceful and small. The tendency of the sports-media
complex to ignore the prevalence of eating disorders and other health risks like bone loss
within the idealized feminine sports (Ryan, 1995) can only contribute to and standardize
cultural obsessions with thin women. The lack of coverage of women’s sports like
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softball and hockey in which size is an advantage, perpetuates the idea that women are
naturally much smaller and less powerful than men. This lack of coverage also implies
that these women’s abilities are less noteworthy, praiseworthy, and overall less important
than similar accomplishments by men. Third, when women’s sports are featured the
coverage often frames women’s accomplishments ambivalently (Duncan & Hasbrook,
1988; Duncan et al. 1994). This undermines powerful representations of women’s bodily
accomplishments made visible by sports. Finally, there is a tendency to focus on how,
despite these women’s athletic accomplishments, they are still feminine, sexually
desirable, and heterosexual (Duncan and Hasbrook, 1988; Kane, 1988). No such
reaffirmation of male athlete’s masculinity is required, as success at sports is consistent
with heterosexual, sexually desirable, hegemonic masculinity. These assumptions about
sports and masculinity are reproductive of Western culture’s view of the body, and
gender.
Corporeal Experience, Leisure, Pleasure and the Limits of Gender
Leisure is the modem expression of play or bodily pleasure (Huizinga, 1950). As
industrialization and urbanization changed patterns o f family and work in the 1800's,
patterns of leisure behavior shifted as well. As work moved out of the home, and
consumption became a crucial aspect of entertainment, the concept of leisure time as not
work was formulated (Cross, 1990; Rigauer, 1981). Prior to industrialization, work and
leisure were more inter-related as both took place in the same locations and were dictated
more by seasons, weather, and need. Industrialization meant that workers were
performing tasks in areas separate from their living areas, that work was to be completed
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in a set amount of time, and that most workers were now working in the factory for
wages. As patterns in work changed, sport mirrored and reproduced these changes
(Rigauer, 1981). At the turn of the 20th century, factory work became the norm, and
middle class ideals of womanhood and women’s roles excluded women from the
discourse of work, if not the actual factory. Women’s ideal labor was in the home as wife
and mother; her role was to facilitate the leisure time of her husband and children (Smith,
1987). This classed ideal of womanhood precluded any concept of women’s labor, and
therefore leisure.
While gendered ideologies constrained most women’s experiences of leisure, fierce
battles over appropriate leisure codified around the issue of class. Specifically, middle
class reformers sought to control the leisure time o f the working class and discouraged,
outlawed, coopted, and stigmatized traditional working class amusements and sports
(Cross, 1994; Gom & Goldstein, 1993; Gruneau, 1983; Rosensweig, 1983). Temperance
movements and a ban on blood sports like rattan, bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and bare
knuckle boxing were designed to prevent working class spectators from forming alliances
which could lead to workers’ movements (Gruneau, 1983; Rosensweig, 1983). Instead,
traditional amusements were replaced by lucrative spectator sports and company
sponsored leagues. What were deemed as “socially acceptable sports” reflected the values
of the middle class (Gom & Goldstein, 1994). In this way, traditional gender ideologies
and class ideologies were simultaneously reproduced and reinforced. Factory leagues
were attempts to ensure worker loyalty to the company and left the company in control of
the worker’s meager leisure time (Rosensweig, 1983). Similar to ideologies of gender
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inferiority, ideologies of class and race inferiority were used to justify the middle class
taking control of and dictating the leisure time of the working class and people of color
(Gom & Goldstein, 1994).
There were other incentives which contributed to the rise of a sports culture. The
commodification of spectator sport made it a profitable venture for many capitalists.
Initially, spectator sports were viewed as a male activity as sports were both a means to
redefine hegemonic (the most powerful form of) masculinity and to indoctrinate
subordinated masculinities into their role in the social order (Crosset, 1990; Kimmel,
1990). Despite the fact that femininity was defined in contrast to the athletic superiority
of male bodies (Hargreaves, 1987), the value of female spectatorship was soon
recognized and courted (Cross, 1994). Because the visual presentation was of male
athletic prowess, women’s spectatorship did not impinge on women’s role as supporters
and facilitators of men’s leisure (Dunning, 1986). In the early 1900's, some entrepreneurs
did promote women’s sports as entertainment. Fulfilling feminist educators’ fears, these
promoters framed such events as “men’s entertainment” and often these female athletes
were sexualized through revealing outfits or promotions which cited their heterosexual
availability (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994).
Today, sports and success-at-sports are still associated with masculinity (Messner,
1992). While success at sports unquestionably raises men’s social status, success at
sports for women is more ambiguous (Messner, 1988). Take for example the old adage,
“Throw like a girl.” Throwing like a girl means that one is throwing incorrectly. Instead
of whipping the ball and allowing the momentum of one’s arm and arm speed to power
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the ball, the individual tries to launch the ball like a shot-put. While this method may
work well for heavy shot-puts, it is an ineffective and inaccurate means of throwing a
baseball or softball. Throwing a ball “correctly” is clearly a learned behavior, not an
innate one. If you can’t throw, you “throw like a girl.” This adage calls a boy’s
masculinity into question, and fathers hurry to ball fields with sons who fall in this
category, while the sons quickly try to adjust their arms so as not to be branded a “sissy”
or a “girl” (Messner & Sabo, 1994). Note that bodily incompetence at sport is
synonymous with femininity. Because the status of the female athlete is more ambiguous
(Messner, 1988), there is no analogous threat to the femininity o f a woman who “throws
like a girl.” In fact, a successful execution of the throw may call her femininity into
question. Yet despite the fact that throwing is clearly a learned behavior, people still
assume that men just know how and women don’t. This reflects not natural physical
gender differences, but a history of gendered practices and ideologies. Current ideologies
of difference promote the idea that women are “naturally” at a disadvantage in sports
(Bryson, 1994; Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Nelson, 1994).
Because differences between men and women are assumed to be “natural,” the social
conditions and practices which reproduce, reinvigorate, and reconstruct these ideologies
remain unproblematized. These “natural differences” make it difficult for a woman to
possess both sport capital and valuable feminine capital. While the recent feminization of
women’s basketball and volleyball players (the modeling contracts of Lisa Leslie and
Gabriel Reese come to mind) demonstrates changing cultural norms. At the same time it
is not necessarily the best female athletes who win the most endorsements, but often it is
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the most “feminine.” Today, some women, those who still conform to or maintain the
image of dominant conceptions of heterosexual femininity despite possessing athletic
capital, retain the benefits of emphasized femininity. Their athletic capital is acceptable
only in light of displaying suitable feminine capital. Berlage (1994) and Gregorich
(1993) describe similar means used in the 1940's and 50's to portray All American Girls’
Baseball League (AAGBL) participants as fem inine. But professional athletes and even
amateur athletes are not the norm. Most individuals who participate in sports or leisure
make their living somewhere else. Given the prohibitions on female participation, the
gendering of children’s practices (Greendorfer, 1993; Thome, 1993), the accusations of
lesbianism or mannishness (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Hult, 1994), and the tyranny
of self-surveillance (Bartky, 1988), it is surprising that any adult women acquired the
capital necessary to excel or even fully participate at sports today. Fortunately, since the
passage of Title IX, exponential growth in girl’s sports participation is beginning to
challenge and change these conceptions and create able female bodies.
A denial of full participation in sports for women inhibits their ability to participate in
popular cultural leisure activities. Leisure and recreation are “fun” or play. As discussed,
historically women were denied an effective concept of leisure. Sports became linked to
the leisure of men. This left one of the few avenues to physical fun closed to women.
Even if no legislative rules exist prohibiting female participation, participation requires a
requisite set of physical skills. If a segment of the population does not acquire these
skills, they are effectively denied participation. This means that one culturally proscribed
and accepted form of pleasure is considerably less available to many women in Western
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culture. Similar to classed forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1984; Wacquant, 1995; 1992),
gendered capital (Laberge, 1995; McCall, 1992) marks the status of bodies. It is not
simply that women are denied access to pleasure, but also to an important type of public
performance or role.
Bodies. Identity. Sport, and Performance
In Western culture, identity is tied to individuality and public performance (Goffinan,
1959). One’s concept of self comes from his or her successful or unsuccessful
performance of a variety of social roles, the response of others to the role, and the
response of the self. Giddens (1991) expands the concept o f the self to include the self as
“ refiexively understood by the person in terms of her or his biography” (p.53). This self
is necessarily embodied. The body becomes the site of lifestyle options (Giddens, 1991).
The body is a site to which meanings are attached, and something which can be worked at
and worked through to acquire meanings (Shilling, 1993). This can entail consumption,
bodily abilities, practices, and so forth. In U.S. culture, especially for men, sports
performance is an important component of masculine self-identity. This does not simply
mean excelling at competition, but also successfully playing the role of an athlete. Sports
participation is a public behavior. In this forum, there are proscribed codes of behavior
and norms which one uses to evaluate players’ behaviors or performances.
Sportsmanship is a concept which exemplifies this. What is valued, proscribed, and
expected is determined by the culture at large. To “successfully” play this role means
accepting and reinforcing a series of cultural assumptions about individualism,
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competition, and hierarchy. Because enactments of behavior in sport are often conflated
with masculinity, discourses of sportsmanship, masculinity, individualism, and capitalism
are generally intertwined. At a complex time when many of these ideologies are being
called into question, the recreational sports scene is an exciting environment in which to
observe these shifts. The resulting complex set of fragmentary relations which all make
up an individual’s social location can often necessitate a fragmented and inconsistent self
(McRobbie, 1994). These inconsistencies are the hallmarks of social change. Coed sport
provides a unique opportunity to study how individuals negotiate the contradictory and
paradoxical situations created by the simultaneous circulation of ideologies o f equality of
opportunity and natural gender difference in a mixed gender environment or activity, and
observations in this sub-world can provide insight into changes in the culture at large.
Coed Sports
While there has been an explosion of research on women in sports over the last
decade, there has been very little research conducted directly on coed sports. The term
coed is a shortened form of the word coeducation and refers to an educational system in
which men and women attend the same classes. It arose as a challenge to ideologies
which suggested that single sex education was necessary and appropriate. During the
mid-seventies, the appropriateness of coed gym classes for high school and middle school
students were debated at length. Once such classes were adopted, public debate over the
efficacy and benefits of coed sports and recreation essentially ceased. Instead, ideologies
and assumptions of the appropriateness of gendered separate spheres continue to underlie
most amateur, professional and international sports. Because most historical studies of
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sport focus on primarily elite sports and athletes, and because often environments are
described as single sex if only a few individuals o f one sex participate, studies of sport
often overlook coed sports. Studies of coed sports are increasing as studies of
recreational participation in sports and as qualitative methods like ethnography become
popular among those who study sport. A few studies have debated the merits and
feasibility of coed sports (Brandt, 1991) and explored how women have fared in male
dominated recreation (Miller, 1995). Overall, however, the history and current existence
of coed sport remains understudied. By ignoring forums, like coed sports, in which men
and women perform similar or even identical bodily maneuvers, ideologies o f gender
difference are maintained.
If one explores historical accounts of daily life, coed recreation and sport practices are
often revealed. Historical accounts depict some women participating in traditional
peasant and working class games, along with elite games. For example, European
competitive dance, and acrobatics popular between 500 and 1700 AD, were often coed
(Mandell, 1984). Elite sports, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, such as lawn tennis,
hunting, and equestrian events were also generally coed, though more men than women
usually participated (Cross, 1990; Gom & Goldstein, 1993; Mandell, 1994). Working
class pastimes from the same time period, including blood sports like bull running, and
occasional village football games were sometimes coed (Cross, 1990). Tracing the
history of coed sports participation is very difficult. Often accounts do not specify if
different events were single sex or coed. Indeed, references to coed sport turn up in
unlikely places and often “single sex” is not what it would seem.
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The history of baseball uncovers many situations in which there were isolated
incidences of coed participation. Many of the Bloomer Girls and barnstorming women’s
teams popular in the late 1800's and early 1900's, included a few male players dressed in
drag. Other women went on to play with barnstorming men’s teams. For example, Jackie
Mitchell also “dressed in drag” when she joined the bearded House of David team in 1933
(Berlage, 1994). Further, women’s teams often played men’s, but exchanged batteries
(pitcher and catcher) (Berlage, 1994; Gregorich, 1993). Today, more girls and women
are playing high school, college and recreational baseball, football, soccer, basketball,
and other previously male dominated sports. Some men have joined previously all
female sports, such as synchronized swimming and field hockey (Brandt, 1991).
There are many traditionally coed sports in international, professional and amateur
competition. There seem to be primarily two types. First, there are coed sports in which
competitors perform individually, even if they are part of a team. Examples include
equestrian, some martial arts, and skeleton (similar to luge but face first). These sports
feature men and women in direct competition. There are also a few coed team sports
such as yachting, and korfball. Second, there are pairs sports such as mixed doubles
tennis and pairs figure skating. These sports often reflect and reinforce dominant beliefs
about gender and heterosexuality by featuring assumed to be heterosexual couples
performing different, but complementary roles. Imagine for a moment the uproar if
Canadian figure Skater Elvis Stojko were paired with French figure skater Phillipe
Candelaro in a pairs figure skating contest. While the differences in their size would
make them physically a good match, the diminutive Stojko could easily be tossed and
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twirled by tall lanky Candelaro, the similarity in their genders puts their partnership
outside the realm of the fathomable. Even in mixed doubles tennis, where the partners
are ostensibly performing identical functions, media coverage of events has been shown
to perpetuate gendered ideologies (Halbert and Latimer, 1994; Kane, 1995).
Because gender is so much a part of fundamental understandings and evaluations of
self and others’ identities (Butler, 1993, 1990; Giddens, 1991; Goffinan, 1959), in coed
sports, gender is an ever present specter that haunts attempts at equality. The few current
studies of coed sports touch on this presence. First, as revealed in a study of the Dutch
sport Korfball, a sport that was consciously designed to “level the playing field” between
the sexes, dominant gender norms are reinforced through an informal division of labor
which features the participating women acting as “helpers” to the men who control most
of the offense and defense of the game (Summerfield & White, 1989). These behaviors
are consistent with how individuals are socialized to “do gender" (Kessler & McKenna,
1978) and perpetuate relationaily gendered practices and ideologies (Connell, 1987).
Even academic studies have reproduced gendered assumptions, for example, that in coed
softball, the talents of the men tend to cancel each other out, while a team “wins or loses
on its women” (Snyder and Ammons, 1993). This assumption presumes that all men are
competent, but only some women are. This denies the existence of less experienced men
and overplays the presence of inexperienced women. These assumptions are a
continuation of suppositions ingrained in childhood. Because most expressions o f sport
in North American culture are single sex, there are few opportunities to study how
individuals deal with the paradoxes created by simultaneous assumptions of natural
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difference and equality o f opportunity. Coed softball allows one to witness how
individuals reconstruct their understandings of gender at a transitional time in which
“common sense” assumptions about gender difference are often challenged.
The History of Coed Softball
In 1959, the American Softball Association league in Cleveland, Ohio decided to
innovate with a “mixed couples” league and coed softball was officially recognized as a
distinct variety of softball. From its inception, coed softball was defined by equal
numbers o f men and women taking the field at the same time (Dickson, 1994). This does
not mean that individuals did not play on mixed teams before this. Berlage (1994) noted
the existence of two coed baseball teams seeking other teams to play as early as 1903.
Currently women are permitted to play on men’s teams and I have no reason to assume
that in the past, there wasn’t the occasional woman who did this regularly. By contrast,
men are not permitted to play women’s softball. The establishment of coed softball was
significant because it institutionalized and thereby legitimated coed recreational sport.
Paralleling the world of work, coed sports are fraught with tension between ideologies of
male physical superiority and gender difference and ideologies of equal opportunity.
Since its inception, softball has been steadily increasing in popularity. Today more
than 42 million men, women and children play softball (Dickson, 1994). Almost half of
the participants in softball are women (Dickson, 1994). In particular, coed softball has
seen huge influxes of individuals as participation tripled between 1990 and 1995 (Miller,
1995). Not surprisingly, this increase coincides with the entrance into adulthood of the
first Title IX recipients, who also are among the first to participate in coed physical
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education. Despite these strides, the effects of gender ideologies on bodies are still
prevalent in the game. This makes coed softball an ideal site at which to explore how the
debate between ideologies of natural and social differences creates a situation in which
gendered power relations are variously reproduced, challenged, and/or negotiated.
Research Questions
Over the past hundred years, ideologies o f difference and exclusion characterized
gender relations. Gender roles and gender difference were clearly defined concepts,
whether biologically determined or socially constructed. Currently, men and women are
faced with negotiating a system which retains many of these ideologies despite changing
social relations which necessitate similar actions by men and women in work, home and
leisure pursuits. The coed sports scene provides an excellent microcosm in which to
explore how ideologies, discourses, practices, and bodies can all simultaneously
reproduce, negotiate and challenge gendered power relations.
By exploring coed sports, the relational construction of gender can be addressed in a
situation in which men and women are not only performing the same activity, but are
doing so in the same context. Unlike single sex sport studies, coed sports provide an
opportunity to explore the irony o f sport as producing, reaffirming, and structuring
definitions of hegemonic masculinity while simultaneously demonstrating "natural”
gender difference. At the same time, coed sports exist at a site of tension or struggle. A
number of assumptions which underlie coed sports are antithetical to the ideologies
generally associated with male physical superiority and sports. Coed sports challenge the
idea that men and women should not, either for biological or social reasons, play sport
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together. It challenges the idea of separate spheres, and to a lesser extent, separate roles.
In this sub-world, women and men have a chance to perform the same body work,
functions, and abilities in a setting in which they can be evaluated both as teammates and
competitors. This allows women to physically demonstrate that they are not inferior. At
the same time, assumptions of gender difference and male physical superiority are built
into the structure of the game. The resulting tensions can mirror the tensions faced in the
larger culture. In order to explicate this complicated situation, I ask:
♦ How do people “do gender” relationally within a context that is structured by the
contradictory principles of natural difference and equality of opportunity?
♦ In what way(s) does coed sport reflect a transitional moment in which relational
definitions of gender difference are being challenged?
All situations simultaneously contain moments of reproduction, resistance, and
negotiation. The complexity of social interaction means that situations can have
contradictory elements simultaneously present. For analytic purposes, I have separated
these into three chapters. Reproduction refers to instances in which traditional gender
ideologies of male physical superiority or natural gender difference are promoted.
Resistance refers to instances in which ideologies of male physical superiority or gender
difference are challenged. This is complicated as sometimes ideologies of male physical
superiority are resisted, but ideologies of gender difference are reified. Negotiations
refers to the promotion of new norms or ideologies which combine elements of both
ideologies of natural gender difference and equality of opportunity.
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Chapter 2 - Methodology-
Feminist, social science, and cultural studies approaches to research give one access to
a range of qualitative methodologies, including ethnography. Ethnography refers to a
group of methodologies employed in the social sciences which involve the study of
individuals and groups in a field, or natural setting (Silverman, 1993). This project
employs a semi-grounded theory approach to gathering data through participant
observation.
The Research Process
Why would one think that valuable data could be gleaned from an ethnographic
analysis of coed softball? Coed softball is a unique sub-world (Crosset & Beal, 1997)
that provides a forum in which particular practices of individuals and groups can be
examined. This sub-world provides a microcosm in which to study many larger issues
and debates in American culture. As described by Unruh (1983), softball fits the
definition of a social world as an amorphous, spatially transcendent form of social
organization consisting of individuals who share common interests and channels of
communication. Coed softball is a specific sub-world within the social world of softball
participation. The participants interact in a variety of contexts outside of the sub-world as
“normal” members of the larger culture. By focusing on the sub-world of coed softball,
the complexity o f gender relations in North American culture can be examined. In
particular, coed softball is a sub-world which parallels changes in gender relations in the
larger culture. It is a forum in which gender equality is idealized, but gender difference is
presumed.
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In addition to offering a unique sub-world for analysis, coed softball is distinct from
many other popular cultural expressions of sport. First, it is a coed sport as opposed to
the dominant model of single sex sport. In North American culture, most public
representations o f professional, college, high school and international sport are single sex.
A host of ideologies about bodies, ability, and gender support such assumptions. Coed
sport offers a unique opportunity to explore dominant ideologies about gender in a
relational context, similar to many other cultural contexts like work. Second, coed
softball is participatory, as opposed to spectator sport. Within sport sociology there has
been a tendency to focus on professional or high level amateur sports, as opposed to
recreational sports participation. Exceptions include studies of women’s ice hockey
(Theberge, 1995), skateboarding (Beal, 1995), rugby (Dunning, 1986), and fitness
(Markula, 1995). Participatory sports provide a unique forum in which those studied are
“normal” members of the culture at large. Ethnography allows one to study how
individuals create culture as an ongoing interaction or process in their everyday lives. In
order to study this, I continued residence in a field I had already been involved in for
almost ten years.
The Field
I performed participant observation of adult coed softball leagues from the beginning
of the Spring 1996 season in April through the end of the Summer of 1997 season in
September. A few follow up observations were made in 1998. During this time period, I
was an active participant on four teams in four different leagues and an observer of one
league in the Greater Los Angeles area. Two teams were made up of the same core group
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of about six people who played in two different San Gabriel Valley leagues. One team
played in a city I call Center City, a small city which exists as an independent entity
though completely surrounded by the City o f Los Angeles. I played in one and observed
one league in West Los Angeles. Several men’s games in both West Los Angeles and
Center City were also observed for comparison. Because women are permitted to play in
men’s leagues, I was drafted into playing in several of these games as an acquaintance’s
team was frequently short players. Unfortunately, there are very few slow-pitch women’s
so I was unable to observe any women’s games.
San Gabriel Valley I- San Gabriel Valley I was a team which played in a small city in the
San Gabriel Valley, an area northeast of downtown Los Angeles. This league had several
divisions including C minor, C, C major, B, B major and A. The team on which I
participated had begun in the C minor league (all new teams do) in the Summer of 1994
and had been progressively promoted until it reached the A division. By the time this
research had begun, the team had already advanced to the B division. During the study
period it won the championship at this level, advanced to B major, finished second, was
promoted to A and eventually won the championship in A after two seasons of sustained
effort. Many of the other teams in the league re-appeared throughout the study period,
and many rivalries developed. This made both the games and my study exciting and
interesting.
Games were played at any one of four parks located in the area. Each field had one
diamond used by the league, but two fields had additional little league diamonds. These
fields were smaller and therefore inappropriate for adult use. Field #1 was situated on a
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hill and offered a spectacular view of downtown Los Angeles on clear days. This field
was adjacent to a golf course, and had several smaller little league fields attached. Field
#2 was primarily only used for B level or below games because of a short right field
fence. Occasionally, A games were played here too. When we played here, usually at
least two balls per game were hit over the fence. This short fence also created unique
angles between right center and left center field. Defenses had to be aware of this in
order to prevent balls from rolling into the far comer. Field #3 was a traditionally shaped
diamond next to an identical Little League field. This field had a low fence around the
outfield. A hill rose up behind the outfield and during games children often climbed onto
the hill to heckle players. (These kids were mean!) The fence provided outfielders with
easy cues as to where one should stand. For good hitters, the outfielder simply positioned
him/herself far enough in front of the fence that one could race back to it if necessary.
Field #4 was a single ball field with a flood channel running along the left field line.
Balls were frequently lost in it despite a high fence. Trees and bushes marked the
boundary for right and center field, while left field extended into a long recreation area.
Because of the danger of colliding with trees, once a ball was in the bushes it was
declared dead, and the batter was awarded either a home run or a double depending on
where the ball had entered the trees.
San Gabriel Valley I employed one umpire per game. All umpires observed in this
league were male. They also provided a scorekeeper and league officials were often
present. Both of the leagues in the San Gabriel Valley had two games prior to the season
to determine seeding, or the level at which a team should play. Both of these leagues
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featured three ten game seasons a year, which partially overlapped. Both of these leagues
determined the championship by having the team with the best record in the first half of
the season compete against the team with the best record in the second half of the season.
In previous seasons, however, San Gabriel Valley I had a tournament with all teams in
each league participating. Having only the winner of the first half play the winner of the
second half was a cost cutting measure, as only one game determined the championship,
rather than the three or four necessary in a tournament situation. The team which won the
championship received t-shirts for all of its members and a trophy for the team. Our team
usually awarded the trophy to a different player on the team whenever we won.
Both San Gabriel Valley leagues also re-evaluated their seeding at the half way mark
of the season and adjusted leagues for parity by moving two teams per league, one to a
higher league and one to a lower one. Both of these leagues operated on Sundays, and
both cities ran leagues on other days or evenings as well. Both of these leagues had six
teams in each league, meaning that all teams played every week, excluding holiday
weekends. These leagues usually did not schedule games for Super Bowl Sunday and
Mother’s Day. Many participants joked about the fact that we played on Father’s Day,
equating Mother’s Day with Superbowl Sunday, or arguing that it is assumed that a
“Dad” would like to spend “his” day playing or watching softball.
The team was comprised of eleven regular players, and several backup players who
played when regular players could not attend. Some o f the regular players changed over
the course of the study period. One man moved away, one woman took a new job which
required her to work on Sundays, and another woman’s family commitments prevented
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her from playing. The team was a diverse group including a Latin heterosexual couple,
Tomas and Janey; a heterosexual white woman, Kathy; a heterosexual white man, Steve;
a heterosexual Philipine-American, Guy; a heterosexual Korean-American, Gordon; a
white lesbian, Patty; a Latina lesbian, Celine; a white lesbian couple Sherri and Sioux;
and a variety of others.
San Gabriel Valley II-The second San Gabriel Valley league had been adopted initially as
a between season league for San Gabriel Valley I. While a core unit comprised the heart
of both San Gabriel Valley teams, there were at least two to four different players on each
team during each season. Many other teams in the San Gabriel Valley did the same thing,
making it a familiar community. Following the completion of the study period, both
teams merged and the same eleven people played in both leagues. A dissatisfaction with
the league administration in San Gabriel Valley I caused the team to relocate to another
league. In this league, levels were identified by colors to reduce competitiveness. There
were three levels- Gold, Blue and Red. Eventually a fourth level, Green, was added as
demand increased. One could generally determine the ranking of leagues by the quality
of play in each league and the direction teams were sent when they were moved up or
down because of their records. Our team played in both the middle level and upper level
during the study period. These games were usually played at Olive Park, notable for the
Lockheed Plane perched in a dive bomb pose in front of it. This park had four diamonds,
all of which were generally used simultaneously. Each field had a name commemorating
former softball greats, Kathy, Steve, Patty, Gordon and I, joked about having a field
named after one of us one day. Two seasons had to be played at other fields because of
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drainage work done at this park. Most of these games were played on a field with three
diamonds with a railroad track running along the side of the field. The whistles from
slowing chugging freight trains seemed a nostalgic throwback to the turn of the century
when baseball monopolized American sports. This league provided one umpire per game
and this league was one o f the two in which female umpires were observed. League
administrators frequently attended games, and played on several teams. These
individuals were recognized by most of the participants and were treated with friendly
respect.
West L.A. I & IT - Both West L.A. Leagues were administered by the same organization
which ran two coed leagues and two men’s leagues on both nights observed. On
Thursday, I observed a league of comparable quality or level of play to the other leagues
in the study. On Wednesday, I participated and observed. These leagues ran twice a year.
Each team played approximately twelve games per season. This varied season to season,
however, as some rain-delayed games were replayed while others were not. There were
five teams in each league. Because there were two games a night and five teams in the
league, one team did not play each week (had a bye). Thus, a season generally lasted
fifteen to twenty weeks. There were no official play-offs and the team with the best
record won the league. During the summer season, the league ran a tournament in which
the winners of the different leagues in the region played each other. The Championship
team was awarded t-shirts for every member of the team and a team trophy. This league
provided one umpire per game and no other league officials appeared at the game, though
frequently an employee of the park would come out and watch the games and chat with
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the teams. This employee was in charge of the park office at night. He was a college
student who was not affiliated with the league. Two of the three female umpires
appeared in this league, umpiring both coed and men’s games. One appeared regularly
and was recognized by teammates as a good umpire. Interestingly, she had played on our
Wednesday night team many years before. Prior to and following coed games, I also
occasionally observed men’s games at this same park. There were several interesting
characters on the Wednesday night team including the white heterosexual manager, Jerry;
a white heterosexual woman, Laura; two white heterosexual men, both named Brian; Jen
and Kate, both white heterosexual women; Mel, an African-American heterosexual
woman; and John, a Korean bom heterosexual. There were several other players who
showed up on a semi-regular basis. This team was the least consistent and coherent of
the teams, mostly because the manager, Jerry, often called different players out to each
game. Most of the core players found this very frustrating and there was a high turnover
rate.
In the league in which I only observed, there were five teams whose makeup reflected
the racial and ethnic diversity of the Southern California area. Three of the five teams in
the leagues were associated with companies or jobs. One was a law firm, one a local
restaurant, and one was a consulting firm. The remaining two teams were groups of
friends. Some of the participants appeared in West L.A. I, Center City, and even in San
Gabriel Valley I & II. There were several notable participants including: Steph, a
heterosexual Amerasian woman who coined the “chicks rule” chant; Pierre, a
heterosexual Asian pitcher who was one of the most skilled unlimited height pitchers I
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observed; Angie, a novice Asian American heterosexual woman with a very sunny
disposition; Simone, a skilled lesbian Asian Pacific female outfielder- a rare find; Abdur,
a heterosexual Middle Eastern man who commented that I ought to study that “gender
thing;” and many others who appear throughout this study. This league had a high degree
of parity. The main advantage to watching is that it gave me time to carefully take notes.
I had greater opportunity to talk to both teams, though I usually sat with one for the game
as it was easier to establish rapport with one team per game. Observing as well as playing
reconfirmed to me that the observations made playing were accurate and consistent.
Overall I found that what I observed when simply watching was almost identical to what I
observed while playing. The advantage was that I could observe more since I had no
game responsibilities. Furthermore, after my first week of observation I developed a code
which aided the notes I took during games.
Center City- The fourth league I played in was in Center City. Center City was a small
league with only two fields at two different parks used for league games. Park #1 was
attached to a large community center and had one full size lighted ball field with
bleachers and a secondary field not used for league games. Right field had two trees in
deep fair territory, as well as a community center in straight away center. Special rules
governed balls hit into different areas that might be dangerous. Park #2 had one full sized
lighted field with a second diamond located in center field, that was not used for league
games. This field had the additional danger of a sundial down the foul line in right field.
This sundial was moved at the City’s expense to the “out of play area1 .”
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Center City ran three seasons a year with coed leagues playing on Monday and Friday
night. The Friday night league was recreational level, while Monday night featured two C
level leagues, designated upper and lower. The recreational league was considered very
low level softball, with many novice players participating. The two C leagues were much
more competitive. The lower C level usually featured one or two novices per team, while
frequently teams in the upper league had no novice players. This league usually ran six
team leagues with three games per evening and ten games comprising a season.
Sometimes excessive forfeits forced the removal of a team or a team dropped out,
changing the structure. This league also had a unique play-off format. This league
featured the top three teams making play-offs. The second and third place team played a
one game single elimination game to advance to a best two out of three “World Series”
against the first place team2 . This made for exciting play-offs. During the study period,
our team played in both Monday night leagues. After several seasons as “also-rans” we
won the championship in the lower league, were moved up to the upper league and also
won the championship in a very exciting three game series. This league awarded trophies
to the manager of the winning team and individual prizes for each team member, which
were usually t-shirts, sweat-shirts, or sweat pants. The advisory board voted on prizes,
colors and designs. This league definitely had the highest quality and most appreciated
prizes.
This league was the only league which provided two umpires per game, though on a
few rare occasions only one appeared. A scorekeeper was also provided and the league
coordinator and park staff often appeared at games. This league was the only league
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which had an advisory board consisting of team managers representing each of the
leagues. In addition to voting on prizes, the advisory board gave advice about league
policy, such as what days should be holidays, umpires’ performances, field conditions,
rule interpretations and league fee structures.
The players on this team changed dramatically during the course of the study, with a
core group remaining. Key individuals include previously mentioned players, Gordon,
Kathy and Steve; a white heterosexual man, Aaron; a heterosexual African-American
woman Micky; her sister, Tina; and Tina’s African American husband, Darren. Other
players included Carrie and Laura, both white heterosexual graduate students who both
quit after school obligations became too overwhelming; a couple, Ehran and Beth, a
Middle Eastern male and white woman who married and moved to the other side of the
country; Sandy, a white Australian woman who also married, and subsequently moved to
Canada; Russ, a white male whose job shifted his hours to the evenings; and Dianne, a
white woman who remained a backup player for the team when a knee injury forced her
to stop playing regularly. Other players appeared infrequently.
The Game
Within registered athletic associations, softball is the fastest growing and most popular
adult sport (Dickson, 1994). Softball was invented in 1887 as a form of indoor baseball.
The major differences between the two being the use of a bigger ball, smaller field and an
underhand pitch delivery in softball. Three varieties of the game of softball- slow pitch,
modified pitch and fast pitch- are popular today. All three varieties are characterized by
the underhand pitch delivery, but differ in the speed with which the ball is delivered.
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Fast pitch softball features pitches which can reach speeds comparable to professional
baseball pitches. A slow pitch pitch, on the other hand, must attain a minimum height
which greatly restricts the speed at which the ball is traveling when it reaches the batter.
The height requirement varies by league with two common requirements being at least
over the batter’s head, or at least ten feet. Some leagues also regulate the maximum
height that a slow pitch can attain, often twelve or sixteen feet. When a height limit is
enforced, the game is referred to as limited height; otherwise, it is an unlimited height
game. Modified pitch falls in between fast and slow pitch, with speed restrictions on
pitches, but no height requirements.
Batters generally gain an advantage as one progresses from fast to slow pitch. An
exception is unlimited height slow pitch, which tips the scales back in favor of the
pitcher. In an unlimited height game, the goal of the pitcher is to throw a pitch that is
coming almost straight down into the strike zone (perpendicular to the ground). This is a
fairly difficult pitch to hit and batters have a greater tendency to pop up (hit into the air)
an unlimited versus a limited height pitch. This research concentrates on coed slow-pitch
softball, both limited and unlimited height. San Gabriel Valley I and West L.A. I and II
featured unlimited height pitching, while Center City and San Gabriel Valley II were
limited height leagues.
There are a number o f other rule variations enacted for a variety of reasons. West L.A.
I & II prohibited leading off a base until the pitch had either been hit by the batter or had
hit the ground. In addition to prohibiting leading off, this league was the only one with
unanchored bases3. An additional rule variation was a variation on the opening ball-strike
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count. Center City began every game with a zero balls and one strike count. League
coordinator Rob Baloza explained that this rule was enacted to speed up games and make
this a “hitter’s league,” meaning that hitting as opposed to taking walks, was encouraged
by this rule. Otherwise, games were remarkably similar, all following SCMAF (Southern
California Municipal Athletic Federation) guidelines.
The Research
Research consisted of written fieldnotes o f games, manager’s meetings and advisory
board meetings for the one league with an advisory board. Written notes seemed the
most unobtrusive manner of recording public behavior. Fieldnotes (a very appropriate
term considering the setting) were jotted down during games and occasionally practices,
and typed in more depth directly after each game or practice. During the games I had a
small notebook already prepared for the observations I knew I would be making. Gender
by position, gender of umpire, and the race of participants were recorded at every game. I
kept my notebook in the dugout with my personal items, including water bottles, shoes (I
always wore cleats during the game), my glasses case, my wallet and so forth. I would
then simply jot down one word cues to remind me to record an incident, conversation,
comment, or event immediately following the game. It was not unusual for a player to
dig in his or her bag during a game to search for gum, a pen, snacks, or other items, so my
behavior was not unusual. My teammates all knew about my project, but after informing
them I tried to make my notetaking as unobtrusive as possible so as not to disrupt the
flow of the game, or cause me to shirk my responsibilities to the team. Often I had to
quickly jot down a few words and then hustle out to coach the bases, act as a pinch
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runner, bat, or field. Sometimes I simply made mental notes (Lofland & Lofland, 1984)
and wrote complete accounts directly following the observation. Because games were
limited to one hour and fifteen minutes, simple written and mental notes were usually
sufficient. Immediately following the game, I would return home and elaborate on my
cues. Since I often carpooled with Gordon, Mickey, Kathy, and/or Steve, and we
generally discussed the game on our ride home, I often heard accounts of incidents I did
not witness, or was able to have comments I was unsure of clarified. This was very
useful. Since often I only heard part of an interaction. This sometimes occurred when
something happened on the other side of the field from my location. Upon my return
home I would type up a full description of events based on my notes. These notes always
began with a notation of position by gender, gender of umpires, and the racial make-up of
both teams. If there were any events to report from the previous game or the warm-up
period I recorded those next. Then I followed with an inning by inning description of
events. Additional occurrences, my feelings or reactions to events and exploratory
analysis of events were often added at the end of the notes. Whether or not my presence
as a researcher affected participants behavior is an important consideration. Because I
was already a member of this sub-world, and because teammates generally forgot about
or ignored my role as researcher, I do not believe that my presence impacted behavior in
any way.
Manager’s meetings and advisory board meetings were a bit different. In these
contexts, note taking was permissible and even expected. I simply brought my notebook
and took detailed notes that I expanded on directly following the meeting. Manager’s
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meetings usually followed a typical agenda of distributing materials to managers, a
discussion of the rules and rule changes and any additional problems or remarks. They
usually lasted one to three hours. Advisory board meetings usually began with an
introduction of issues or rules which were on the agenda for that meeting. An involved
discussion would then ensue. New business followed. We usually ended with a
discussion of prizes to be awarded. Pizza and drinks were usually served at advisory
board meetings.
During the study period, just over one hundred coed league games were observed. In
addition, there were approximately fifteen forfeited games. When a forfeit occurred,
people often elected to play a practice game, or to just practice. Observations from these
practices were included in my analysis, but the field positions chosen by players for these
games were not. Because these games were practice, players often elected to play
positions they would not normally play. Additional practices for all teams were
observed. Some teams practiced more than others. San Gabriel Valley I & II rarely
practiced. The few practices organized were either before the first game of the season, or
play-offs. West L.A. I practiced occasionally, usually between seasons. Center City
practiced regularly, as often as once a week for part of the study period. Notes of some of
the practices became part of the analysis. I also attended approximately twenty men’s
games in both Center City and West Los Angeles for comparison. All manager’s (one
per season) and advisory board (one or two per season) meetings were observed. In
addition to interactions with teammates and opponents, interactions with umpires, league
officials, and fans were included in my observations.
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In order to ensure the anonymity of all participants, people were identified by initials
only in my fieldnotes and these initials were assigned a pseudonym. No master key
linking pseudonyms to actual names exists. Umpires were given complete anonymity.
To ensure their protection, no identifying features were included in the final study. I
believed this was important because as employees of the league umpires were in their
place of business and scrutiny of their behavior could be problematic for them. I am not
seriously concerned about this information becoming public, however, because for all of
these men and women, income from umpiring was supplemental. Umpires were a
racially diverse group. White, African-American, Asian-American and Latino umpires
were all observed. Many of the umpires played or had played in the past.
The Analysis
As I explained above, I initially began taking unstructured fieldnotes o f games.
Initially, notes included anything and everything. I included the sex of the person
assigned to each field position, the umpire’s sex, racial makeup of teams, and an
overview of what occurred inning by inning during the course of a game. I also included
events which occurred before or after the game, or in other games I observed while on the
field. Informed by systems of analysis developed by qualitative researchers like Strauss
(1987), Silverman (1989), and Whyte (1997), I began an initial review of my field notes
at the end of the summer of 1996, five months after beginning observations. Computer
technology greatly facilitated filing and coding. I began by developing broad categories
centered around gender, recreation, discourse, families, and pleasure. I combed fieldnotes
for incidents which fit each category. After reviewing all o f my notes and initially
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classifying many incidents, I reviewed these classifications and developed sub-categories.
The gender categories split into challenges, reproductions, and negotiations with sub
categories of discourse, practices, structure, and recreation in each. Additional sub
categories, and sub-sub categories were added as fieldnotes were created and reviewed.
The initial coding took three months to complete. Recoding, and the development of
additional categories and sub-categories continued for another eight months. This phase
of the project was time consuming, but exciting. Poring over my fieldnotes was a much
more emotional experience than I had anticipated. Anger at gendered incidents,
excitement as I read about key victories, and the frustration of poorly played losses often
distracted me from my research agenda. While allowing myself some distraction, I had to
learn to focus on the coding. Essentially, I developed multiple personalities as I tried to
reconcile researcher, participant, and feminist reactions to incidents. While this was
sometimes problematic and confusing for me, it also helped me understand the messiness
and complexity of everyday life.
Approximately six months into the project I began writing analytic memos. These
memos were usually five or six pages and primarily consisted o f analysis of events
informed by my coding scheme. Sometimes these memos informed changes and additions
to coding schemes. Memo topics became many of the sub-sections presented in this
analysis. The developing of memos was an extremely pleasurable process for me.
Finally I could wax poetic about the tensions, dramas, and events I had witnessed. To me
this was the most creative and “free” stage of the analysis.
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From my fieldnotes, coding, and memos, an outline which focused on the reproduction
of, challenges to, and negotiations of gender relations was constructed. The outline grew
into this document. Most of the data is presented in the form of fieldnotes with analysis
preceding or following examples. The rules are discussed using excerpts from the
Southern California Municipal Athletic Federation rule book, which was used by all five
leagues in the study. In addition, there are two graphic presentations of numerical data.
The levels of experience of players is presented in pie charts in Chapter 3. The gendering
of field positions is presented using bar graphs in Chapter 4.
The Researcher as Participant
While my insider status sometimes served as a benefit to my research, I had to beware
of many potential pitfalls. While being intimately connected to the sub-world added
color and insight to my data, my emotional closeness to events often clouded and shaped
my perceptions. Developing a researcher self distinct from my softball self has been an
on-going struggle. Some of the pitfalls encountered are summarized here.
Pitfalls
Being a researcher and a participant raised a number of issues. The researcher-
participant must be cautious of how his/her personal agenda may affect his/her actions
and therefore the quality and veracity of the research data. A number of pitfalls were
encountered, the first of which deals with the researcher’s effect on the environment.
Is The Researcher Affecting the Environment?- Qualitative researchers have long noted
that all research comes from a particular point of view, and qualitative research increases
it’s validity by making this position known (Foley, 1992; Katz, 1984; Sky, 1994).
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However, when the researcher is also a subject, his/her behaviors in the context of the
research environment may alter the situation and therefore the data. An event at an
advisory board meeting in Center City on 5/20/97 will illustrate this dilemma.
We are sitting around waiting for the meeting to start. Jerry, the manager o f my
Wednesday night team is here. So are Brian and George, two other m en’ s team
managers. Brian is also the scorekeeper fo r our Monday night coed league, so
we are well acquainted. Jerry and Brian are discussing whether or not Bob will
let them change the rules to play six men and four women in coed Brian asks me
what my position is. I think about it fo r a moment, I have many conflicting
feelings about this, knowing it is easier to field a team with six men, but also
wanting to ensure opportunities for women's participation. I tell him that as a
manager I would support it, but as a feminist I could not and I would therefore
have to say we should continue as is, five men and five women. He looked
confused by my answer. I feel for this moment oddly like an interloper, despite my
right to be there. It is as if suddenly I am confused about which role I should be
playing. At the same time, even before I began this project, I would never have
supported six and four and would still have insisted that coed should be five and
five. My confusion is not about my feelings, but about my role.
In this example my triple role as a feminist, a researcher and a manager all inform my
response to a situation. This demonstrates the complexity of being a participant-
researcher in a natural setting. Did my role as a researcher affect a decision I would not
have made otherwise? I spent many hours agonizing over the boundaries of my roles.
Now that I have finished this stage of my research, I find that I feel much more
comfortable at games and meetings being "myself.” During the project, I had felt a strong
desire to fade into the woodwork and simply observe. This was particularly difficult for
me when I felt strongly about incidents or rules. While I spent considerable time
pondering this dilemma, I finally concluded that I should try to stay in the background as
much as possible, but if asked a direct question, I should answer it honestly. Whether or
not I am conducting research, my actions reflect my experiences in this subject position.
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As part of the process of cultural production, my actions have an effect on future
outcomes. If I did not act in the ways in which I believe, I would be giving up my role as
a cultural producer (Harraway, 1997). This dilemma was more exacerbated in on-field
occurrences. While normally I would take a more aggressive role in challenging
gendered ideologies and assumptions, during the study period, I had to learn to bite my
tongue and let someone else do it for me. Occasionally, I simply blurted out what I
thought, or “resisted” gendered designations, but I tried to keep these incidents to a
minimum. When I would write up these fieldnotes, I would inwardly blanche at my very
visible position in the research. Now that I am not fettered by these concerns, I find
myself more sarcastic and vocal about incidents of sexism, and I enjoy this role
considerably more than that of the silent observer. Reconciling this was a difficult task.
On the other hand, because my views were similar to many women in the game and
because I am a normal member of the sub-word, I do not believe I had any significant
effect on events or occurrences.
A related point follows. I found in early analyses that I focused too much on my
thoughts, feelings and actions. Learning to separate my anger and disgust at some
situations was a difficult task. Ultimately I concluded that while readers wanted my
sociological analysis and interpretation o f situations, what I thought and did during the
study was of secondary importance. Feelings, however, were often included as insight
into the experience of participants in this sub-world.
Don’t Over-Estimate the Value of Insider Status- While being an insider gives one
access to the acquisition of shared knowledge, or cognition, which enables one to decode
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observed behavior (Agar, 1983), when the researcher is a participant he/she runs the risk
of assuming that he/she is necessarily decoding the information correctly. Put more
simply, when I am interpreting data, I may make assumptions about the meanings of
behaviors based on my past experiences without carefully scrutinizing the current
situation. This may cause me to overlook some aspects or nuances of the performance
which might be more clear or differently interpreted by someone not immersed in the
field. Frequently I found myself making assumptions about individual’s motivations.
This was problematic, as I had no evidence to support such observations. Just because I
do something for a certain reason, does not mean that others’ similar actions have similar
motivations. The overall context in which someone acts can construct a picture which
presents an informed development of meanings based on actions witnessed, however.
This is important as one can never truly know the meanings of behaviors, as subjects may
not even fully understand their actions themselves.
Because of my participation, I may hold particular attitudes which are consistent with
my experiences in the sub-world, but inhibit my role as a researcher. Take for example
my attitude toward pain and injury. As someone who has played through many painful
injuries and illnesses, I have little tolerance for individuals who choose not to play
because of minor discomfort, especially if their absence is detrimental to the team. Many
of my teammates share this same attitude as Kathy, Gordon, Janey, Tomas, myself and
others would sometimes disparage teammates who left their team a player short for minor
injuries or illness. On one occasion toward the end of the study in the Summer of 1997
the following transpired.
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Kathy and I are both here despite having the flu. Though both o f us would much
rather have been in bed, because we could not reach the manager, we feel
obligated to be here. On the way Kathy complained bitterly, "Here we are
coming out when we ’ re sick, because we don’ t want to ruin it for everyone else...
And then they don’ t call, and don’ t show up, and we have to forfeit... ” Kathy is
referring to a game earlier in the week when several players did not call or show
up. We had started the game with nine, but after Tina suffered a knee injury and
could not continue playing, we were forced to forfeit. “ I t’ s not even an issue o f
winning, it’ s a question o f being there for everyone else..." I agree. I am still
angry at one player in particular who I had told repeatedly we would be short
players for that game. She hadforgotten and decided to study.
In initial analyses, I tended to subconsciously present individuals who claimed injuries in
a negative light. It was only when someone else pointed out to me that I was making
assumptions about their bodies, commitment, and relative strength of character, that my
own bias became apparent to me. It was crucial that I learn to understand this bias as a
reflection of my immersion in North American sports culture (Young, 1993). Because it
is a valued male trait, I tended to see women who played through pain and injury as
resisting dominant conceptions about gender. In that conception then, the actions of men
who refuse to do this might be interpreted as resisting dominant gender assumptions.
Playing through injury can be detrimental to the body and the tendency to do so is tied
into larger cultural understandings of work, ability, capitalism and individual success
(Rigauer, 1981; Sage, 1990; Young, 1993). I needed to take a more critical stance on my
own bodily assumptions in order to produce meaningful work. I am not sure I ever totally
banished this tendency from my work.
Insider Motivations and Evaluations- Because one is an insider, one has motivations,
makes evaluations and understands interactions in the field differently than someone who
just observes. While this can add depth to data, it also creates problems for the
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researcher. Stepping back and taking a broader look at how structure influences relations
can be difficult when one is immersed. The complicated inter-relationship between
individual performance and social structure was highlighted by my tendency to devalue
women who enacted emphasized femininity, especially when they were novice players.
For me, historically emphasized femininity has represented limitations and inability.
When women brought this into the game, I tended to view them as reproducers rather
than resisters. For me, softball is a space where I am free from valuations o f emphasized
femininity, though I am subject to another series of expectations and valuations.
Teammates’ comments seemed to suggest similar feelings, as Janey, Kathy, Micky,
myself and others regularly made sarcastic comments like, “Oh that’s nice...,” “That’ll
protect you...” and “It’s important to look good...” about outfits that were more consistent
with emphasized femininity than on-field performance. Observations suggested that
clothes consistent with emphasized femininity tend to be a hindrance on the ball field as
well, so usually only novice players dressed in this way. Hence, there was a connection
between this dress and novice play. While novices were generally given the benefit of the
doubt in other areas, as will be discussed in Chapter 6, the open mocking of emphasized
femininity went unnoticed by me through much of the research process. Failing to
recognize this tension was a serious omission and I wonder what else I may have missed
that a less invested researcher might have observed.
In addition, I often viewed novice women as a manager does. If I could replace them
with a more skilled player, I would. This assumption represented my own competitive
assumptions which devalued the recreational space. Certainly as someone who acquired
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many of my skills in the last ten years, I can empathize with the difficulty of learning the
game. But because many people viewed novices in a similar way to my initial view,
novice players often seemed less a part of the sub-world and were often even slightly
excluded. Most of these women were persistently pleasant and cheerful, something I
tried to capture in my descriptions of them. Most had to endure insults, got little
opportunity to “play” in games, and often clearly “felt bad” about making outs. I wonder
if their cheerfulness was a mask that they wore as they tried to “get into the club.” Again,
I wish I had focused more on this aspect.
Public Performance and the Researcher’s Ego- Individuals’ identities and egos are
invested in public performances (Goffinan, 1977). As a researcher, sharing these feelings
can promote understanding of subjects and lend color to commentary, but sharing these
feelings can also inhibit the research project. As a participant, I derive psychic
satisfaction from participation and take great pride in a “good performance.” I found a
bias in my fieldnotes towards these types of events. I had a tendency to praise individuals
who overcame injury or adversity, while omitting other types of events. As a researcher I
have an obligation to record events and occurrences as accurately as possible. In games
in which I or my team had performed or behaved badly, I found it much more difficult to
write up my fieldnotes. Not only did I find it physically and psychically painful, but I
tried to find rationalizations for omitting particular incidents. It took much self reflection
and my high tolerance for pain to over come this tendency. Essentially I continued
developing a split personality. I tried to find ways to think of my softball self as simply a
character on the field, while my researcher self was an observer of events. Even so, I
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found that descriptions of people and events still contained some bias in favor of my
team. This became evident when a former member of the opposition, Mark, joined our
team after breaking up with his girlfriend, the second base person of a rival team. While I
had previously focused on Mark’s overbearing and competitive nature, when he became a
teammate, I found myself somewhat more tolerant of his behavior.
It would be remiss to ignore the actual physical pleasure tied up in “having a good
performance.” I will describe the sensation of a good at bat and a good fielding
performance later in this manuscript. That sensation is pleasurable and it is this good
feeling balanced against the bruises and pain that keep me playing. Just as I wanted to
omit painful experiences, I had a similar desire to relive the pleasurable moments in a
bigger, grander way. Indeed, in softball, these memories are often shared with teammates
as a pleasurable myth-making process similar to the construction of other cultural
memories (Taylor, 1996). At the same time, as a researcher, I have a responsibility to
represent events and occurrences without mythologising those who were “heroes” for me
and my team on the field. In other words, I had to learn to separate my on-field
emotional self from my researcher self. Imagine the difficulty of this when teammate
Gordon, my partner, hits a three run home run to win a championship over a long-time
rival team in the bottom of the final inning with two outs. At the same time, capturing
this myth-making process is part of the game, it’s lore and the fun of recreation.
Describing their outfielder, lying face-down on the field for ten frill minutes after the
completion of the game, too stunned by their loss to face his teammates or us, is both a
description of what actually happened, and a moment of personal triumph (he had been
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particularly rude to several o f our players). I tried to capture some of these feelings to
represent them as part o f the allure of the sub-world, not a universal pronouncement
about the world. I am not sure if I succeeded. Despite these problems, there were also
some benefits of being a researcher-participant.
Benefits-
While these pitfalls were stumbling blocks I needed to overcome, there were also
some benefits to being a researcher-participant. Most of the benefits of the researcher as
participant deal with access to data. Two of these benefits were particularly valuable: 1)
the fact that the researcher is a non-artificial part of the research setting and 2) access to
insider information about the body.
The Researcher as a Non-Artificial Part of the Research Setting- The first benefit to the
researcher as participant is that the researcher is not an interloper, or an artificial addition
to the scene. Though I told all of my teammates and many of the competitors about my
project, they generally forgot about it. Often I would remind them and they would
express surprise that I “was still doing that...” Teammates who were also friends with
whom I often mentioned my role, would still sometimes forget. I think this is primarily
because of my insider status, I was not a researcher, but the first base person (rover,
pitcher, second base person- all of which I played during the study period). Because I
only used a small notebook for some observations and as I mentioned this behavior was
not particularly obvious or out of the ordinary, there were no obtrusive monitoring
devices to remind people.
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The researcher as a non-artificial part of the setting eliminates the problem of a
researcher who is representing someone else’s reality. As Foley (1992) points out,
ethnography is facing a crisis of representation, specifically the problem o f textually
representing a reality which is primarily experienced by someone else. Further, the
researcher is personally and politically motivated to produce meaningful data (Lofland &
Lofland, 1984). While valuable data can be gained through alternative methods, a
particular piece of the puzzle is missing without the insider’s representation of
experience. The researcher as participant overcomes this problem by making the
researcher a non-artificial part of the material reality out of which the text is constructed.
The researcher is not just constructing a text about others’ bodies, but is constructing a
text out of his/her own experiences of this reality. This is not to imply that a single
experience is representational of all experiences, or that I am attempting to only represent
a single experience. Rather, I point to the extra layers of experience I can contribute
because I am not only watching the game but playing in it. This means I not only see or
hear about occurrences, but experience and am part of the construction of the relevant
events. My personal stake in performance, representation of self, and o f personal injury
can be a benefit in understanding the complexity of occurrences and interactions. As I
mentioned I often found it difficult to relate painful experiences. Examining why I felt
this way and what factors contribute to painful or negative experiences on the field versus
what constitutes pleasant and pleasurable experiences was a valuable contribution to my
research.
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Studying the Body- The body is often understudied and under-theorized in the social
sciences. Recent developments in sociology of the body and sociology of sport have
demonstrated the importance of studying embodiment, especially if one wants to
understand power relations. First, the body is a physical manifestation of past and present
social relations (Berthelot, 1995; Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1993). These
relations shape the body, understandings of the body and even the process of cognition
from the site of the body (Berthelot, 1995). Relations are not static, however. Through
the actions of embodied subjects, these relations develop, continue, and change. Because
ethnographic studies can situate the researcher in the same position as the embodied
subject, these studies are imperative if one wants to explore how power operates on and
through the body. Let me clarify with an example from the Summer of 1997.
I am playing second base fo r my first time. As a left-hander, I almost always play
first, outfield, pitcher or catcher. I am called upon to try to turn the double play.
As I approach second base fo r the pitch from Kathy, our shortstop, I realize lam
in way over my head. With which foot do I sweep and tag? How do I turn around
and not release a blind throw at first base? Kathy pitches the ball to me hard. I
glove it easily and try to turn and release. It feels wild and uncontrolled. Ifeel
incompetent and embarrassed at my own lack o f expertise, even though my throw
is right to first, just a little too late to get the base runner. Despite my having
done reasonably well in a new situation, I feel frustrated, and a little angry. In
that brief instance I am transported back to my childhood, standing on the ball
field, alone, wishing there was a league or someone else to play ball with. Then I
am back in high school, with an untrained administrator who out o f the goodness
o f his heart agreed to coach us so that there could even be a girl's softball team.
We were forced to practice on the football field, and we weren ’ t allowed to play
on the two fields reservedfor boys ’ baseball for fear we would damage them. We
used to beg people to come coach us. Now I am again wishing I had more time to
play, more people to teach me, more resources... Knowing what I know about
women in sport, I know I am not alone.
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There is more to this example than meets the eye. While some may question the
relevance of gender in this case, it is precisely because one comes from the subordinated
category that he/she experiences it as such. Put more simply, part of the privilege of
being in the dominant category is that one doesn’t have to experience or be consciously
aware of the category. So while one can ask, “Wouldn’t a left-handed man have the same
lack of experience at second base?,” no man was ever put in the position of having to try
this during the entire study period. When one considers that two thirds of left-handed
people are male, it is even more interesting that a left handed female experienced this.
Later in this work, I will demonstrate that second base is a “female” position or one to
which females are usually assigned. Even though gender may not be readily apparent to
the observer, because of my history of experiences, some of which were chronicled in the
above example, it was glaringly obvious to me. Further, in the above example, it is
precisely because I am an insider that several important strands and understandings are
available to me. I can relate to feelings of incompetence, in this example, and
competence in others. I can know that it is not simply a question of knowing what should
be done, but also of having the body knowledge which comes from body work, to
perform. As a woman, I can remember the ways in which I was denied the opportunity to
perform the appropriate body work. At the same time, because I have developed a level
of competence, I can understand feelings of bodily competence and the pleasure possible
in performance. This type of information is not available to an outsider, who can only
experience these feelings through others’ descriptions and not first-hand. While a
researcher should not overstate the value of this and must understand that others may
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have different experiences, this type of data allows the researcher to understand the body
by experiencing it. In other words, ethnography allows power to be studied at the site of
production- or as it is written onto the body from the perspective of that body. Physically
experiencing limitations, competencies, improvements, pleasure, and failure, is an
insider’s experience of power relations. For this project, it was essential that I was able to
theorize the construction of the limits and abilities of bodies and how meanings about
bodies are shaped by and shape the body. As an ethnographer, I have access to not only
what others report about these feelings but to some of the feelings themselves. This
experience greatly contributed to my research.
Studying the body through ethnography reveals that there is the verbal account of a
physical sensation and the sensation itself, which to a certain degree defies description.
Take my following attempt to describe the pleasure of a well hit ball.
I don't think I could ever truly capture in writing the perfection o f striking the ball
just right with the bat. It takes on that dreamlike quality o f experience without
sensation. One sees the event unfolding before them in slow motion. As the ball
hits the bat you are suddenly transported again back to real time and space, and
you discover that you are halfway down the line to first. Sometimes the
awakening can be rude as a fielder makes a great stab or dive at the ball, but the
moment can also extend as the ball goes through and the body responds on it's
own by accelerating toward second. Are you going to have to slide... The body
response feels good in and o f itself, to let the body take over and simply do.
A true participant observer can experience bodily sensations and interact with his/her
body in a way presumably similar to some of the subjects. In my previous example, I
discussed how the researcher as participant can explore how power relations act on the
body from the position of both subject and researcher. The researcher’s unique historical
position can be incorporated into the data, actively demonstrating how individuals are
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constructed out of social circumstances. The above example demonstrates access to
another form of knowledge, of body knowledge and the importance of pleasure. It was
only because I had experienced this pleasure that the denial of experience for women
became theorized as a denial of access to pleasure. This insight provided invaluable data.
Similarly, my experiences with pain and injury, as well as the wonders of adrenaline,
provided colorful and indispensable data. Integrating historical context and
problematizing ideologies of bodies can create a unique analysis. For example, were it
not for my experiences with the pleasure of playing and my own adrenaline addiction, I
would not have had access to observations about gender, bodies and pleasure.
Finally, the researcher as participant has insider information which aids in reading
non-verbal communication. As a participant one has to become conversant in non-verbal
cues which signal individuals’ intentions and feelings. For example, an experienced
softball player can usually ascertain where someone is trying to hit the ball. Being able to
read this can provide valuable pieces of data, especially if players are clearly trying to hit
the ball at female outfielders, or infielders while avoiding males. This demonstration of
gendered assumptions about the ability o f female fielders, despite some women’s obvious
displays of competence, contributed to the chapter on reproductions. While individuals
do not always hit the ball where they want because of pitch location, needing to protect
the plate because of the count and the frequent occurrence of mis-hit balls, most players
can read where someone wanted to hit it. The comments of other fielders, and the
number of times players hit the ball there (or the fact that the ball was mis-hit) confirms
my confidence in these observations. It is only because I have spent years participating
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that I can deduce things like this, which a new researcher to the setting probably could
not. The fact that many of my friends are also involved in the sub-world further allowed
me to frequently check assumptions, suspicions, and observations.
Fragmented Localized Knowledges
I began this project because of my own feelings about the contradictions and gendered
negotiations which occur in a coed sports environment. As a participant, as opposed to
simply an observer, I have more invested in the situation, including my ego. Often after a
loss or a game in which I played poorly, I did not want to write up my observations. At
the same time these types of feelings came to be an important part of my analysis. As a
participant I can record internal feelings which could not be captured by an observer.
Often, when I do “only” observe, because of my role as player, I believe I sometimes have
access to some insights into the feelings of other participants because I have shared
similar experiences. In a project in which the body is central, my own relationship with
my body, the feeling when the body does exactly what I want, versus when the body
falters, is very important. Being able to integrate understandings of the history of gender
relations, how these relations shape opportunities to participate, the rewards available or
deterrents present, the quality of experiences and my own experiences added to my data
and the evaluation of it. These understandings and the anger and frustration at
inequitable resources, rewards, and opportunities and at not having the body habitus I
could have had, if given these things, provided motivation. The continued existence of
sexism in sports, as evidenced by the comments and events I have witnessed in over ten
years on the softball field and how this mirrors much of what transpires in the culture at
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large, further motivated me. These experiences have contributed to my personal stake in
attempting to reveal these inconsistencies.
At the same time, my training as a sociologist and a feminist theorist may predispose
me to witness gendered moments that others might not experience as such. I was rather
surprised to discover this was not necessarily the case. There was a high level of gender
consciousness and feminist principles espoused by many women and some men I
encountered during the study. While I had initially assumed that I was much more
predisposed to “see” gender, I found that most of the other women and some of the men
who participated saw it too. On several occasions other women pointed out gendered
occurrences which I had overlooked or simply not heard. What was interesting to me
during the course of the study was how much I was like other female participants, rather
than different from them. In the next chapter, I discuss ability and divide it into three
categories: novice, intermediate and expert. The largest group of women (49.50%) fall
into the intermediate category, including myself. From personal discussion with these
women as to how they became involved in coed softball, I was surprised to learn that
many like me, had loved playing sports, but had few opportunities which were often
qualitatively poorer than the opportunities afforded brothers or male friends. Most of
these women became involved in recreational sport as adults and honed or developed
their skills here. With ten years of slow pitch softball experience under my belt, I am
almost a perfect representative of this category. I was pleasantly surprised to observe that
the younger women coming into the recreational setting were much more likely to have
had more and better sports experiences. Over time, the gap between men’s and women’s
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levels of ability and experience are closing. I was not the only person who noticed this.
Teammates Kathy, Janey and Tomas often commented on how “good” the younger
women coming in were. Kathy even commented on how this may be related to Title IX.
Other women in my age group or a bit older commented on how “gender roles” had
inhibited their opportunities to play sports and how much they enjoyed playing now as
adults. Most of these women lamented the unfairness of not having had the same
opportunities as brothers, male neighbors and schoolmates. A few even told stories of
beating male friends, relatives and schoolmates at games and the problems this caused. I
came to the conclusion that it was my experiences in forums like this which had led me to
study sport and gender. It was precisely because I and many others experienced these
inequities as children and adults that motivated this research in the first place. Therefore
it was hardly surprising that many other women and some men also saw and commented
upon these inequities with some degree of theoretical sophistication.
Overview
Many researchers argue that qualitative methodology necessarily embodies a political
stance toward research which involves a rejection of the possibility of unbiased and
objective research. This type o f research promotes a critical stance and allows the
researcher to speak from and politicize a certain subject position. This project resulted
from my personal frustration with gender relations, especially in the realm of sport.
Because sport has been such a crucial institution in the (re)production o f many of North
American culture’s gendered attitudes and practices, it seemed a logical object of critical
analysis. Ethnography, specifically participant-observation, provides the type of data
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necessary to explore this as process. By examining this process, I can explore the ways
in which power is exercised in the practice o f everyday life. My insider status as a
participant in coed softball gives me many advantages in studying in this forum. I must,
however, be aware of potential pitfalls. The research is presented in the following
chapters. The project begins with an overview of the field and a discussion of gender and
participation in Chapter 3. Chapter 4, 5, and 6 demonstrate how gendered ideologies and
practices are reproduced, challenged, and negotiated in the context of coed softball.
Chapter 7 concludes with a discussion of power.
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Chapter 3- Surveying a Gendered Field:
What it takes to play Softball
Sports participation has historically been gendered. Contradictions between
femininity, female bodies and sports participation seem to be most confusing for girls and
women playing single sex sports. Studies suggest that girls who played coed sports or
played with boys viewed their bodies more positively (Brandt, 1995). This may suggest
that once one has rejected dominant norms of emphasized femininity, the most valued
form of femininity, that greater body acceptance follows. As discussed in the first
chapter, ideologies structure women’s bodily practices such that women do not gain the
appropriate physical and cultural capital to excel at sports. Softball requires a particular
type of bodily capital more consistent with masculinity than femininity, despite the fact
softball is sometimes considered a “girl’s” sport.
Success at softball requires a number of learned physical components and
mental/corporeal schemata. One must have sufficient eye hand coordination, bodily
mechanisms necessary for performance, requisite knowledge of the game and
understanding of strategy, and sufficient physical conditioning to enact all of these
components for one hour and ten minutes or seven innings, which ever comes first. Full
participation in all aspects of the game, enjoyment of participation and treatment by
others are all predicated on these abilities. All of these abilities come through repeated
practice. Practice is aided by instruction. As noted by Greendorfer (1993), Thome
(1994), and Landers & Fine (1996), boys are more likely to receive these types of
instructions and have access to these types of practices. When the quantitatively fewer
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opportunities for girls and women are combined with social and ideological pressures
which proscribe acceptable gender behaviors and norms, it is not surprising that the pool
o f experienced men is larger than the pool of experienced women. This disparity is
reflected in the fact that there are many more leagues available for men and coed
participation than for women. For example, the coordinator of the Center City league,
Rob Bapoza, explained that there were simply not enough full women’s teams to run a
league. He tried to start one in every season that I studied in Center City, but never had
more than two or three teams sign up (four are required to run a league).
Coed softball provides a forum in which practices, bodies, and ideologies about
gender are on public display. Coed softball in particular requires a negotiation for
individuals whose most common experience with organized sport is most likely single
sex. During the course of the project, many individuals who play both coed and single
sex softball were queried as to what differences they see and which they prefer. Every
single person, regardless of his/her gender stated that one thing they enjoyed about coed
softball was that it was less competitive than single sex leagues. One individual who
played on several of the coed teams, Steve observed, "People don’t yell at you when you
make a mistake... It’s very supportive... In men’s if you make one mistake, they fftft (he
jerks his thumb) you’re outa there... You play catcher next inning. In coed there’s more
support.” While some might erroneously assume that it is the addition of women to the
game which temper the competitive element or make the game more “humane,” female
teammates like Selia made nearly identical observations about women’s slow-pitch
softball. Overall I concluded that there is something unique in coed sport which
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engenders a more supportive environment. It appears that the presence o f both genders
tempers expressions of competitiveness. I suspect that this was caused by a desire not to
appear “immature,” especially in front of members of the other gender. What individuals
cited as indicating competitiveness was basically yelling at teammates for errors. Yelling
could signal a loss of emotional control. Part of the definition of maturity in North
American culture involves controlling emotions. For some reason, these types of
displays of emotion were considered appropriate or tolerable in single sex sport, but not
in coed.
The Setting
Softball leagues are always a form of public performance, if for no other reason than
they always take place in public parks. In order for a league to function the park must
have at least one full size softball field. All softball fields are theoretically the same. The
pitcher’s rubber is fifty feet from home plate. Second base is eighty-four feet ten and a
quarter inches from home plate. The bases are all sixty feet from each other. For coed
softball, an arc is drawn in the outfield- one hundred and sixty feet from home plate. All
outfielders except the rover are required to remain behind this line when a woman is
batting. This is the most inconsistent variable, with only one of the five leagues observed
having a true one hundred and sixty foot arc. Even if the dimensions are correct, fields
must also be sufficiently deep, or long enough to allow for hitting. During one game, San
Gabriel Valley I had double booked our usual field. Our game was moved to an adjacent
little league field. Despite the fact that there was an appropriately placed pitching rubber,
and the bases were at the correct distance, the short rightfield fence allowed one of our
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left-handed batters, Gordon, to hit five home runs. He simply cleared the short fence with
what would have been fly balls on an adult sized diamond.
Risk is a part of any sport and field condition can greatly affect the level of risk
incurred by players. In order to minimize risk, the field must be in playable condition,
having a flat dirt infield and a grass covered outfield. On occasion leagues allowed their
fields to deteriorate. Players were very critical of one of the San Gabriel Valley leagues
when uneven infields and holes in the batter’s box which were several inches deep
appeared. In one league, batters had worn a grove on the left side of the plate so deep that
the batter lost several inches of height. Such field problems are not only uncomfortable,
but dangerous. If home plate is raised a player could easily catch a cleat sliding into
home and wind up with a broken ankle, or worse. Holes, sandy spots, and rocks in an
infield can make a hard hit ball take an unexpected hop and cause bad bruises and in
some cases broken fingers, or noses. During one game our talented second base woman
was hit by two hard hit ground balls which she was in perfect position to field. The grove
worn by runners trips around the bases caused the ball to spring up right in front of her
and hit her in the chest twice, leaving her with painful bruises. Holes in the outfield and
uneven patches can lead to many injuries as outfielders running at full speed are likely to
trip or fall into or over these. Taking a step and finding the ground to be several inches
lower than expected can injure the back. League fees and other park maintenance funds
generally fund field upkeep. Most leagues were able to keep fields in playable condition
for most of the season and serious injuries were rare.
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Softball diamonds also generally include a dugout area and a bleachers area. The
dugout area usually has a fenced in bench area and a bat holder. In one of the San
Gabriel Valley leagues, a removable top was put over the dugout during the very hot
summer months. This was greatly appreciated as temperatures regularly rose over ninety
degrees. Spectators generally sat in the bleacher area, while teams sat in the dugout area.
This separated the participants from spectators. At two of the fields in which
observations were made, players preferred to sit on the bleachers with fans. This
occurred primarily because of the location of the dugout, relative to openings to the field.
On both of these fields the bleachers were more accessible to the on-deck circle, while the
dugout was located away from the plate and the central action of the game. Other
amenities parks must offer include bathrooms, water fountains, sufficient parking and
lights for any night games. During some times of the year lights were required as early as
4:30 pm. No observed field ever failed to provide these on a regular basis. On one
occasion, lights did fail and the game had to be replayed, but this was an anomaly.
While having the appropriate dimensions and amenities are necessary preconditions to
a softball game, these simple descriptions do not capture the essence or feeling of
walking out onto a diamond. Walking out on a field inspires many different feelings in
players. If the field is familiar, it is the site of old triumphs or failures4 . If the field is
unfamiliar, it is a new proving ground. When a player first walks out on a field, he or she
surveys it, looking for obstacles, oddities or possible distractions. One season in the San
Gabriel Valley was played on a field with railroad tracks behind it. Trains frequently
chugged by whistling at us as they passed. One had to remember to watch the ball and
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not look too long at the train. Several o f the parks housed multiple fields, so outfielders
(and sometimes infielders) had to be aware of other players or balls coming from behind
them and to be careful when moving back.
Looking down the white chalked foul lines from home plate, surveying the scope of
the field, one has a sense of impending battle. Teammates work for a common goal:
victory today and an eventual championship. O f course, everyone involved is aware that
the game is recreation, but part of the emotional charge of participation comes from mini
rivalries, villianization of opponents and myth making of heroes. When one is playing
the game, or participating in the sub-world, there is a sense of empires rising and falling,
of heroes and legends. It is lived drama. Stories often continue over several seasons. In
late 1997, a team with feuding members split into three rival teams. Two teams appeared
with the telling names “T’eed Off,” and “Don’t Ask,” a third team was playing under their
original team name of “Fisheads.” This season only one of the three teams appeared
playing under the name “You Don’t Want to Know.” Because our team had a long rivalry
with this team, we were particularly interested in what had occurred. Apparently some
teammates refused to play with two of the men known for their super machismo banter
and tendency to insult opponents in a very unsportsmanlike manner. This change was
gossiped about all season. Such changes were not uncommon, however, as the
compositions of teams changed. Often old teams were disbanded and players went to
rival teams or new teams formed. The tendency for participants to swap “war stories” that
grow ever more mythic in the retelling made the sub-world seem like it’s own
encapsulated dramatic world. Though the participants know it is “play” (Huizinga, 1950),
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the emotions, relationships and events are all very real. It is a drama or soap opera in
which one participates, instead of watches. Unlike many other aspects of life, however,
there are some formal rules which govern the sub-world.
The Rules- Legislating Gender?
Coed softball is different from single sex versions of the game because it promotes
equal participation regardless of gender. Yet prevailing ideologies about gender create a
situation in which it is believed that in order to provide equality of opportunity for men
and women, concessions in the form of rule modifications must be made. This leads to a
situation in which it is believed that in order to provide equality of opportunity, difference
must be assumed. Paradoxically, this institutionalization of equality also reinforces
ideologies of difference. This is exemplified in a number of rules, specifically the rules
requiring equal numbers, the batting order rules and the rover rule. Other rules which are
primarily reproductive of gendered ideologies are discussed in Chapter 4 and rules which
offer challenges to gendered ideologies are discussed in Chapter 5.
Equal Numbers: Affirmative Action on the Diamond
The equal numbers rule in coed softball reads, “A defensive team shall consist of ten
(10) players, with a maximum of 5 men and 5 women in the game defensively at all
times. However, a game may be played without forfeit with nine (9) rostered players
with no more than five (5) of either sex.” In addition, the batting order is required to
alternate male and female (SCMAF, 1997). All five leagues studied in this project allow
teams to play with six women and four men, but not with four women and six men. By
requiring equal numbers of male and female players this rule legislates female
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involvement in an area from which women had been previously excluded.
Simultaneously, this rule invokes gender difference as a meaningful distinction. This
assumption in and of itself must be problematized as contributing to gender hegemony
(Connell, 1995; Grant, 1993). Male superiority is inherent in the enforcement of the rule,
which while requiring teams to have no more than five men, does permit teams to play
with six women and four men, should a team be short a man. This manner of rule
enforcement assumes that male players are superior to female players and that a team
does not gain a competitive advantage by playing an extra woman. The extra woman is
seen as no advantage over fielding a player short. Given that I calculated that only
13.76% of women are novices and that a novice woman is likely placed at catcher, the
additional women is clearly an advantage over fielding a player short. By contrast, an
extra male player is always considered an advantage and is therefore prohibited. It is
assumed that if a team is permitted to play six men and four women, they would never
field a defensive team of five and five. Thus, male physical superiority and competence
underlie a rule designed to promote equality of opportunity.
Further, the rule reifies difference by making gender specifically, two distinct genders
in equal proportions, visible and necessary. Gender is determined by visual inspection. It
is assumed that umpires and opposing teams will be able to clearly distinguish the gender
of all participants. While this situation can reproduce ideologies of gender difference and
female physical inferiority, it simultaneously promotes equality of opportunity. By
creating a space in which women must play in equal proportions to men, opportunity is
created. One of the five leagues observed, Center City, had allowed teams to field six
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men and four women in preceding seasons. When this was the case, only my team
consistently fielded teams of five men and five women. All other teams fielded six men
and four women5 . Such rules are designed to protect women’s leisure space and ensure
equal female participation. At the same time, because men and women are not treated as
equivalent, ideologies of gender difference and male physical superiority are reproduced.
The limitations imposed by ideologies of difference, even when not overtly
hierarchicalized, have been problematized by a number of scholars (Connell, 1987;
Kessler, 1994; Kessler & McKenna, 1974; Rubin, 1994). By legislating equal
participation for women, the rule creates a paradox by reproducing ideologies of
difference while attempting to eradicate the effects of such ideologies. Similar tensions
exist whenever women enter previously designated-as-male spheres. With the recent
obliteration of affirmative action, how women’s presence in these space will be protected
remains to be seen.
The Batting Order Rule: Alternating Sexes
A related rule ensures equal female offensive participation. The batting order
provision requires that the batting order alternate by sex. Again, however, despite the
intention of providing equality of opportunity, ideologies of difference are reproduced.
Part of the reason such a rule is considered necessary is that a team can bat more than ten
players. All of the leagues I observed permitted teams to bat all legal team members. All
leagues allowed sixteen to twenty members per team. Without this rule, a team could
send up eleven men and five women in any order. This rule still allows all sixteen people
to participate, but requires that every other batter be female. In this example, the five
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women will bat twice before every man receives an at bat. While the rule appears
innocuous enough, in practice the rule reflects an underlying assumption that all men are
better batters than all women and that it would be to a team’s advantage to bat more men
than women. Some leagues, including one in this study, allow two men or two women to
bat consecutively if they are the first and last batters in the line up. Every time this
occurred, it was so that two men, usually the first batter and the eleventh, could bat back-
to-back. Many teams try to bat eleven players and hence bat two men in a row. With the
exception o f West L.A. I, I have never witnessed a case in which the extra player was a
woman. Interestingly, if a team has extra women, they are required to bat these women
in a row in some leagues. By limiting who can bat by sex, the rule acts to ensure that
female batters receive equal opportunities to hit. At the same time, enforcement of the
rule may mean that either the men or the women on a team receive more at bats than the
other gender. In the above example of five women and eleven men, the five women will
actually bat more than twice as often as the eleven men. Hence, this rule negotiates
equality o f opportunity by paradoxically assuming a consistent pattern of gender
differences which determine offensive ability.
The Rover Must Always Be Female
The final rule which acts as a negotiation between ideologies of equality of
opportunity and gender difference is the rover rule. In slow-pitch softball there are ten
fielders, as opposed to the nine used in baseball. The extra position is in the outfield and
is referred to as the rover position. The rule states, “A minimum of three (3) outfielders
must be behind an outfield restriction line (160 foot arc from home plate) when the batter
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hits the pitch. While a female is batting, the rover can only be a female. Penalty: The
batter and all base runners will be awarded one base unless each has advanced one base
safely, in which case the play proceeds without reference to the violation” (SCMAF,
1997). In some leagues, an additional rule requires that one of four outfielders be female.
If a team has only three outfielders (only nine players), there is no rover and no one may
play in front of the line when a woman is batting. All three outfielders may be male. The
result of these rules is that a female must always be the rover. The assumption behind
this rule is that women will not have a “fair” chance of getting a hit unless most fielders
are forced to stand out a particular distance (rarely is the line actually 160 feet) and the
only outfielder in front of this line is female. This rule, therefore, assumes that all women
are inferior hitters compared to men and require special accommodations. The rule also
assumes that women are inferior outfielders and that if teams were not required to put a
woman in the outfield, one might not play there. Because men are assumed to be superior
outfielders, if a man were allowed to be a rover, it is assumed that female batters would
be at a disadvantage.
Despite the fact that female batters sometimes “bum” outfielders who mistakenly
assume the line is a benchmark for where all fielders should stand, the “line” still
represents assumptions of female limitations compared to male ability. Indeed on some
fields, the line is to the detriment of the female players. If the line is “deep” or closer to
the mandated 160 feet, many talented women will consistently hit the ball to this depth or
slightly deeper. Had the outfielders been permitted to stand at the depth of their choice,
they might have “chosen” to play more shallowly and many fly balls hit by women would
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have easily cleared the defense. Several examples of this tendency will be presented in
Chapter 5. During a Center City game on 7/21/97,1 observed Kathy and Micky having
the following conversation.
Micky comes up to bat. She hits the ball hard and well. But unfortunately it is a
line drive right at the left fielder who is planted right on the line, which on this
field is actually about 160' out. Micky, discouraged, walks back to the dugout and
comments to Kathy, “ Damn, that’ s always right where my balls go. It seems like
my balls always go right to the fielders. "
Kathy nods knowingly and replies, “ Well you hit the ball right to the line and
that's where the fielders have to play. I have the same problem. The line is
making it harder fo r us to get hits."
While the line is designed to create equality of opportunity the underlying assumption is
that of natural gender difference. This is evidenced in the “special accommodations”
made for female batters. In some cases, the accommodation becomes a hindrance. By
positioning the fielders at exactly the depth at which many of the strong woman hit the
ball, the line structures in strategy for depth. There are no rules which regulate at what
depth outfielders must play when the batter is male. Fielders often stand too shallow or
too deep. Without the line outfielders might underestimate a woman’s ability and play
too shallow. Hence a rule designed to aid women, actually only benefits novice women
and is problematic for more experienced female players. Further, the rule could easily be
de-gendered by requiring all but three outfielders to always begin behind the line.
Ultimately this rule produces a paradoxical situation which asserts that equality of
opportunity can only be achieved by legislating gender and providing specific protections
for the presumed to be less skilled female athletes. The complexity of ideologies,
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practices and bodies experience of gender relations is evident even in the structure of the
game. How this is played out on the field is the focus of this study.
Participants
There are three types of participants who engage in or facilitate the practice of coed
softball: enablers or facilitators, participants and spectators. Enablers or facilitators are
those individuals who enable games to occur. They are generally paid employees of the
city or county. Prior to games many organizational details must be taken care of in order
to ensure the successful administration of a softball league. Administration is the
responsibility of an office staff, headed by or consisting solely of a coordinator for the
league, generally the Coordinator of Adult Sports. The coordinator and his/her staff
organize and set up leagues, determine game times, send out relevant information,
organize and oversee field maintenance and ensure necessary equipment like balls and
bases are available. The coordinator is often assisted by office workers who make copies,
calls, and so forth. There are also general park employees who facilitate games by
performing field maintenance, making sure necessary materials are on site and ensuring
lights are turned on. The final enabier is the umpire. Umpires are not entirely necessary,
indeed on one occasion the umpire did not show up and both teams agreed to provide
representatives to act as umpires and the game went on. I even wound up umpiring a
men’s game I had attended to observe. I will return to a more in-depth discussion of
umpires momentarily. Except for umpires and scorekeepers (if provided), enablers are
rarely seen. Generally only the managers meet the coordinators and staff at managers
meeting. Occasionally a league coordinator or a staff member will stop by a park to
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check out a game. Rob Bapoza, the league coordinator for Center City, frequently
attended games and even played occasionally. Despite their relative anonymity, league
coordinators do affect games significantly by setting rules, which can vary league to
league, assigning teams to different levels of play, developing a schedule and ensuring
fields are maintained. During the final seasons in the study period, San Gabriel Valley I
had several problems with the league. The coordinator and his staff failed to create a
schedule that alternated which team would be home and which would be visitor when
each team played (teams play opponents twice each, usually with each team having the
home team advantage once). After failing to do this they rescheduled play-offs three
times and eventually canceled them. Our team was so incensed that we refused to play in
this league the following season. Staff members too can affect games when they fail to
do their job. One game during the study period had to be canceled due to an inability to
turn on the lights. Staff members were generally young, as it is an entry level or part time
job. As a whole, they were a diverse group, reflecting the racial and ethnic diversity of
the greater Los Angeles area.
Umpires
The enabier with the most influence on the game is the umpire, often called “blue” by
participants, referring to the regulation blue shirts originally required by most leagues.
Throughout the study one primary effect umpires had during games was to enforce
ideologies of recreation as opposed to competition. Umpires did this in several different
ways. First, umpires often simply emphasized the recreational nature of the game and
used this type of discourse as a means for calming down agitated participants. For
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example, during a Center City game played on 7/29/96, the umpire told both teams,
“ Come on, this is softball... This is fun. Don’ t take it so seriously, "whenever anyone
argued a call. During the same game, when the score was 0-0 early on he joked, “ this is
softball, let’ s see some runs. ” When situations became tense and tempers flared, another
Center City umpire frequently stated, This isn 't the major leagues... This is
recreation... " One of the umpires in the San Gabriel Valley also had a favorite remark,
Come on now... I t ’ s just a game... Relax... " This good natured joking helped keep the
game light and fim. It also served the purpose of taking some of the pressure off of
umpires. When players are angry about calls, stressing the recreational nature of the
game diffuses much of the potential anger at poor calls. So while this type of statement
does reinforce the recreational nature of the game, it also protects the umpires from
criticism about how they are performing their jobs and reduces competitiveness by
undermining the importance of winning (Nelson, 1994).
Umpires also reinforce the recreational aspects of the game through unofficial “mercy
rules.” The official mercy rule states that a game is over after the completion of five
innings if one team is up by fifteen runs or more. In Center City, an additional rule stated
that if a team was up by more than twenty runs prior to the fifth inning, the batting order
can only be gone through once regardless of outs (the first batter of the inning cannot bat
twice that inning). Once this occurs, the other team bats. Often in games that are clearly
going to end with an invocation of the mercy rule or are clearly decided, umpires enforce
unofficial versions of mercy. The following excerpt from my fieldnotes during a Center
City game played on 7/14/97 illustrates this point.
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We are slaughtering an overmatched team. Clearly the game will be a mercy
game. Their pitcher is having control problems, so in addition to our barrage o f
hits, he has also walked many players. In the third inning when we are up by
over fifteen the umpire walks over to our dugout and says amiably but firmly,
“ From now on i f it hits the plate or the mat... It's a strike... Anything close, it’ s a
strike. ” We are fine with this. The game is not in jeopardy.
In the above example, the umpire is trying to keep the game fun for both teams by forcing
the ball into play. He is also trying to avoid humiliating the pitcher by having to enforce
even more walks. His actions made the game more fun for both teams by keeping the
ball in play. A second example occurred in a San Gabriel Valley game played on
7/28/96.
We are slaughtering the other team. Clearly they are in too high a league as we
hear them complaining about losing like this every game. In the last inning James
hits what should have been a single. He hits the ball hard right down the first
base line. The woman playing first does a goodjob o f knocking down the hard
hit, grabs the ball and races to the bag. James beats her there easily and she
never even makes the final touch to the base, stopping about a step short. She
exclaims, “ Damn” in frustration. No wait, the blue (umpire) is calling James out.
'What? "he demands incredulously. “ Give him a hit in the books, "the blue tells
the scorekeeper, acknowledging that it should have been a hit. “ I t ’ s the last game,
I want to go home.... "He adds apologetically. 'This game is just about over
anyway. ”
Umpires can and do make calls which are not in keeping with the actual rules of the
game. Instead, the calls reflect an ethic of recreation which prioritizes participation and
fun. Although this action presumes that the competition is over, the umpire’s actions
challenge dominant norms of competition. This tempers competitive game situations
with a quality of mercy not defined within the rules, but by the situation and what is
considered “sportsmanship.”
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Finally, umpires enforce the recreation ethic of the game by favoring or giving breaks
to novice or inexperienced softball players. Take the following example from a San
Gabriel Valley game which took place on 6/16/96.
The home team is losing the game by a good margin. With two outs the novice
female catcher comes up to bat. She is choking way up and looks awkward, but
determined. She takes a wavering, but hard cut at the first pitch. She tops the
ball, sending it crashing hard into the ground. The ball skips up and rolls slowly
toward the shortstop. He gloves it and makes a rushed throw to first base. The
ball and the runner seem to arrive at about the same time. The call could go
either way... ‘ Safe. ” The blue barks decisively. The opposing team grumbles,
“ Aww come on blue... " But they do not argue with the vehemence o f a team sure
they have been wronged. As the blue walks back to home plate he smiles at the
catcher, another novice woman. “ I f I would have called her out, I would have
heard about it. ” He gestures toward their team (who despite being the home team
inhabit the visitors dugout) and are all right behindfirst base and therefore on
top o f the play.
In this case, the issue is not that the call would be incorrect. An experienced player
knows that a play can look very different depending on angle, sun, glare, obstructions of
vision (like the arm of the base runner). Rather, there are often plays that could be called
either way and while individuals will grumble, there is an understanding that such calls
are to be tolerated. To call out a novice player on a play “too close to call” in which the
call has ostensibly no effect on outcome, is considered poor form. It would go against the
idea of recreational ball. In this case the umpire is going to give a close call to the novice
player in order to promote fun and recreation. The enforcement of rules in this manner
has a gendered component as well, as the majority of novices are female and umpires are
more likely to give female players the benefit of the doubt. This will be discussed in
depth in later chapters.
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Plavers
Players are either teammates or opponents. An interesting situation occurs for many
of us who play in multiple leagues. Often teammates in one league are opponents in
another. Indeed our West Los Angeles Team consisted of players from primarily two
Center City teams who often vied for the top spots there. In addition, some of us also
played on two different teams in the San Gabriel Valley. Hence, some folks were
teammates on Wednesday, but opponents on Mondays and Sundays. Overall, this was a
good situation as it usually ensured a minimum of courtesy when we competed against
each other.
Participants were a varied group. In the leagues studied, players ranged in age from
about twenty to forty. Most of the players were in their late twenties to late thirties.
Some players were older, with a few players even qualifying for and playing in senior
leagues. Rules require that all participants be at least eighteen years of age. I know of at
least one underage girl who played occasionally as a back-up player for the San Gabriel
Valley I and II teams. Most teams I observed were mixed race teams, revealing the
diversity of the Southern California area. While there were a few predominantly white
teams, most of these teams had at least one or two people of color. Two Latino/a teams
appeared in the study, La Familia and Latin Connection. Even with the ethnic names,
occasionally non-Latino/a participants played on these teams. Many of the participants
played with partners and family members. Couples, both heterosexual and lesbian, were
prevalent in all of the leagues observed. No gay male couples were observed, but this
does not mean they did not exist. Of course, the prevalence of several popular gay
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leagues in the area could attract most gay male softballers in the area. For one of the
seasons studied, one of our San Gabriel Valley teams featured seven heterosexuals
(including two couples), and three lesbians (including one couple). Two members were
of Latino/a descent, two were Asian-Americans, five were white, and one was Jewish.
The primary back-up player used was an African-American heterosexual woman. The
partners of several of the players often came to games and sometimes played as backup
players. There were also siblings, cousins and even parent- child groups which played
together. Indeed La Familia featured a father/brother, an uncle/brother and three
daughter/nieces. There was a high proportion of lesbian and bi-sexual women
encountered. During the course of the study, there were at least four out lesbian women
playing on one of the teams at different times during the study. This created no tension
between players. Similar to what Nancy Theberge (1995) described in women’s ice
hockey, sexuality of all players was casually joked about. For example, one of the
women, Patty, who self-identified as a lesbian, frequently joked about “offering rewards”
to male players who hit well in crucial game situations and how she would accommodate
the “lifestyle change.”
Most of the players were middle or working class. There appeared to be some income
variation between players. At least a modest amount of disposable income is necessary as
one needs to be able to pay league fees, afford the necessary equipments and have
transportation to games. Some participants struggled to play league fees and car pooled
to games, while others arrived in new vehicles with expensive equipment. There were no
incidents of overt classism and I noticed that sometimes the higher income players
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generously brought drinks, or payed a higher share at post game pizza parties. There was
one sad incident when a teammate could not afford to pay league fees and the manager
had to ask her to be a back-up player.
In addition to variety in traditional categories of social analysis, variations in body
types and interest in sports are also relevant to a study which explores relationships
between sport and bodies. Participants had a surprising array of body types and interest
in sports and recreation. There was no minimum or maximum level of fitness. Many
players were in excellent physical condition, but many others were not. One teammate,
Jess, played a number of sports and was in excellent condition. Another teammate,
Janey, had softball as her only form of exercise and was a little overweight. One women
pitcher we faced in several outings was well over three hundred pounds. One disabled
man, who had an artificial leg, played pitcher for an opponent in both San Gabriel Valley
I and II. When he reached base, he usually had a pinch runner.
Some individuals participated in other sports activities. Teammates mentioned
playing tennis, mountain biking, basketball, skiing, snowboarding, fitness activities, golf,
and weight training. Others only participated in softball. Most participants played in
multiple leagues. As a participant, I find that I need to play in at least two leagues to stay
“sharp.” Often, I encountered the same players in several different leagues. Even interest
in professional and amateur sports varied as some participants were avid sports fans,
while others had no interest in viewing sports and only delighted in playing. For
example, Steve, one teammate professed an interest in playing sports, but knew little
about spectator sports. Several teammates were shocked when during a discussion he
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asked, “Who’s Marcus Allen?” By contrast, teammate Kathy was an avid Dodger fan.
Another teammate, Jess, brought a portable television so he could obtain NCAA Men’s
Basketball tournament scores during a game.
Spectators
The remaining people visible at softball games were spectators. There were several
different types of spectators. First, there were partners, friends and family of participants.
These people come out to games either to spend time with loved ones or because they
were dependents and had little choice in the matter. Several players regularly brought
children and/or step-children and their playmates to games. Since games occur in parks,
children often brought their own activities and played as opposed to watched our game.
Often partners would attend games so that the couple could go out after the game.
Spectators sometimes became players. This most often occurred when spectators were
novice or intermediate level females and the team they had come to watch was short a
female player. After Steve ended a long time relationship with a woman who frequently
attended games but could not play, several of his teammates on San Gabriel Valley II
jokingly told Steve that his next partner must be able to play. Occasionally male
spectators were recruited. This, however, was much less common. Still Melissa’s
husband, Seth, was on our roster as he attended most of one of the San Gabriel Valley
team’s games for a season. He filled in during one game when Paul, a regular, failed to
attend. He was one of the two novice men observed.
Often, players who were waiting for a game to start or who had just finished playing
sit in the stands and become spectators. These spectators were usually knowledgeable
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about the game and the teams playing, as they may be opponents. I have often been a fan
in this capacity and gathered excellent data in such situations. These types of spectators
usually cheer for the play in general, unless one of the teams is a rival. I always found the
Greek chorus of “ouhs,” “Aahs,” and “oohs” wonderful background commentary to the
drama, tragic or comic, that was unfolding on the field. The way in which the spectators
often did this in complete unison made one suspect they had been rehearsing.
In addition to these types of spectators, scouts also sometimes appeared at games.
Scouts are managers or players on other teams who watch games with the intention of
recruiting players or of gaining insight on a rival team’s abilities. Some managers like
Jerry did this regularly. Jerry, and another manager in one of the leagues, Howard, had an
ongoing rivalry as to who could recruit talented and experienced female players. Jerry
once stormed out of a game when he discovered that though he had recruited myself and
Kathy, an exceptional player, for his Wednesday night league, Howard had recruited
Kathy for Friday. Kathy was unaware of their rivalry and was shocked when in mid
conversation Jerry stormed off angrily cursing Howie. Other managers like Jeff in San
Gabriel Valley regularly scouted teams for inside information. We noticed he often
attended games with a notebook, marking down where different players like to hit. When
teams like his made adjustments for players, especially correct ones, our team would joke,
“they read the scouting report on you...”
The last group of people who may be in a park watching softball games is what is
generally considered a “socially undesirable” element. Parks are public places where
those who have few other places to go can come and interact with others. Alcoholics,
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drug addicts, homeless people and the mentally ill sometimes watched games. Some of
these people were recognized as “regulars” and were tolerated unless they became unruly
or behaved inappropriately towards people, especially children. One mentally ill homeless
man, who we also suspected of having substance abuse problems, demonstrated undue
interest in our teammate’s son. Our teammate had to ask the man not to speak to the little
boy anymore. Our team observed him carefully to ensure that he did not approach the
child again. While it did not seem that he meant the child harm, he clearly was
frightening the little boy. Other types of individuals who fall into this “undesirable”
category also include teenagers and gang members who often hang out in parks at night.
These individuals rarely caused any types of problems for us, outside of occasional rude
comments which youngsters like to hurl at adults who they perceive as having no
authority over them. Soccer players were also considered “undesirable” by participants.
Soccer cleats tear up outfields and leave uneven holes in both outfields and infields.
Many parks have rules against soccer play on softball fields because the cleats and
kicking can be so damaging. Further, soccer players often ran onto fields during games,
sometimes causing delays. On occasion, the removal of soccer players for their own
safety (no one wants to get hit in the head by a softball) was difficult and time consuming.
Sometimes players refused to leave or continued to play on the edge of the field, at then-
own risk. This was particularly annoying on fields like those in West L.A., because there
was a large adjacent area suitable for soccer play. Participants generally responded to
such intrusions with comments like, “If you hit a soccer player you get an automatic home
run...” or “A prize to anybody who hits that bozo...” In addition to these overt forms of
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communication, often nonverbal communication was imperative. In these cases, the body
can serve as a medium of communication.
Reading the Body: Experience and Gender
Bodies can serve as a form of communication. The body is a text on which
experience, social positioning, patterns of consumption and past practices interact to form
a meaningful whole (Featherstone, 1991). As a researcher observing the body and as a
softball practitioner, learning to read bodily cues and messages is crucial, both to my
research and my game. Through their body habitus, participants revealed their level of
ability, experience and commitment to softball. Further, body language often revealed
personal feelings about others, oneself and the given situation. One of the key pieces of
information revealed by body language and adornment is the participant’s level of ability.
Through an observation of players’ body habitus, I noted three levels of ability: novices,
intermediates and experts.
Each position has a different minimum level of competence. Table 3.1 details the
minimum requirements for someone to be categorized as a novice, intermediate or expert
level player at each field position. Of course, an intermediate level player can do
everything a novice player can do. Just as an expert can do what an intermediate level
player can do. There is also a hierarchy of positions such that the most novice player will
be placed at certain positions, such as catcher. Therefore the baseline of ability of a
novice is different for different positions. A novice shortstop will always be a better
softball player than a novice catcher. By the same token, ability at one position does not
necessarily translate to ability at another. Hence, an expert outfielder, might be only an
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intermediate or even a novice infielder. Of course, on rare occasions, a person who
cannot play at all is placed on the field to avoid a forfeit. Because this type of situation
was the exception, my categories reflect general patterns observed. While it was clear
that novices appeared most often at catcher, managers’ attempts to maximize the
marginal utility o f ability could create a wide range of patterns.
Table 3.1: Minimum Skills Required for each Position by Ability of Player
Player Ability Level
Field Position Novice Intermediate Expert
Pitcher -Can throw a strike
-Can get out o f the way o f a hard hit
ball
-Has some ability to pitch with
spin
-Can field some batted balls and
catch pop ups
-Usually has more than one
pitch. Has more than one
type o f spin.
-Can field most batted balls
and pop ups
Catcher -Can return the ball to the general
vicinity o f the pitcher
-Can catch foul balls
-Can make force plays and some
tag outs at the plate
- Can throw to first
-Can catch a wider range o f
foul balls
-Can throw out runners
leading o ff at first
-Can make most outs at
home plate
First base -Can catch a ball thrown right to
him/her.
-Can catch most balls thrown in
his/her general vicinity
-Can field many ground balls, line
drives and pop ups
-Can catch all playable balls
-Can scoop balls out o f the
dirt consistently
-Can field most baaed balls,
including backhands and
over the shoulder catches
-Has wider range
Second base -Can catch balls pitched o r thrown
right to him/her
-Can field soft ground balls
-Has rudimentary knowledge o f cut
offs
-Can field many batted balls.
-Can perform basic cut-off duties
and occasionally throws runners
out
-Can tag out sliding runners
-Can field most baned balls
-Has a wider range
-Can turn double play
-Can consistently apply tags
-Performs excellently as the
cut-off and can throw out
runners consistently
-Makes excellent decisions
as to where the play should
go
Third base -Can catch a ball thrown to him/her
-Can get out o f the way o f hard hit line
drives
-Can field softly hit balls
-Can catch pop-ups
-Can occasionally make the throw to
first
-Can catch a line drive
-Can field a ground ball
-Can usually make a good throw
to first
-Has wider range o f pop-up
catching, especially in foul
territory
-Has wider range o f coverage
-Can turn double play
-Can catch a one-hopper
-Can make the throw to first
hard and fast
-Can scoop and throw while
moving
-Can leave his/her feet to
complete a play
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Shortstop -Can field ground balls both back and
forehand
-Can catch line drives and pop-ups
-Has wider range o f coverage
-Consistently throws runners out
from the cut-off position
-Usually makes good decisions as
to where the play should go
-Can throw with either speed or
accuracy
- Can throw with both speed
and accuracy
-Can dive
-Makes excellent decisions
and throws from the cut-off
position
-Can leave his/her feet to
complete a play
Left, Center
or Right field
-Can catch an easy fly ball
-Can pick up a hit and throw it to the
cut-off
-Can catch a line drive
-Has a wider range and can
sometimes serve as a back up for
other players
-Can throw to the base, or cut-off
consistently
-Can catch a ball hit over his/her
head
-Can cover all o f their
territory and act as a back up
for other fielders
-Can make the throw to all
the bases including home
from regular depth
-Can catch ball hit behind
him/her
-Can slide or dive and still
complete the play
Rover -Can catch a pop-up
-Can go down on one knee and pick up
a ball in the outfield
-Can get the ball to the cut-off on a
bounce
-Can catch a line drive or fly ball
consistently
-Can get the ball to the cut-off
-Is somewhat savvy about rover
placement
-Can cover as much o f the
field as the left, center or
right fielder
-Can throw directly to
second or third base
-Understands the subtleties
o f rover placement
Batter -Can make some kind o f contact with a
ball
-Knows basic rules including what
tagging up means or knows to listen to
the base coach
-Can hit the ball well to some
areas o f the field
-Knows rules and strategies o f
base running
-May be able to slide on occasion
-Can take extra bases on miscues,
over throws
-Usually makes good decisions
-Can hit the ball well to most
areas o f the field
-Can control location and
distance o f hit with some
consistency
-Willing to slide consistently
-Can recognize every
opportunity for an extra base,
and capitalize
-Can evaluate situations and
make quick informed
decisions
Of course ability does not translate neatly to one category. Intermediate players
sometimes make expert plays and some have developed expert ability at a particular skill.
Expert players sometimes fail to make plays and some have noticeable weaknesses. Also
in recreational sports, there is a wide range of sizes, strengths and weaknesses. For
example, I classified teammate Aaron as an intermediate level player, despite the fact that
his size and strength gave him a distinct advantage. Aaron was not as experienced as
other players, did not feel comfortable sliding consistently and sometimes misjudged
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bails. His long arms and height saved many plays for him. Ultimately I came to the
conclusion that he was an intermediate level player, but that with some experience he
could improve to expert status. By contrast, I classified teammate Janey as an expert.
She had an array of pitches she threw effectively, had a knack for hitting the ball in
between fielders, and consistently picked offline drives up the middle. Despite her
weight, which made her a liability on the base paths, she was classified as an expert.
While I acknowledge the existence of a continuum of ability, these categories were
analytically useful. When in doubt as to someone’s level of play, I relied on the person’s
level of experience and knowledge of the game as the determinant of placement.
Experience seemed to be the most salient feature of ability. I believe this occurs for a
number o f reasons. First, is the size of the pool of participants. Unlike professional
sports, which require exceptional athleticism as well as experience, coed softball is a
recreational environment. In other words, it’s a very big pond with a lot of medium size
fish. While athleticism, speed, and coordination all help one perform on the field,
performing maneuvers correctly is over all more valuable. Hitting the cut-off, knowing
your bodily limitations and working within these limitations is an important part of
participation. This often means hitting a cut-off instead of trying to make the long throw
from right field to third base. While a few athletes can make this throw consistently, it’s
the missed long throws that lose games and the consistent throws to the cut-off that win
games. Hence, while those with exceptional athletic ability have an advantage, a less
athletic but more experienced player may be more valuable to a team. Second, most
individuals participating in coed softball seemed to have some athletic ability. I came to
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the conclusion that most people who chose sports like coed softball as their recreational
activity have some athletic ability to begin with. Every person I talked to expressed some
interest in sports or fitness activities which pre-dated their softball involvement. I believe
that men who lack athletic ability are filtered out of sports early, as it becomes an
unpleasant activity. Because sports is linked to masculinity, the unathletic male probably
finds sports to be a distinctly disagreeable experience. It seems unlikely that as an adult
he would chose coed softball as his leisure time activity. For women, it was more likely
to find an athletic woman with minimal sport experience. These women usually still had
experience with bodily manipulations like dance or fitness activities. Finally, experience
is required to tap into athletic potential. It is only through repeated bodily machinations
and the knowledge of the optimum play that comes with experience, that athletic
potential is truly unleashed. So while Darren and Aaron are extremely athletic men, their
inexperience caused them to make poor decisions and they lacked the bodily experience
to perform some maneuvers during high pressure game situations. By contrast,
experienced, but less athletic Janey uses her knowledge of the game to make herself an
expert player. Even lacking speed, she was a better for average hitter than either of the
larger, faster, and more athletic men.
The one bodily attribute that seemed to give players a significant advantage was size.
If a player misjudged a ball, someone with long arms or height was often able to
compensate. By contrast, a smaller player would simply miss the ball. Overthrows are
also more likely with smaller players waiting to catch the ball. There were many times
during the study period that I wished I was taller. On the other hand, most players
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recognized that height was an ascribed characteristic. For example, after Steve comes
down with a ball that almost got over his shoulder after he had misjudged it, Tomas jokes
with him, “ you 're lucky you 're tall... " First base woman Patty, sometimes commented,
“ I ’ d like to grow for you... "on balls thrown just over her reach. So while it was
recognized that height could be an advantage, it was viewed as luck. Specifically, it was
considered “lucky” to be tall.
Skill Level Proportions Bv Gender
Of the four teams on which I participated there was a mix of novice, intermediate and
expert level participants. Table 3.1 shows the percentage of male players at each level.
Table 3.2 shows the percentage of female players at each level. Table 3.3 shows the
percentage of players at each level.
Figure 3.1 F'9ure 32
Ability Level of Mate Participants Abilt, t « . l of F « ™ i. P « tid p .b »
Novice (13.76%)
Novice (0-42°/!
ntermediate (44.53°/
[pert (55.05%)
Intermediate (49.56%)
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Figure 3.3
Ability Level of All Participants
Novice (6.96^
pert (46.04%)
ntermediate (47.00S<
These percentages are based on the total number of players of this ability on the number
of teams on which I was a member. Each game is counted separately to control for the
large number of players who only play one or two games during the course of the season.
I chose not to count the opposition because one cannot always evaluate the abilities of
opponents during the course of a game or even a season. During many games the ball
was not hit to a particular position, or no difficult plays occurred. For example, the left-
fielder may have no plays during a game. Even at-bats will not necessarily reveal a
player’s ability as pitch quality, luck and the fact that some days are better than others, all
can mask player ability.
Novices
Novice players are relatively inexperienced participants. A novice player is still
learning the fundamentals of the game, including strategy. A novice player is easily
recognized by his/her body habitus, dress, and understanding of the rules and strategy of
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the game. Novice players were identified by weak and errant throws which appeared to
resemble shot puts, spinning on the front foot after taking a vigorous swing (the back foot
should always remain planted), running with arms flailing and being caught flat footed by
balls hit to the field. Female novices were observed frequently, while male novices were
observed rarely, though they certainly did appear. The following fieidnotes from a San
Gabriel Valley game played on 8/18/96 identifies how a woman is instantly classified as a
novice by my team.
The other team appears to be short a woman, when one o f the women hanging out
with the team apparently consents to join them. She grabs a glove and heads out
to right field. As she jogs past our team we notice she is wearing keds, denim
shorts and a nice t-shirt. “ Someone talked their friend into playing, ” Tomas
observes knowingly. Janey looks at the woman and her eyes focus on the keds,
and then the shorts. She smiles. Later when the woman comes to bat, Tomas ’
suspicions are confirmed. She holds the bat awkwardly. Choking up too much
on the not so heavy bat. She stands with her legs straight, bending at the waist to
hang out over the plate. She swings o ff balance, without ever taking a step with
her front foot and lifting her backfoot, instead ofpivoting her hips to generate
power. She strikes out or grounds out to the infield every at bat.
Another example comes from a West L.A. II game played on 4/17/97.
Kate, a young Asian American woman, is one o f the most enthusiastic players,
though clearly a novice. Before the game she bops around giving encouragement
to her teammates and joking around. Everyone clearly likes her. When the game
starts she takes her spot at catcher. She stares seriously at the pitcher, Pierre.
She crouches with her glove extended in front o f her. Pierre pitches, an excellent
high pitch (he is one o f the most skilled unlimited height pitchers observed during
the study period). The pitch hits the back half o f the mat fo r a strike. The ball
bounces toward her. She makes an awkward lunge after the ball. It hits her glove
and drops to the ground. She picks it up and throws her arm over her head,
launching the ball like a shot put. The ball sails upward and bounces once before
Pierre picks it up. The umpire looks at her and comments jovially, “Come here
and let me teach you how to throw. ” He spends the rest o f the game giving her
pointers, which she clearly needs and appreciates. I hear her telling the other
woman, Jen, who rotates in with her at catcher, “ he’ s teaching me how to throw.
Get him to help you... He's really nice. ’’
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Occasionally, male novices appear, such as during a San Gabriel Valley game which
happened on 4/6/97.
Finally a team with a man at catcher!! It doesn’ t take long to figure out why.
Though he has the rudimentary abilities to throw and catch, he is clearly a
novice. He is wearing jeans and tennis shoes and though he can throw, he does
so without much pop, the throw from home to pitcher is about what he can
handle. When he bats, his swing is awkward, making our team speculate that he
has not done this since childhood. He stands uncomfortably at the plate, instead
o f digging in to hit, he stands lightly. He swings almost entirely with his arms
while his body remains in almost the same position, until it is forced to follow his
arms around.
Hence novices are recognized by their lack of athletic habitus. This is subtly different
from a failure to make a play. Often novice players do complete plays, but even in the
completion of the play, the body reveals that these movements are new. An example
from my fieldnotes from a San Gabriel Valley game played at the end of the summer of
1997 illustrates this point.
I come up to bat with runners on second and third and only one out. As I am
walking up I hear Janey, Kathy and Scott encouraging me. “Come on, you know
what to do, you know where to hit it, ” indicating that I should pull the ball to the
right side, thereby giving the runners a good chance o f advancing and scoring,
even if I am thrown out. I take a strike like we always do in our first at bat. I sigh,
go through my usual ritual and see another strike coming in. I hit it hard on the
ground, but right at the second base woman. She doesn’ t even have to move.
Damn, if I hit it to either side o f her, she would never have gotten it. lean tell she
is a novice by her body habitus, she waits for the ball, feet together, glove laid out
in front. I am running as fast as I can, watching her out o f the corner o f my eye as
the ball rolls into her glove. She picks it up, gives a little hop and lobs it to first.
The throw is weak but accurate. The ball takes a high slow arc to first, I ’ m
running, it’ s coming and it gets there a second before my foot hits the bag.
Fortunately Gordon is scoring. Oh well at least I got an RBI. As I trudge back to
the dugout my teammates make comments to me designed to let me know I did the
right thing. I hit it in the right area, and pretty hard... Janey comments in her
usual calmly factual tone, “ she got lucky... She has no idea what she’ s doing. ”
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No one disputes what her body habitus reveals. A more experienced fielder would
have moved to the ball, andfielded it feet- apart.
In addition to the player’s body habitus, their style of dress often reveals both their
status and level of commitment. Shoes instead of cleats, a lack of pads, sliding shorts,
shin guards or other leg coverings, all indicate novice status because the lack of these
items restricts full participation in the game. For example, during one game the umpire
commented to me, “ well we know h e’ s not planning on sliding... ” and jerked his head in
the direction of a batter’s bare legs sticking out of casual shorts. The umpire may be
wrong, he may well decide to slide, but if he does, he will surely regret it. The dirt on
softball fields is roughly akin to sandpaper, and sliding without leg coverings will cause
painful abrasions. In one of the previous examples Tomas commented, “ there’ s no right
fielder... ” as he watched a woman jogging out to right in keds and denim shorts. Cleats
are a necessity in softball. Without them, players cannot run at full speed, make tight
turns or cut effectively. Any player without cleats instantly reveals novice status and a
severe disadvantage. Because one can find very inexpensive cleats (I personally have
three pairs which all cost under twenty dollars each), even lower income participants
always have at least one pair. Teammates sometimes gave old pairs to teammates in
need. While some expert players and negotiated habitus players do wear denim, most
players felt that it was “too binding...” and kept them from “running fast.”
Finally, if a player, especially a woman (few men deviated from shorts with sliding
pants underneath, baseball pants or sweats and t-shirts) seemed to be dressed “cute” or
was enacting emphasized femininity (Connell, 1987), she was instantly perceived as “less
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serious” or a novice. An example from a San Gabriel Valley Game on 8/18/96 should
clarify.
As the opposing team took the field, our team watches them trot out. One o f the
women is wearing denim Daisy Dukes, and a belly revealing white tank top. As
she scampers to her position, our team watches. Her running seems light and
airy, not the determined trot o f the seasoned veteran. “ Yeah sh e’ s here to play... "
Kathy comments sarcastically. While Janey grins and adds, “Well you have to
look cute... ” Tomas shakes his head, “ well we know where to hit it... ’ ’
In this case, the woman was perceived as less serious about the game, both because she
was inappropriately dressed, but also because she was dressed in a particularly gender
coded way. Her short shorts preclude sliding, diving, or even kneeling on the rough dirt.
Her short shirt could easily fly up on any of the many body contortions necessary on
many plays. It also prevents her from doing anything that might cause her to land on her
stomach. Because her clothes were decidedly impractical for the activity and conformed
to dominant standards of femininity, others perceived her dress as being about “looking
good” as opposed to playing well. Her outfit caused discomfort to other women not
simply because she was revealing sexual desirability, but rather because it was read by the
women as connoting female inability at sport and ideologies of women as objects of
desire, rather than subjects of action. She cannot fully participate in the event because of
her feminine clothes. Women and men regularly made fun of woman who dressed in
these types of outfits, or any outfit which conformed to emphasized femininity. Short
shorts, tank tops, big styled hair, make-up and push-up bras were all ridiculed by players.
This derision can perhaps be interpreted as resistance to gendered ideologies which
privilege feminine weakness as desirable and attractive.
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The identification of novices is important to a team, as strategies often involved taking
advantage o f novice players. Teams generally attempt to take advantage of a novice’s
lack of experience and ability by planning to place the ball in his/her area. For example,
when the female novice in the above example from 8/18/96 was sent to right field Tomas
commented, “There’ s no right fielder... Hit it to right... ” This identification of novices
was an important strategic part of the game. Not only useful for ball placement,
identifying novices is also important for planning base running strategies. Teams will
frequently take extra bases if a novice player is left covering a bag, or has the ball and
there is doubt that he/she will complete the throw accurately and in time to make the play.
Depending on the difficulty of the throw, teams will also elect to run on intermediate
level ball players. These extra bases are important to game strategy because base runners
move into scoring position, score and/or the possibility of a double play may be
eliminated.
While novices are noted as such by most participants, it is generally recognized that
these players are inexperienced and not simply inept. For example, Kathy, in watching a
woman play during a Center City game played on 2/24/97, commented, “ She sucks... no I
shouldn't say that... She’ s just obviously never played softball before. ” Hence, players
recognize that being a novice means a lack of experience and does not reflect innate or
“natural” ability.
More than half the observed teams had at least one female novice, whereas male
novices appeared irregularly. Given the recent history of women in sport, this is hardly
surprising. Like any sport, there is a “correct” body habitus which maximizes the body’s
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ability to conform to the rules and strategy of the game. While many men are trained in
the “correct” way to field a ball, make a throw and bat, there are fewer women who have
been schooled in the correct habitus. Essentially the range of ability for women was
wider at the less experienced end, than men’s. While the continuum of performance by
gender overlapped almost entirely, novices and myths of natural gender difference often
conspired to conflate gender, rather than experience with this lack of ability.
One position, catcher, is generally assumed to be inhabited by a novice, unless that
player demonstrates otherwise. On the rare occasion that a man is placed at the position,
he is also assumed to be inexperienced. How such assumptions reproduce gendered
ideologies will later be discussed at length. But since there are frequently one or two
female novices on any team, these women are most frequently asked to play catcher
because it is the position easiest to have someone else cover on crucial plays, usually the
pitcher. There are few opportunities for put-outs and assists6 from this position as well.
Intermediate Plavers: Negotiated Bodies
There were relatively similar numbers of men and women with intermediate ability
participating in coed softball. 49.56% of women and 44.53% of men playing were
categorized as having intermediate ability. (Because equal numbers of men and women
are required for coed softball, percentages reflect equal numbers of participants). While
they may have performed many of the basic elements of the game correctly, these
individuals lacked the bodily experience and ability to perform the “high end” bodily
maneuvers which make one an exceptional player. These players generally understood
the rules and basic strategy o f the game and often know exactly what they should be
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doing, even if their body refused to conform. An example from my fieldnotes from a
Center City game at the end of the Summer of 1997 demonstrates this.
Sandy, an African-American woman in her mid thirties, has played adult league
softball on and o ff fo r the past several years. This game she is assigned to play
second base. When a woman hits a hard ground ball just to her right. Sandy
shuffles over and awkwardly gloves the ball, instead o f placing her glove
perpendicular to the path o f the ball and scooping it up. She turns and makes the
out at second. Frequently, she makes this play, but often she misses it when
scooping the ball would have made the play routine.
In the above example, Sandy has mastered the basic skills necessary to play softball, but
has not mastered the scoop. The scoop is the correct way to field most infield balls in this
situation. This type of technique takes not only extensive practice, but also instruction.
Hence, while Sandy is not a novice player, she lacks the experience and instruction of an
expert participant.
Overall this category has the greatest percentage of participants, regardless of gender.
As previously discussed, there is a smaller pool of well trained women. Hence women
with negotiated habitus are considered “good.” Take the following example from a San
Gabriel Valley game played on 7/27/97.
When Joe comes up to bat he hits a hard shot right at the woman playing first
base. She looks stunned for a moment and throws up her glove, in what appears
to be more self-preservation than an attempt to make the play. The ball lands
right in her glove, she stumbles awkwardly, but holds on to the ball. Her body
habitus clearly revealed that she is not an expert. "Good job... ” her teammates
cheer fo r her. Their normally critical pitcher tells her, “ that’ s the way to play... ”
Even our first base coach tells her, “ good play...” She jokes back, “ that’ s self
defense. ” She smiles happily.
Hence, despite the fact her body habitus reveals that she is not an expert, she is praised
for completing the play. By contrast, men are often expected to perform above this level
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and when men’s bodily habitus reveals that they are not experts, they are considered
“bad” or having done something wrong, even if they complete the play. This was
exemplified by an event in a San Gabriel Valley game played on 4/13/97.
Our less experienced manager, Guy, is playing second. Usually he plays outfield.
The first batter hit a hard ground ball to his backhand side, which he made a
good play on. Having never played second base before, he is unfamiliar with the
throw to first from this angle. His throw looks weak and awkward but just beats
the runner to first. Laughing at his throw, our left fielder, Steve yells out, “ Come
on Guy, throw like a man... " This is odd considering the fact that Steve often was
aware o f others ’ sexism.
Despite the fact that Guy successfully completes the play, he is not congratulated.
Because his body habitus was inconsistent with expert level ability and therefore
masculinity, he is teased. In particular, this lack of expert ability is perceived as not male,
whereas had he performed the move expertly, it would have been consistent with
definitions of maleness and the male body.
Experts
Expert softballers possess not only the fundamental skills, but the complete body
habitus necessary to optimize body movement in the pursuit of softball excellence. While
this may sound nebulous, it is actually very specific. Take throwing as an example. A
novice player will probably try to push the ball, throwing it more like a shot put. Both
negotiated and expert players will throw correctly, gaining the momentum for the ball
from a lose whip action, instead o f a push. The expert player, however, will have that
extra pop that makes the ball sting, even through the glove. The expert receiver of the
ball catches it in the webbing of the glove, instead of the palm or heel of the glove.
Experts generally have had years of experience and expert coaching at either softball or
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baseball and often they are above average athletes. Take the following two examples
from my fieldnotes. The first example comes from a game played in Center City on
2/23/97.
A large man steps up to the plate. He is about six feet tall, and probably weighs
close to 210 pounds. He takes a hard swing at the first pitch and tops the ball. It
slams hard into the ground and takes a big bounce. Our third base person,
Kathy, charges hard, glove held out low. She scoops the ball just before the
second bounce and in mid stride fires to first base to get him by half a step. Each
motion is performed perfectly and with an amazing economy o f motion. Watching
her is beautiful. Its as if fo r a moment she has turned the game into a ritual
performance, each move displays ethereal grace and rhythmic perfection. I f there
were softball gods, this would be the ultimate offering.
A second example comes from a San Gabriel Valley game at the end of the summer of
1997.
Joe is playing centerfield. When a male batter hits a Texas Leaguer in front o f
him. Joe charges hard, goes into a fu ll dive and catches the ball just before he hits
the ground. Holding his glove hand up to make sure the ball is not knocked loose
by the ground, he slides for several feet, gracefully jumps up and throws the ball
in to second base, preventing the runners from tagging and advancing. Anyone
who has played with Joe, has seen him do this on average o f once a game. Later
we all tell him, “ good play. ” Walking o ff the field, Steve comments to me
emphatically, “ Joe comes to play. ”
While expert play is expected of men, women who play expertly are often viewed with
surprise. While Joe has “come to play” and was praised more for extra effort, Kathy’s
play was often greeted with shock and surprise. Both men and women who saw her play
commented on her ability. The following excerpt comes from a game on 2/23/97 played
in the San Gabriel Valley.
Kathy is fielding well today at shortstop. Her glove seems to have a ball magnet
in it. As players for the next game arrive, two men are watching her field,
obviously surprised to see a woman at shortstop. As they watch her walk to her
position, one raises his eyebrows at the other, as if to say, “ surprise... And let’ s
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see ifshe can play. ” After Kathy easily completes another stellar play, one o f the
men in the stands, turns to his friend and comments incredulously, “ Did you see
that? “ No Ole!!"
Ole is a term used to refer to many inexperienced players tendency to try to field the ball
from the side and throw their glove up at it (as a bull fighter might wave his flag), rather
than correctly placing the body behind the ball. Another man, on 5/18/97, after watching
her make several stellar plays, commented appreciatively, “Oh my god she is human... ”
When she bobbled one. On another occasion (6/23/97), an umpire held up play while he
discussed her superlative ability with the scorekeeper, commenting, “ She can really
play... ” Hence while shock and surprise was registered when women performed as
experts, for men, anything less than expert performance left one vulnerable to castigation.
Value and Gender
Despite the presence of experienced and talented women, their ability was often
overlooked because of the public acknowledgment of specific types of contributions.
Softball is a recreational sport similar to professional baseball, hence it is hardly
surprising that what is considered exciting and valuable in baseball is also what is
considered valuable in softball. It appears evident that what is male or more likely to be a
male type contribution is more valued. In softball, offense is highly valued. However,
high for average hitting is generally less praised than distance and extra base hitting. In
one of the San Gabriel Valley leagues the valuation of extra base hitting and RBI’s was
clear. Each week a stat sheet was distributed which highlighted players of the week and
mentioned a game of the week. There were usually 20-30 players highlighted. Making
the list was based solely on home runs, extra base hits and RBI’s. Hence a player could
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go four for four, score all four times and still not make the list. If all the hits were singles
and no one was on base, then this player’s contribution was not specifically noted as
valuable. On the other hand, a male player could go one for four, with one grand slam
home run and he would make the list. Throughout the course of the study, clearly men
had more extra base hits. Not surprisingly then, the list consisted of mostly male players,
with an occasional female making the list. Indeed, I made the list once, only after hitting
a home run, a double, and picking up five RBI’s in the process. This was an aberrant
game for me and not my best game of the season. In other games I went four for four,
and scored all four times. Personally I take pride in my base-running and the fact that if I
get on base, I am likely to score. The league’s official measurement of what made one an
exceptional player ignored such criteria. In the season following the conclusion of the
study the league changed it’s criteria for player of the week to include for average hitting
and runs scored. After this change occurred, men and women made the list in similar
proportions. The tendency to value power hitting over for average hitting reflects a
higher valuation of contributions made by male players. The point of this discussion is to
demonstrate how what is valued can have a bias— it is not simply that which brings the
greatest return or provides the greatest contribution to the game. This tendency is
prevalent in the culture-at-large as well as men are socialized to perform in ways
consistent with the greatest social rewards. Because males are more likely to contribute
power hitting, valuing this type of contribution above for average hitting makes it seem as
if males are necessarily contributing more to a team’s offense. When compared to the
myriad of statistics used to summarize baseball players performance and the fact that the
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batting title goes to the highest for average hitter, it seems strange that for average hitting
was undervalued in softball. Understanding that comparing players’ averages often puts
the female players equal to or above male players makes this tendency clear. By valuing
power hitting, what is male is made to seem more important to the game, than any
contributions made by women. This undervaluing of things women do and things women
are more likely to do is the problem of emphasized femininity. No matter how valued
such things are, they are always less valued than, less normal than and less rewarded than
things done by men or things defined as male. Bridging this gap, as in the adjusted list, is
an important component in reducing gender inequality.
Bodies and Pleasure
Despite the differences in ability, individuals participating in coed softball share a
desire or belief that coed softball is a fun recreational activity. One would assume that
few people would chose to fill their free time with activities which they did not find
pleasurable. While one cannot ignore how ideologies shape leisure time participation and
how participation in sports is consistent with enactments of hegemonic masculinity
(Connell, 1986), this does not contradict the idea of sports as pleasurable. Rather it
reveals how pleasure is a social construct. For many individuals, participation in coed
softball provided a break from the pressure of their day to day lives. Take the following
example from a West Los Angeles game observed on 6/12/97. When queried about the
pressure of the game, one man responded, “Pressure... Pressure is two kids and no job...
This is a game... This is for fun. ” A second example comes from a repeated question
that Kathy and I parried back and forth between us throughout the study. She or I would
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often turn to the other and say, “Can you think o f a better way to spend a Sunday
afternoon? ” (Or a Monday evening depending on the day). The answer was always an
emphatic, “ Absolutely not. ” This enjoyment and pleasure has many prerequisites,
however. The ability for enjoyment in softball requires physical or corporeal abilities and
competencies. This involves the physical ability to execute necessary movements, a
mental understanding o f the game and a symbiotic relationship between body and mind.
Take as an example batting. My fieldnotes reveal the sheer physical satisfaction in a well
hit ball.
It is my turn to bat. I step up to the plate, keeping one foot out o f the batters box,
I survey the field fo r holes. Everyone is playing straight up, so I just have to
follow the pitch and hit the ball hard. I put my other foot in and take my normal
batting stance. I go through my usual ritual, which involves placing the bat over
the plate and visualizing the perfect strike making contact with my bat. I place the
bat deliberately on my shoulder. “ Keep your hands up- don’ t drop the back
elbow- step forw ard” I exhort myself. I watch the pitcher. He releases the ball.
All o f my focus is on the rotating orb. As it comes in it looks pretty good. I start
to step... No... It's going to be just a bit outside. I hold the bat back and watch it
landjust inches o ff the mat. It is ball one. I repeat my ritual. The next pitch
looks good. As I start to step it seems like the ball is coming in slow motion. I
can see the seams perfectly as they rotate towards me. There is the moment right
before you hit a ball well when you actually see the contact out in front o f you, but
it appears as if it is a future event, because everything is happening in slow
motion. My body follows my foot. It feels perfect. An effortless swing. I feel
weightless, andfree. My body rejoices in its ability to transfer it’ s momentum to
the little orb. The bat hits the ball just right. Thwack Perfect- is the only thought
I have. I feel my momentum carrying me towardfirst, digging hard to accelerate,
not waiting for the brain’ s command. Later after I score, Steve comments, “Wow
you got all o f that one. ” “Yeah... It felt perfect... ” I respond. “ I know what you
mean... Like when the ball seems to be coming in slow motion... ” He smiles and
makes a swing gesture with his body. “ Just right. ” Obviously he knows exactly
what lam talking about.
Throughout the course o f the study, expert and intermediate players both demonstrated a
clear understanding of a particular experience of physical pleasure. Variations on the
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same conversation appeared numerous times, as players exclaimed, “Damn that felt
good,” referring to hitting, fielding or throwing a ball properly. Pleasure was increased
by a successful completion of the play, but pleasure was still experienced even if one did
not complete the play, or one’s well hit ball was caught. For example, after lining out at
the end of the Summer Season in 1997 in Center City, Micki commented ruefully,
“ Damn, but that felt good... ” She paused and shrugged, “ At least I hit it hard. ” For the
novice players, this type of pleasure is necessarily precluded by the fact that they cannot
hit the ball in this way because they lack the physical ability, coordination, and mental
and corporeal schemata to do so. Much of these abilities come from experience and
instruction, which the novice players lack. This is not to imply that novices do not enjoy
their participation in the game. Clearly, Kate, one of the novice players in the preceding
examples observed in West L.A., enjoyed her participation. She would skip and jump to
her position, laugh and joke with teammates, opponents and umpires and even when
benched had a smile on her face. But she is precluded from a particular type of
enjoyment, both physical and mental, which entails abilities and understandings only
achieved through repeated practice and years of experience. Because experience is
gendered, women often lack the abilities necessary to access this form of pleasure.
Hence, limiting women’s involvement in sports denies them an important cultural
experience of bodily pleasure.
Overview
Coed softball is a recreational activity. This fact is reinforced by those who officiate
the games, primarily umpires. At the same time, softball is a sub-world in which
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dramatic events play out as mini-stories. While there are many examples of coed sports
participation, dominant representations of sports tend to be of single sex events. Coed
softball provides an excellent example of how on the participatory level, the assumption
of single sex sport is inaccurate. Because sports are gendered, however, the meaning of
sports participation and success at sports is different for men and women. These factors
along with differential access to resources and negative stigmatizations of female athletes
make it more likely for men to have had more experience with particular types of sports.
These differences in experiences and abilities by gender should not be confused with
“natural" abilities by gender. Further, these differences are not as large as ideologies of
male physical superiority would have one believe. While there were few male novices
observed, there was more overlap in ability between men and women than difference.
This was especially true of for average hitting and infield play. The effects of gendered
ideologies on practice-- and the effects of practice on ability— cannot be ignored, the
inaccuracies of these ideologies as demonstrated by many player’s abilities provide
strong evidence that gender gaps are closing. The meanings of performances were
gendered, however. The differential appreciation of ability by gender reinforced
gendered ideologies. As revealed by my observations, female players who demonstrate
intermediate ability were considered “good,” whereas male participants of intermediate
ability were not.
Gender significantly effects individuals’ leisure experiences, assessments by others
(and therefore of the self) and the structure of opportunity. Given the structure of the
game and the dominance of ideologies of gender difference in the construction o f the
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realm of the fathomable, negotiating equality of opportunity is a complex task. How do
players negotiate this paradoxical situation in which inequality must be assumed in order
to create equality of opportunity? How are gendered practices, behaviors and ideologies
reproduced, challenged and negotiated in this context? How does this play out on the
field? The following three chapters explore how gender is reproduced, challenged and
negotiated in the context of coed softball.
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Chapter 4- The Reproduction of Gender
I t’ s a balmy Wednesday evening in West Los Angeles. Animal House is facing it's
primary rival, Latin Connection. Latin Connection is a primarily Latin team.
There is one Asian man today and as with all teams, ethnic composition varies
from game to game. They have played in this league fo r several years. Latin
Connection is in first place and has only lost to one team, but it’ s Animal House,
in third and rising fast. Latin Connection has men playing pitcher, shortstop, left
field, center field and right field, while placing their five women at first base,
second base, third base, rover and catcher. When Animal House begins batting, it
becomes clear that the women on Latin Connection are expected to defer to the
male fielders. In the first inning during Animal House's at bat, Kate hits a hard
ground ball to the shortstop. As soon as the ball is hit, the pitcher runs over to
first base, knocking the intermediate level first base person out o f his way. “ I ’ ll
take those..." He tells her. She gives him an annoyed look and a faint “ tch ”
escapes her clenched teeth. During the course o f the game, the pitcher covers for
the women at first, third, catcher and second, whenever possible. In the final
inning Animal House is down by one run. The first batter again, Kate, hits a ball
to the second base person. The pitcher breaks for first, but realizes that he won’ t
make it in time to take the throw and stops. The first base person had seen him
break however and had stopped about four feet shy o f the bag. Hence, no one is
covering the bag and Kate is safely aboard on what should have been an easy out.
Infuriated the male pitcher turns to her, “ You’ ve got to cover... What are you
doing... ” He exclaims exacerbated. The blame for the miscue is placed squarely
on her shoulders. Her body slumps and she looks down at her feet. When Animal
House goes on to score two to win the game, he glowers angrily at her. Two o f
her teammates, a woman and a man try to console her, “ it’ s OK, but you have to
cover... ” 614/91- Coed Wednesday Night League West Los Angeles
In the above example, the man apparently believes that he is superior to any of the
women at any position and he thus feels entitled to usurp their positions at any time. Two
assumptions appear to underlie his actions. First, that the goal is victory- to be achieved
at all costs. Second, that a male player always has a better chance of making a play than a
female. Both assumptions are questionable. Is victory more important than the
recreational experience? Given that the prize for a championship is a t-shirt and a trophy,
the experience itself clearly outweighs potential rewards. In the second case, a player
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sprinting from one position to another is very disruptive because he potentially blocks
fielder’s views of plays and throws. Further, having observed this man on many
occasions (he played in both West Los Angeles leagues), I can say that this game was not
an anomaly. He consistently took women’s plays, even when they were intermediate
level or above. By contrast, he never covered for male infielders regardless of ability.
Because he did this indiscrimanently, his actions imply that any male is superior to any
female player and that the goal of victory outweighs issues of participation or recreation.
While he was the most blatant offender, other men appropriated women’s plays as well,
especially in the outfield and at the plate. When a miscue occurred, one which arguably
was as much his fault as hers, he was able to verbally lay blame solely on her. It is true
that one should always cover his or her position, yet it is likely that his consistent
coverage led her to assume her primary responsibility was to get out of the way. Their
teammates maintain the myth by scolding her for failing to cover, while never accusing
him of having precipitated the incident by continually covering other female players’
positions.
Given the role of sport in constructing, perpetuating and maintaining ideologies of
male physical superiority and the concomitant practices and public displays which
support these ideologies (Connell, 1989; Crossett, 1990; Kimmel, 1990), it is not
surprising that in a game designed to promote equality of opportunity, ideologies of
gender difference and male physical superiority continue to flourish. Part of the problem
lies in the paradox created such that in the legislation and enforcement of equality of
opportunity, gender difference and male physical superiority are unquestioned
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assumptions which underlie the structure of the game. The focus of this chapter is the
ways that participants in co-ed softball reproduce dominant ideologies of male physical
superiority, so prevalent in American sports culture (Cahn, 1994; Cole, 1993; Crosset,
1994; Fine, 1987; Kimmell, 1994; Lorber, 1994; Messner, 1994), despite the valuing of
equality of opportunity. This chapter explores how these “common sense” assumptions
of gender difference and male physical superiority are reproduced in 1) the formal rules,
2) the authority structure, 3) players5 expectations of others, 4) players5 actions; and 5)
discourse or what players say.
The Gendered Rule Structure
In Chapter 4 ,1 discussed how gender and ability are conflated in rules which negotiate
the paradox created by needing to provide equality of opportunity within a system which
presumes difference. In this Chapter, I focus on how sometimes the resulting rule
primarily reproduces gendered ideologies, practices, and bodies.
Courtesy Runners and Gender
Gender and ability are conflated in the coed courtesy runner rule. The courtesy
runner rule permits that a courtesy base runner of the same sex may replace a base runner,
generally the last out of the same sex (SCMAF, 1997). While SCMAF allows one
courtesy runner per inning, all o f the leagues observed had an additional league rule
which allowed for two courtesy runners per game. This means that any two batters could
have a courtesy runner in all of their at bats. Once both courtesy runners are employed,
even if someone else is injured, no courtesy runner may be used. A complete substitution
for a player is still allowed. Courtesy runners were generally used if a player is sore or
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injured, or simply inordinately slow. By requiring only that the base runner be of the
same sex, the rule makes it appear as if all men and all women are equivalent base
runners. Ultimately, the rule is designed to protect female base runners from being
replaced with male courtesy runners. If the rule simply stipulated that the replacement
base runner should be the last out, then female base runners might be replaced by male
courtesy runners when these women might not have been replaced were a female runner
assigned. Considering the two courtesy runners per game limit, however, restrictions on
gender seem unnecessary. Since only two batters can have courtesy runners, if the last
out (as opposed to the last out of the same gender) were designated as the courtesy runner
there would be no ostensible difference. While it is true that a team could save its
courtesy runners for the last inning and then use them to put in stronger base runners for
weaker ones, there is no reason to assume that all male base runners are more skilled,
faster than and/or more valuable than all female base runners. For adult leagues, age,
weight, experience and injury seem to be more of a factor in speed than gender. The
assumption which underlies the gendering of this and many other rules is that there is
something that makes all men’s bodies different from all women. There are numerous
examples o f cultural myths about the content of these differences. The wide range of
cultural variation would suggest that these differences are at the very least social
constructions of biological predilections. Within Western culture, difference always
implies hierarchy (Foucault, 1970). Given the long history of ideologies o f male physical
superiority (Lorber, 1994; Sennett, 1994), it is hardly surprising that conceptions of
“equality” in coed sports contain similar assumptions. “True” equality would imply that
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male and female players were of equivalent value. Hence, by asserting that all male and
all female players are equal only to those of their own gender, ideologies of difference are
reproduced at the expense of equal valuation of female ability. This is particularly
exemplified in the two base walk rule.
The Two Base Walk: Validation of Male Ability
The two base walk rule appears to primarily reproduce ideologies of male physical
superiority by actually endowing male players with greater potential for offensive
contributions. The two base walk rule states that, “A male batter who is walked on four
consecutive balls with no strikes thrown during his time at bat or intentionally walked
prior to any pitches, shall be awarded second base.” (SCMAF, 1995, 1997). Other
leagues have variations on the rule including the variation that when a male batter walks
on four consecutive balls, the following female batter has the option o f being awarded
first base. The purpose of this rule is to discourage pitchers from walking male batters to
pitch to the supposedly less dangerous female batters in crucial game situations. No rule
exists to deter a pitcher from walking a woman who hits very well in order to next pitch
to a man who does not.
While the intent of the rule is to create “fairness” the underlying assumptions are
flawed. At the first advisory board meeting for the Winter of 1998 season in Center City,
board members, the league director and the coordinator of adult sports agreed that the rule
was good because it “let the women participate.” They compared the rule to the variation
in which the woman is also allowed first base if a man is walked with no strikes being
delivered, specifically noting how this is done in Santa Monica, a neighboring league.
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Certainly when one compares these two rules, the first allows more participation. In
almost all game situations, no team would tolerate a batter giving up a free pass, unless
the game was already decided. But even in the second rule, equity is not achieved
because people identified as being of different genders are allowed different advantages,
regardless of actual ability. The line of reasoning works like this. Men are superior
hitters. Therefore, they are more likely to be walked in crucial game situations so that a
pitcher can face the less dangerous female batter. In order to ensure that the male batter
has a chance to “get a hit,” unless he is thrown one strike, he is awarded two bases. This
is not seen as an advantage, because it is already assumed that men are advantaged.
While it is true that more men are advantaged by greater experience, it is presumed that it
would be unfair to play “straight up.” The rule is not designed to equalize female
offensive contributions, but rather to guarantee the continuation of this inequity.
There are two problems with this rule. First, this creates a situation in which male
batters become more valuable than female batters. If a male batter walks on four straight
pitches, he automatically receives one more base than a female batter. The rule could just
as easily state that any batter walked on four straight balls receives two bases. While this
would put a great deal of pressure on pitchers, it would alleviate the extra valuation of
male batters. Second, league officials assume that the rule is designed to ensure female
participation. It is unclear how walking a male batter to pitch to a female batter inhibits
female participation. It seems more likely that the rule was designed to ensure greater
male offensive participation, by forcing pitchers to provide better pitches to male batters.
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The enforcement of the rule reveals how it benefits male batters at the expense of pitchers
and female batters.
The intentional walk does not come into play in softball very often. During this
observation period, I observed no instances in which a man was intentionally given the
two base walk and only two instances in which a male batter was clearly intentionally
walked after one strike was thrown. Pitchers do however, often try to “pitch around” very
strong hitting players regardless o f sex in tight game situations. This does not reflect the
sex of the batter, but rather the skill. Take the following example from my fieldnotes
from a Center City Game on 7/7/97.
We are the second place team, one game behind the team we are playing, High
Fidelity. Though we have had a decent leadfor most o f the game, we are playing
conservatively, knowing that they could still come back Late in the game they
have two runners on and one o f their most consistent male hitters at the plate.
Our pitcher, Gordon Park starts him out with an inside ball. The next pitch looks
a bit deep, but just nicks the back o f the mat fo r a strike. As soon as it hits, the
batter groans audibly. He looks disgusted with himself and he looks hopefully at
Gordon, pleading for another hitable pitch. He clearly knows that with two
strikes on him (remember Center City starts the batter with a 0-1 count) and no
threat o f a two base walk he will receive marginal at best pitches. Gordon
throws him three very close pitches... All o f them deep balls. The last pitch he is
clearly trying to throw a marginal strike, as he exclaims, “ oh god... ” when he
releases it, realizing that it is too deep. The batter tosses his bat to the side and
ruefully jogs down to first. Later several novice and low-intermediate level
women on the team refiise to engage in the post game hand slap with Gordon,
saying angrily, “he walked him on purpose... That’ s poor sportsmanship..." The
batter, however, does shake his hand, he knows how the game is played. Later I
asked Gordon i f he wanted to walk him. “ No... O f course not, ” he replied
chagrined, “ I wanted to give him marginal pitches, and I just missed. ”
While the low numbers of intentional walks would seem to suggest that the rule is an
effective deterrent, the latent functions of the rule are more deleterious than the potential
benefits. The most noticeable consequence of the rule is that it puts undue pressure on
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pitchers when male batters are up. The rule is most commonly invoked when a pitcher
simply loses control and walks a male batter on four straight balls. Speaking as a pitcher,
it is extremely frustrating to see a momentary loss of control translate into a two base
mistake, whereas had the situation been the same, but the batter female, the mistake
would only have cost one base. Take the following example from one of the two teams in
the San Gabriel Valley on 10/20/97.
It is the last inning, tie score and they are the home team. Janey has been
pitching great all game. Now with two outs and runners on second and third, she
is struggling to throw strikes. Their batter is a small man, who is a very mediocre
hitter. We have a good chance o f getting him out and forcing extra innings.
Janey walks him on four straight pitches, none o f which miss being strikes by
more than two inches It almost looks like she is trying to get as close to the mat as
possible, without hitting it. After the fourth ball, he jogs to first, raising his arms
and cheering. Because men get two consecutive bases on a no strike walk, the
runner is pushed across the plate and they win.
As noted in the above example, our pitcher clearly did not want to walk the male batter,
she simply lost control and this loss of control cost us the game. Because of this
discrepancy, the rule ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy by making male
batters more valuable than female batters for the simple reason that if a man walks on
four straight, he is automatically in scoring position. Scoring position refers to batters
being on second or third base. This is considered scoring position because a good runner
“should be” able to score from second on a single. If a man walks on four balls and no
strikes with two runners on base, one scores. Hence, a rule designed to promote gender
equity, actually creates an inequitable situation which makes male offensive play more
valuable than female play. In this way the myth of male physical superiority is reaffirmed
by ensuring that male hitters are of greater value to a team than female hitters. This
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demonstrates how female participation can be inhibited by the rule. Had the man only
received a one base walk, a female batter would have come up with bases loaded and a
chance to win the game. Because he was granted a two base walk, the game was over and
the on-deck woman was denied an opportunity to win the game for her team. By
assuming that equality requires differential legislation by gender, ideologies of male
physical superiority are reproduced. Because the rule endows male players with greater
offensive potential in particular situations, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in which
male players are granted greater offensive potential and their opportunities to display this
potential in tight game situations is protected. In this way the myth of male physical
superiority is built in to the offensive rule structure of the game.
The Rules and Reproductions of Conservative Ideologies
Despite the fact that the rules are designed to promote equity and fairness, gendered
assumptions which underlie the rules sometimes defeat this purpose. While coed softball
creates equal opportunities for women to participate, the rules often reproduce
conservative assumptions about gender. It is assumed that in order to provide equality of
opportunity, difference must be taken into account. Only gender differences are treated in
this way, as differences in size, strength, experience, age and ability are not. Imagine the
controversy if such a rule legislated race. What if it was presumed that African-
American’s are faster runners and therefore all African-American batters who walked
received two bases. Such a rule would be understood as blatantly racist. While these
rules may provide equality of opportunity in some instances, often the rules do not
necessarily aid female participants. Because the rules were gendered when similar gender
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neutral rules could be enacted, sometimes the rules actually assisted male participants by
assuming greater male ability must be taken into account. Instead of eradicating the
effects of different abilities by gender, whether biological or culturally produced, the
rules reproduce ideologies of physical difference. If one considers the rules discussed in
the previous chapter, as well as the rules discussed above, ideologies of gender difference
and male physical superiority are reproduced primarily in three ways.
♦ The rules legislate gender in a way which reproduces ideologies of gender
difference. By requiring equal numbers of male and female participation, the
rules reproduce gender as a meaningful social marker of difference. All men are
considered roughly equivalent, as are all women.
♦ The rules assume that regardless of talent, gender determines a player’s ability.
Rules, such as the 160 foot arc and rover requirements, build assumptions of
inferior female ability into the structure of the game. These requirements can
hinder some, especially expert women.
♦ The rules, specifically the two base walk rule, make some offensive male
contributions to the game more valuable than female offensive contributions.
Hence, ideologies of male physical superiority are reinforced and legitimated.
A paradox emerges between ideologies of equal opportunity and natural difference, such
that in situations in which equal opportunity is espoused, natural difference is presumed.
The rules claim to be providing equality of opportunity given that there exist natural or
historical sex differences. Dominant ideologies about gender which shape social
experience are reproduced in the institutionalized structure of the game, such
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reproductions make equality of opportunity impossible. The simultaneous valuing of
equality in a system in which equality is rendered impossible by the very structure of the
game is paralleled in many other aspects of North American culture. Affirmative action
debates often contain similar assumptions and problems. In addition to the rule structure,
gendered authority structures often acted to reproduce gendered ideologies.
Who’s in Charge? Authority and Gender
Within the structure of coed softball there are some positions of authority or power.
There are three levels of authority. League Organization and control is the first level.
This consists primarily of league officials and employees. In addition, some leagues have
advisory boards of players and managers. While having no designated power or
authority, these boards act as representatives of the players’ interests in league affairs.
Second, there are individuals responsible for controlling the actual game taking place.
These individuals include umpires, scorekeepers, and managers. Finally, there is the
organization and control of the players on the field. This is usually influenced by the
manager’s designation of field positions and refers primarily to key field positions which
control the tempo and structure of the game, and direct the movement of players and the
ball around the field. Similar to the world of politics and work (Amott & Matthaei, 1991;
Connell, 1987; McKay, 1997; Nelson, 1994), the majority of individuals in these
positions of control are male.
League Administration
In all of the leagues observed all but two of the individuals responsible for
administering and running the leagues were male. One of the two women observed lasted
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less than half of a season in her post as director of adult sports7 , the other woman, though
in a supervisory position, was fourth in the chain of command of the most poorly run of
the five leagues. While I do not profess to have a simple random sample, it is striking
that in five leagues with a total of more than ten administrators, only one woman retained
her position throughout the study period. All of the men retained their positions but one.
He was not fired, however, but quit to pursue a more lucrative career in real estate. While
these people are often not in direct contact with the adults participating in coed softball,
they do set the rules and policies to which participants must adhere. Further, these
individuals are the ones to whom complaints, official protests and concerns must be
brought.
Only one observed league had an advisory board. The advisory board consisted of
team managers. Since there are few female team managers it was hardly surprising that
during the observation period, I was the only female member of the advisory board. The
exclusion of women from these positions meant that often issues which confront women,
including sexism, were overlooked. Incidences which occurred included the initial
choosing of a t-shirt design which only featured male athletes (after I protested a gender
free design was adopted), assertions that particular rules are necessary because all women
are inferior softball players, numerous snide remarks about women’s inferior abilities and
the lesser nature of coed softball in comparison to the men’s game. The value of voice in
this sub-world parallels the problems and struggles over representation and coalitional
politics in the culture at large (Harraway, 1997). Without representation at all levels
issues that primarily affect specific sub-groups are often marginalized, ignored,
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dismissed, or simply unnoticed. If those with the institutional power to set rules adhere
to dichotomous gender ideologies, it would be surprising if the enforcement of rules did
not reflect this. I will return to this point later in the chapter.
Umpires
The second type o f control is on-field control. Umpires are the primary agents of
control on the field. They are the enforcers, arbitrators and interpreters of the rules of the
game. They have the last word on any designated play, the authority to eject players and
spectators, and they determine if a game occurs or continues. Though bound by the rules,
umpires have considerable leeway in their interpretations. During the observation period,
only three female umpires were observed. Two of these women were only observed once
each and then disappeared from the league. One woman was observed on more than one
occasion. Since she works for a league which runs four game simultaneously, she was
observed officiating on any of the four fields, two of which were reserved for men’s
games with the two remaining being coed games. The almost complete exclusion of
women from umpiring reproduced dominant ideologies o f males as authorities in sports
in three ways.
♦ Because the officials or experts on the game were male, the idea of male authority
was normalized. Women’s exclusion from this position made it appear simply as
if men were the authorities on rules and that only men had the expert knowledge
to be rule enforcers.
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♦ Male umpires often expressed and reproduced conservative ideologies about
gender in the ways in which they officiate games. This was most apparent in how
they chose to enforce rules.
♦ On occasion, male umpires sexualized female players. In such cases female
athletes were treated markedly differently than the male athletes present. This
included their interactional style with women, assumptions about women, and
even behaviors similar to sexual harassment.
In the first case, the simple exclusion of women from the role of umpire made it seem
as if women were not appropriate for umpiring. The exclusion of women from this role
created an environment in which conservative beliefs about gender went unchallenged.
This was manifest in both how the umpires enforced rules and styles of interaction with
female players. In the case of rule enforcement, umpires often interpreted the rules to
“protect” female players from injury and to “give the benefit o f the doubt” to female
fielders. These points will be discussed in depth later in this chapter. In the case of
interaction with women, umpires often interacted in stereotypically gendered ways.
These included: 1) giving instruction; 2) friendly admiration; 3) flirting; and 4) touching.
Giving Instruction- Umpires spent most of the game in close proximity with the catcher,
who as discussed in the preceding chapter, was often a novice woman. Umpires
frequently gave instructions on catching, throwing, moving and where to stand to these
women. While some novice women found this useful as noted in Chapter 3, the problem
was that not all the women receiving instructions were novices. Male players, even when
in need of instruction, did not receive it from the umpires unless there was a dispute.
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Several women commented to me that they understood the umpire’s intent was to be
helpful, but that they found the instruction demeaning. Micky, a player in the Center City
league commented that she found it “ demeaning and distracting.” On 11/18/96 the
umpire says to Micky after a routine catch in the outfield, “ Micky did you catch that?
Good girl. ” Later he gives her pointers on batting. She commented, “ He would never say
that to a man. ” This demonstrates the complexity of the situation, for the novice women
the instruction was useful, for the experienced women, it was demeaning. Umpires were
never observed giving instruction on the basics of the game to any men during the
observation period. Umpires were observed discussing rules or strategy with male
players, but this was generally in reference to a particular play (or lack thereof) or rule
interpretation.
Friendly Admiration- Umpires often payed friendly admiration to more experienced
female athletes. In this case the umpire usually acknowledged that the woman was
experienced and complimented her on her play. One umpire in Center City frequently
smiled at me and winked saying, “ well I know you know this but... " Or, “ wellyou
understand the game so... ” On 6/2/97, he asked, “ How many leagues do you play in?
Cause I know it’ s more than one... ” , implying that he recognized me as someone who
frequently played. In this case some women were being accepted and recognized as
softball afficionados. Men, however, were assumed to have this level of competence.
Umpires did not make the same type of indication to the men that they are in the “in”
group, but simply discussed the game. Umpires did express admiration of exceptional
male plays. For example, umpires frequently marveled over exceptional hits, or diving
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catches. The line for admiration was much higher for men than women. Competence
was sometimes considered worthy of comment for female players. Further, sometimes
friendly admiration of female play was a form of flirting.
Flirting- Often, umpires adopted the typical gender banter one commonly calls flirting.
When this occurred, the umpire was invoking stereotypical gendered behavior. While
often the umpires are being complimentary and pleasant, the sexual undertone to flirting
invokes gender in a situation which put the female player at a disadvantage. Analogous
to grey area issues in work related sexual harassment cases, it is unclear where the
proverbial line is crossed. The problem is that this familiar type of relationship may be
unwanted. To not joke or respond to the flirting may result in not “getting the benefit of
the doubt” on a later call. Such relationships often have ambiguous meaning between
men and women and can be differentially interpreted. When a Center City umpire said to
me on 7/14/97, “ Oh girl, let me see that sexy tattoo on your leg" during a game, really I
felt as if I had no choice but to reveal the rest of my half covered tattoo. Another woman
in her mid twenties on the Center City team complained to me that the umpire’s constant
flirting distracted her from the game. Because women are socialized to “be nice,”
(Henley, 1978; Kessler & McKenna, 1974), they are often at a disadvantage when
unwelcome attention takes this form. Often friendly admiration was used as a means to
begin flirting and took the form of compliments for good play. Umpires were heard
making comments like, “ Nice play Micky, lean tell you've been practicing... "and “ Good
job. Look what you can do. " This was frequently used as an entre to further
conversation. As noted above, the underside is that often excessive compliments are
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distributed for what many women consider average play. In this case the umpire seemed
to be complimenting the woman, but he was also undermining her competence by making
routine plays seem worthy o f notice. Moreover, the umpires’ flirting represents an
assumption of heterosexuality. While umpires often chatted with male players, the
conversational style was noticeably different. Generally these conversations revolved
around game happenings or other sports.
Touching- The umpires sometimes touched female players. Touch and the right to
touch is intimately tied to power relations (Henley, 1977). During a Center City Game
7/14/97, an umpire came over to me and began feeling my hair under the pretext of
adjusting my hat. I felt slightly sickened by the whole encounter. On other occasions
umpires were witnessed patting women on the butt with the bat, giving players a
“squeeze” (place one arm round shoulders and give a slight squeeze or a half hug), and
grabbing hands. While these were relatively rare incidents, there presence was still
problematic because it put female players in the uncomfortable position of having to
accept the behavior or risk censure. No umpire was observed touching a man other than
incidentally. Because umpires were in a position of power, both as arbitrators of the
game and as men, they have the authority and power to touch, whereas the female players
do not have the same free reign to touch back (Henley, 1977). This demonstrates the
complexity of gender relations and the effects of power, gender and sexuality on the
quality of experience available to participants. It was not so much that umpires had
significant power over participants and could engage in serious abuses of power, rather, it
was issues of touch. While not serious violations of personal space, such small violations
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are indicative of larger abuses of power relations in the larger culture. Part of what makes
such relations salient, is the marking of differences between men and women and the
meanings ascribed to such “differences.” Umpires sometimes constructed stereotypes of
gender difference, even when actual behavior was gender neutral.
Coding Female Behavior as Feminine
Umpires reinvoked gender stereotypes by coding gender neutral behavior as gender
specific. The most common example involved coding gender neutral clothing or
accouterments as gendered. For example, watches are not supposed to be worn during
games. Many umpires did not strictly enforce this rule, but others did. Because time
could be a factor in the game, many players preferred to wear watches. On several
occasions, umpires asked players to remove their watches. If the player was a woman,
umpires often ascribed gender as a determinant of the incident. For example during a
game in the San Gabriel Valley played on 7/21/96 the umpire commented, “ OK, I know
you ladies like to wear jewelry, but you have to take it off... " In this case the umpire was
referring to a black plastic Casio sports watch. This example was frequently repeated.
When umpires joke about women’s propensity for jewelry in reference to sports watches
they were ascribing gender to a gender neutral situation and recreating and reaffirming
ideologies of difference where no difference existed. On another occasion the umpire in a
San Gabriel Valley league (8/11/96) joked about a woman being a “dancing girl” when
she gracefully stepped out of the way of a bad pitch about to hit her. In this case the
woman did give a neat little turn to avoid the ball, but calling her “dancing girl” both
sexualized and infantilized her female body habitus. In so doing, the umpire stigmatized
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her body’s incongruence with dominant norms of athleticism. Her movement was
marked, only because it did not fit into the normally defined movement of softball. This
defines all bodies which are congruent with dominant norms of femininity as inferior in
the sporting world and delegitimates ways of moving more common to “female
appropriate” sports and leisure activities. On another occasion, during a Center City
game on 6/23/97, an umpire suggested that the catcher, a woman, should be named
“player of the game” for playing hurt. Her injury was a broken finger nail. The
stereotypes of femininity invoked by these umpires imply a lack of seriousness or
frivolity, as in the presence of extraneous jewelry, the fun of dance and body adornment.
This was congruent with Victorian stereotypes of middle class femininity and operated in
conjunction with ideologies of feminine frailty and weakness to limit the experiences and
roles to which women had/have access (Brownmiller, 1984). Icons of femininity were
presented as problematic and even threatening, as in the unwanted and potentially
injurious presence of jewelry. In this way the feminine influence on sport was still
mythologized as dangerous and undesirable. Neither the bodily trappings, nor the bodily
enactments of femininity were welcome according to the enforcers of the rules. This
limits the influences of alternative norms and ways of being within the sub-world.
Because the umpires were in a position of power, their practices and actions reflected and
reproduced these ideologies as normal or common sense. This normalization of
ideologies and practices reflects the exercise of power (Foucault, 1979). Similarly,
gender norms are reproduced in a forum in which they might otherwise be challenged.
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Managers
Managers are authorities who determine a limited set of game events and are held
responsible by the league for control of players on the field. Generally managers decide
who should play where, designate the batting order and act as a representative between
umpires, the league and his/her team. This is made evident by the fact that managers can
be held accountable for players’ behaviors to the point of ejection for failure to control
players. The manager is responsible for knowing the rules, including special rules which
may only apply to that particular diamond. During the observation period there were
considerably more male managers than female managers- this has implications outside of
just control of the game. Manager meetings were held at the beginning of the season.
Often during these meetings decisions regarding league policy are set. Because most
leagues have primarily men’s and coed teams and because only a few of the coed
managers are women, women rarely have a voice in these policies. Mirroring high school
and college athletics (Acosta & Carpenter, 1996), I encountered several men who have
managed women’s or girls recreational teams, but have not encountered any women who
have managed men’s teams. Overall this contributes to male dominance of the
recreational sports scene.
Informal Authority: Men as Strategists. Base-coaches and Experts
Men were much more likely to occupy positions of authority which dictate rules and
strategy throughout the course of this study. While men were perceived as experts, this
was often a misperception. Male players were often observed giving incorrect and
inappropriate advice and strategy to female players. One example which occurred
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frequently involved base runners. When a runner is on first base with less than two outs
and a ball is hit at mid-to-shallow depth to the outfield, basic strategy dictates that the
runner should go halfway between first and second base and wait to see if the ball is
caught. If the ball is caught it is unlikely a runner will successfully tag from first to
second, but if the ball is dropped and the runner has stayed at first, he or she is a likely
out at second. The exception to this is when the ball is hit very deep, but is likely to be
caught as the fielder was playing deep. This is the only time when a runner should be
looking to tag from first to second. Different strategies apply for runners on second or
third. On numerous occasions inexperienced male base-coaches yelled at female base
runners to tag, or to “go” at inappropriate times. While players often knew to ignore the
advice, on other occasions, players did not have a clear view of plays and relied on base-
coaches to direct movement. In addition, novice women were generally told specifically
to listen to base-coaches. When these women were thrown out while listening, they
generally blamed themselves, as opposed to poor base-coaching.
Further, the male players assumed that they knew the correct strategy and rules of the
game well enough to instruct female teammates even if the woman they were instructing
had many more years of softball experience. An example from my fieldnotes illustrates
this. During a Center City game on 2/23/97 the following transpired.
Micky is on third base with one out. The next batter, Steve, hits a high pop up.
Micky, familiar with basic strategy, correctly heads back to third base to tag up
and score. As she comes back to the bag, Ehran, the male base-coach yells at her
to go halfway and physically pushes her down the third base line, away from the
base. The ball is caught easily and because Mickey is o ff the base, there is
insufficient time for her to tag up and score. She would have scored easily i f she
had been allowed to tag up as was her initial instinct. Later she comments to me
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that she knew she was being improperly instructed, but simply did not feel like or
have time to argue.
The correct strategy in this situation is to wait and tag up. If the ball is missed a runner
will score easily from third and if it is caught, the runner should be tagging up
immediately so that he/she can score. With three years of high school experience and
several years in slow-pitch leagues, Micky was a much more experienced player. Her
attempt to correctly execute the strategy was thwarted by the less experienced, but more
confident male base-coach. It did not occur to the male base-coach that she might know
more about the strategies of the game and it was assumed that she must be instructed.
His willingness to physically force her to comply to his will is additionally problematic.
Conversational styles and broader social norms frequently contributed to males being
perceived as authorities by virtue of gender. Men and women are socialized into different
conversational styles in which men are given to a more authoritative voice, while, women
are socialized into more egalitarian forms of communication (Gilligan, 1982; Henley,
1977; Tannen, 1990). The result is that women like Mickey are ill-prepared to deal with
the more forceful and authoritative style used by many men. This is problematic in the
larger culture as well. In general, if men and women both conform to dominant cultural
norms of masculine and feminine behavior, the resulting body habitus leaves women at a
disadvantage in terms of authoritative displays. Ehran was so secure in his authority, that
he physically imposed it on Mickey, who lacked the initial defenses to resist his literal
push in the “right” direction. Because sport has historically been defined as male space
and because success at sports contributes to hegemonic associations, his greater stake in
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authority contributes to the reproduction of ideologies of male ability through enactment.
Women’s omission from both formal and informal positions of authority denies women
the opportunity to experience and shape these roles and to publically demonstrate
competence and expertise.
Women’s exclusion from positions of authority was hardly surprising. Until very
recently women were completely excluded from positions of authority in most areas of
life, including, the family, politics, culture and art, and the labor market (Connell, 1987;
Faludi, 1991; Kanter, 1977; Lorber, 1994; Nochlin, 1988; Tavris, 1992). Internationally,
men control most o f the World’s wealth and hold most of the World’s governmental and
legislative positions of consequence (Connell, 1987; Faludi, 1991; Lorber, 1994; Tavris,
1992). Within sports, women’s lack of authority is best exemplified by the tragic loss of
positions for female coaches following the colonization of the AIAW by the NCAA
(Cahn, 1994; Morrison; 1993; Theberge, 1993). Until very recently the IOC was almost
entirely male and this was reflected in the gross disparity between the number of men’s
and women’s events and policies which inhibited and limited women’s participation
(Cahn, 1994; McKay, 1997). Similar to ideologies about race which have excluded
African-American men from positions of leadership in sport, ideologies about gender
keep women out of similar positions (Sage, 1990), even at the recreational level. This
exclusion has traditionally been supported by ideologies of women’s biological and
physical inferiority. Over the last 150 years, sports have played an important role as a
cultural representation of women’s supposed physical inferiority and as a vehicle to
mythologize traits associated with hegemonic masculinity, capitalism, and patriotism
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(Connell, 1987; Rigauer, 1981; Sage, 1996). While men are supposed to demonstrate
aggression, competition and teamwork in sport, one wonders why authors like Carroll
(1986) feel that women’s humanist values, tenderness, capacity to nurture and
compassion are a threat to “the military and political values inherent in sport.” Women’s
exclusion is actually the exclusion o f a set of specific ideologies culturally associated
with femininity. This association is supported by the enforcement of gendered practices
which literally make these traits material through embodiment (Butler, 1993; 1990). The
delegitimation of these traits contributes to the exclusion of women from positions of
authority in sports, even recreational adult sports leagues. This exclusion reenforces
ideologies of male authority. Similarly, alternative ideologies and vales are excluded and
necessarily demeaned. This demonstrates how power reproduces conservative gender
ideologies at the expense of alternatives. The associations of some types of ideologies
with one gender or the other inhibits the promotion of ideologies associated with
femininity particularly in male-defined realms like sport.
Gendered Assumptions, Expectations and Ideologies
The Expectation that Men are Better Hitters than Women
The same assumptions which underlie gendered rules and authority structures were
reflected in peoples’ presumptions about men’s and women’s relative abilities and the
saliency of gender as a determinant and descriptor of ability. One such assumption was
that men were “better" hitters than women, or that men were responsible for a greater
proportion of the offensive contributions. This assumption was manifest in a number of
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strategies employed in the game. These were: 1) men should not try to take walks; 2)
women should try to take walks; and 3) men do not strike out.
Men Should Not Take Walks- In general, men were encouraged not to take walks,
sometimes even two base walks and were sometimes ridiculed when they did. For
example, during a game in the San Gabriel Valley on 6/9/96, after walking Steve on four
straight balls the pitcher watches him walk towardfirst and comments, This is chicken
shit... ” His comment indicated that he believed that men should not accept a walk,
despite the fact he just thrown four balls and no strikes to the batter8. On many other
occasions players indicated that they believed that a man taking a walk was behaving in
“unsportsmanlike” manner and that to take a walk makes one a “bad winner” (San Gabriel
Valley Game, 6/1/97). Ultimately, walking for men was perceived as unmanly. During
one game in a West L.A. league on 6/4/97, the batter announced that “ walking is for
girls ”and promptly popped up on what would have been ball four. On another occasion,
a man also popped up on ball four stating “walking is for postmen...” (Center City
League, 11/18/96). “Walking is for postmen” was a common phrase indicating that while
walking may be part of other’s job descriptions, a softball player wants to hit. While men
were occasionally encouraged to take two base walks in close game situations, they were
never encouraged to take one base walks. Interestingly, in several men’s games that I
observed, this was not the case. In men’s games, men were consistently encouraged to
and praised for taking walks, unless the game was a mismatch and clearly “over.”
Women Are Encouraged to Take Walks- By contrast, in coed games, women were
encouraged and sometimes instructed to take walks. Take the following example from
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my fieldnotes from West Los Angeles II (6/12/97), Late in the game it is close. The
manager o f Busload tells all o f the women on his team, “ take until you get two strikes
called... " The men are not given this exhortation. One team on 11/20/96 in West L.A. II
used all of the oft- repeated phrases used to instruct women on any occasion in which a
woman had three balls and less than two strikes. These include “ only take it i f it’ s
yours... " “ Take a look y o u ’ ve got room now... ” “ He (or she) has to come back to you two
more times... "and “ Make him work " Further, while men were often “given a green-light”
(to swing) by managers with a three ball, no strike count, women never were. Any
woman who swung at a three ball and no strike pitch was chastised. Men, by contrast
were given the benefit of the doubt. Once the possibility of a two base walk was
eliminated, it was frequently assumed that it was not useful for a man to take a walk. For
a woman, even if the ball was a strike, she was expected to try to “work the count” for a
walk. Overall, the assumption underlying this was that men are “better" hitters. Certainly
some men were “better” hitters than some women, but there were also many women who
were “better” hitters than most men. Of course, the issue of “better” must be addressed as
well. For example, during the Summer of 1997 in Center City Darren sometimes hit
home runs, yet he also popped up frequently. By contrast, two o f his teammates Kathy
and myself had batting averages over a hundred and fifty points higher, more RBI’s and
runs scored. In other seasons four out of seven women had higher batting averages than
four of seven male teammates. In the San Gabriel Valley Leagues most of the women
had similar levels of experience with judging balls and strikes, yet gender assumptions
consistently over-rode individual demonstrations of ability.
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Men Don’t Strike Out- Players tend to assume that men should not and do not strike out.
During the observation period, I witnessed every single man I played with on a consistent
basis strike out at least once.9 Overall, experienced men struck out no less often than
experienced female players. Men’s and women’s strike outs, however, were treated very
differently. Generally, when a man struck out he was teased by his teammates. For
example during a game in the San Gabriel Valley on 1/4/97, when Steve struck out the
team teases, ‘ W hat’ s up with that Steve?” Tomas asks. John jokes to Steve, you owe us
a case o f beer... " In particular this comment about owing a case of beer was heard
frequently when a man struck out. By contrast women were generally encouraged with
comments like “ You '1 1 get it next time. ” “ Come on now, hold your head up... ” “ It's O.K.
I t’ s alright. " During a game in Center City on 3/3/97 I observed two members o f the
opposition strike out, a man and a woman. Both seemed to be intermediate level players.
When the man struck out he was teased and told he owes a case o f beer, but when the
woman struck out, she was told, "you ’ 1 1 get them next time. " In this case both players had
equivalent levels of experience, yet they were treated very differently. This is indicative
of gendered expectations of sports performances and differential treatment by gender in
North American culture. While novice and expert players should be treated differently,
with novices receiving more encouragement, often gender and ability level were
conflated. If one teases expert players when they strike out, shouldn’t Kathy be teased?
On rare occasions this did happen. When it did not, it seemed almost odd and insulting.
If Darren strikes out, as an intermediate level player, shouldn’t he be encouraged?
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The frequent failure of strategies which involved gendered assumptions provided the
most compelling evidence against these types of assumptions. Many times high average
hitting women were instructed to “take until you have two strikes,” instead of being
trusted to “ hit their pitch.” By contrast, male teammates were given the discretion to
choose their pitch and sometimes “popped up” on what would have been ball four.
Forcing women to take pitches until they have two strikes often put good hitters at a
disadvantage, forcing them to take a good strike and possibly forcing them to have to
swing at a marginal pitch. It further limited their enjoyment o f the recreational sports
scene by severely restricting their ability to develop and display expertise.
Defensive Positioning and Assumptions of Male Offensive Superiority- Fielders
demonstrate the assumption that men are superior batters through defensive strategies.
When male batters came to the plate, fielders always stood at mid outfield depth, until the
man had proven that he was either a more or less powerful hitter. If a large man came up
to bat, outfielders would often say to each other, “back, back.” By contrast, all women
were played at the line, until they demonstrated that they could hit the ball with power.
Even then, often fielders continued to misjudge more powerful female hitters and position
themselves mindlessly at the rover arc. Strong women such as Mary, Que, and Jen, who
consistently hit the ball beyond the arc, were still often played there despite their
consistent demonstrations of ability. During the study period, no one fielded this shallow
on a man, even if he was considerably smaller and less skilled than many women.
In a similar way, male players reserved much of the glory for themselves by assuming
it is their responsibility to carry the team for the “weaker hitting females.” For example,
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during a Center City game on 9/16/96, Randy, an intermediate level male batter,
explained that he swung at and popped up ball four because with two runners on, two
outs, a full count and Carol up next, “because a walk wouldn’t do us any good.” He was
assuming that she is not going to get a hit or a walk and that he, therefore, must score the
runners. He assumed that as a man it was his responsibility to produce offense because
the women can’t and won’t. While Carol was a low-intermediate player, in her previous
at bat that game she had smacked a ball down the line for a single. His decision to forgo
the walk was based not on the quality of the pitch, or his seeing an opportunity. He
simply believed that no matter what he had to swing because a weaker hitting female was
up next. By swinging at what he knew to be ball four, Randy denied Carol the
opportunity to participate in an important offensive situation. This denied her full access
to the leisure experience.
These types of strategies create a situation in which women’s leisure remains
secondary to men’s. Women’s enjoyment in hitting was severely limited by these types
of strategies. If female players were more often instructed to try to take walks and to
even let hitable pitches pass, women’s enjoyment in participation is limited to a
secondary, less physical and less prestigious role. Just as women’s entrance into the
world o f work has often been restricted to the pink collar ghetto or inhibited by a glass
ceiling, women’s participation in softball was limited by similar assumptions that women
are inferior and are less likely to succeed. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As in
the example with Randy and Carroll, Randy’s failure precludes Carroll’s opportunity for
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success. Because it is assumed that she will fail, Randy’s failure was falsely interpreted
as a smart or necessary play.
The Expectation that Men are Better Defensive Plavers than Women
Men were assumed to be superior defensive players. This was exemplified by the
tendency for teams and players to prefer for male participants to take a play, even if
female players were also in position to do so. This occurred most frequently in the
outfield and at home plate. Male pitchers were generally assumed to be responsible for
covering home plate for the usually female catchers. Male pitchers were chastised for
failing to cover, even if the female catcher was in position to make the play. During most
games in which there was a male pitcher, it was assumed he would cover the plate. For
example during a game in the San Gabriel Valley on 11/3/96, the catcher was completely
uninvolved in the defense as the pitcher covered every potential play at the plate.
Throughout the study period, this type of position usurpation was the norm. If the pitcher
was male, it was more noteworthy when a female catcher was allowed to field a ball.
This occurred regardless of the female catcher’s ability.
This also occurred consistently in the outfield as it was assumed that if a man could
make the play, he should. During a West L.A. game on 11/20/96, after the female
outfielder called for a ball which was hit right at her, the nearest male outfielder told
her, “ NO I GOT IT. " Stepped right in front o f her and made the catch. Overall, male
outfielders were given the discretion to call off female outfielders and the instances in
which a woman called off a man were extremely rare. This is in direct violation of the
unofficial rules of calling for balls. Generally it is understood that if someone calls for a
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ball first, who ever “calls for it” has reserved the opportunity to attempt a catch. The
exceptions are that an outfielder always has discretion to call off an infielder (it is
assumed that on a fly ball a player moving forward has a better chance of catching a ball
than a player moving back), and the center fielder has the discretion to call off the other
outfielders. This reflected how ideologies of gender superceded the actual talents of
individuals involved.
Given these assumptions of male ability, all males, regardless of experience, were
expected to display a minimum level of competence in the field. In the last chapter, I
gave an example from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 4/13/97 in which Guy was
chastised for not “throwing like a man.” By contrast, females were assumed incompetent
until they proved otherwise. For example, on 6/23/97, our Center City opposition
discussed their impending victory after they spied females at the key positions of
shortstop and right field. We beat them handily. In the first example, the reality of the
male body failing to demonstrate superiority does not challenge norms of male physical
superiority in this situation. Rather, Guy’s body is presented as doing something out of
character, given his gender. It is assumed that male bodies should be capable, if they are
correctly enacting their gender. The flip side is true as well. If Guy is not “throwing like
a man...” he must be throwing “like a woman...” The assumption is that male bodies can
“naturally” perform the bodily aspects of sport, whereas for women this is not necessarily
the case. In the second example, my team’s opponents assume that because we have
females in key positions, we are likely to lose. They do not assume that these females are
competent. Given the history of assumptions of female physical inferiority (Sennett,
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1994; Lacquer, 1994), the ways in which similar ideologies were reproduced in these
situations was apparent. Despite visual evidence that not all men throw well and that
many women do, the assumptions that men can throw and women cannot remains a
common sense assumption in American culture. Men who cannot throw are not behaving
like "real men” whereas women who can are defying the limitations of "true”
womanhood. This structuring of normality reveals the machinations of power.
While frequently individuals were aware that men’s and women’s fielding was being
differentially evaluated, often they felt this was to women’s advantage. For example,
during a game I was observing in West L.A. II on 6/23/97, the following occurred.
There are two outs in a close game. A hard line drive is hit to the rover, Sylvia,
who is positioned in right center field. She moves to the ball uncertainly, glove
outstretched hopefully. She completes the play perfectly as the ball lands right in
her glove. Elated, she jumps up and down twice andjogs in smiling a little
sheepishly while her teammates cheer, “ that's my friend. " ‘ You go girl. ” She is
clearly someone who started as a novice player, but after gaining some
experience, is now a low intermediate level player. The man sitting next to me,
Abdur, glances at my notes and comments “ You should write about the gender
thing. I mean Bob over here..." He indicates the left fielder who is just setting
down his glove. “ He caught a ball and missed one... " Expert level Bob grins
sheepishly, “ But I should have had it... " Abdur continues, “ and he's going to hear
it at work all week... For the one he dropped. We ’ re really going to give him a
hard time... ” He pauses and grins wickedly at Bob. 'Yeah, I t’ s going to be a long
week... ”Bob agrees. “ But Sylvia caught one and missed one and she’ s going to be
congratulated all week... Is that fair? "Abdur asks.
“ But Bob is a much more experienced player... " I observe. “ Oh yeah that’ s true... "
Abdur agrees thoughtfully. “ Iplayed high school... ” Bob adds agreeably. “ But is
it fair? " Abdur continues, “ I mean they did the same thing. ”
Ultimately, Abdur was arguing that players should be evaluated on the plays that they do
or do not make, not on their sex. Abdur, however, by failing to acknowledge the
difference in the levels of the skill with which each individual came to the game, creates a
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situation in which stereotypes of women’s ability as poor are perpetuated. Because there
are more experienced men than women as a direct result of gendered ideologies and
practices, evaluating players only on their performance and not also on their level of
experience would create a situation in which the small percentage of novice females
(13.76 % o f all women participating) would be at a severe disadvantage. Because almost
all of the novices playing are women, this level of ability was often conflated with gender
rather than experience.
In sum, coed softball players’ expectations often appeared to reproduce gendered
ideologies. There were several types of gendered expectations which reveal and
reproduce ideologies of male superiority. This was revealed in a number of assumptions.
♦ Men are more skilled hitters than women. This means that men should not try to
take walks, but that women should. It is assumed that men ‘don’t strike out.’
Fielders place themselves according to these assumptions.
♦ Men are more competent fielders than women. Men should therefore take as
many plays as possible.
♦ Men should always make plays. These plays should reflect strong and competent
body habitus.
These factors all contribute to the reproduction of gendered ideologies, expectations and
assumptions. Given ideologies of male physical ability which pervade Western culture
(Lacquer, 1994; Lorber, 1994; Sennett, 1993) and that sport is one of the primary
institutions which has transmitted and reproduced these ideologies (Cahn, 1994; Connell,
1987; Crossett, 1990; Kimmell, 1990), it is hardly surprising that they were prevalent in
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coed softball. By calling women off of potential plays, men deny women the possibility
of gaining, exercising, enjoying and displaying bodily competence. This ultimately
minimized the accumulation and enjoyment of athletic capital (Wacquant, 1995) and
shaped and limited their lived experiences. Male ability was perceived as superior to
female ability and all men were perceived as better than all women. This was
exemplified in the tendency for men to cover for women and underlies offensive
expectations. The coding of gender neutral as feminine re-feminizes women and marks
difference between men and women in a situation in which difference is being
challenged. It is true that women have frequently developed a different body habitus than
men as a result of gendered practices (Laberge, 1995). This habitus was perceived of as
“different” and inferior in team sports. The umpire’s comment of “dancing girl” implied
that this type of movement is not normal to sports, because women are not. At the same
time, it devalued what is culturally experienced as female. This creates an interesting
dilemma for women; if they have developed a feminine body habitus, they are not taken
seriously in sport, but if they have not they run the risk of accusations of mannishness
(Cahn, 1994). This problem is paralleled in the business world where competitive
women are perceived as unfeminine, but this competitiveness is a prerequisite to success
and promotion.
What People Do
Though what people did sometimes challenged or negotiated gender norms, often
gendered ideologies, practices and bodies were reproduced through participants’ actions.
The differences in levels of ability by gender discussed in the previous chapter
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necessitates an acceptance of a wider range of abilities in women than men. This results
in aggressive recruiting of talented women.
Talent Pools
As demonstrated by the classification of players’ ability presented in Chapter 3,
though there was considerable overlap between male and female ability, there was a
wider range of acceptable talent for women. This range was skewed to the lesser talented
end. While the top ends of talent were comparable, the shortage of women necessitated
the recruitment of less talented or experienced women at higher levels of play. Take the
following example from my fieldnotes from a Center City League game on 3/3/97.
It is the Spring o f 1997 season in Center City. Our team lost a woman last week
and desperately needs at least one more. Earlier in the week I had called the free
agents list and found two female friends who wanted to play together. The whole
team breathlessly awaited their arrival at a game. After they arrived I went to
throw with Denise, while Kathy threw with the other woman, Marlene. We looked
at each other with relief after the first couple o f throws, they could both throw
and catch. By the end o f the game it became apparent that had they both been
men they would have fallen well below the learning curve o f acceptable talent for
our level ofplay. But as women they possessed the minimum amount o f ability
necessary to participate.
These two marginally talented women were accepted as adequate, given the available
pool of talented women. Because the pool of talented women was smaller, while the
necessary number of women needed for coed softball is equal to that of men, more
marginally or minimally talented women appeared consistently in the more competitive
leagues. While the presence of novice women may have acted to speciously confirm
ideologies of “female physical inferiority,” it also meant that talented women were highly
valued.
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Talented women were aggressively recruited. One very talented teammate, Kathy,
was recruited for other leagues by teammates, opponents, spectators, other teams waiting
to play and even umpires. She received solicitations at more than half o f the games in
which we played. Most competent women received requests to join teams with some
regularity and often with amazing persistence.
Overall, the smaller pool of talented women created a situation in which less talented
women participated in higher levels of play. When viewed through the lens of dominant
gender ideologies, these women’s abilities were often assumed to be a function of sex
rather than experience. Simultaneously, talented females’ power was enhanced by the
current state of affairs. Individual talented women were in position to negotiate for
playing time, level of required effort and treatment by teammates. By contrast, men often
have a hard time finding teams to play on, especially if they have only marginal ability.
For example, during a Center City game on 6/2/97, a man approached us, told us he was
an excellent pitcher and asked if we needed any men. We had to turn him away simply
because there were already seven men who regularly came to games on the team. He
asked the other team, who also did not need anyone. Another male friend of mine
repeatedly asked to join one of the teams I play on, but we simply did not have room.
During the final season of the study I was approached by four men regarding the Center
City team.
The Gendering of Field Positions: Positional Segregation
With many years of experience, before I began my study, there was no doubt in my
mind that there was positional segregation. I expected to find that the positions of first
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base, second base catcher, and rover were female dominated, while shortstop, left field,
and center field were male dominated. Systematically recording gender by position
confirmed my suspicions. Assumptions about gender clearly influenced the placement of
players into specific field positions. Table 4.1 and table 4.2 show the gendering of field
positions. Table 4.1 shows the percentage of people of each gender who played each
position for all defenses observed during the study period. Table 4.2 shows the
percentage of people in each position by gender for all defenses of teams on which I did
not participate. The sexing of field positions tends to place men in key positions
regardless of the skills and talents of individuals on the team and what the optimum
defensive alignment given these skills would be. Basically during a game, managers will
attempt to maximize the marginal utility of the abilities of the players on a team, given
the rules. This is done both to ensure victory and also because not everyone can play the
same position. In discussing team positions, manager Gordon Park remarked, “ I f I
put everyone where they wanted... We ’ d have four first base men, 6 shortstops and a
couple o f left fielders. "
F ig u re 4.1
Position by Sex - A ll Participants
100%
Pitcher Catcher 1rst
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Figure 4.2
Position by Sex- Opponents Only
100%
Pitcher Right
fimiale
Often it seems as if it is assumed that men will do better at some positions and that the
remaining women should be inserted into the “female” spots. Most of the positions on the
field are gendered. First and foremost was the rover position, which was a perfect
correlation between position and gender. As discussed in the section on rules, this
position must be played by a female. Because the rover is always female, one less
woman was available to play different and more prestigious positions. This also meant
that if only one outfielder was female, she was necessarily the rover. This excluded her
from more prestigious positions which have more authority in directing the traffic of the
ball, like center field. In addition to the rover position, women played three other
positions in the majority of defenses. Women played catcher more than any other
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position with 95.7% of all defenses having women at catcher and 96.5% o f defenses in
which I was not involved placing women at this position. The position of catcher was so
clearly marked as female that catcher was often considered a term synonymous with
novice woman. It was often assumed that the catcher is the “worst” defensive player,
which would more likely be a woman. It was frequently assumed that no team could
field five quality women and therefore the catcher is the least experienced or most novice
woman. First base (86.3% and 79.8%) and second base (85% and 85.1%) were also
female dominated positions. By contrast, men were most likely to play center field
(97.0% and 93.9%), left field (91.5% and 88.5%) and shortstop (80.8% and 92.1%). In
addition, the pitcher was male about two thirds of the time (59.4% and 71.9%). The
remaining positions of third base and right field were occupied more often by men, but
frequently by women. 61.1% and 57.9% of the time third base was male, making it
female occupied 38.9% and 42.1% of the time. Right field was male occupied 70.5% and
51.8% of the time and female occupied 29.5% and 48.2%. There was no consistent
predictor of level of ability by field position. This is because a team manager’s goal is to
maximize the marginal utility o f players abilities in each game. Hence if a team had an
intermediate level player who could play third or outfield and an expert level player who
could do the same, defensive positioning may be based on knowledge o f the opposition.
Further, an expert level first base person like Patty, will usually get to play his/her
position, even if lower level players are placed at other key positions. While there is no
consistent predictor of the ability level of individuals placed at field positions, there were
some general trends. Usually the most expert level players were placed at shortstop and
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centerfield, while the least experienced player was usually placed at catcher. If a team
has two novice level players, the second novice was usually placed at rover, second base,
or right field. Teams with two novice players rarely win, especially once one moves
beyond the lowest levels of play. Teams frequently made the mistake of conflating
athleticism with ability. Several teams lost games specifically because the put the most
athletic man at shortstop, as opposed to the most experienced player. These men
frequently would knock balls down, but lacked the bodily memory necessary to turn
quick plays and made poor judgement on potential plays.
Additional charts are presented in Appendix A. These charts reveal a number of
interesting tendencies. First, when the pitcher was female, men were more likely to play
third base (64.2% and 62.5%) and right field (86.3% and 75.0%). Compare this to when
the pitcher was male. When the pitcher was male, men played third base (59.0% and
56.1%) and rightfield (59.7% and 42.7%) less frequently. Having a female pitcher meant
that a team could place one more man in another defensive position. Clearly there was a
hierarchy of importance of position in which males were most likely to play the most
prestigious defensive positions of center field, left field and shortstop. Men were also
more likely to play the crucial position of pitcher. Third base and right field were
important, but less defensively strategic positions. The tendency for the right fielder to
also be male if a team had a female pitcher exemplifies the assumption that males are
superior outfielders. Outfield is a position in which one is going to have to field a ball
and not act as a helper. Catching fly balls requires a considerable amount of experience.
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While a casual observer might assume that decisions about field positions reflect the
relative talents of the individuals involved, observations revealed that men were
consistently given priority for the “male” and thereby “ higher status” positions. Similar to
stacking studies which demonstrated how in the past African-American athletes have
been denied access to particular positions in sports, especially the more prestigious ones
like quarterback or pitcher (Loy &McElvogue, 1970; Medoff, 1977; Phillips, 1991),
women were denied the more prestigious positions in coed softball. While this no longer
seems to be the case for race in baseball (Lavoie & Leonard, 1994), these patterns are
evident by gender in coed softball. Recall the data presented in Figure la, lb, and lc on
page 110. While there were more expert men than women (55.05% compared to
36.68%), there was a tremendous amount of overlap. Indeed 44.53% of men were
intermediate level while 49.56% of women were. The main difference in ability was at
the novice level, where only 0.42% of the men compared to 13.76% of the women were
novices. The degree of overlap in ability makes the gendering of field positions seem
even more unfair. Even if one considers that different abilities are necessary for different
field positions, women’s exclusion from the most prestigious positions forces them to
specialize in the female dominated positions. An example should clarify this. On one of
the teams observed three players, James Kim, Kathy Seaver, and Brandon Taylor are all
equally good defensive shortstops. When observing them, I noted that they all field balls
in a technically correct manner, have good range and have exceptionally strong arms. Of
the three, Kathy has had the most experience at the shortstop position. Despite this,
Kathy was most often assigned to play second or third base, only playing shortstop if
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both Brandon and James were absent and no other superlative male infielder was present.
While Kathy was first choice for shortstop in games where there was no good male
infielder present, she was never first choice if a man of equal and even slightly lesser skill
were present. This indicates that not only skill determines where one plays, gender does
as well. Mirroring patterns in the world of work, women were excluded from the more
prestigious positions (Kanter, 1977; Reskin & Padavic, 1994), but retained in positions of
support. Just as most women are effectively shut out of management positions, or
ghettoized into a few positions deemed appropriate for exceptional women in the
workforce (Kanter, 1977; McKay, 1997; Reskin & Padavic, 1994), the gendering of field
positions keeps the few talented women consigned to gender neutral positions, while
preserving the most respected positions for men.
The gendering of field positions was particularly problematic because it denied
women the opportunity to gain experience at the more prestigious positions. Essentially
over the years the expert women were forced to specialize or become expert at the less
prestigious female positions. Patty, a teammate on San Gabriel Valley I and II was an
excellent example of an expert female who has specialized in a “female” position, first
base. Patty was defensively one of the best first base people observed in the study period.
Patty was no liability at the plate either, being a high for average hitter who had mastered
the art of dropping singles into either left or right field, depending on the location of the
rover. Patty expressed discomfort when asked to play other positions and preferred
playing first base. Who knows what would have occurred had she begun her slow-pitch
career at third base instead. While it would seem an easy transition from one position to
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another, there are several differences. Take for example the differences between playing
on the right versus the left side of the defense. More of the positions on the left side of
the defense are male defined, including shortstop and left field. More of the positions on
the right side of the defense are female positions, including first base and second base.
When one consistently plays on one side o f the field, he/she internalizes particular
expectations that enable one to play their position to the best of his/her ability. These
include 1) the “break” of a fly ball or a pop-up; 2) becoming accustomed to making a
throw at a specific angle, which appears and feels very different when throwing from
third to first and from first to third; and 3) the types of plays one is expected to make.
Overview of the Gendering of Field Positions
There are three ways in which assumptions about gender and male physical superiority
were revealed in the gendering of field positions:
♦ Male fielders occupied the positions to which the ball was most likely to be hit
and women occupied “helper positions.”
♦ Men occupied the positions of authority, handling the ball most frequently and
directing the traffic of balls in play.
♦ Men were given discretion to “cover” for female players. Because men were in
the authority positions, if a play could be taken by either a male or female player,
the male was much more likely to call off the female player.
The case of the switch exemplifies the tendency to place men where it was believed
that the ball is most likely to be hit. Teams were observed making defensive adjustments
when left-handed batters came up. This was more common in the outfield. The most
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frequent switch was between left-center and right-center fielders (one usually being the
center fielder, the other generally being the rover). Sometimes, a switch was made
between the right and right-center fielder as well. With some regularity usually under the
direction of a male manager or shortstop, male shortstops and female second base persons
switched when a hard hitting left handed player batted. For example, in Center City on
4/22/96, the male shortstop took over second base every time one of our three left handed
batters came up. A second example occurred on 4/13/97 in one of the two San Gabriel
Valley Leagues when both the infielders and the outfielders switched. This demonstrated
the pervasive idea that male players should handle a batted ball, rather than female
fielders.
Second, field positionings revealed that it was assumed that men should occupy the
positions of authority. Men were much more likely to be in the authoritative field
positions such as shortstop or center field, as demonstrated in table 2a. The shortstop is
the captain o f the infield who makes key decisions about cut-off plays and the center
fielder is the captain of the outfield who has discretion to call off other fielders on fly
balls. The assumption was clearly gendered, as experience and ability were often
superceded by gender. The sheer numbers of men chosen to play shortstop over women
reflects not only the larger pool of skilled men, but also the belief that the shortstop
should be a man. As Summerfield and White (1989) suggest in their study of Korfball,
this puts women in the “helper positions” more often. First base and catcher were two
positions in which most of the plays involved catching thrown balls which were fielded
by someone else, or what could be described as “helper positions." At the same time,
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these positions involved another set of complex skills, including catching a ball with a
runner heading straight at you and in the case of catcher, blocking the plate and applying
a tag. In addition, both positions had to field batted balls. In the case of catcher,
however, the position was often “covered for” by other players, generally either male
pitchers or other male infielders.
This leads to the third point. Women were often not given an opportunity to play their
position when other fielders “covered” for them. The catcher was particularly susceptible
to this type of position usurpation. Male pitchers or infielders were observed running
home to take a play on more occasions than not. While this was not surprising when the
catcher was a novice player, teammates often did this to intermediate and expert level
catchers. Often when this occurred the catcher was in position and ready to attempt the
play. This occurred in almost every game in which there was a male pitcher, and
frequently with a skilled female pitcher. Unfortunately it made it impossible for these
catchers to improve as they were never given the opportunity to gain experience or
demonstrate competence. Interestingly, female pitchers were much less likely to do this,
however, often electing to back up the play instead of usurping it. In addition, sometimes
male third base persons would also cover the plate. This practice was more disputed than
pitchers covering home plate because frequently this gave base runners an additional
base, or base runners who would have been sure outs at the plate were able to get back to
third base. When players covered their position, most catchers acquiesced and didn’t
bother attempting to cover their positions after the first couple o f potential plays. For
example, on 6/4/97 in the West Los Angeles League, the female catcher was covered for
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by the male pitcher on every play, despite the fact she could both catch and throw
competently. After having the pitcher cover for her on the first couple of potential plays,
she found a new role for herself. While the male pitcher took all of the plays at the plate,
she busied herself making sure the bat was not in the way o f a potential play. This
relegation to “diamond maid” was consistent with literature on women’s status in the
world of work (Kanter, 1977; McKay, 1997; Reskin & Padavic, 1994). In this case, the
woman was needed on the field because she was a woman, but was not given the
opportunity to participate in the outcome of the game. A modified version of this
occurred when teams simply elected not to attempt to make any plays at the plate and
conceded runs. Take the following example from my fieldnotes from a game in one of the
West L.A. leagues on 4/17/97.
After the male shortstop elected to throw home and made a high uncatchable
throw, the manager told him, “ Hey when we get the ball... From now on we just
call time... ” (Calling time is done when the runners are no longer advancing and
the ball is in the infield. Once time is called, runners cannot further advance.
Note that the umpire must grant time and calling time does not automatically
ensure that a play is “ dead. ” ) The shortstop responded with an incredulous,
“ Me? " “ That’ s what we do...” The manager reiterates. The catcher, a woman
recruitedfrom fast pitch, looks annoyed She furrows her brow and purses her
lips as if holding in the angry words which threaten to spew forth. She would
have caught a good throw and now she won’ t get another chance.
When there are other runners on base, this may be a defensive strategy utilized to prevent
runners from advancing or to save possible double play situations. Yet, often even when
there were no other runners on base, teams still elected not to attempt a play. When this
occurred it meant that the catcher was not involved in defensive play and was simply
used to throw the ball back to the pitcher. Because “catcher” was often synonymous with
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novice woman, it was frequently assumed that the catcher was incompetent,
inexperienced and incapable of making a play, even when this was not the case. This
assumption was problematic because it involved prejudging individuals by gender and
position assignment as opposed to performance. It essentially was a self-fulfilling
prophecy which acted to exclude women from the game and from the enjoyment of
recreation.
Even when women displayed competence, these performances were sometimes
ignored or undermined by other teams. Take the following example from a West L.A. II
game on 4/17/97. The catcher was a young Latina. As a softballer would say, “fresh out
of fast pitch.” She performed well. She successfully completed several plays and caught
several poorly thrown balls. In mid game she missed one poorly thrown ball as a runner
scored. The team scoring chortled gleefully to each other, “see I told you she couldn’t
catch..." “Let’s take that extra base.” “We can run home on them all day if the pitcher’s
not gonna cover...” Despite the women’s consistent demonstration of her ability, her one
miscue became indicative of her “true” lack of abilities. Note too that the less than
perfect throw was not commented on. The team did not propose to run on the male
shortstop’s arm, but on the female catcher’s glove.
On other infrequent occasions, I observed male pitchers inappropriately covering both
first and third base for the female fielders, as well as catcher. Because these woman often
received no practice in game situations, on several occasions women were shocked when
throws were made. Recall the scenario which opened the chapter from a West L.A. game
on 6/4/97. We took the lead late in the game when the woman playing first failed to
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cover the bag. The pitcher had taken the last four or five plays at first. She simply
looked at him, waiting for him to cover. Plays like this one made the female players
appear incompetent. In actuality, it was the expectation of exclusion, commensurate with
their experience, that caused the mistake. On 6/12/97, in one of the two West L.A.
leagues, one female second base person commented, after being covered for repeatedly by
a male shortstop, “if it’s that important to him, I have other things in my life.” She shook
her head in disgust at the situation. “Whatever.” She went on to talk about how he had
yelled at her for not getting a ball he normally would have covered. She told him, “if
you’re not going to get it like you always do... Tell someone.”
If women are relegated to helper roles, often covered for and called off of plays, part
of what this implies is that women’s experience of leisure is always secondary to men’s.
Given women’s historic role in facilitating men’s leisure (Smith, 1987), one should not be
surprised that women were frequently asked to take a secondary role in the leisure
activity. Because gender is always already assumed to be a significant determinant of
ability, some men used this to justify excluding women from the leisure experience. This
reproduced inequitable relations by predetermining access by gender to the pleasure of
participation in the leisure experience.
Protecting the Women
Dominant assumptions of male physical superiority often presume that males must
protect females (Brownmiller, 1984). In the practice of coed softball, these norms of
protection were overt in ideologies which dictated that women needed to be protected
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from physical contact and injury, especially from other men. This was manifest in
several ways.
♦ Umpires enforced rules such as the slide and avoid rule more often on plays which
involved female players.
♦ Female players were “given the benefit o f the doubt” on close plays, either being
called safe if they were base runners, or calling out base runners when a female
fielder made the play.
♦ Players expected umpires to chastize male players for contact with female players,
even if this contact was within the rules o f the game.
♦ Players who were deemed to have endangered female players were subject to
informal sanctions by teammates and opposing players.
Umpires and Protection
The purpose of some of the rules in softball are to prevent injuries. Beside the
conventional rules of interference and obstruction, in slow-pitch softball one key rule has
been added to reduce the threat of injury- the slide and avoid rule. This rule states: “Any
batter or runner who has just been put out, that hinders or impedes any following play
being made on a runner. Such runner shall be declared out for the interference of his/her
teammate.” In practice the rule was referred to as the “slide or avoid rule,” which meant
that on a potential double play ball the runner who was first out must slide or get out of
the way of the fielder attempting to make the double play. In the instance of a runner
attempting to score, once the catcher has the ball and is in position to make the play, the
runner is expected to slide or allow himself / herself to be tagged (of course the runner
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can also attempt to go back to third base). If a runner runs into a fielder he/she will be
reprimanded and this is grounds for expulsion from the game and possibly the league.
While this may seem harsh punishment, a large runner colliding with a small fielder
could conceivably kill them, regardless of gender. During one game in Center City
during the Summer Season of 1996, a larger male runner accidentally knocked our female
catcher, Tina, unconscious. He did not realize that we had thrown the ball home and that
she would attempt a play. He threw up his arm in surprise as he saw the ball coming in
and caught her in the face with his elbow. In this case, though he was called out, he was
not ejected as the play was clearly an accident. While the text of the rule is ungendered,
the rule was most often invoked when male base runners were approaching female base
persons. Large men often had the rule called against them for even approaching the base,
but not actually obstructing the play. Aaron, a 6'3" 220 pound man on two of the teams I
played on frequently had this rule called on him, even when he was only two thirds of the
way to the next base. He often expressed frustration about the fact that if he even tried to
make it to second base, the rule was sometimes invoked, as occurred in the West L.A.
league on 7/16/97. In this case he was halfway between first and second, he started to
peel off to the side, but the umpire invoked the rule anyway. On several of the other
occasions he was cited, though he was not blocking the throw to first, but rather, because
of his gender and size. By contrast, during the study period, none of the women on the
team had the rule called against them, even when some admitted to attempting to break
up the double play. Umpires even acknowledged that they were more likely to call the
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slide and avoid rule on men than women. Take the following example from my
fieldnotes from a West L.A. game on 1/30/97.
After their team sends a male runner barreling into Susan, our second base
person, the umpire gives them a warning, “ come on you know the rules, you have
to slide or get out o f the way. I f it keeps happening I will call an automatic
double play. ” Later in the game, after Amy gets on, Aaron hits a ground ball.
Amy goes most o f the way to second and stops. The shortstop on the other team
complains, Thought you were going to call the slide or avoid rule blue... " The
umpire responds, “ Well this is different, she wasn ’ t really in the way and there he
had the base. Besides, before it was a man running into a woman. This time it
was the other way around... You know... ”
In this case, gender was an acknowledged factor in the selective enforcement of a
protection rule. In the above example the umpire openly admitted that he invoked the
rule specifically to protect female players, despite the fact that the rule itself does not
pertain to gender. Assuming only the female sex requires protection from the male
negates the reality of bodies, size and strength. There are many small men who could be
physically damaged from a collision, while there are many larger women who could also
hurt other women or men in such a situation. Implicit in this assumption was also the
idea that men’s bodies can and should take it and women’s can’t and shouldn’t. Hence it
was assumed that male bodies can be subject to risks and harms not suitable for female
bodies. This is consistent with cultural ideologies which “protect” women’s bodies while
risking male bodies. A good example is the prohibition on female combat compared to
the compulsory military draft of men during war time. Despite the fact that women are
often victim of wartime atrocities, they are still consistently denied the opportunity to
accept the risk that comes in defense. It is assumed that women must rely on men for
protection.
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While women’s recreational experience was constrained by the gendering of field
positions and the tendency for men to cover for female players, in other ways female
recreational experience was protected. Umpires did this by frequently giving female
players the benefit of the doubt on close plays. Generally if female fielders received the
ball before the runner arrived at a base, umpires called the runner out regardless of
whether or not a tag was applied. Players often joked ruefully about these “ phantom
tags.” Players also often expressed frustration. In my fieldnotes from a game in the San
Gabriel Valley on 5/14/97, one player, Gordon Park commented with frustration after
being called out on a “phantom tag,” “ Anytime there’ s a woman on the base I ’ m out... She
never tagged me... Whatever. ” In such cases the umpire rewards the female players for
almost making the play by legislating this as acceptable within the coed game. Overall
both male and female players agreed that umpires were more likely to give women the
“benefit o f the doubt” if the ball arrived before the base runner. Of course, umpires often
make mistakes regardless of gender. I am not referring to such incidences, instead I refer
to a specific set of cases in which as Kathy described, the umpire called “ what should
have happened instead of what did." This type of rule enforcement protected female
players in a number of ways. First, it protected less experienced players from censure and
took into account the higher proportion of inexperienced female players. Second, the rule
acted indirectly as a protection rule by discouraging players from making extra hard,
aggressive, or physical slides. If players do not believe that such slides are likely to be
rewarded with a safe call, players are less likely to attempt these types of potentially
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dangerous plays. More insidiously, it reinforces patriarchal norms of women’s weakness
and requirements of female protection by males.
Expectations of Female Protection
Players often expected umpires to chastize and legislate any contact between male and
female players. On several occasions men made hard slides into bases where they
knocked over inexperienced base persons who were blocking the base. Often their
teammates complained that these men should be chastised, despite the fact they were
stringently obeying the rules by sliding. In other cases, any unusual play involving a man
and a women could lead to protest. Take the following example from my fieldnotes for a
San Gabriel Valley game on 5/19/96.
Chris, our male third base person makes a legal slide into first at the end o f a
close game. The female first base person is inexperienced and is planted directly in the
middle o f the bag, as opposed to having her foot to the side. I f he runs through the bag
hard, he will hit her. Despite the fact the first base person is undisturbed by the slide and
makes the catch, a man on their team stops the game to complain to the umpire. “ He
can’ t do that... Someone is going to get hurt. He should be thrown out... At least give
him a warning blue... ” The blue responds “ Plenty o f people on your team have headed
fo r the white base (instead o f the protective orange base to the side) and you ’ re less likely
to get hurt sliding into first than running... " He dismisses the complaint with a wave o f
his hand, calling the next batter up. The man tries to continue arguing, but the
recommencing o f the game silences him.
Despite the fact that the woman involved saw nothing wrong with the play, a man on her
team felt the need to physically protect her, even though the play was legal and no one
was hurt. What offended him was simply that Chris had done something out of the
ordinary which could have resulted in injury. The risk, however, was facilitated by the
woman’s inexperience. This makes it appear as if he, her teammate, was protecting her.
This allows him to disavow his responsibility for the risk she assumed by participating in
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a potentially dangerous sport. As a less experienced player, she may not be fully aware
of these risks. When this man attempts to displace blame for any risk on Chris, the
umpire correctly informed him that the play was both legal and safe and reminded him of
his own team’s risky habits. Similarly, complaints were frequently lodged against men
who knocked down women, regardless of fault. Generally the women involved were not
the source of complaint and few women even seemed upset or expressed displeasure at
such plays. By contrast when two men collided, even if it was an inappropriate play, the
men generally shook-hands, apologized and continued playing. An example of this
occurred at the end of the Center City season in the Summer of 1997.
Darren is on first base when Kathy comes to bat. He is by fa r the fastest man on
the team. Kathy singles to “ her spot “ just inside the line, over the third base
person. As soon as Darren sees the ball is through he heads straight fo r third,
not even pausing at second base. The left fielder makes a good throw to third.
Darren sees that the ball is going to arrive before he will, starts to go down to
slide, changes his mind, trips himself up and winds up barreling directly into the
third base person, a man o f medium build. He lowers his upper body, making it a
football style hit to the gut o f this man. Ouch. I know that hurt. I inwardly wince
as I wait for the cries for retribution and a stern warning from the umpire. The
play is blatantly illegal and on top o f that Darren is clearly out. He immediately
apologizes to the third base person, “ Sorry man. “ He scrunches up his face and
his mouth hardens. But he sucks it up and tells Darren, “ T hat’ s O.K No harm
done. ” lam shocked. No one on his team protests the play or suggests that
Darren should be reprimanded or ejected.. The umpire calls him out and gives
him a look as i f to say, you know you 're not supposed to do that... ” But does not
verbally chastise him.
The contrast between these two examples is striking. When a man comes close to
colliding with a woman in a no-fault or more-her-fault situation, her teammates protested
the potential harm to her body whereas when two men collided in a situation in which
one was clearly at fault, the risk is acceptable. A number of gender ideologies set the
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backdrop for this scene. First, women were assumed to be in need of protection from
men. Second, women’s protection from other men was performed by men, in this case
her teammates. This is reminiscent of kinship protection of women which centered more
on the benefit men received from the women than actual protection (Rubin, 1975).
Further, women were not given the opportunity to accept bodily risk. While the third
base person was responsible for his own bodily risk in the game situation, the female first
base person was not allowed to accept risk. The discourse of male protection allows the
cooption of female voices by males who profess to speak for them. Protection becomes a
guise for control. This is similar to doctrines which inhibit women’s participation in the
military and particular lines of work perceived as risky (Tavris, 1992).
Informal Sanctions
Often, informal sanctions by teammates and the opposition were imposed when a male
player was deemed to have unnecessarily endangered a female player, regardless of the
legality of the play. Take the following example from my fieldnotes from a Center City
game on 8/12/96.
During one game a large man singled with two on. As the ball comes into the cut
o ff he begins inching his way toward second base. Iam playing second and
seeing him out o f the corner o f my eye, I call for the ball to prevent him from
advancing. The throw from the cut-off is a little high so I have to jump for it. At
the same time he slides in hard to second base and does a pop-up slide, such that
as he hits the base he jumps up into a standing position. Because I am jumping to
catch the ball, his pop up slide up-ends me and I wind up parallel to the ground,
about four feet above it. I only have time to briefly think to myself, “ this is not
good. " Then blam, I hit the ground hard, the shock registering through my body
like waves. I leap up with the ball to glare at the runner, daring him to try to take
third. I feel sore, but am not seriously hurt. The next day I wake up with painful
bruise that runs all the way down my body, revealing exactly where I hit the
ground. While the play was legal, players on both team chastise him. “ Hey man,
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that’ s not necessary... " “ We don’ t need that, that’ s how people get hurt. ” He
apologizes profusely and tells me he admired how fast I jumped to my feet with
the ball still in my glove. His girlfriend comes up to me later and jokingly tells me
she had told him she would withhold love and sex from him i f he kept playing like
that. The funny part is I am more annoyed at my teammates fo r letting him take
the extra base, than by our collision.
In the above example, the man did something legal, but potentially dangerous. While no
one suggested that he should be legally sanctioned, his behavior was still clearly a
transgression of norms. What underlies this interaction is an understanding that because
this is a recreational context, unnecessary actions which endanger players are frowned
upon. The strong reaction he received was clearly tied to the fact that he had knocked
down a much smaller woman. It is especially interesting that the need for “ protection” or
one’s potential risk is conflated with one’s gender. While most of the women
participating in the game are smaller than many of the men, this was not always the case.
Frequently, men were chastised for running into women who surpass them in size and
skill. In these cases the women generally had no problem with the play, rather it was the
male teammates who were most concerned. In a recent game our pitcher was subject to
verbal and physical intimidation after sliding hard into the woman at second, Jen.
While Joe was larger than Jen, it isn 't by more than two inches and twenty
pounds. Jen was not hurt, though she was visibly annoyed by the hard slide and
her failure to make the play, she understood that the contact was accidental. As
an experienced player, she was well aware that staying on the bag left her open to
contact, whereas tagging the base and moving out o f the way was her usual
behavior. The late, high throw had caused her to linger longer than usual,
opening her up to contact. Her male teammates were incensed, however, and
took it upon themselves to defend her. They told our pitcher that they were going
to hit the ball up the middle and "take his testicles off. " Four o f the five men on
this team proceeded to hit the ball right at him the rest o f the game while
continuing their verbal abuse. Their behavior cost them the game, as our pitcher
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fielded many o f these balls and we won 9-5. Had they hit normally, they would
have had a good chance o f winning.
The overblown and violent discourse of protection enacted by Jen’s teammates revealed a
belief that women had to be protected from risk by other men. Jen was not allowed to
accept risk, or defend herself. Instead, her teammates spoke and acted on her behalf.
Overall, the discourse of male protection caused the risk female players may have posed
to male players or each other and the risk male players may have posed to each other to
be consistently overlooked. This perpetuated assumptions about male ability and strength
in the face of women’s weakness and need for protection. It also denied women the
opportunity to accept what often was “normal” risk. In the rare cases when a play was
exceptionally and intentionally violent, both men and women rushed to teammate’s
protection. Unfortunately, on such collisions between two men, umpires rarely used
available protection rules. For example, in a play-off game in Center City in Early 1998,
It's the top o f the Seventh. We are the home team and are up by 1. They have two
runners on and there are two outs. The batter singles and the man on second
attempts to score. The ball beats him to the plate and pitcher, John, cuts the ball
o ff short and waits to tag him. He lowers his shoulder and barrels into John- full
force football style hit. As he hits him, he throws his forearm up into John’ s face,
catching him just under the eye. Johns head snaps back, registering the violence
o f the blow. In ten years o f coed softball, this is by far the most blatant case o f
intentional and abusive contact. John protests to the umpire. The umpire agrees
that it was inappropriate and intentional, but since we won he decides not to
chastize or eject the player, stating to me, 'The games over, you won... " During
the manager’ s meetingfor the following season, the scorekeeper, Brian, who told
me he was “ horrified” by the level o f violence he had witnessed, officially
complained about the call. He stated that in years o f playing and scorekeeping,
this was the most blatant offence he had ever witnessed, coed or men’ s.
Hence, even umpires presumed that men were not in need of the protective measures built
into the rules. This left many o f the smaller men at significant risk of injury, while not
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allowing women to accept a comparable level of risk. While men were left physically at
risk, the language used to describe plays protected the myth of masculine superiority at
the expense of the recognition o f female ability.
What People Say: Discursive Reproduction of Gendered Ideologies
Listening to what people said about the events unfolding on the field revealed
gendered assumptions and interpretations of events which protected the myth of male
physical superiority. Through an exploration of the construction of discourse, the effects
of power on knowledge can be revealed (Foucault, 1978). How interpretations of the
game were constructed reflected and revealed relations of power by exposing people’s
social assumptions and understanding. While there were multiple interpretations for any
situation, the data identified two specific types of discursive strategies which reinforced
dominant ideologies about gender difference.
♦ Through the study period, verbal markings of male or female were synonymous
with expressions of beliefs about all men and all women. All men and all women
were grouped in relation to ability. These tendencies construct knowledge and
meaning around the gendered categories of man and woman. Overall positive
play characteristics and abilities were associated with being male and poor play
was associated with being female.
♦ Strategies which were used to interpret the play of individual players reinforced
gendered ideologies. Generally men were assumed to be good players. If they
made an error, it was perceived as a singular mistake. Women were assumed to
be less than competent. When they made a good play, they “got lucky."
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“The Men" and “The Women”: Grouping Ability bv Gender
Because gender is such a fundamental part of the rules and strategy of the game,
teams tended to be evaluated in terms of the quality of the men and women as cohesive
groups. This grouped all men and women regardless of individual ability. For example,
it was common to remark, “Their men lost the game,” “Their women are no good,” “She’s
the only woman on their team who can play.” While this division seems sensible enough
at first glance, it masks an assumption of male physical superiority. As Eldon Snyder and
Ronald Ammons (1993) note in their analysis of coed softball, most of the softball
players interviewed and the interviewers themselves believed that women were the key to
winning, as the talents of the men tended to cancel each other out. My observations
supported the fact that this was a commonly held belief among coed softball participants.
My observations, however, did not support the claim. While a team may win or lose on
the relative talents of the women playing, more often this statement reflected how
interpretations of on-field performances already contain gendered assumptions. For
example, losses tended to be blamed on the poor play of women on a team, even when
men made similar crucial errors. Take the following example from my fieldnotes on a
Center City game played on 10/14/96.
We beat the Tigers!! They had beaten us consistently for the past three seasons,
but today we finally beat them. My team hangs around after the game, discussing
the exciting victory. We discuss what has changed to allow us to emerge
victorious. Several members o f the team, Carol, Monica, Ehran, Rob, Darren and
Tina comment that the opposition had lost several o f their talented women and
replaced them with less experienced and less talented women. Everyone else nods
in agreement. The consensus is that this had caused the team's loss. The
manager disagrees and points out that they used to have exceptional men at third
base and shortstop. Which certainly is true, their third base person was probably
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the best in the league. There were new men at these positions today. They had
made at least three errors each and had missed several playable balls. Darren
and Tina immediately point out that the shortstop had made one really great play.
Everyone else nods in agreement.
Hence, despite errors at key positions by inexperienced men, the team focused on the
good plays the men had made and blamed the loss on plays the inexperienced women
failed to make. Though the discussion focused on the play of four particular players, two
men and two women, all the men and women on the team were linked together as a
group. It was the women who had cost the team the game, not specifically two of the
women. Overall, my observations did not support the idea that either sex could take
credit for wins or losses.
Observations of games suggest that leagues generally do a good job of matching teams
by talent. This meant that most teams had equivalent numbers of expert, intermediate
and novice players, regardless of gender. Fieldnotes suggest that winning and losing was
based on overall team performance, not the performance of one sex. Indeed several teams
clearly had superlative female fielders and mediocre men. The Yankees, a team in San
Gabriel Valley II, had four expert level women and one intermediate level woman. Their
four intermediate level men were consistently outperformed by the women. This was
recognized by teammates Kathy and Janey who after the game noted that “they had better
women... they lost because of their men.”
The idea that men’s talents tend to cancel each other out assumes that all men are
competent, but only some women are. While it was true that a team with more than one
novice woman has a significant disadvantage, teams with intermediate level men placed
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at key positions were equally vulnerable. However, these men’s lack of performance was
often overlooked. I think that often what occurred was that intermediate men placed at
key positions were assumed to be expert. Hence, when an intermediate level man at
shortstop has a ball squirt by just out of his reach, it was assumed that he made a good
effort. In reality, his lack of range at a key position was much more detrimental to team
victory than a novice woman at catcher. This is especially true if one considers that the
novice catcher was rarely if ever allowed to participate defensively in the game.
Increasing opportunities facilitated by the passage of Title IX is altering the skill level of
recreational sport’s participants. The younger women entering the scene had more
experience as a group. In the three leagues I continue to participate in (San Gabriel
Valley I & II, and Center City), more than half the teams have no novice women at all.
The trend towards all of the participants being intermediate level or above seems to be
steadily progressing. The performances of these women were undermined by the
assumption that a team wins or loses on the relative abilities of the women. For example,
if a team has two expert level women and three expert level men, and all of the remaining
members are intermediate level. If this team loses, is it fair to say that the gender of the
participants had any relevance. More importantly, can a team ever truly say that it
consistently wins or loses on the performance of a single gender or team member? These
types of assertions seemed to protect myths of male ability and to reproduce hegemonic
masculinity. By contrast, male inability was frequently masked or down played. In
assuming all men have the same level o f ability, competence and superiority for all men
is presumed. Ability to perform these tasks was presented as consistent with normal
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masculinity. This is consistent with cultural ideologies of male physical superiority.
Sometimes the reality of bodies was consistent with these ideologies, but often it was not.
When it was not consistent, the myth of male physical superiority was maintained
through a normalizing discourse which selectively interpreted events.
By simply utilizing the terms and the embedded concepts of “men” and “women,”
difference and male physical superiority is reproduced (Grant, 1994). In the sub-world of
coed softball gender difference was rearticulated in many different ways. Because the
rules legislate the number of players of each gender which in turn necessitates gendered
strategies, men and women were not in direct competition with each other for playing
time, field positions and batting spots. This meant that often men were compared to other
men, and women were compared with other women in terms of relative talent. Because it
was sometimes assumed that men are superior players, even the best female player could
be devalued relative to male players. The women were always already perceived as of
lesser ability than men by virtue of their gender. While Kathy was a better defensive
player than most men in any of the leagues in which she plays, her displays of talent were
undermined by simply designating her as the “best female player.” While Kathy was not
merely “good for a girl...,” her performance could be interpreted as such. When there
were instances of direct competition, such as when a male batter hits the ball at a female
fielder, or vice-versa, ideologies of male superiority were still maintained. This leads to
the second type of gendered discursive assessments.
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Interpretations of Individual Play
The second type of discursive assessments which differ by gender were the
interpretations of individual play. Discursive assessments of individual play tended to
validate male’s abilities and discredited displays of female ability. Similar to media
coverage of professional and amateur sports which present men’s accomplishments in
sports as having significant historic importance while devaluing and undermining
women’s accomplishments (Duncan et. al. 1994; Kane, 1988), discursive assessments of
men’s and women’s play promoted ideologies of gender difference and male physical
superiority. Analogous to a study of media coverage of mixed doubles tennis which
found that much greater agency and credit for success was attributed to male doubles
players than their female partners (Halbert & Latimer, 1994), individual’s interpretations
of play validated male ability at the expense of recognition of female ability.
One way this happened in softball was in the assessment of errors. Frequently when a
man made an error it was seen as a singular mistake, whereas when a woman made an
error she was branded as a poor player by other participants. Very skilled women were
often overlooked or devalued based on a single play, as opposed to their overall
performance. An example from my fieldnotes on 8/11/96 from a San Gabriel Valley
league may make this more clear.
It is a scorching hot summer day. The air tastes hot and dirty. A dull brown haze
hangs over downtown, which is just visible to the West. The sun is mercilessly
pounding down on us. It is so bright that it is painful to look up, especially in left
field where the glare is blinding. During afternoon games on this field the left
and left center fielders usually have a tough time and more errors than usual
occur. There are several dropped balls today, our left fielder, Eddie, drops two.
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By contrast, Kathy is having a great game. She opened the game with a running
shoestring catch. She makes several other extremely skilled plays including
another running catch which she turns into a double play when the runner fails to
tag up. She fires the ball into second without breaking stride after snagging a
hard hit line drive. The batter hits a high pop up. Will Kathy have this one too?
No, she is a victim o f nature, blinded by the sun, she calls out, "I can’ t see it... I
can’ t see it, “hoping our left fielder has a better view. As she and Eddie converge
on the ball it is clear that neither o f them can see it. Instead o f confidently moving
toward the ball, they hold their gloves up doubtfully and they move tentatively,
shielding their eyes with their free hands. The ball drops right in between them.
Several men on the other team guffaw to each other how it was obviously luck
which had enabled her to make the preceding plays. They did not comment on the
man in left field's ability, or on the sun, only on this proof that Kathy really
wasn't very good after all. One said, "how come she got lucky on my ball. ”
Another commented, "now that’ s more like it. ” Kathy ends the game with another
shoestring catch which she then, without breaking stride fires to first base (from
left-center field) fo r the double play. The runner, assuming she would not make
the catch, had taken o ff for third base. Normal game strategy dictates that on a
shallow outfield hit, a runner on first should "go halfway “between first and
second and wait to see if the ball is caught. I f it is, one can get back to first base
easily. I f the ball is missed then the runner can consider advancing past second
base. Their lack o f confidence in her abilities cost them the final out o f the game.
Despite several earlier superlative plays, Kathy was still continually underestimated and
essentially disrespected because she is female. During the course of the game, three
different men missed fly balls because the sun was in their faces. None had made double
plays. None had made particularly remarkable plays. Yet the most vocal representations
of the opposition's interpretation of her play was that she was lucky when she played
well, but merely demonstrating her true abilities when she made a single mistake. The
male outfielders were not treated in this way. The opposing team’s unwillingness to
recognize her abilities is ultimately to their detriment.
In the preceding example one of the men had undermined Kathy’s performance by
suggesting she had “gotten lucky.” This interpretation was used consistently to deny and
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undermine demonstrations of female ability. Take the example from my fieldnotes on
7/7/97.
One o f the male outfielders on the other team is trying to talk to our players. His
comments only annoy and inspire us. He devalues our women's performances by
saying to two o f our female fielders, Micky and Tina, that they had “ gotten
lucky... ” And that “ sometimes everyone get’ s lucky... " On each and every play
they make. At first both women smile politely, but by the end o f the game they are
clearly annoyed. In the final inning this man misses an easy pop up. Both
women, who incidently are sisters, turn to each other and guffaw. “ Not so
lucky... ” Micky quips knowingly to Tina, who smiles broadly in return.
In this way, ideologies of gender and ability are reinforced through the discursive
interpretation of what is occurring. “She got lucky..” was oft repeated mantra when
women made plays, regardless of their relative ability. Kathy heard the phrase so often
she commented in exasperation, “do I ever not get lucky?” Consistent with studies of
media coverage of men’s and women’s sports which undermine female ability and
accomplishment while imbuing men’s performance with historic significance (Messner et
al. 1997), such interpretations deny displays of female ability. More insidious than
simply framing these women’s performances as ambivalent, as found in media reports of
single sex sports (Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988), the defining of women’s displays of
excellence as “luck” denies a cultural space in which women can ever be competent or
excellent. This denial tends to reproduce ideologies of male physical superiority at the
expense of recognition of female ability.
Exceptional Women as “ Naturals”
Women’s play was further undermined by assumptions that talented women are
“naturals.” This was very similar to current and historic characterizations of African-
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American athletes as “naturals" or “natural athletes.” Such characterizations undermine
hard work and intelligence by invoking biological determinism (Edwards, 1973). By
denying hard work, the effect of practice on ability is obliterated from view. Kathy was a
good example o f this. Kathy, was a woman who played in all the leagues I observed
except West Los Angeles II. She was frequently told to “stick with it” as she showed
“promise" and had “a lot of talent." Such comments revealed that participants assumed
that she was a naturally talented woman who had just started playing softball, rather than
an experienced woman who had played almost her entire life. During one game in the
San Gabriel Valley on August 18, 1996, Kathy was frustrated with her performance at the
plate. Though she had hit the ball hard and on a line in all three of her at bats, they were
all line drive outs. The umpire told Kathy that she “showed a lot of promise," “should not
get discouraged” and should “keep with it.”
Kathy has been playing softball up to six days a week since she was five years old.
Her years of experience, practice and self discipline were negated by the assumption that
her ability comes “naturally.” It seems strange that someone who has seen as many
games as an umpire presumably has officiated would assume that her ability was not the
result of years of practice, but rather “natural ability.” Further she was marked as
different from other women. The default assumption was that men are competent, good
and superior to women and women who excelled were assumed to be different or unlike
the normally inferior female players. By marking these women as “naturals,” male
superiority was maintained by making it seem as if most women, no matter what their
bodily practices, are not biologically equipped to excel at the game. To deny that ability
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is the result of practice maintains gendered ideologies of ability. Women whose practice
has granted them ability were re-framed as “naturals, ” thereby differentiating them from
“normal” women. Hence, the preconception that men are able because of their inherent
masculinity and women are not because of their inherent femininity is maintained by this
type of discursive framing.
Overview
Despite the promise of equal opportunity in coed softball, ideologies of male physical
superiority were often reproduced in it’s structure, practices and discourses. The historic
exclusion of women from particular types of sports participation has limited women’s
learning specific sets of skills, stigmatized women who have played well and obscured
women’s successes. This is evident in the smaller pool of talented women available to
play softball. Even in the adult games I observed, women were frequently denied full or
equal participation with men. In particular, the gendering of field positions prevented
women from gaining experience at key positions in the game. The tendency o f some
male players to cover for female players prevented some women from even fully playing
the positions designated as female. These practices denied women both the opportunity
to perform the body work necessary for the requisite habitus for softball and full
participation in their chosen leisure activity.
Even when there was an attempt to legislate fairness, assumptions about gender
difference contributed to patterns of gender inequity. The rules reproduced ideologies of
gender difference by placing higher value on male contributions and by reifying gender
through the existence and enforcement of gendered rules. Since most of the officials
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present were men, men were assumed to be more knowledgeable about the rules and
strategies of the game. Despite the fact women often had more knowledge and
experience, men were still treated as authorities, even when such assumptions were
incorrect. Because the authorities were men, often gendered assumptions undergirded the
enforcement of rules and the execution of strategy. This was evident in umpires selective
enforcement of protection rules.
Finally, discursive interpretations of play tended to frame men as good, regardless of
individual mistakes and women as inferior, even when they “get lucky.” This
construction of meaning revealed the existence of multiple and competing truths. Those
truths which conformed to traditional ideologies were most often believed and invoked.
Hence, even when women played well, their performance was undermined and devalued
relative to their male teammates, regardless of their performances. Challenges to such
reproductions made the space a contested space. The following chapter deals with these
challenges.
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Chapter 5
“Chicks Rule”: Challenges to Dominant Conceptions of Gender
We are overmatched as a team, playing the defending champions. Late in the
game we are down by over ten runs. After Kathy singles, Eric grounds out. I
follow with a single, the next man flies out. When our next woman singles a
woman on their team, Steph, cheers, “ Chicks rule!! All o f the women are getting
on and the men are getting out!! Chicks rule. Chicks rule. ” At the end o f the
inning she continues her chant. Even when she is carried o ff the field upside
down by a male teammate, she continues chanting, “ Chicks rule. "(Center City
League 4/29/96). Two months later, we play this team again. This time, they
have three women get on base in a row, while the men all make outs. One o f the
men on their team congratulates Steph on her hit by shouting across the diamond,
‘ Chicks rule. " “ Chicks rule. ” She responds. He answers back, “ Chicks rule. "
(Center City League, 7/8/96)
In the top o f the first Laura is playing rover. She is in the right centerfield
position. She makes a good, but not extraordinary play to catch a high pop up.
One o f the men on the opposing team watches the play and then remarks
incredulously, “ was that a woman? ” The manager, who is coaching third, turns
and replies, “ it’ s a person. " One o f the women sitting on the bench adds, “ What
does it matter... It doesn't make any difference.... It’ s an out. ” After hearing these
comments, my teammate Aaron grins at me and remarks, “ Did you hear that? He
said the exact wrong thing. "(West L.A. League, 7/23/97)
Coed Sports, Rules and Gender
While dominant gendered ideologies and norms were frequently reproduced, the
above examples demonstrate how gendered ideologies were simultaneously challenged.
While the rules of coed softball often legislate gender in a reproductive manner, the rules
also simultaneously created a space in which those norms could be challenged and
resisted. This occurred primarily in three ways:
♦ The rules legitimated women’s participation in recreational sport.
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♦ The rules necessitated that men and women play sports together as teammates and
competitors. This challenged dominant cultural norms of single sex sport and
created a space in which conservative ideologies could be challenged.
♦ The paradox created by basing equality of opportunity on ideologies o f difference
forced players to negotiate between ideologies and practices of equality and
difference. This created a space for the reproduction of ideologies and practices,
as discussed in the previous chapter. But it also evoked challenges, oppositions,
and at times, change.
The rules of coed softball require equal numbers of men and women. In preceding
chapters, these rules were discussed as problematic as they conflated gender and ability
and undermined the concept of gender equality by reinvigorating the salience o f gender
difference. While these rules may be detrimental to gender equity in this way, these rules
simultaneously created a context for resistance. By enforcing equal (in terms o f numbers)
participation by women, women’s presence is ensured and legitimated. This
demonstrated how ideologies which have limited women’s sports participation are
becoming less prevalent, especially in recreational sports. Given the history o f women’s
limited access to leisure (Cross, 1990; Dunning, 1986; Smith, 1987), a rule which
requires teams to produce optimally five and at least four women per team per game is
necessarily resistant. Unfortunately, gender as an important social marker was reaffirmed
by marking this difference in the rules of the game. Hence, the paradox of gender
reification in situations designed to promote equality of opportunity remains despite
challenges to the historically conservative gender order.
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Second, the rules institutionalized a space for women to act as teammates and
competitors with men. This challenged hegemonic assumptions of same sex sport and
allowed men and women the opportunity to challenge their own and other’s assumptions
about sex differences. More subtly, by creating a space in which men and women can
potentially have the same leisure experience and perform similar body mechanics,
ideologies of difference may be challenged. No longer can it be asserted that all women
desire different types of leisure and body practices than all men and vice-versa. The
notion that men and women cannot and should not play together was clearly
delegitimated. So ultimately the rules paradoxically challenged ideologies of gender
difference and male physical superiority while simultaneously reinforcing these same
ideologies.
This not only allowed women a space in which to join men in play, but also
demonstrated the subjectivity and social constructiveness of gender differences. Often
during the study, I could not tell which outfielders were male or female from a distance. I
would have to wait until they came to bat at the end of the half inning. At other times,
other cultural body cues told the answer. For example, during the first inning of one
game, a woman in right center made a good play on a line drive. I could not tell whether
she was male or female until after the play when she adjusted her sweat-pants in a manner
consistent with learned performances of femininity. Hence, on-field body performances
o f the sport at times resisted traditional ideologies in both their presence and
performance, yet these performances are enacted in the same space and at the same time
as other physical reaffirmations o f gendered ideologies and practices.
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What People Do: Bodies, Resistance, and Gender
What people did during the course of a game demonstrated several different forms of
resistance. Many o f these forms of resistance were interrelated as they all involved the
development of specific bodily forms and abilities which for women were inconsistent
with dominant ideologies of femininity. Wacquant (1995, 1992) defines the necessary
habitus for boxing as the specific set of bodily and mental schemata which for the
individual represent bodily capital. These insights can apply to any sport in so far as a
certain amount of bodily capital is necessary to excel at or participate fully in sports.
This capital involves not only the physical ability to perform an action, but also the
mental ability to make split second decisions and the cognitive schemata that makes the
action seem “natural” or instinctual. In the last chapter, I discussed the ways that
gendered practices combined with ideologies of male physical superiority to make it seem
as if all women are physically inferior when compared to all men. In softball, women
who have developed the appropriate bodily capital to excel or fully participate are
demonstrating that with a certain amount of practice, most women could develop this
capital. In other words, gender and difference were constructed out of practices. Because
practices are gendered, ability at sport (sports capital) is male defined (Lorber, 1994).
This means both that more men have this form of capital and that because this capital is
linked to masculinity, sports capital translates to more power, prestige and respect for
men than women. Because of this, possessing this capital can be resistant for women.
By acquiring a body habitus deemed improbable for women and rejecting dictums of
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femininity which would preclude this habitus, these women are resisting. This is
exemplified by women who excel at male or gender neutral positions.
Women Excelling at Male Positions
During the course o f this study, there were several women who excelled in field
positions designated as "male,” or marked as “gender neutral" positions, including third
base, right field, and pitcher. These positions do not have the stigma associated with
“female.” By excelling at “male" or “gender neutral” positions, these women
demonstrated that they are equal or better in ability to many of the men who play the
game. Kathy was one o f these women. Both men and women who saw her play
commented on her ability. Take these several examples from my fieldnotes. In a game in
the San Gabriel Valley on 5/18/97 the following happened.
Kathy has made several stellar plays this game. When she bobbles a hard hit shot
up the line, a male fan who was watching the game commented appreciatively,
“ Oh my god she is human... ” Later in the game, the umpire turned to the
scorekeeper and gesturing at Kathy said admiringly, “ She can really play... "
During a game in the San Gabriel Valley on 4/27/97 the following occurred.
I t’ s the championship game against our old rivals, the Whoppers. Usually
reliable Tomas and Janey have not shown up! Fortunately we still have nine
players here. Kathy will have to play shortstop today. At first we are a little
tense, playing out o f position and a player short. But Kathy is on her game today.
She is like Ozzie Smith, she can’ t miss. Cheating deep on one o f the woman, she
makes a spectacular over the shoulder catch. Her defense leads us to the
championship and the whole team congratulates her. Even the other team is
impressed. Two o f there women yell out, ‘ You go girl... ” as she fields.
Many other women’s superior performances were appreciated by both male and female
participants as well. These men’s comments revealed that they were rethinking some of
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their assumptions about how women play. These types of situations challenged
simplistic conflations of gender and ability.
As demonstrated in the previous example, Kathy sometimes played shortstop. On
such occasions, women would specifically note happily that it was good to see a woman
at shortstop, as occurred during the game on 2/23/97. Her body habitus and these
performances resisted traditional ideologies of female ability. Watching her field a ball
was a truly beautiful thing. She moved with economy of motion dedicated to retrieving
the ball and delivering it for an out. The textbook perfection of her play stands in stark
opposition to ideologies of male superiority. Throughout the course of the study, there
were many exceptional women who resisted sexist ideologies by proving them to be
inaccurate. They demonstrated visually that sports ability is not a result o f biology.
Instead, their success revealed how practice produces ability and the denial of female
practice is what hinders female ability. All of the exceptional women I observed had
years of softball experience. The acknowledgment of these women’s abilities by both
men and women watching or participating in the game exhibited an acceptance of
women’s abilities in general. On the other hand, the excessive note taken of such
women’s abilities implies that most women were assumed to not have these abilities.
Women Excelling at “Female" Positions
Often women were not given the opportunity to excel in the “male” positions because
they were relegated to the “female” ones. Women who excelled at these positions offered
resistance as well. Though limited by the position assigned, by visually demonstrating
the body habitus or capital of a softball player, these women still resisted dominant
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conceptions of male physical superiority. Others often recognized the contributions of
these women in similar ways as the women in “male” or “gender neutral” positions. For
example, during a San Gabriel Valley game late in the summer of 1997, Patty, our first
base person was absent from one game. Several of the opposing players asked where she
was and commented on her prowess at first base. Another example in my fieldnotes
came from a Championship game in the San Gabriel Valley on 7/13/97.
During this game the shortstop has already missed several balls. By contrast, the
woman playing second, Tony, is playing exemplarily. When one o f our batters
hits a hard ground ball, she moves to her left, scoops it and fires to first. By the
end o f the game several o f my teammates, Patty, Janey, and Tomas all comment
that she should be playing shortstop, instead o f the less effective man.
In this example, not only is the woman’s play appreciated by the opposing team, but the
belief that not putting her at the “male appropriate” position o f shortstop is a strategic
error. Such examples demonstrate how women’s play can be resistant. When men play
female positions, resistance to ideologies of gender difference are also offered through
demonstrations which undermine the idea that some positions are more appropriate for
females. Further, a male at a “female” position opens up a “male” position which will
have to be filled by a woman.
Women Batting: Resistance through Runs
While women may be relegated to “female” positions in the field, everyone gets their
chance to demonstrate his or her abilities at the plate. While the rules assume that men
are more valuable as hitters, offensive contributions demonstrated the inaccuracy of these
types of assumptions. Despite common ideologies to the opposite, many women
consistently demonstrated that they could hit for average, score runs and consistently
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produce RBI’s. For example, on one team the top five batters in terms of average, RBI’s
and runs scored were three men and two women. In addition, during any given game,
women generally produced as many hits as did the men on their team. Take the
following examples. The following excerpt comes from a San Gabriel Valley game
played on 6/9/96.
One o f the women on their team is a very fit and buff expert level Latina. In her
first at bat she hits a hard line drive through the gap between the rover and center
fielder. In her second at bat she hits what should have been a solid double, but it
goes under the glove o f our inexperienced rover for a home run. At the end o f the
game she is five fo r five. All o f her hits were solid well placed shots.
The following transpired during a San Gabriel Valley game on 10/27/96.
Kathy comes to the plate. Our team notices that the left fielder is playing way off
the line. Kathy is a dead pull hitter, so as Mary observes, this is a “ big mistake. ”
As i f to prove our point Kathy promptly hits a ball just foul right down the line.
After working the count full, Kathy fouls another pitch down the line. Now it is
full count gotta be, gotta be. (This refers to the fact that a batter is only allowed to
hit one foul ball after they have two strikes on them, a second foul ball results in
an automatic out. Players and umpires say Gotta be, gotta be to remind
themselves and others o f this). Despite all the foul balls the left fielder stays o ff
the line. Kathy hits the next ball right down the line, fair. It rolls all the way to
the parking lot at the end o f the field. Home run.
Such challenges resist notions that women are inferior hitters.
As noted in the previous chapter, it was often assumed that women are inferior hitters
and the “line” becomes a benchmark for where to position oneself defensively for any
female batter. These assumptions were frequently challenged through superlative
performances by female batters. Take the following example from my fieldnotes from a
game in West L.A. on 7/16/97.
A woman on the opposing team comes up to the plate. She clearly is at least an
intermediate level player or above. At this park, the line for where male batters
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have to stand is very shallow. The outfielders are all playing deeper than the line.
The current manager and pitcher, Jerry, instructs the outfielders to come in to the
line. Reluctantly they move in. She drives the next pitch over the center fielder
fo r a triple. Her team celebrates, “ you showed them... " Way to make them
pay... ” They yell at her as she comes into third.
A second example comes from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 9/29/96.
When expert player Mary comes up to the plate, all the outfielders move up to the
line, except the rover, who comes in really short up the middle. At over 5'10", and
probably 165 lbs, with many years o f softball experience, Mary knows an
opportunity when she sees it. She smiles at our bench and looks at the huge hole
left in her power alley. She easily hits the ball over the left fielder for a home run.
In these two examples, it was assumed that women, regardless of size, experience and
skill are not capable of hitting the ball hard and far. When female batters hit the ball
beyond them they were challenging these assumptions.
Other examples of superlative offensive plays involved taking extra bases. While
male batters were watched closely, female batters’ abilities to “ take an extra base” were
often vastly underestimated. An example from my fieldnotes from a San Gabriel Valley
game played during the winter season of 1997 will elucidate.
Kathy, after singling down the line, notices that the defense is sluggish in getting
the ball back in. After the next batter singles, assuming the runners will hold the
outfielder tosses the ball in easily. The cut-off misses the ball and lets it role
toward the infielders slowly. As soon as the ball is far enough away from the cut
off, Kathy takes o ff for third. She slides in hard, just beating the throw. Her slide
surprises the fielder, who misses the ball. She promptly gets up and takes o ff for
home. She slides hard into home, just ahead o f the second throw.
In this case, Kathy actually manufactured a run by playing on the other teams assumption
that she would not take advantage of their lackadaisical play. Further, her picture perfect
slides appeared to come as a complete shock to the fielders despite the fact that she wears
a shin guard stained with dirt from previous slides. As reported in my fieldnotes, the
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following occurred during a Winter League Championship game played in the San
Gabriel Valley on 4/27/97.
Kathy makes a hard slide into third on a close play. The third base person and
the shortstop (both male) on the other team look at each and raise their eyebrows
in surprise. “ Did you see her slide!!! ” The shortstop says with a hint o f awe in
his voice. Wow. " The third base person agrees.
In all o f the above examples, women challenged traditional assumptions about female
offensive contributions by physically demonstrating these ideologies are inaccurate.
Female Body Habitus as Superior
There was one instance in which what was perceived as women’s bodily habitus was
consistently marked as superior. As previously discussed, while boys are channeled into
sports participation, girls are generally channeled into dance. Hence, it is hardly
surprising that many adult women have greater flexibility than most men. This flexibility
was perceived to be a benefit for playing first base. Often the first base person has to
stretch out for the ball, sometimes into a full splits. Take the following example from a
San Gabriel Valley game played on 3/2/97.
During a game the shortstop, Tomas fired a low ball at me. Will I have it in time
to make the play? I stretch out into a full splits, barely able to keep my left foot
pressed against the side o f the bag. I reach out andjust came up with the ball in
time for the out. The other team has a man playing first. After watching this play
his teammate turns to him and comments, “ Are you going to do that? " The male
first baseman replies, 'Sure, but yo u ’ ll have to take me to the hospital
afterwards..." Both laugh.
On similar plays by Patty, men were often heard to remark, “I couldn’t do that.” Because
the stretch allows one to keep his/her foot on the bag and reach out further for the ball, it
allows a first base person to complete more plays. This skill was perceived as a female
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skill which most men were physically incapable of performing. This assumption was
incorrect, as I have seen a few men perform it, but because first base was almost always
played by a woman, there are few opportunities for men to demonstrate this skill. In this
rare instance, what North American culture describes as a “female” trait is perceived as
superior. Unfortunately, the skill is still perceived as a result of “natural” gender
difference and not of gendered cultural practices and ideologies.
Women as Authorities
The nature of the game means that sometimes during the course of the study, women
acted as authorities and gave instruction and information to other players. During the
course o f a game, often directions as to where the ball is and where it should go must be
communicated. Any player can yell these instructions. While the gendering of field
positions means that most often men were in the positions of authority which direct the
traffic o f the ball, often other fielders may see something which causes them to give
instruction. For example, when Kathy played third, she frequently overrode directions
from the shortstop and asked for the ball. When she called for it, she generally received
it. During the course of the season she tagged out many runners attempting to go from
first to third on a single. Similarly, female players sometimes acted as authorities by
providing instructive assistance to other fielders. Take the following example from a
Center City game played on 7/29/96.
Darren, the athletic, but intermediate level right fielder, has a tendency to miss
really high pop ups. This game la m playing rover. During the fourth inning,
with two outs, a man hits a high pop up near him in right. As Darren sets up
under a ball, I notice that he is clearly too shallow and will most likely miss the
ball. I immediately begin yelling, “ Back, Darren, Back " He moves back several
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feet and catches the ball. After the inning, he approaches me and comments,
‘ Thanks... I f you hadn ’ t said that I would have missed it. "
A second example comes from a game played on 6/16/96 in the San Gabriel Valley.
We are playing one o f our long time rival teams, the Master Batters. Their
manager, J eff is a wily pro who according to our manager, “ knows all the tricks
o f the trade. " During the first inning when a small Latin man comes up, I am
playing rover and am positioned in right center field. Hilda, our second base
woman shouts to me, “ come in... Come in... Now over... ” She gestures to my left.
“ He hits it right there... ” She tells me definitively. She's right. He hits a single on
the ground right at me. I move forward and easily glove the ball and throw it
back into her, holding the runners to only one base.
In these two examples female players acted as authorities to aid teammates and the
common cause o f victory. This demonstrated women’s ability to exercise authority in
specific situations.
In addition to instructions, women sometimes asserted their authority to call for a play.
On rare occasions female outfielders were observed calling off male outfielders on balls,
as in the following example from a Center City game played on 4/22/96.
There are two outs in the third inning. There is a high pop up in between the low
intermediate rover, Monica and the intermediate level right fielder, Darren.
Darren calls fo r it at first, but the ball is closer to Monica. She overrides him,
saying, “ No, I got it. I got it, ”and makes the catch to end the inning.
In other cases, female infielders called off male infielders on pop-ups or on plays either of
them could take. Mary, Kathy, and Patty were often observed overriding male teammates
who had called for a ball, saying, “ No, no, it’s mine...” In these cases, women
demonstrated that they can and do act as authorities during the course of the game. By
demonstrating their authority, these women challenged ideologies of male superiority and
refused to be relegated to the role of helper. They explicitly resisted the male tendency to
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take plays from women. By insisting that they be given the opportunity to make plays
they were insisting on being let into sport on equal terms and given full participation.
These types of challenges instituted equality o f opportunity and challenged gendered
ideologies.
Getting Men Out
Women often consciously challenged gendered norms by taking pleasure in directly
physically “overpowering” male players. This was generally accomplished by either
“getting men out” or in “burning male fielders.” Particular pleasure was taken in
overpowering men who were perceived as holding or reproducing traditional gender
ideologies. Specific men or teams were targeted with men who “take plays away” from
women or who make sexist comments being the most likely targets. Take the following
examples from my fieldnotes. The first example comes from a San Gabriel Valley game
played on 8/18/96.
A expert level woman, Tony, is playing second base. With a woman on first, a
man hits a shot deep in the hole near her. She runs hard and makes a great
backhand play on the ball. With time only to throw out one o f the two runners,
she elects to go to first andjust gets the man by half a step. At the end o f the
inning she comments, “ I guess I should have gone after the lead runner, but I
really wanted to get the man out. " Kathy laughs appreciatively. Tony continues,
“ I guess it’ s good to go after the faster runner. ” She grins, not even accepting her
own justification for throwing to first instead o f second.
Another example is taken from a San Gabriel Valley Game during the Winter season of
1997.
During a game against a team disliked by several o f our women fo r their tendency
to “ cover ” for female fielders whenever possible, Mary and Kathy make a pact.
They agree that whenever possible they will try to get the most blatant offender
and other men on his team out, even i f there might be an easier play on a woman.
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Early in the game with two outs, a man hits a sharp grounder to Kathy. She
gloves it easily. Though the woman base runner approaching second is a “ dead
duck, °Kathy instead chooses to make a close play at first to get the man.
Afterwards Mary and Kathy walk o ff the field together laughing and
congratulating each other for “ sitting him down. "
During another San Gabriel Valley game on 4/27/97 the following occurred.
A man continually refers to the women as “ lady batters ” while designating the
men as “ batters. " All o f the women on my team find it exceptionally annoying.
After Kathy throws him out at first, our women celebrate inordinately. Later in
the game she says to Janey and myself with an evil grin, “ he must really hate me...
I ’ ve nailed him three times today. " “ Serves him right... "Janey replies. She adds
sarcastically, “ Lady batters.... ”
These female athletes took pleasure in getting the men out because it demonstrated what
they believed to be the inaccuracy of sexist ideologies. This was exemplified by the fact
that the men who maintained or exhibited sexist ideologies were special targets. When
Janey scoffed at the moniker “lady batters” she displayed contempt. While “lady batters”
does not sound like an insult, most of the women playing felt that it was. First, the term
marked gender when it was irrelevant. Similar to the marking of women’s amateur and
professional sports as such while men’s sports remain the unmarked or “normal” category
(Duncan et. al, 1994), such marking implies that there is something different or abnormal
about these athletes. Unless a team is violating the batting order rule, there is no need to
mark the sex of the batter in chants and references. Second, “lady” is a class biased term
which implies a certain amount of gentility. Gentility is incompatible with sports
performance, so to say “lady batter” implies a lack o f ability or a lesser amount of ability
relative to the unmarked term of batter, which must designate male. Janey responds by
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attempting to get him out, or displaying female competence in the vanquishing of male
opponents.
A second example occurs when women exhibit particular pleasure in defying
conventional gender expectations, such as “burning” male fielders who played shallowly
or by hitting well after a male batter has been pitched around in order to pitch to the
supposedly weaker female batter. Several examples of female batters “burning” male
outfielders were discussed in a preceding section. When women hit the ball over or
through shallow outfielders, the batter’s teammates often commented on the failure of
gendered assumptions. Remarks like “you made him pay..;” or “you showed them.”
indicated an acknowledgment of the presence and inaccuracy of gendered ideologies.
Recall the following example from my fieldnotes from a game in West L.A. on 7/16/97.
After the manager moved the outfielders in closer, the female batter hit the ball over their
heads for a triple. Her team celebrated by saying “ You showed them... "and W ay to make
them pay... " In this scene, teammates celebrate by stipulating that her ability was
underestimated and she used this underestimation to her and her team’s advantage. A
similar appreciation of the underestimation of female abilities occurred when males were
pitched around in order to pitch to the assumed to be weaker female batters. Take the
following example from my fieldnotes of one of the San Gabriel Valley 1997 Winter
League Championship games.
In the top o f the sixth (andfinal) inning we need to score in order to take the lead
andforce a bottom half o f the inning. We are already at the time limit and the
umpire has announced last inning, so this is it. After we score a few runs to pull
within one, Steve comes up to the plate. He takes two balls and then is thrown a
strike which he fouls off. The pitcher decides to invoke the rarely used intentional
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walk rule, telling the umpire to “ put him on... " The shortstop, angry at what he
had perceived to be an intentional walk by our pitcher in the previous inning (it
wasn 't: he was trying to pitch around the man, but not to walk him and was very
angry at himself fo r “ letting him get away") exclaims smugly, “ Yeah, that’ s what
you get. ” He clearly believes that it will be an easy task to get Kathy, our next
batter and that this walk has put us at a strategic disadvantage. Kathy goes after
the first pitch and hits a solid two RBI single to give us a one run lead. Several
members o f our team comment loudly, yeah that’ s what we get. ” Tomas adds,
“ See our women can hit. That was a mistake to put that extra runner on base. "
In this example our team recognized that their assumption that all women are weaker
hitters than all men was erroneous. My team’s celebration was focused around the failure
of their sexist strategies. While this type of celebration was resistant, it was also the case
that the teams who celebrate at these times also reproduced these same gendered
assumptions at other times.
Summary
Through women’s performance on the field, dominant gender ideologies of female
inferiority can be resisted. By instituting a space in which women and men can play
together, coed softball was a site at which women could resist dominant norms through
direct demonstrations or bodily performances which show the inaccuracy o f such
assumptions. Fieldnotes revealed a variety of different ways in which this occurred
including:
♦ Women demonstrating superlative ability at “male” positions.
♦ Women demonstrating superlative ability at “female” positions.
♦ Women demonstrating superlative ability at the plate.
♦ The recognition of women’s play as exceptional by other players umpires, and
spectators.
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♦ Traditional female body habitus was marked as superior for particular positions,
especially first base.
♦ Women asserting authority (and both men and women accepting women’s
authority).
♦ Women’s conscious resistance of male superiority through direct body
confrontation.
Often these examples focused on individual action. Such resistance reflected what
Kellner (1995) refers to as “individual activism,” or activism through self-development.
Heywood (1998) applies this model to women’s bodybuilding as an example of women
changing how they see themselves, how they feel in the world and how they are seen by
others. Certainly by this definition the women who demonstrated the inaccuracy of
gendered assumptions about women’s bodies were resisting in this way. While I do not
want to undermine the importance of this type of resistance, it’s collective nature must be
conceptualized as well. It is not simply that these women did this, but that they had a
space in which it became an available option. One cannot underestimate the significance
of the popularity of coed softball as a forum in which women can resist these ideologies
through direct competition with men. Just as bodily performances often challenged
traditional gender ideologies, individual’s beliefs also regularly challenged such
ideologies as well.
Challenging Gendered Assumptions and Expectations
In some ways, the greatest challenge to gendered ideologies occurred through equal
participation. While there were numerous incidents which demonstrated the relevance of
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gender norms, the ways in which individual players expressed their abilities, personalities
and style of play demonstrated how gender was not necessarily always a factor. While in
American culture certain personality traits are generally attributed to one sex or the other
(Brownmiller, 1994), coed softball provided a demonstration o f the wide variety of
behaviors exhibited by both sexes. Norms of competition provide an example of this.
The assumption that men are competitive while women are nurturing has dominated
scientific research and popular culture (Fausto-Sterling, 1985). This is reflected in the
early female educators tendency to juxtapose men’s early competitive sport to women’s
more recreational versions and in the more modem adapted versions of games for women
(Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Hult, 1994). This reflects cultural assumptions of an
assumed natural difference between men and women. In this view, women are more
humane, nurturing and prefer participatory activities whereas men are more competitive
and prefer high level competitive sports. These assumptions have relevance outside the
realm of sports as women are often considered less suitable for business and politics and
other public arenas, whereas their supposedly nurturing nature makes them ideal for care
of home and hearth (Connell, 1987; Fausto-Sterling, 1985). In other words, dominant
cultural ideologies imply there are “natural” differences between men and women, often
assumed to arise out of women’s ability to bear children (Connell, 1987; Lorber, 1994).
There is an additional assumption that women should not be subject to potential injury
because of their roles as mothers (Cahn, 1994), whereas for men injury in sport is
considered an acceptable risk (Young, 1993). Feminist appropriations which
reinvigorate such conceptions in an attempt to valorize the feminine reproduce these
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assumptions and reify dichotomous difference, despite evidence to the contrary in forums
like coed softball.
Taking Winning Seriously- Competitive women
Despite the prevalence of ideologies to the contrary, many women were exceptionally
competitive. In particular, women who had played sports in competitive environments
such as college sports, high school sports, or on traveling tournament teams assumed
competitiveness to be the norm. Kathy, a woman who had played competitive high
school ball, tournament ball and NCAA Division LA softball was a very competitive
player. During games in which she struggled or made errors she generally berated herself
often remarking that “she didn’t deserve to play..." or citing specifically that “I don’t
deserve to play shortstop...” Take the following example from a Center City game played
on 4/29/96.
Kathy is playing third today. She is having an uncharacteristically bad game.
After knocking down two very hard hit balls, but being unable to complete the
throws she announces, “ 1 suck.. Ishouldn ‘ t be playing here. Can you move me
to the outfield. ” She continues to berate her play for the rest o f the game. Her
fiancee tries to console her in vain. She is clearly blaming the loss on her play.
She also has on several occasions mentioned that she found it difficult to play with people
who had made key game losing errors in the past, as she tended to hold it against them.
Another example is the pitcher from both San Gabriel Valley teams, Janey. When Janey
pitched badly she often wound up in angry arguments with her husband Tomas, though it
was clearly herself with whom she was frustrated. Take the following example from my
fieldnotes from a San Gabriel Valley II Game played on 4/28/96.
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Our struggles as a team continue, after tying up the game our defensive errors are
giving the opposition a good sized lead. With two out and two on, the batter pops
up in between the pitcher and shortstop. Tomas, the shortstop calls for it at first,
but as Janey goes after it, he backs off. The ball falls in between them. Janey
glares at him angrily, "You called for it. " She demands accusingly. Tomas
responds, 'You should have backed me up. ” Janey retorts, "I was going after it,
and stopped as soon as you called it... "
Later during the same game, she had angrily demanded we replace our left fielder after he
made several errors. Often, other women were heard making comments such as, ‘ i f he
gets in the way, knock him down... "or “ i f you ’ re not going to take this seriously... ” When
I was pitching, one woman told me that if I threw a low pitch, she was going to “ knock it
up the middle and take my head off. " This is generally considered an unsportsmanlike
strategy used to rattle pitchers. Many other women displayed what are thought of as
traditionally male competitive drives. By demonstrating competitive “male” behavior
these women were challenging ideologies which mark women as less competitive and
more interested in participatory recreational sport. The situation is more complex,
however, as these women were also simultaneously reproducing “masculine” norms in
sport of competition and winning (Sage, 1990). Hence while these women were
challenging ideologies about femininity, their actions did not necessarily challenge
masculine ideologies and may have reinforced some of these ideologies.
Sport as Leisure Activity- Non-competitive men
While the aforementioned women challenged ideologies about femininity by adopting
“male” norms, I encountered many men who conformed more to what is thought of as
traditionally “feminine” ideologies of participation and recreation. These men
deliberately refused to acknowledge winning as the primary objective of the game, but
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instead stressed the participatory, recreational and “fun” aspects o f the game. For
example, as previously mentioned one man resisted the pressured and competitive
elements of the game during a West L.A. played on 6/12/97.
There are two outs and the bases are loaded. An expert level African-American
man in his mid-thirties is up. He take a hard swing and grounds out to the
shortstop. He walks back to the dugout to retrieve his glove. His teammate looks
at him sympathetically and comments jokingly, Xlouldn't handle the pressure... ”
“ Pressure... " He replies sarcastically. “ Pressure is two kids and no job. This is
jun."
Many other men during the study period made it clear that they considered softball a fun
and recreational activity. When queried as to the nature of his involvement one man
stated clearly, 'This is recreation. This is for fun. ” Many other men gave similar answers
or made similar assertions. Interestingly both men and women who participated in coed
and single sex cited this type of attitude as one of the key benefits o f coed softball. Both
men and women complained that single sex versions of the game were more competitive,
in a negative way. Most complained specifically about teammates who yelled at each
other. Observations o f men’s game revealed that while individuals did not seem to be
competing more by playing harder, the competition seemed to mean more. Men’s teams
were observed denigrating opponents in a manner considered completely inappropriate in
coed. Frequently, all male teams’ insults centered around questioning the opponents
masculinity, as accusations of “pussiness,” “wussiness,” and “girliness” were common
insults. Since many of the same men who played coed played men’s as well, the
environment rather than the individuals, seems to be at issue. This is consistent with
ideas about masculinity and sport. Because in the coed game, norms are already being
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disrupted by the presence of and equal participation by women, questioning a team’s
masculinity makes little or no sense. If one considers how accusations of mannishness
have dogged female athletes (Cahn, 1994), it is clear that insults for either gender center
on questioning the gender enactments of one’s respective sex. The coed game, being
predicated on equal ability undermines these types of insults and thereby reduces some of
the negative elements o f gendered expectations. It makes much less sense to question a
man’s masculinity when he has failed to perform a play in a context in which half the
people attempting plays are not male. It also makes little sense to question a woman’s
femininity for adequately demonstrating the competence you and your teammates value.
These norms become more complex when one explores cultural attitudes toward pain and
injury.
Pain and Injury
Injury and sport has been a topic of considerable debate, including the question of how
much pain and injury an athlete should accept when sport is a job (Young, 1993). Little
research however, explores injury and recreational sport. While dominant cultural
mythologies present women as requiring male protection, especially physical protection
and protection from injury (Faludi, 1991), these ideologies seem laughable when
compared to the prevalence of domestic violence and the continued exploitation of
women of color, lower class and third world women. The belief that women need to be
protected from the types of injuries acquired through competitive sport participation was
challenged by women who accepted the risk of injury, refused protection and played
through pain. Underlying these assumptions are ideologies of female weakness of both
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body and mind (Sennet, 1994; Synnott, 1993), as women are simultaneously to be
protected from injury and disallowed the ability to decide if they want to accept risk. The
field of coed softball presented empirical examples which demonstrated women’s ability
to protect themselves from pain and injury, withstand pain and injury and consciously
accept the risk of injury. I am not making a value judgement here as to whether or not an
individual should play through pain. Only the injured party can make the determination
if he/she is hurt and wants to continue participation. I am noting, however, that many
women behave in ways we think of as “male” with respect to pain and injury.
Women often demonstrated that they understood the risk of injury through the use of
preventative measures. Most female pitchers and many infielders wore shin guards.
Janey was hit in the shins by several balls during the study period. On some of these
occasions she commented afterward that she was glad she had worn her shin guards and
that “it wasn’t too bad.” At the end of the Summer of 1997 when a bad hop hit Kathy she
commented, “ Good thing I had my guard on or that would have been really bad. ”
Interestingly, knowing how to fall also helped players avoid injury. Most athletes know
not to “straight arm” a fall. Putting out your hand to break a fall usually results in a more
painful wrist, elbow, or shoulder injuries than any bruise from a fall. Most players knew
this and thus such injuries were routinely avoided.
During the study period several women were observed either taking hard hits from
balls on the body, hard slides and hard falls which caused momentary pain and minor
injuries. Take the following example from my fieldnotes from a Center City game played
on 10/28/96.
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I am pitching to a big man, he is over six feet tall and 200 lbs. He hits a hard line
drive right up the middle. I throw down my glove to try to make the play, but I
just miss the ball which hits my right leg and bounces over to Kathy, who fields it.
I feel a hardjolt and my leg is getting hotter and hotter as I watch her throw to
first, but Tina drops the ball. I don’ t know which hurts more, the pain in my leg
or not getting the out. No, it’ s definitely my leg that hurts. I test my leg fo r a
minute. Well it really hurts, but I can tell right away that I am not seriously
injured. Nothing broke or torn, just a very painful bruise. Kathy jokes with me to
try to cheer me up, “ Nice tip... Way to keep the ball in the infield... " “ Yeah,
maybe next time I ’ ll use the glove... " I respond. Everyone on the other team is
asking me, “ Are you OK? " The batter apologizes. I take a second to walk
around. It hurts, but it‘ s not serious. I have a really bad bruise and limp fo r the
next several days. I pitch one more inning and play first for the rest o f the game.
A second example comes from my fieldnotes for a game played on 11/18/96 in Center
City.
The first batter o f the game hits a hard line drive right at Kathy. She is in good
position to field the ball when it takes a bad hop up at her. She throws out her
hand and glove in self defense. The ball hits her bare hand and pops up to stay in
the infield. The blue calls time. Kathy says that she “ needs a minute. " I walk
slowly back to the mound and by the time I reach it, Kathy says she is ready to go.
On another occasion a bad hop hit Kathy in the leg, I could tell she was hurt because she
stood with her head down for a minute or two before saying she was ready to resume
playing. Six months later she still had a soft spot and a bruise on her leg. These
demonstrations are part of the lived experiences of all participants. These women’s
actions demonstrate the inaccuracy of many gendered cultural myths which promote the
idea that men can withstand injury whereas women need to be protected from it.
Anyone who participates in recreational sport is going to be injured in some way at
some point. Muscle strains, bruises, abrasions, broken fingers and collisions were all
common and inevitable. Serious injuries requiring medical attention, however, were rare.
During the study period only two players seemed to suffer serious injury. One teammate,
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Ryan, suffered a season ending injury with a fractured hand and one opponent, a hard
hitting female third base person, suffered a serious knee injury. Less serious injuries
included a woman being knocked unconscious, serious abrasions, jammed and broken
fingers and deep bruises caused by bad hops or errant throws. One women who played
on other teams in San Gabriel Valley I &II wore a batting helmet on the base paths
because she had once been hit in the head by an errant throw. In general, the most
common injuries were bad bruises, which though painful, were neither permanent nor
debilitating. In the case o f mild but painful injuries, many women resist dominant
cultural norms of female protection and feminine frailty by demonstrating ability to
withstand pain and to place continuation in the game over tending to pain and injury. I
want to add that this continuation was not synonymous with competitiveness.
Experienced players recognized that such injuries are an inevitable part of the game and it
would simply not occur to them to leave the game if they have recognized that it is a
painful, but minor injury. Most experienced players were aware that sitting out allows
the body to cool down, making injuries feel more painful, hence staying in the game and
staving off the pain for a longer period of time was generally preferable. Staying in the
game keeps one focused and keeps adrenaline flowing which reduces one’s recognition of
pain. In addition, teams frequently only have five and occasionally only four, women
present. Many women felt that it would be unfair to leave a team short a player, or with
an injury forfeit when they were not seriously injured. This behavior could be seen as
consistent with feminine norms which include women’s role in facilitating men’s leisure
(Cross, 1990; Smith, 1987).
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On the other hand, specifically risking injury and pain is antithetical to conservative
norms of male protection of females. Such “protections” have traditionally been used to
restrict women’s rule in public life, including limiting occupations, military service, and
leadership roles (Connell, 1987; Faludi, 1991; Tavris, 1992). Currently women’s right to
participate in extreme and often dangerous sports, especially if they have children, is the
focus of public debate in forums like Women’s Sports and Fitness (June, 1998). While
men’s right to risk life and limb is their chosen career, even if they have children is never
debated, women’s right to risk injury is subject to public scrutiny. The women who
demonstrated the inaccuracy of ideologies which limit women’s presence in risky
situations challenged these ideologies. The salience of such ideologies in the sub-world
of coed softball complicates the picture and reveals the complexity of gender relations.
The examples of norms of female protection discussed in Chapter 4 revealed the myriad
ways in which contradictory ideologies can be simultaneously reproduced and resisted in
the same space. Similarly, just as verbal interpretations of play often undermined
demonstrations of female ability, often others used discursive space as a means to
challenge and resist dominant gender ideologies.
Chicks Rule! Verbal Resistance and Celebration
There were a number of ways in which women and men offered verbal resistance to
dominant gender norms and ideologies. Celebrations of female ability represented
resistance to ideologies of female inability and challenged ideologies of male superiority
and gender difference. These examples of verbal resistance demonstrated how the inter
relationship between power and knowledge (Foucault, 1988) created a site of struggle
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over discourse. Gendered ideologies were not merely verbally resisted, but rather the
knowledge which underlies the verbiage was struggled over and reconstructed. Take the
scenario which opened this chapter. Steph specifically resisted concepts of female
inability by marking and claiming the field as a site of female ability. Ironically, this type
of marking reified ideologies of female inability by marking demonstrations of female
ability as noteworthy occurrences. The use of the working class derogatory term “chick”
was an interesting reclamation of a term used to denote sexually desirable young women.
By using this term Steph simultaneously challenged ideas of women’s sexual availability
while also reifying them. Similar debates circulate in the public media as debates over
women’s hem lines point to the simultaneous power and disempowerment of Western
enactments of female sexual desirability.
Non-violent Resistance to Position Usurpation
As previously mentioned, women were often subject to position usurpation, or having
male fielders “cover” for them. Opponents, teammates and the women covered for
sometimes resisted verbally when positions usurpation occurred. Opponents resisted
other teams usurpations by making loud comments such as “ Let the women play, "or “ She
was there... " For example, an incident from my fieldnotes from a West Los Angeles I
Game played on 6/4/97 demonstrated such resistance.
The pitcher for Latin Connection is covering for all the women as often as
possible. He does this every time we play them. This practice annoys several
women on our team. Kate comments loudly “ Let the girls play, come on. ” Kathy
adds loudly, “ I f he doesn ’ t want to let the women play, why does he play with
them? Why doesn't he play men’ s? "
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In this example not only was covering for the women resisted in Kathy’s remark, but also
ideologies o f recreation and participation were invoked. That all players should be given
an opportunity to play was presented as the issue. Because the pitcher only covered for
female players, his behavior was interpreted as sexist by opponents and was verbally
chastised.
Often one’s own teammates even censured such practices. Take the following
example from a San Gabriel Valley Placement game played on 1/19/97.
We are playing a placement game today. We have seven women and only five
men, so for much o f the game we play with six women. Later in the game,
however, our manager, Guy, becomes concerned that having two women in the
outfield is detrimental. Guy decides against putting Monica or me in the outfield
in favor o f himself. He gets one ball that inning. It is a fairly routine pop up to
straightaway right field. Guy positions himself under it, but what should have
been an easy out hits his glove and drops out. Watching the play, Tomas yells out
jokingly, but reprovingly, "Yeah, we don't want to put a girl there... "
In this example, Tomas was critical of Guy for assuming that a male player, in this case
himself, is necessarily more valuable or talented than a female player. On another
occasion, later that season our male shortstop, Jesse, asked me (at second base) to switch
with him when a hard hitting left handed man came to the plate. Jesse missed the hard hit
ground ball the man delivered. Later in the game, Tomas played shortstop. He told me,
'Tm not going to switch... Because I have confidence in your abilities. He didn 't make
the play... " This verbal chastisement made it clear that ideologies about gender and
experience were being hotly contested through the practice of the game. Tomas resisted
the exclusion of women from participation by marking men’s failure and ideologies of
recreation and participation.
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In addition to others’ protests, the players who were covered for often resisted.
Several catchers protested by saying “ Hey I was here... "or “ Ig o t it covered,” when the
pitcher tried to cover the plate. Take for example, the following incident which occurred
during a West L.A. II Game on 7/23/97.
The woman playing catcher is a petite brunette. After the pitcher comes home to
cover a potential play at the plate, she tells him angrily, “ Hey, I don 7 mind
playing catcher as long as I get to play my position. " The pitcher, looking
chagrined replies, “ Well I ’ m not used to having a catcher who can play. " But he
backs her up, as opposed to taking her plays for the rest o f the game.
This example demonstrated a woman’s challenge to assumptions of her inferiority and
her exclusion from the recreational experience. It also previewed “negotiations”
discussed in the next chapter. Though on this occasion the pitcher yielded to the
catcher’s assertions that she should be allowed to “play,” this did not necessarily
challenge all male position usurpation of female players, only those in which the female
player has the ability to perform.
On other occasions when male fielders called for balls which were heading straight at
female fielders, the women called them off saying, “ No, no, it’ s at me. I t’ s mine. ”
Frequently, when a woman refused to be covered for and then made a good play, women
on the other team congratulated her and sometimes shouted comments such as ‘ Zook
what happens when you let the girls play... "or “ See you should have let her play all
along..." Janey and Kathy, two players on San Gabriel Valley I & II, were particulary
vocal in these situations. As discussed in the preceding chapter, if after a position
usurpation the male failed to complete the play, the opposing team often openly criticized
his team for not “ letting the women play..." While gendered ideologies were reproduced
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through the tendency to cover for female players, both male and female players often
consciously resisted such practices. This insistence on equal opportunity was an attempt
to define the sub-world as gender neutral by making it a space in which the recreational
experience of all players was protected, regardless of gender or ability. This reproduced
the supposedly female recreation ethic of participation.
Resisting by Making Comments Meant to Be Overheard
When gendered comments and assumptions were made, these incidences were often
directly addressed as demonstrated above. Sometimes these incidences were addressed
indirectly, instead. Sometimes players made loud comments at teammates with the clear
intention of making sure the other team, in particular the transgressor, overheard these
comments. This type of forum was often used to criticize sexist comments. Take the
following example from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 5/4/97.
Kathy hits a shot right down the line. The third base person makes a good
attempt at the ball which just careens o ff the tip o f his glove. A woman on his
team tries to berate him for missing Kathy’ s shot by saying, “ she’ s just a girl... ”
Kathy immediately replies loudly, “ Well maybe some women... like her... can't
hit... " Her comment is clearly meant to be overheard by the other team. Janey
laughs and agrees with her. They also see the woman's comment as completely
inappropriate.
In this case Kathy berated a woman for making a comment which demeans all women’s
strength and ability. This type of resistance was similar to comments made regarding
“ letting the women play. " These types of informal controls were a means to counter
reproductions of gendered ideologies. Essentially these women refused to let gendered
comments go unchecked and verbally resisted common sense assumptions about gender
and bodies.
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Are Male Bodies Superior? “ Throw Like a Girl Doesn’t Mean What it Used To”
A popular sports clothing line has recently added a feminist inspired line of athletic t-
shirts. One proudly reads, “Throw Like a Girl Doesn’t Mean What it Used To.” This
message challenges the idea that male bodies are inherently more suited for sport than
female bodies. Players in the game often made similar assessments. To illustrate this, I
will return to an example used earlier from a San Gabriel Valley game on 4/13/97 and
add subsequent comments made in reaction to the reproductive comments made by a
male teammate.
On one occasion, our less experienced manager, Guy, was playing second.
Unfamiliar with the throw to first from this angle, he let go a weak and awkward
throw which just beat the runner to first. Laughing at his throw, our normally
non-sexist left fielder, Steve yelled out, “ Come on Guy, throw like a man... ”Upon
hearing this comment, his teammate Kathy replies “ He is throwing like a man... I
guess he needs to throw like a woman. ”
Kathy deconstructed the paradox contained in gendered ideologies. If Guy is a man and
he makes an errant throw, he is throwing like a man, just one who isn’t skilled at softball.
Kathy mocked the idea that “throw like a man” and “throw like a girl” have specific
universal meanings which refer to the abilities of bodies. Her comments questioned
common sense assumptions of ability. If she throws better than Guy and indeed she has a
better arm than 95% of the people in the game, why is throwing “like a man" superior?
These types of resistance demonstrate a degree of feminist consciousness among some of
the participants and a willingness to openly challenge assumptions about gendered
bodies. These examples of direct verbal resistance to gendered ideologies countered
strategies discussed in the last chapter which use verbal assessments of games to
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undermine women’s demonstrations of competence. Moreover, conflations of ability and
gender in sports were challenged and resisted through these types of verbal framings.
Resisting Gendered Compliments
Often gendered comments took the form of compliments. In such “compliments,”
however, women’s performance was undermined by excessive compliments for routine
play. On occasion, the “compliments” were derogatory. Take the following example,
from one team we faced in the San Gabriel Valley on 10/7/96.
There is a heterosexual couple on this team. The woman playing third base is the
female half and is pretty good (expert level ability). Every time the she makes a
play (and since she was pretty good this happens frequently), the man shouts out
authoritatively “ Goodplay little girl. " After what seems like the hundredth time
he does this, the women on my team begin registering annoyance. Mary and
Kathy discuss how irritating they find his comment and make a pact to try to get
him out at every opportunity. After Kathy throws him out fo r the second time to
end the inning, Janey the pitcher yells out sarcastically “ Goodplay girls... " She
said girls loud and long and in a very sarcastic tone. All o f the women and some
o f the men on our team erupt in laughter as we walk o ff the field to begin batting.
In this way Mary, Kathy and Janey demonstrated annoyance without direct confrontation.
Still the point was clearly made. Hence, even when players were attempting to be
complimentary, women often resisted such compliments if they contained within them
loaded gender assumptions. By calling her “little girl" whenever she made a play, her
partner had been undermining the strength and ability demonstrated in her successful
completion o f both routine and difficult plays. Her ability was further undermined both
by excessive compliments for routine play and the infantilization inherent in the phrase
“little girl.” My teammates’ sarcastic resistance to this type of characterization employed
humor as a strategy to poke fun at this man’s assumptions. This was a strategy habitually
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employed by those in other categories to resist the common sense assumptions which
serve the dominant category.
The term “girl” then, was used simultaneously as a demeaning term and as a term of
resistance when it was reclaimed through an ironic understanding of the historical
meanings associated with it. When this occurs, “girl” becomes not a symbol of a lack of
ability, but a cry of resistance against gender oppression.
Resisting Gendered Strategies: Women Should trv to Take Walks?
As discussed in the preceding chapter, often managers invoked a different strategy for
the male and female players. Frequently this took the form of encouraging women to “ try
to take walks "or to “ work the count. ” While no one would dispute the importance of the
walk as an offensive strategy, the fact that women were often encouraged and instructed
to take walks, while men were not even though they might receive two bases, irked
female participants. This was manifest in verbal remarks. Take the following example
from a West L.A. II Game played on 6/12/97.
Late in the game, the home team Big Truck Load, is down by a few runs. The
manager instructs all o f the women on his team to take until they get two strikes
on them. Though clearly annoyed at these instructions, the woman batting,
Sherri, follows his orders and walks. The next batter is a man. While he is
batting the manager makes sure to reiterate his instructions to the women waiting
to bat. He does not give these instructions to the men. The next batter, Ahzar,
pops up on a one ball, no strike count. Two women on the team exchange looks.
Steph turns to Nadra and shakes her head and says clearly, “ irony, irony... "
Nadra nods in agreement. The manager pretends not to hear, but glances over
ruefully.
In this example, the women realized that the manager should not be treating all women as
if they are inferior hitters who therefore need to work the count for a walk. These women
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resisted the assumption that all women should be subject to different strategies than all
men. Again, humor was part of the resistance as Steph’s comment was ironic, in content
as well as tone. Steph was verbally marking the fact that the strategy should not be
gendered and that given the male’s performance, the assumption that women should be
subject to trying to work the count was inappropriate. Had the manager told everyone on
the team to take until they had two strikes, there would have been no protest.
Overall, verbal resistance by women to sexist comments and strategies demonstrated
the complexity of the situation. Foucault (1979) argues that resistance also entails the
reproduction of the social relations being resisted. Because resistance to gendered
ideologies often contained a reassertion of gendered categories, the resistance of these
ideologies reified gender as a concept. Because these women were forced to resist the
idea that women are inferior, they necessarily reproduced the category of woman through
its naming and usage. At the same time, they used both their bodies and verbal strategies
to demonstrate the inaccuracy of many ideologies of female physical inferiority, which is
in-and-of-itself a form of resistance (Heywood, 1998). These women’s demonstrations
added alternative images of women’s bodily competence to the “realm of the fathomable”
and self consciously resisted attempts to structure discourse such that myths of male
physical superiority were maintained.
Men Verbally Critiquing Gendered Assumptions
As mentioned in several of the previous examples, men playing the game often
understood and resisted gendered assumptions. The next chapter will discuss how the
complexity of human interaction may make the same person simultaneously a resistor
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and a reproducer of gendered ideologies, bodies and practices. In this section, I will
focus on situations in which men demonstrated resistance to gendered assumptions. Take
the following example from a Center City Game played on 10/14/96.
During a close game a man on one team gives excessive instructions to one o f the
women on his team. When she is batting he proceeds to tell her where he thinks
every pitch will land. With a full count he yells out, “ Deep, let it go... ” When it
falls fo r strike three the umpire comments to some o f the women standing around
the dugout, “ Some guys are always trying to tell the women what to do, and
they ’ re usually wrong. “
Another example comes from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 10/13/96,
During the fourth inning, a man pops up high and deep to Mary, who is playing
second base. While the play is moderately difficult, it is still a play much more
likely to be completed than missed. Though there is only one out, the man on first
takes offfor third base. Mary catches the ball and tosses to first for the easy
double play. The runner walks off the field saying, “ I didn ’ t think she was going
to get there. " As Steve comes in o ff the field he walks over to Kathy and Mary
who are laughing at his foolishness. 'What was he thinking? “ Steve asks. Then
he answers himself, “ It's the gender thing, he thought you couldn ’ t make that
play. What a fool. "
In all of these examples, the men involved clearly acknowledged that other men’s
gendered assumptions were both incorrect and detrimental to their team. In the first
example, a male teammate actually made the woman on his team appear incompetent by
facilitating her strike-out. The umpire’s response indicated a high level of critical gender
consciousness. The umpire observed that not only did men generally instruct women
regardless of ability, but that often this instruction was detrimental. His critique of
dominant gender ideology was grounded in experiential evidence to the contrary. In the
second example, a man noted how other men’s underestimation of female ability proved
to be a poor strategy for his team. The level of consciousness demonstrated by the men
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who acknowledge the persistence of gendered ideologies and strategy stood in opposition
to the reproductions of these ideologies.
Many men in addition to being conscious of sexism, professed ideologies which
recognized that women are not inferior players and are often superior to many male
players. Take the following example from a San Gabriel Valley Championship game
played on 7/13/97.
After hitting a home run to win the championship game, the team is
congratulating Gordon Park. He comments that “ the right center fielder might
have had a chance at the ball. “ He adds, “ my strategy was to hit it at the weakest
outfielder. And that was definitely him. ” “ Not the woman? “he was queried.
“ Que? " He indicates with a head jerk the woman who had been playing left-
center. “ No way... " He shakes his head emphatically (Que is a talented outfielder
this team had faced in at least ten previous games).
This example demonstrates that men sometimes acknowledged the ability of female
players as superior to those of male teammates. In this way these men demonstrated
knowledge o f the dominant gender norms of male physical superiority and their
understanding that sometimes these norms are inaccurate. Put another way, some men’s
experiences lead them to recognize the continuum of performance and ability across
gender, something to which same sex sports does not give one access.
Chicks Rule: Women’s Contributions
In addition to directly resisting gendered comments and position usurpations, women
habitually resisted ideologies that men are better athletes or more valuable players, or that
men make more contributions to victory. The primary way in which women did this was
to verbally note female contributions, especially when they were important components
in a victory. The most common example of this was to note when women were
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providing most of a team’s offense. While I previously discussed how separating the
teams by men and women contributes to the reproduction of conservative gender
ideologies, sometimes it was used as part of an act of resistance to gendered ideologies.
Put more simply, because grouping women was often used to demean women’s ability,
women often resisted this tendency by coopting this grouping and using it to note
women’s contribution, abilities and value to a team. Comments heard include, “ Looks
like the women are providing all o f the offense today... ” W e won that game on our
women... " They lost that game on their men... All o f the women hit... " all mark female
contributions. Recall one of the vignettes which opened this chapter. A woman who
played in both the West L.A. and Center City Leagues during the study period resisted
gendered assumptions about ability by celebrating female contributions. Whenever
women were leading offensive drives, she would chant exuberantly “Chicks rule.”
Similar to women’s reappropriations of the term “girl,” Steph used the public forum of
coed softball to reclaim the term “chick.” Frequently associated with youth, a lack of
seriousness, heterosexual availability, Steph takes a disempowered term and reclaims it
through her application. In the example noted at the beginning of the chapter, while her
male teammate tried to silence her by physically removing her from the field, she
eventually won him and other teammates over, and they joined in her celebration of
female ability. Steph’s chant caught on with opponents as well. During later games,
when our women were hitting well, Kathy would smile at me and comment “ chicks rule. ”
Janey heard her comment and asked about it. After Kathy explained that she had picked
up the chant from a woman in another league, Janey also used the expression on
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appropriate occasions. Such a sense of community developed that women and sometimes
men, cheered for and congratulated opponent women for great hitting and fielding
displays. On 9/29/96, Janey and Kathy used the chant to denote the excellent play o f our
all female infield. On later dates, such as 7/8/96, several of Steph’s teammates both male
and female were observed chanting “chicks rule” at her following a good hit. Clearly the
marking of female ability was significant and important in light of the prevailing notions
of male physical superiority.
Noting female ability, while challenging notions of male physical superiority, also
reproduced gendered ideologies by reifying gender as a meaningful social category. To
note female ability is to (re)construct ideologies of gender as a determinant or marker of
bodily ability. Further, this type of resistance stands in stark contrast to the silence which
marks the dominant category of male. “Chicks rule” only has meaning in a system in
which it is ironic. At the same time, there is a self-conscious resistance in calling these
stereotypes out into the open and asserting their inaccuracy. Thus, while traditional
ideologies were challenged by such statements, in other ways, traditional conceptions of
gender as a meaningful determinant of bodily ability were (re)produced. Other forms of
challenges, however, did undermine the idea that gender is relevant.
Is Gender Relevant?: “It’s An Out”
While some individuals resisted by marking female ability as equivalent or superior
to male ability, others resisted gendered ideologies by questioning the relevance of
gender in assessments of ability. One way in which this occurred involved participants
resisting others’ marking of gender in situations in which gender was irrelevant. Take the
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following example which opened this chapter from my fieldnotes from a West L.A. I
game played on 7/23/97 in which a male player was rebuked by a female teammate and
the male manager for making a gendered expectation about ability. By commenting on
the sex o f the center fielder, the man was implying that if a woman had made that play, it
was surprising, exceptional or noteworthy. His teammates understood that this sort of
assertion was insulting because it assumed that a woman was much less likely to
correctly and successfully complete a play. By gently chastising him, his teammates
made it clear that gender should not be relevant to his assessment of the play. This type
of assertion stood in direct opposition to strategies which reproduced ideologies of gender
difference discussed in the preceding chapter. This example demonstrated a situation in
which gender reification was resisted. Rather than re-asserting difference through an
articulation of female ability which characterizes much of the resistance to conservative
gender ideologies, these individuals challenged gender reification itself.
Summary
There were several ways in which gendered ideologies were discursively resisted.
♦ The execution of gendered practices was verbally resisted. In particular, position
usurpation was challenged. This worked to create a space in which women could
have full participation in activities.
♦ There were also open challenges to traditional gender ideologies. This was
accomplished through criticisms of gendered comments and assumptions. In
particular, when teams instituted gendered policies some women and men were
critical of these policies and the underlying assumptions.
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♦ Celebrations of female abilities which demonstrated the inaccuracy o f sexist
ideologies were frequent.
♦ Gender as a determinant of ability was verbally challenged by some participants.
In addition to the examples of resistance chronicled throughout this chapter, the lifestyle
promoted by participants involved in coed softball contained within it elements of
resistance to dominant cultural assumptions about gender and families.
“ Can you watch him while I bat?” Postmodern Families and Teams
Coed softball evoked alternative conceptions of family and leisure because it created a
legitimated space for women’s leisure with men. While historically women have been
expected to facilitate men and children’s leisure at the expense of their own (Cross,
1990), coed softball (as well as other coed sports) creates a situation in which these norms
are inherently challenged by women’s equal participation. The assumption of women’s
primary responsibility for childcare was notably absent from many situations. Many of
the men and women observed during the study period had young children. During the
course of a game, frequently all members of the team took responsibility for teammates’
children. For example during a San Gabriel Valley Game played at the end of the
Summer of 1997 Season the following fieldnotes were taken.
Today Gordon is sitting out with a sprained ankle. Guy, who usually only plays
part o f the game, or just D H ’ s is going to have to play all game. His five year old
son is here with him. Because Guy is busy playing, Gordon spent most o f the
game playing with the boy, explaining the rules o f the game to him and carrying
him around on his shoulders. Both seemed to have a good time, smiling and
laughing at on-field incidents.
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In general any member of a team would watch teammates’ child in order to facilitate
others’ leisure. A couple with two young children played on my Center City team. The
husband, Bill, regularly sat out of games so his wife, Sandy, could play. Frequently their
niece, Kia, came to babysit. Eventually both Bill and Kia became regulars and everyone
took turns watching the children. The idea that the whole team should be responsible for
childcare and the prevalence of men providing childcare challenged the idea that women
should facilitate men’s and children’s leisure at the expense of their own and
individualistic and gendered norms of responsibility.
In addition, the prevalence of non-traditional and blended families reflects an
alternative form of family values which contrasts the New Right’s legitimation of limited
forms. The coed softball community presented a challenge to dominant conceptions of
patriarchal families simply by tacitly accepting a myriad of alternative forms. While
proponents of the New Right argue that family values are embodied only in the dual
parent nuclear family (Coontz, 1992; Stacey, 1996), the demonstration of values in
alternative forms and the widespread acceptance and support for these families stood in
stark opposition to the utopian (or distopian, depending on your point of view) vision of
the New Right. For example, one of the San Gabriel Valley teams we played on had a
lesbian couple, a single lesbian, two inter-racial couples, three white people (one of
whom is engaged to a man of color), two single people of color and a couple of color.
Several of these couplings involved the blending of families from previous relationships.
At none of the games or team related functions did individuals’ personal lifestyles or
family choices create any type o f conflict with teammates, in fact the opposite occurred.
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At one game, Kathy discussed potential honeymoon vacation spots with Sherry and Sioux
(the lesbian couple), who had just returned from a trip. At the same time Sioux was
keeping an eye on Guy’s son, who played with Tomas’s daughter (Janey’s step-daughter).
At another game teammates went into a panic when they did not spy a couple’s children,
who fortunately had been taken home by a family friend. The moment of panic revealed
our involvement and assumption of shared responsibility. This acceptance of a diverse
range of family forms, blended families and alternative families stood in opposition to the
cultural hegemony of the myth of the nuclear patriarchal household. In this forum
individuals witnessed not only the existence of a diverse range of family forms, but also
the successful functioning of these families. The automatic legitimacy granted in this
forum was a bold contrast to recent movements in California to create legislation against
the recognition of gay/lesbian marriages performed in other states. The issue will be on
the ballot in the next election.
Finally coed softball provided a challenge to traditional racial ideologies of separatism
and exclusion (Collins, 1990; Spelman, 1988). The vast majority of teams observed
during the study reflected the racial diversity of Southern California. While there were a
few all white and all Latin teams, most teams had people from a wide variety of ethnic
backgrounds. There were few discussions o f race, except as a descriptor (ie. “Ya know,
the Philipine woman on Hit ‘em Hard). There were two incidents of overt racism. Both
involved conflicts between teammates and both involved the use of ethnic slurs. The
overall lack of such conflicts, however, reflected at least a surface tolerance and
acceptance of diversity coming to characterize urban areas. Considerable research on
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sport has debated whether or not integrated sports environments challenge or reproduce
racism, it seems to vary by the individuals involved. Did the coed environment
contribute to a tolerance for diversity, or were participants in coed softball people
predisposed to be tolerant of or people who value diversity? Preliminary comparisons of
men’s leagues tend to implicate the latter explanation. Certainly, more incidents in men’s
games fell into the grey area of race relations or walked the line between acceptable and
unacceptable behavior. During one game a team known for excessive alcohol
consumption, The Salami Hiders, repeatedly referred to members of another team as
“ little jew boys." Other members of teams were witnessed questioning and insulting the
manhood and masculinity of opponents who were beaten badly. It was clear that
incidents between teammates were very different than incidents between opponents. The
presence of these incidents in men’s, but not coed requires further study.
Overview
Despite the reproduction of gendered ideologies which imply that equality of
opportunity means concessions to equalize differences and ideologies of male physical
superiority, there were consistent challenges to ideologies of male physical superiority
and also to the idea of gender difference. Women playing the game resisted gendered
ideologies through superlative performances and insistence on equal participation. In
defiance of ideologies of male physical superiority, such performances demonstrated that
the abilities of some female athletes can be equal to or surpass the abilities of some male
athletes. Often women and some men challenged gendered assumptions contained within
the dominant discourse. A high level of feminist consciousness by participants was
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exhibited in these incidents. Women’s anger at designations like “lady batter”
demonstrated that most women were aware that the designation of someone as female
was meant to imply difference and inferiority. These types of designations were resisted
and great pleasure was taken in humbling the men who made such assumptions. Radical
critiques of ideologies of difference occasionally appeared, especially against conflations
of gender and ability. The range of feelings about competition and injury across gender
revealed the inaccuracy of dichotomous gender difference. Instead the idea of an
overlapping continuum of ability and attitude clearly better described the situation. At
the same time, the strategies discussed in Chapter 4 demonstrate the complexity of the
situation. Within the same space, gendered ideologies, practices and bodies were often
simultaneously reproduced and challenged. Hence when Kathy threw out the pitcher of
Latin Connection, she was challenging his assumptions of male physical superiority. At
the same time, his own teammates complicity in allowing him to cover for female players
reproduced gendered assumptions. Often, simultaneous reproductions of and challenges
to gendered ideologies, along with the dictums of equality of opportunity and ideologies
of gender difference, necessitated a series of (re)negotiations of ideologies and norms.
This is the topic of the final data chapter.
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Chapter 6 Negotiations
Susan is playing second base. She is a skilled fielder and a large strong woman
(about 5'8", 150 lbs). Early in the game with a man on first, the woman batter
hits a ground ball to Brad at shortstop. He pitches the ball to Susan at second.
She turns quickly to make the throw to firs, and as she does the male base runner
barrels into her without sliding. As she tries to throw the force o f his body pushes
her back and she is unable to properly plant and throw. She attempts a throw
anyway, releasing the ball as he knocks her down. The ball bounces halfway
between first and second and continues rolling towardfirst. As soon as the ball is
released, the umpire calls out, “ Automatic double play... He obstructed her...
Both runners are out. " Later, in the game our catcher, Angie, is on first and
there is a potential double play ball hit to the opposing team's shortstop. Angie
sees that she is going to be forced easily at second and stops about ten feet from
the bag, turns and walks back toward the first base dugout. The man covering the
bag is distracted by her and makes a late throw. The runner at first is called safe.
His teammates argue to the umpire that by stopping, but not getting out o f the way
in time, Angie obstructed the play. The umpire responded, ‘ Well this is different,
she wasn’ t really in the way and there he had the base. Before it was a man
running into a woman... This time, he had the ball... Ya know... ” (West L.A.
game played on 1/30/97)
It is the managers ’ meeting for Center City. After sitting through an hour long
lecture on the rules, the coed managers have had to stay for a separate discussion
o f coed rules. Rene, the new league director is in charge. He has been involved
with the league for year, and pitches for one o f the coed teams we face. “ O.K.
The rule here is five andfive, which means five men andfive women. You can
play with five men and four women, but you go beyond that, you have three
women and it’ s a forfeit. " I think to myself, “ Why doesn ’ t anybody every use five
women andfour men... " “ What about six women? " Jerry asks. The manager o f
my Wednesday night league, Jerry, also manages one o f our competitors on
Mondays. ‘ Well now that's O.K. and I ’ ll tell you why. It has to do with
advantage. Are you giving yourself an advantage. Now an extra man would be
an advantage. Playing six women does not give you an advantage, it may even
put you at a disadvantage... ” I blanche inwardly. Did this man just say that an
extra woman is no advantage over a gaping hole in the field? Rene continues,
“ O.K. I ’ m not saying anything against the women. There’ s plenty o f good women
out there. Several are playing in the men’ s leagues... And let me tell you, they
are good... " He trails o ff for a moment. “ A similar rule is the two base walk It
gives the man two bases. Let me tell you why we do this. It ensures recreation, it
ensures equal participation. Example. L et’ s say its two outs, bottom o f the
seventh o f a play-off game. Runners on second and third. A guy comes up. The
next batter is your last woman... She might not be that good. You know what I
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mean. Her husband plays and she has friends on the team, she comes out to have
fun... Her family is here... or it’ s a company team... She plays catcher... She can
barely catch the ball... " He makes the motion o f a weak catch and throw. His
body movements clearly include an enactment o f femininity as they transform to
become mincing and tentative. “ So sh e’ s up next... " He reverts to his normal
bodily comportment. “I mean I ’ m a pitcher, I know strategy, if you could you
would walk the guy to pitch to her and take your chances. “ He shrugs his
shoulders and stands as if to pitch. "As it is i f you get one strike on the guy...
Well, what I do is I try to jam him up inside so he fouls it off. Now I got two on
him and I can put him on or just not give him anything close. I mean the thing is
to get them to hit your pitch... Not ju st lob it in there... So to ensure recreation,
to make sure she gets to play, we have the two base walk.. I mean some leagues
have a two base walk and the woman has the option o f taking first. But I mean... ”
He parodies incredulity at the presence o f such a rule when Jerry adds “ In Santa
Monica they still do..." Rene continues, "What kind o f option is that... I mean a
manager ’ 1 1 tell you to take first... That means she doesn ’ t get to play. The point is
participation... That's why we don’ t have that rule. We have this one. Alotta
people think the rule is sexist. I t’ s not. It ensures participation. I don’ t have
anything against women, these rules are for their benefit... It makes sure they get
to play. So back to the example... Now the team can’ t walk the guy to pitch to the
woman. I mean it’ s not right to lose this way... So now you got to give the guy a
strike. I f he doesn’ t swing at it? Oh well... He missed his opportunity.... With the
two base walk, they walk you intentionally and you get the extra base... I mean
we can’ t give you third, or home, so the best we can do is put you in scoring
position... ”(Manager’ s Meeting, 1/13/97)
The above examples demonstrate the tension of providing equal opportunity in a
system which assumes that gender difference must be acknowledged to ensure equality.
In the first example, the rules were enforced selectively by gender. While the slide or
avoid rule is necessary to prevent injury in a game in which there are a wide range of
abilities, experiences and sizes, the assumption that gender was strongly correlated with
any of these is erroneous. Enforcement of rules often involved gendered assumptions
which necessarily reified gendered ideologies, even when these rules provided a space for
resistance to traditional ideologies of exclusion.
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The second example was more complicated. The league administrator was asserting
that special negotiation rules were necessary to ensure fairness. But in taking a closer
look at his example, what seemed to be occurring was special privileges for male players.
In Rene’s example a team was down in the bottom of the seventh inning with the number
nine male hitter up and the number ten female hitter on deck. He asserted that any pitcher
would walk the man to pitch to the woman and that this was unfair. He hypothesized that
the two base walk rule prevents this from occurring. What is interesting is that allowing
the team to walk the man and allowing the woman to bat was considered unfair in this
example, because she was a weak player. Rene argued that participation in the game was
reduced by this possibility. What he was really saying was that it is unfair to punish
superior male players because their team has one inferior female. He was essentially
arguing that men’s enjoyment of recreation necessitates rules to manage the less
competent female players. He ignored the ways that the rule may be problematic on other
occasions. For example, during a San Gabriel Valley game played during the summer of
1997, our team lost in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two runners on, two outs
and a tied score, our usually reliable pitcher Janey, missed on four straight pitches.
Because men receive a two base walk, we lost the game by one run. By giving the man
this opportunity, the woman following him was denied an opportunity to participate. The
game was over before she has an opportunity to bat.
In Chapter 4 , 1 discussed how the ways that this rule perpetuated ideologies of male
physical superiority. The focus of this chapter is how ideologies of male physical
superiority and equal opportunity are negotiated in this context. The above examples
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demonstrate this tension. While trying to provide equality of opportunity, the rules
assume inferiority. Certainly all women are not weaker hitters than all men, but as the
preceding discussion demonstrates, such assumptions structure opportunity. As in the
example with Janey, a man becomes a hero for taking a two base walk. The woman was
not given the opportunity to hit in this final inning, despite the fact that the stated purpose
of the rule was to ensure female participation. While rules legislated by gender, umpires
often enforced rules differentially for novices. Unfortunately novice and female were
sometimes conflated.
Formal Authority and the Enforcement of Rules as a Negotiation
Throughout the course of this study, it became clear that the ways in which particular
rules were enforced were the result of negotiations between ideologies of equality of
opportunity and assumptions of difference. This was best exemplified in two ways:
♦ Selective enforcement of protection rules by umpires, most commonly the slide or
avoid rule, simultaneously reified self-fulfilling ideologies of male physical
superiority and equality of opportunity.
♦ Through the tendency to make calls which represent what should have occurred,
as opposed to what did occur, umpires negotiated rules to accommodate a wide
range of abilities, primarily novice women.
The Slide and Avoid Rule
In Chapter 4 ,1 introduced the slide and avoid rule as the most commonly enforced
protection rule. To reiterate, this rule states that “a base runner by coming into a base
standing up causes contact with a player attempting a double play, that base runner and
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the batter-runner may be called out.” (SCMAF, 1997). In addition, most leagues add a
collision avoidance clause, similar to the one reproduced here: “Any/All base runner(s)
must slide or vacate the base path(s) to avoid contact with any fielder who is in
possession of the ball and is waiting to make a tag. IN cases where a double play
possibility exists, any/all base runner(s) must slide or vacate the base path(s) to allow the
fielder attempting a double play an unobstructed throw to complete the double play”
(SCMAF, 1997). While the text o f the rule makes it appear as if completing the play is
the primary intent of the rule, players’ common understanding of this rule was that it
protects players from injury, in particular, fielders who don’t want to be run over by
other, often much larger players. This understanding was shared by league officials and
umpires, as demonstrated by discussions and demonstrations which took place at
manager’s meetings. Specifically, during the manager meeting for the Center City
League on 6/11/96, these rules were reviewed and the head umpire explained the rule as
ensuring that there would be no “Ray Fosse incidents,” referring to major league baseball
catcher Ray Fosse who was severely injured in a home plate collision with Pete Rose. In
Chapter 4 1 discussed how rules like the slide and avoid rule perpetuate discourses of
female protection. Despite this, the rule also served the important function of protecting
novice and low intermediate participants, the majority of whom were women. Without
such a rule, injuries could have been more frequent. While there were reproductive
elements to this enforcement, there were also resistant properties and thus the
enforcement of the rule often illustrated a negotiation between discourses o f female
protection and equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity was facilitated by the rule
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because it allowed people of radically different sizes to participate. Size and gender
should not be conflated. While many women were smaller than many men, the
continuum of body sizes across genders is a more accurate understanding of the situation.
This was reflected in the fact that the rule itself is ungendered. The enforcement of the
rule, however, often contained gendered assumptions. Umpires were much more likely to
enforce the rule if a male player was obstructing a female player. When female players
obstructed male players or obstruction was same sex, umpires were much more likely to
either not enforce the rule, or simply give a warning. Umpires often acknowledged their
gendered enforcement as exemplified by the vignette presented in Chapter 4 and at the
beginning of this chapter. When the umpire explicitly acknowledged that he was more
likely to enforce the rule when a male base runner was obstructing a female fielder, he
was simultaneously protecting a space for a variety of sizes and abilities and reifying
ideologies of gender difference and male protection. This was especially interesting as
the rule exists in both men’s and women’s softball. While this made sense when the
female players involved were novice, low intermediate players, or small in stature, when
all players involved were competent and not in danger it made little sense. Because
interpretations of the rule centered around accommodating gender differences, as
opposed to differences in ability, size and experience, the negotiation often was more
reproductive o f gendered ideologies than resistant. Since, this negotiation allowed for
greater participation by less experienced participants and because these less experienced
players were more likely female, often gendered ideologies of female inability and
discourses of equal participation were simultaneously reproduced. A similar type of
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situation occurred in situations in which umpires negotiated the variety of abilities by
calling “ what should have happened” instead of what did.
Concessions for Novice Women: Calling What should have Happened Instead of What
Did
Umpires were often observed making the call as to “what should have happened” as
opposed to what actually occurred. This arose most often when less skilled or novice
women who were covering bases caught the ball before the base runner arrived, but failed
to apply the necessary tag. This transpired with such regularity that one of the teams
studied began referring to such plays as "phantom tags.” While one could argue that
umpires frequently make mistakes and that such calls simply reflect poor officiating,
almost all of the poor calls referred to as “ phantom tags” involved female novice or low
intermediate level fielders failing to tag experienced base runners. (Inexperienced base
runners tend not be involved in close plays and do not slide). Take the following
example from my fieldnotes from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 8/4/96.
Craig is on first base when Selena singles. Their team is having a hard time
getting the ball in from the outfield. Craig takes third and looks back over his
shoulder as he rounds the bag. The shortstop is cutting the ball and does not
have a good handle on it. Craig digs in and heads for home. The shortstop
makes a perfect throw to the catcher. She appears to be an intermediate or low
intermediate player. She catches the ball and waits for Craig’ s slide. Craig
slides across the base while she holds the ball. No tag is ever applied. The
umpire watches the play and calls, “ Out, ’ ’making the customary hand gesture.
“ What? "Craig exclaims incredulously... “ No tag, blue... "he comments over his
shoulder as he walks back to the dugout. “ Nice phantom tag, "Janey consoles
him. They always give that call to the woman. "
In this case the umpire was calling what one would expect to transpire and what usually
would occur if a more experienced intermediate or expert level player were involved in
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the play. Players were clearly aware that such calls were inaccurate, but a part of the
game. This opinion was often expressed. During one game in the San Gabriel Valley,
Gordon Park summed the situation up when he blurted out in frustration, “ any time
there’ s a woman on the bag, i f she catches the ball, I ’ m out. " This same tendency also
occurred with expert level women. For example, at a San Gabriel Valley II game played
on 4/6/97 the following transpired.
Kathy hits a shot to the third base person. He fields it deep in the hole and has to
rush the throw to first. It is going to be a close play. The woman playingfirst
appears to be a very low intermediate level player. When she had been warming
up at the beginning o f the inning several o f my teammates noted that she had
trouble catching some o f the harder, but not difficult, throws. As she sets up to
catch the ball she drifts back with her leg across the base. Kathy runs toward the
outside edge o f the base, arriving at about the same time as the throw. As she
catches the ball, the woman playing first base takes a step backwards. The two
women collide hard and fall down. “ You 're out, "the umpire tells Kathy. “ What? "
She yells in disbelief, springing to her feet. "That’ s obstruction. " They argue for
a few moments. Then she jogs back to our dugout shaking her head and
muttering angrily. ‘ They called you out cause you 're better than her, " Tomas
tells her. “ Yeah, "Steve agrees.
In the above example, most first base people would have found the play routine and not
stepped back into the runner. By enforcing what should have happened assuming a
specific level of competence, as opposed to what actually happened, the umpire was
negotiating “fairness” based on the abilities of the players involved. In other words, the
umpires took it upon themselves to dictate equality of opportunity through the creation of
a different standard of legislation. A differential enforcement of the rules by gender
negotiates the presence of novice and low intermediate players, who were almost entirely
women. This negotiation accommodated the few novice women present in higher levels
of the coed game. Skilled players were often treated differently than less experienced
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players because they had greater capabilities regardless of gender. Because many
umpires and participants conflated female with inexperienced, there was a danger of these
types of rulings being interpreted by participants, like Gordon Park, as favoring women.
This facilitates a backlash mentality analogous to critiques of affirmative action, such that
the plays of skilled women were undermined by the assumption that they had received
legislative assistance. While this could be problematic, a key benefit of this type of
negotiation was a privileging of an ethic of recreation and enjoyment above competition.
Instead, a player’s level of ability was taken into account by differential rule enforcement.
What People Do
Negotiations and Positional Segregation
As previously discussed, the rules of coed softball require defenses to consist of five
men and five women. Even if women were relegated to the female positions of first base,
second base, rover and catcher, the fifth woman must play one of the remaining “gender
neutral” or “male” defined positions. However, the strict gendering of positions made it
unlikely that a woman would play a male defined position. The negotiation between
ideals of equality of opportunity and hegemonic assumptions of male physical superiority
created a space in which women had the opportunity to consistently demonstrate female
ability outside of defined female roles, as in the “helper role.” The fact that certain
positions were played by either men or women was a negotiation of gender roles such
that both men and women could play these positions without a change in status.
The manager’s tendency to play women in the “gender neutral” as opposed to “male”
defined positions allowed some to negotiate norms that reproduced and protect gendered
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ideologies, while mitigating the challenges issued by talented women’s performances.
Generally, the challenges issued by superlative women’s performances were undermined
by relegating these women to gender neutral positions, as opposed to the most prestigious
and concomitantly male defined positions. At the same time, these women’s
performances in gender neutral positions challenged traditional ideologies of male
physical superiority. During a San Gabriel Valley game, when Kathy made several
stellar plays at third base, she challenged hegemonic assumptions o f male physical
superiority by demonstrating that she could perform equally well in a position designated
as appropriate for either men or women. Simultaneously, because she was relegated to
third as opposed to the more prestigious shortstop position, her challenge was tempered
or negotiated as well as undermined as “good for a girl.” Take the following example
from my fieldnotes for one of the West L.A. leagues in the summer of 1997.
Once again, despite the absence o f a true male shortstop, the manager o f our
team, Jerry, is putting Kathy at third base, instead o f shortstop. Joe Kim is
assigned to play shortstop. In his absence, Brad, an outfielder, usually played
shortstop. Despite the fact that Kathy is at least as talented an infielder as either
man, she only plays shortstop i f both are absent. Indeed in my estimation,
defensively, she is more consistent, and has a more accurate arm than either Brad
or Joe. While Brad may have greater range, his erratic throws make him suspect.
Joe is solid, but often fails to charge balls and lets them hit him in the chest
instead o f scooping them. This slows down his ability to turn a play. Kathy, by
contrast, had played the position in high school, has decent range and a strong
arm. Still, it is assumed by the manager and her teammates, that a man should
play shortstop and that she should play third. It should be noted that Kathy
prefers to play where the ball is hit the most, which is generally shortstop.
A second example from San Gabriel Valley game played on 10/13/96 illustrates this
point.
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When our regular shortstop, Tomas is out fo r a game, the manager Guy decides
to play the left-handed outfielder/pitcher, Gordon Park, at shortstop. Despite the
fact that both Kathy and Mary are superlative infielders with experience at
shortstop, they are overlooked as top choices. While only two balls are hit to
shortstop all game (which is rare), there was no reason that Gordon should have
been selected instead o f these two women. In fact, either o f them would have been
a better defensive choice. Instead Mary plays third base, while Kathy covers
Gordon's outfield spot.
Both Kathy and Mary were skilled infielders, clearly making one of them the next logical
choice to replace Tomas. Hence, ideologies of equal participation created a space in
which women could demonstrate ability, however, the gendering of field positions
allowed ideologies of male physical superiority to continue to operate.
Women’s Performance at Female Defined Positions as a Negotiation
Women’s performance at female defined positions can also represent a negotiation
between dominant norms of female ability and the reality of female performance. When
women demonstrated competence and excellence at female defined positions, they were
in essence making the most of a limited situation. Like the pink collar ghetto in the world
of work, the gendering of positions left women with less prestige, fewer opportunities to
excel and fewer rewards. Yet, women were given the opportunity to demonstrate ability
in this limited sphere. For example, several female catchers were witnessed making good
throws down to first in an attempt to pick off runners. These women were playing their
positions at a higher level than the minimum requirements for the position, thereby
demonstrating female ability, even though it was in a female defined role. When women
excelled in female defined roles, their performances represented a negotiation. These
women’s performances challenged the idea of feminine weakness or inability, but
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because it was at female defined positions, ideologies of male physical superiority
remained viable. This reinvigorates ideologies of separate roles or spheres for men and
women, with women’s roles being considered secondary to men’s.
Hence, positional segregation can be a negotiation which allows ideologies of male
physical superiority and female ability to simultaneously circulate.
♦ Talented women were viewed as acceptable for “gender neutral” positions, but
regardless of ability were rarely considered for “male defined” positions. This
allowed their talents to be reframed as exceptional for women, but comparison
with male players is removed.
♦ Gender difference was reified as the idea that all women are different than all
men, but the idea that some women have more skill and ability than other women
was promoted.
Negotiating their Worth: Female Players with Ability as Valuable Commodities
While male ability was perceived as superior to female ability, the smaller pool of
talented women meant that sometimes women with ability could negotiate their role and
position on a team. The more talented women, even if they were not exceptionally
talented, could often dictate how they played simply because of their ability. Take the
following example from a Center City game played during the Fall of 1996.
During the game being played before ours, the most talented woman on the other
team is their third base person. After singling, she attempts to take third on the
next batter’ s hit. She is thrown out by a few steps. Her manager tells her angrily,
“ ifyou 're going to go, you have to be ready to slide... You gotta slide. ” She
responds vehemently, “ Bench me if you don't like it. ” As the most talented woman
on the team, she knows this is not likely.
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Because talented women were harder to come by, women could often dictate the terms
under which they would play or perform. Some women used the wider range o f talent
among the female participants to negotiate what an acceptable style of play was, given
their requisite ability. In this case, the woman was able to confront her manager because
being the most skilled woman makes it unlikely that he will bench her. This type of
power was denied most men as the pool o f talented men is large. For example, one man
was asked not to return to one of the San Gabriel Valley teams. Despite the fact he was a
good softball player, his egotistical attitude made his teammates decide to sacrifice his
ability to be rid of his attitude. A woman of similar ability would have created a more
difficult decision.
Negotiations and the Body
Practice and Bodies
One of the ways in which gender was negotiated was through embodiment and the
effects of the corporeal practice on the body. All body forms result from practice (Butler,
1993, 1990; Bordo, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994). This does not imply that biology has no
role, but rather that one cannot separate biological predilections from socially proscribed
practices, nor can one clearly separate their interactions. Most players improved over
time. During the study period some novice players became intermediate level players and
some intermediate players improved to expert level. For some of the female players, their
bodies and bodily enactments presented a negotiation between emphasized femininity and
hegemonic male sports performances. Those who have been schooled in traditional
baseball or softball, like Kathy, Gordon, Steve, or Mary, moved in a way that is culturally
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coded as male. Many women who took up sports as adults, or who had limited
opportunities or interest in sports growing up had developed a way of moving which
merged this male way with movements learned in culturally coded feminine pursuits like
dance. The changes in the body habitus of these women, as they engaged in body work
through participation gave them a negotiated body habitus. When at the end of the
Summer of 1997, Kia caught a line drive in the air, legs gracefully extended and toes
perfectly pointed she was displaying this merger. Further, feminine bodily capital could
translate to the softball diamond. Witness the following example from my fieldnotes o f a
practice on 4/20/96.
Carol has never really been involved in any organized sports. Growing up, she
had however, taken dance. She has been trying to learn to play second base for
several months now. Kurt, our experienced shortstop, is showing her the
footwork necessary for a double play. They struggle with the performance and
repeat it, over and over again. She can’ t quite grasp it, either missing the ball, or
the bag. After several more blown attempts, Kurt pauses and thinks. He tells her,
“Think o f it as a dance step, one- two- sweep, three- four. ” Carol listens
attentively. She then performs the footwork perfectly on her next try.
In the above example, Carol lacked bodily capital for softball performance, but her bodily
capital from dance could translate into improved softball performance. This points not
only to the value of bodily capital, but to the gendered nature of learning new bodily
skills. Individuals call upon their previous bodily capital to Ieam these skills. Due to past
experiences, some types of actions or movements were easier for bodies to learn. The
gendering o f sports and leisure activities in U.S. culture gives men, who have grown up
playing more sports similar to softball, an advantage. At the same time, this example
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demonstrates how a conventionally female form of bodily capital could be a valuable
form of bodily capital in the sports world.
The resulting body habitus enacted by women like Kia and Carol was a merger
between male and female styles of movement, however, this still reproduced ideas that
female bodies move differently. The display of these types of movements as successful in
the sports context redefined female movements as competent and not merely aesthetic.
Negotiating Competitiveness. Ability, and Recreation
Because of the range of abilities present in the recreation sports scene, more skilled
players had to learn an important negotiation between physical competitiveness and
recreation. One former teammate did not learn this and he only lasted three games. He
would deliver fast balls in excess of eighty miles per hour, on what should have been easy
outs. Despite his ability, his refusal to compromise how he was “going to play” made
recreational competition with him impossible. This negotiation was a necessary part of
recreational sports participation so that the range of abilities exhibited by participants
could be accommodated. People unwilling to make these compromises were violating
one of the basic premises of the sub-world- recreation.
Discourse- W hat People Say
“She’s Good For A Girl"
Similar to restricting women’s demonstrations of ability to gender neutral positions,
often players’ framings of women’s play limited female ability by marking it by gender.
While men’s surprise at good female performances indicated an acceptance of dominant
gender ideologies, recognition of female ability also posed challenges to these beliefs. A
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negotiation between these competing influences often resulted in the maintenance of
hegemonic ideologies of male physical superiority. The resulting negotiation was the
idea that one was “good for a woman.” Take the following example from my fieldnotes
from a West L.A. II game played on 5/22/97.
There are two men watching the game, waiting for their game to start. When
Simone, a tall and physically powerful woman comes up she hits a ball deep to
left field The left fielder runs back and makes a good over the shoulder catch.
One man turns to the other and comments, “ ...that was a pretty good solid hit for
a girl... ”
This designation represents an ideological compromise. Rather than asserting that all
men are superior to all women, the idea that some women are good was presented. By
setting her ability aside as “good for a girl,” however, direct comparison to male players
she may exceed in ability was avoided. Similar negotiations are made in the workforce
and educational institutions as “smart for a girl,” “competent for a girl,” or “rational for a
girl...” could all be used in this same context.
In the field, similar assumptions were made. Witness the following example from my
fieldnotes from a San Gabriel Valley game played on 4/27/97.
Throughout the course o f the game, our female infielders (Kathy at second and
me at first) have connectedfor several key outs. Peter, our low expert level third
base person comments appreciatively, “ with these ladies, we ’ 1 1 have no
problems... These ladies can play. ” Every time we make a good play he
comments, “ Nice play ladies. ” Kathy and I exchange a look It’ s annoying.
While these women have made several superlative plays, the potential challenge posed by
this was mitigated by the relegation of these women to “female appropriate” and “gender
neutral” positions and gendered compliments. These women were not compared to male
athletes, but only to other female athletes. Hence, one can be “good for a girl,” or a great
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“lady” player without challenging ideologies of male physical superiority. Similar to the
marking of women as the other or lesser category in televised sports venues while the
male is assumed the normal or privileged category (Duncan et al, 1994), in recreational
contexts the marking of female play serves to not only dampen challenges to hegemonic
norms, but also as a marker of difference. What was implied was that it was pleasantly
surprising that the “ladies” were keeping their team in the game. In this way, the
challenges posed by females with ability were redirected as displays of “female ability,” a
lesser form of ability than “male ability.”
While such negotiations were common, on rare occasions, negotiation was rejected.
Players resisted these types of negotiations by specifically noting that a female player’s
ability surpasses that of her male teammates and that she should be positioned
accordingly. Observe the following example from fieldnotes of a San Gabriel Valley
game played on 10/6/96.
Tony, an expert level woman (named after her father), is clearly the best infielder
on the Whoppers. Generally they field her at second or third base. During one
crucial game when our team beat them, Janey observes, “ Tony is the best
infielder, they should put her at shortstop. ” Kathy and Patty nod in agreement
and shake their heads ruefully. “ Well we don’ t want to hurt any egos... ” Patty
adds sardonically.
In this rare example, women resisted the negotiation of field positions by asserting that
Tony is better than most of the men and therefore deserved the most prestigious infield
position. The tendency to compare women to women and men to men was resisted by
players who specifically note that the female player is not only comparable to her male
teammates, but superior. Patty’s reference to egos, marks specifically the myth of male
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physical superiority as something which provides psychic well being for the males on the
team. To place Tony at shortstop would challenge dominant ideologies of male physical
superiority, as a woman would be placed at the most prestigious “male defined” position.
The irony shared by these female players comments was that it is detrimental to the team
to maintain the myth of male physical superiority, but this maintenance was valued more
than the most effective strategy for a team’s defensive alignment, or women’s
recreational experience. Maintaining this myth denies the reality of a continuum of
ability or performances exhibited by people regardless of gender (Kane, 1995).
Novices. Expectations and Gender
As previously mentioned, the position of catcher was often considered synonymous
with novice women. As demonstrated by the gendering of field positions discussed in
Chapter 4, the catcher was almost never a man. When a woman of intermediate ability
was placed at catcher (it is rare that a woman of expert ability would be placed there), her
ability was generally verbally noted by teams. A typical verbal marking of a skilled
catcher occurred during a San Gabriel Valley game played on 9/22/96.
I am playing catcher for the first half o f the game. When they get a base runner in
the first inning, Kate, who is playing first, signals fo r me to try to pick o ff the
runner. I make a good throw that the runner barely beats back to the bag. The
base coach, after watching me throw turns to his team and cautions, ‘ Watch out.
There is a catcher. "
This notation served as a warning to teammates not to make the commonplace
assumption that the catcher has no ability. Being able to throw and catch well makes one
“a catcher” as opposed to the expected novice woman. These types of verbal notations
revealed expectations regarding the existence of and negotiations made for novice
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players. The assumption being made was that if the catcher is a novice, then base runners
could take lead-offs without fear of being thrown out by the catcher and that base runners
can attempt to advance home if only the catcher is covering the plate. The verbal warning
revealing the presence of a competent catcher demonstrated how players and teams
negotiate their style of play depending on the relative abilities of opponents. The warning
further simultaneously revealed and challenged the assumption that there was usually at
least one novice player on the team, placed at the catcher position.
The existence of novices in conjunction with more skilled players necessitated a
number of additional negotiations to accommodate the presence of less experienced
players. The smaller pool of women who have participated in sports necessitated the
frequent use of female novices to round out a roster. Most teams had on-average at least
one novice player as a regular player and frequently several more novices as backup
players. Indeed, all four teams I played with had at least one novice on them for most of
the seasons studied. This was hardly surprising since 13.76% of women participating
were novices. One of the teams in the San Gabriel Valley eventually had only expert or
intermediate players for the final two seasons in the study period, but retained two novice
backup players. Most of the teams in the league observed had at least one novice on their
team, while some had two or more. In addition to players negotiating their style of play,
the presence of novices required several other negotiations of norms.
Negotiating Ability: Teaching the Novice to Plav
Overall, players took different attitudes towards competition when novices were
involved. Instructions, explanations and encouragement were added to the scene in order
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to accommodate the presence o f novice players. Such negotiations were important to
teammates because any improvement by novice players increases not only a team’s
chance of winning, but simply o f executing plays. Even opposing players often gave tips,
pointers, advice (sometimes good, sometimes bad), and encouragement to novices. A
good example of these types of negotiations was the explanation of rules and strategy.
Normally there was little discussion of rules or strategy, however, when novice players
were involved, this was not the case. Take the following example from a Center City
Game on 9/16/96,
It is late in a close game. We are batting and have two base runners, Ryan is on
second and Monica, a novice, is on third. There are two out, and Carol is up.
She takes a hard cut and drives the ball straight into the ground in front o f the
catcher. She hesitates fo r a moment, expecting the ball to bounce foul. When it
rolls slowly forward, she takes o ff for first base. Throwing her out will be a tough
play fo r the catcher who reacted late. Unfortunately, Darren, the third base
coach sends Monica home. The catcher has an easy play on her. In between
innings Gordon, the manager, explains to Monica why she should have stayed
near third longer, until a throw to first was made. He tells her, "it's O.K., but
next time you want to wait until the catcher throws the ball... You see why right?
Otherwise she has an easy play on you every time... " He also talks to Darren
about his base coaching.
In this example a misunderstanding in strategy by the novice player Monica and the lack
of good advice from the intermediate player, Darren, costs our team a run. By taking a
few moments to explain the “proper” strategy to them, the manager ensures that similar
mistakes will not occur in the future. Gordon’s reaction was an example of a negotiated
style unique to the coed game. In men’s games when similar mistakes were made
teammates generally expressed frustration, anger and annoyance with teammates. This
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style of play reinforced ideas of recreation and participation. The goal was to improve
teammates’ performances, not simply to replace less skilled teammates.
Gendered styles in sport were being negotiated in such interactions, as well. One of
the above mentioned participants, Monica, once told Gordon that even though she
understood he was not angry with her, his body language and word choice sometimes
made her self-conscious. Much research demonstrates that verbal and nonverbal actions
have gendered components and are “read” differently by men and women (Gilligan, 1982;
Henley, 1979; Tannen, 1990). In the aforementioned example, Gordon adjusted his
conversational style and physical language to accommodate Monica’s feelings. My
observations of men’s games found a very different style of chastisement. Players were
generally ridiculed, punished (by losing their position or being moved down in the batting
order), or simply told something like, “ Come on you know better than that. ” In men’s
games it was assumed that players should know what to do. Men were expected to take a
certain amount of ridicule and teasing which was absolutely not tolerated in coed games.
Hence the interactions between players revealed not only a negotiation between
competition and recreation, but also between male and female conversational styles.
These types of events demonstrated challenges to dominant norms of competition and
masculinity within a system in which many aspects of these norms were reproduced.
While physical differences in ability were often read as natural gender differences,
actually they appeared to be more a function of sport experience, which does have a
gendered component. In addition, the world of sport tolerates and accepts certain means
of communication that might not be considered acceptable in other groups. While this
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has a gendered component, it is not exclusively correlated by gender. Women with long
time experience in sports were often baffled by some complaints by teammates. Kathy
and I were bewildered by Monica’s initial complaint. As long term members of teams,
we were used to curt instructions and sometimes negative body language. I would argue
that the language itself is not gendered, but rather the situation in which one learns the
language is. Further, how one is taught to speak to the so called “opposite" sex affects the
interaction as well. Some men are taught that the taunts thoughtlessly hurled at male
teammates are absolutely inappropriate for “mixed” company. The prevalence of such
comments in men’s leagues confirmed this suspicion. Men frequently apologized to
women for colorful language, while these same women often used equally colorful
language. Because coed softball was a space in which all of these factors interact some
men learned to temper their comments, while some women learned to accept gruff
commands and problematic body language.
In addition to negotiations of conversational style necessitated by the presence of
novices, bodily instructions was often given to novices during the game. Frequently such
instructions came from umpires. In preceding chapters, I discussed how such instructions
could have reinforced gender ideologies. This type of interaction, however, could also
represent a negotiation. When an umpire instructed and helped an inexperienced women,
he (all the umpires in the study period except three were male) was being partisan. He
was essentially helping one team by improving the skill and strategic understanding of a
player. This behavior was not resisted by either team, however. Take the following
examples. The first example comes from a game played in Center City on 6/23/97.
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The opposing team is a company team. All o f the women on the team are novices.
Three o f the men are novice or low intermediate level players. Only two o f the
men are obviously experts. I hear these two men discussing their Wednesday
night league saying, “ Well look at tonight as practice for Wednesdays..." The
woman playing catcher is really struggling all game to get the ball back to the
pitcher. Her throws are short and often o ff to the side. The umpire gives her
instructions on how to throw the ball, as opposed to shot putting it. “ I'm trying to
teach you.... " He tells her when she gets frustrated. “ I know... " She responds.
“ I ’ m trying. ” After seeing her level o f skill the umpire asks their pitcher, “ On a
hard throw to the plate who’ s going to cover? You? Her? " He is asking so he
knows who to watch on the play, but he is also trying to get them to think about it
so there won't be any unnecessary miscues or collisions.
In this example, not only was the umpire assisting their player in learning the game, he
was additionally subtly suggesting that they develop some type of strategy to deal with
the number of novice players on their team. By asking the pitcher who was going to
cover the plate, he was actually instructing the pitcher to do so- most likely to avoid
collisions and/or injury to participants. Our team did not object to his strategic aid to
their team, not only because we unceremoniously thumped them (we scored over 30 to
their 1), but because we were more interested in playing a quality game or having good
time. Recall a previously used example of umpire instruction which occurred during a
West L.A. game played on 4/17/97,
A small Asian American woman is playing catcher. After watching her ineffective
throws back to the pitcher the umpire tells her, “ I am going to teach you to
throw. ” He proceeds to give her instructions and pointers the rest o f the time she
is fielding. ‘ Good... Better... ” He tells her. After she switches places with
another novice player, she tells her, “ He is so nice... He's teaching me to throw...
You should get him to help you too. ”
In later games when this same woman and umpire interacted he asked her how her
throwing was coming along and she thanked him again for his instructions. In this
example, the opposing team did not protest his help. Rather the umpire’s assistance was
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consistently viewed as an acceptable way to improve the recreational experience by
improving the overall quality of the players involved. This privileging of the overall
quality of experience over personal statistics represented a negotiation between traditional
competitive ideals and recreational values of involvement.
There is another aspect to instruction as a negotiation which cannot be ignored. In
almost all of the examples I found during the study period, it was female novices or low
intermediate players who were being instructed. Most often, though not always, the
instructors were male. As stated in an earlier chapter I discussed how intermediate level
female participants were considered “good” and how female novices were treated well.
By contrast, male intermediate players were considered subpar and male novices were
rare and generally quickly replaced. There are two gender components at work here.
First, female novices and low intermediate players were “worth” developing due to the
shortage of females and the surplus of males. Second, in Western culture males instruct
females (Gilligan, 1982 ; Henley, 1979; Tannen, 1990). Giving instructions or helpful
hints to females may be enhancing their self-perceptions of their masculinity. Females
were much more likely to perceive the hierarchy of instruction and gave suggestions in
alternative ways. Take the following example from West L.A. II in the Spring of 1998,
When Kathy thought the bat inexperienced Paige was using was too heavy, she
and I discussed how to approach Paige, without making her feel a instructed' . "
Instead Kathy simply expressed surprise that Paige used "such a heavy bat "and
pointed out that all o f the other women and most o f the men on the team used
lighter ones. Paige than asked which bats we used and proceeded to use a lighter
bat. By contrast during the same game, C liff told her, “ Take more pitches, "from
their erratic pitcher, lecturing her for several minutes before she angrily
exclaimed, “ Iunderstand... Now shut-up. "
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These different conversational styles demonstrated the struggles over discourse and
myriad of negotiations between traditionally male and female styles of interaction.
Encouragement for Female Novices
In addition to novice instruction being tolerated, traditional competitive elements of
sport were negotiated as novice players successes were appreciated by both teams. Take
the following examples from my fieldnotes. The first example comes from a West L.A.
game played on 4/17/97.
Late in a close game the novice catcher, Kate, comes up to bat. She is a small
(about 5' and 110 pounds) Asian American woman. Throughout the game she has
given encouragement to her teammates and laughed riotously at jokes. She is so
new to the game that the umpire spends most o f it teaching her how to throw and
she can still barely get the ball to the pitcher. This will most likely be her last at
bat o f the game. She has struck out or grounded out to the pitcher in each
previous at bat. She looks seriously at the pitcher, choking up too much on a light
bat. After swinging and missing at the first pitch she hits a slow rolling ground
ball toward the shortstop. Both the pitcher and the shortstop start to move after
the ball, see each other go, pause, look at each other and head after the ball
again. The shortstop has a better angle on the throw, so he grabs it as they
converge on it at the same time. He picks it up and fires to first on a play almost
to close to call. "Safe ” The blue sweeps his arms outward with and emphatic sign.
Everyone on both teams cheer for her. Even the shortstop smiles... “ You got me. ”
He tells her. The woman playing first base tells her, “ Nice hit. ” She smiles
happily, Thanks. " It may be her first hit ever.
A second example comes from a game played in a West Los Angeles league on 6/12/97.
The woman in right field is a novice player who has maybe one or two seasons o f
experience under her belt. She has mastered the basics o f the game, but is still
inexperienced. During the first inning with two outs a man hits a fly ball to right.
She takes a couple o f steps, staring up at the ball. She adjusts herself and then...
Catches the ball. After catching it she stares at it for a moment, happily
surprised, then tosses it in. 'Nice play. "Scream her teammates, “ wooo wooo ” . As
the fielder walks in smiling the other team is walking out to field they
congratulate her too. Nice catch.. " the center fielder tells her amiably. “ Yeah
goodjob, ”their rightfielder adds. Thanks... " She smiles happily.
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In both of the above examples players were congratulated and praised for what would be
considered ordinary or even sub-par performances for more experienced players. Instead
these players are praised for their personal improvement and effort. The recognition of
differences in ability along with ideologies of gender difference can create moments
which negotiate comradery and competition to create a recreational sports ethic of
behavior. No similar incidents occurred in men’s games even when the successful fielder
was relatively inexperienced. This leads me to conclude that such behaviors were a
negotiation necessitated by the coed environment. Of course, the over congratulation of
skilled female players for routine plays can make similar comments offensive and
reproductive.
Tolerance for Novice Miscues
Because novices were assumed to not have the same bodily ability and control as more
experienced players, miscues and collisions caused by novices were tolerated and
accepted. Often, had a more experienced player been involved the contact would have
been assumed intentional and not tolerated. Examples from my fieldnotes should make
this more clear. The first example comes from a Center City Game played on 10/28/96.
It is a tie score in the third inning. They have a runner on second. Micky is
playing catcher and Kathy is at shortstop. After a single to the outfield, the
novice base runner is waved home by the third base coach as Kathy is getting the
ball as our cut-off. She turns andfires to Micky. The ball arrives well before the
base runner. Micky is waiting to make the tag, expecting a slide. The woman
instead runs right into her. Micky barely holds onto the ball as she falls to the
ground. She turns toward the woman incensed and then recognizes her as their
novice catcher. The woman looks at Mickey and exclaims helplessly “ I am so
sorry... ’ ’ Afterwards Micky comments to me that 1 would have been mad, but she
doesn 't really know what she’ s doing. I was going to yell at her, but she didn ’ t
mean it. "
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In this example Micky was going to chastise the runner for what would be an
unacceptable level of contact, but upon recognizing her as a novice player, Micky’s anger
abated. The woman did not mean to hurt her. In this way the presence of novices was
accommodated by more experienced men and women. A second example occurred
during a San Gabriel Valley game on 4/6/97.
It is the beginning o f the game. After Steve leads o ff with a two base walk, Kathy
comes up. She hits a shot down the third base line. The man playing third base
fires to first. The novice woman playing first base instead o f reaching out for the
ball, backs away from the hard throw. She catches the ball as she steps back
across the base and right into Kathy, who in trying to avoid her, is called out.
Kathy is incensed. “ Where am I supposed to step i f she's all the way across the
bag? " She rants angrily. As she comes back to our dugout she calms down. “ She
doesn ’ t know what sh e ’ s doing. I ’ m not hurt, but she could be on a play. I ’ m
more worried about her than me. ” Janey agrees, “ What i f it was Steve? She
could be really hurt. ”
In this example, not only was the novice’s miscue forgiven and accepted, but concern was
expressed for her safety. In a discussion later our team concluded fault for these types of
collisions lay with the league for failing to provide the commonly used orange safety
base1 0 . Hence collisions with novices were tolerated as they were perceived as
unintentional. These different expectations of players was a negotiation between
competitive ideologies and the reality of facilitating leisure. In the second example, the
league was judged to be at fault for failing to provide safety feature which can mitigate
the chances of collisions caused by inexperienced players.
Novices and the Benefit of the Doubt
The presence of novice players was further negotiated within the rules of the game
through differential enforcement. This primarily took the form o f novice players being
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given the benefit of the doubt on close plays. This commonly occurred when a weak
novice hitter" was “given the benefit of the doubt” on a close play at first. Recall the play
previously described, which occurred on 6/16/96 during a San Gabriel Valley game. In
that example a novice player is called safe on a very close play. The umpire
acknowledged that he was not going to call her out and disappoint her team. In this case,
the issue was not that the call would be incorrect. An experienced player knows that
depending on angle, sun, glare, obstructions of vision (like the arm of the base runner),
can all affect what a play looks like. By ruling in favor of the novice player, the umpire
has negotiated the meaning of the recreation ethic and participation.
Feelings. Ability and Negotiating Acceptable Behavior
Despite the many ways in which different levels of ability and recreation ethics change
styles of behavior, novice players faced indignities frequently suffered by children and
the elderly- they were talked about and assessed as if they weren’t present. An example
from a San Gabriel Valley Game played on 4/19/97 will clarify.
The opposing team is made up mostly o f novices and relatively inexperienced
players. One o f the inexperienced women is playing second base. When one o f
our players hits an easy pop up to her, she back peddles awkwardly, waving her
arms for balance and almost stumbling over her own feet. An experienced playe,
tends to turn his/her body, so that his/her feet are moving forward. She puts her
glove up and the ball lands in it. We can see it rattle around and almost pop out
as she is late in closing her glove. As she walks in, she has to listen to several o f
our players and spectators denigrating her. “ Happy Birthday... " Comments
Tomas dryly. A fan adds, 'She got lucky twice today. " They both laugh. She
pretends not to hear them as she walks o ff the field. While teams and spectators
often comment on opponents play, it is only novices, inexperienced player, and
sometimes simply women, who have to deal with such a complete lack o f respect.
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In this example the novice player was denied any agency in her actions. She was not
granted the status of a full player who’s actions have an effect on the outcome of the
game.
The above example is consistent with traditional sports interactions in North American
culture. As described by Fine (1987) youth in sports are socialized into a system of
hierarchy in which the better athletes receive greater respect and less competent athletes
are teased and are less respected. In addition, both Fine (1987) and Landers and Fine
(1996) describe how femaleness is specifically denigrated and that inability is specifically
related to being a “girl” or playing like one. Both the hierarchy and misogyny taught to
children are evident in adult athletes behaviors (Dunning, 1986; Messner, 1992). In coed
softball, these norms were negotiated both because they were consistently demonstrated
to be inaccurate, yet simultaneously reproduced. Previously I gave examples of tolerance
for the wider range of abilities. When novice players were insulted as in the above
example, others sometimes defended them and chastised the detractor. This creates a
negotiation of sports norms and recreation ethics. An example from a Center City game
played on 2/24/97 may clarify.
Our team is facing the inexperienced Maniacs, a computer software company
team. Several o f their players are obviously novices. Two o f the women and one
o f the men are clearly first timers. Not surprisingly, the woman playing catcher is
one o f them. In her first at bat she strikes out awkwardly. She chokes way up on
the bat, at least four to six inches and has trouble maintaining her balance
through the swing. In her second at bat, she swings and misses again, striking
out. Our pitcher, Ehran, a nice, but sometimes insensitive guy, comments happily,
“ this is getting easy. ” His girlfriend, a backup novice player who has struggled
to learn the game stands up in the stands and tells him, “ Shut up Ehran. ” He
smiles ruefully, embarrassed that his offhand comment may have been
inappropriate. He tempers his comments for the remainder o f the game.
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In this example, a female player, albeit one with a special relationship to the male player
involved, chastised him for what she perceived to be rude and hierarchical behavior. By
noting that it is “easy” to strike out a player, he was embarrassing the woman who struck
out in a game in which strikeouts are uncommon (remember this is slow-pitch softball).
By chastising him, his partner was reminding him that this was a recreational context and
that insulting players in this way may be considered unsportsmanlike. A second example
demonstrates an intolerance for unwarranted criticism of other female athletes. In this
example, a woman defends a female opponent from her own teammates’ criticism during
a San Gabriel Valley game played on 8/4/96.
It is the play-offs. The second game in the tournament and we are facing a good
team. During the game they have a small lead. One o f their women comes up.
She is a strong blonde with a solid bat. She steps into her pitch and swings hard,
hitting a hard line drive to left. The ball is hit right on a line and she nearly
clears our left fielder, Steve, who makes a good play to catch the ball. One o f the
men on her team turns to her exasperated and exclaims, “Come on, that's not
what we need. ” He says it meanly, like i f they lose it will be all her fault for
hitting that ball. He has not criticized any o f the men for similar hits. Our second
base person, Hilda, is incensed. She turns to the man and angrily admonishes
him, “ I thought that was a good hit for a woman. She hit it good. ” She turns to
me and adds, “ I hate that shit. I mean she hits the ball hard and well... And he
just yells at her... What else could she do? ’’
In the above example, a woman defended the opposition from what she believed to be
unwarranted criticism. In general, a hard hit line drive is never a mistake because it is a
well hit ball. Hence, the criticism was unfair. But, Hilda also reified gender by noting
that it was a good hit for a woman. Hilda may be reacting to the fact that not only was a
player being unfairly criticized, but that it was a woman being unfairly criticized by a
man. It was particularly galling in light of the fact that both players were of expert level
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260
ability. Despite this, he talked down to her and instructed her in a mean and
condescending manner. Hilda’s defense negotiated acceptable sport behavior, challenged
gender norms which frame men as the ‘experts’ who instruct women and reified gender
by reinvoking it. The complexity o f this interaction demonstrates the process through
which gendered ideologies, norms and assumptions are negotiated. While this norm was
not necessarily gendered, the specific defense of female players occurred frequently,
especially by other women defending both teammates and opponents. This may have
been facilitated by feelings of sisterhood generated by the aforementioned misogyny
rampant in sports (Cahn, 1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Nelson, 1994).
Overview
There were many negotiations between ideologies o f gender difference and male
physical superiority on the one hand and beliefs in equal opportunity on the other. While
the rules reified gender difference by specifically noting it and making it meaningful
within the structure of the game, this same action created a space for a different type of
leisure. However, because coed softball creates a situation in which men and women
were having similar leisure experiences much of what is assumed about sport was
challenged. Traditional ideologies of competitive hierarchy in sports were debunked by
the presence of a wide range of abilities and ethics. Assumptions of male physical
superiority were challenged by competent female performances. At the same time,
ideologies of equal opportunity were undermined by gendered ideologies which allowed
for positional segregation and which created tolerance for male players usurpation or
coverage of female players’ positions. Within this context some negotiation was
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inevitable. This chapter highlighted some o f the key negotiations of gendered ideologies
and ethics of recreation which shaped individual’s experiences in the sub-world.
The enforcement of rules such that novice players, usually women, were “protected”
or given the “benefit of the doubt,” acted as a negotiation between ideologies of gender
difference, norms o f competition and ideologies of equal participation. By treating
novices differently, umpires, teammates and opponents negotiated sport styles to ensure
greater participation, especially for those traditionally excluded. Conflations of ability
and gender often made such negotiations reproductive.
Displays of female ability and other challenges to myths of male physical superiority
were negotiated as displays of superlative female ability, or merely “good for a girl.”
This mitigated challenges posed by female ability. At the same time, norms of female
weakness and inability were disproved. Because women were primarily relegated to
female defined and gender neutral positions, ideologies about gender, bodies and physical
ability continued to be reproduced. Male bodies were still visually presented as
performing in the supposedly more difficult positions, their roles were defined as more
primary and their contributions were therefore perceived as more valuable. Further, men
remained in authoritative positions and retained the voice of authority in matters of
strategy. Consistent with research on gender norms, women often attempted to remove
conversational reifications of hierarchy by changing instructions to observations or
suggestions.
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Chapter 7 Conclusion
This dissertation was concerned with exploring the following two questions:
♦ How do people “do gender” relationally within a context that is structured by the
contradictory principles of natural difference and equality of opportunity?
♦ In what way(s) does coed sport reflect a transitional moment in which relational
definitions of gender difference are being challenged?
How people “do gender” relationally within this context was intricate. Ultimately, in
order to negotiate competing ideologies of equality and difference, gendered power
relations were simultaneously reproduced, challenged and blended. This revealed the
complexity of lived experience. During the same game, a man might take all the plays at
home plate, ignoring his team’s female catcher. This could inspire Kathy to make a great
play to throw him out. On the catch at first, Patty’s stretch is admired by some as a
feminine skill, thus simultaneously reifying gender difference and creating a separate
space of female valuation. This space, however, like the pink collar ghetto, is a devalued
one. The other team’s catcher’s incompetence is reproduced through the denial of
experience, as well as ideologies of female physical inferiority and deference to male
authority. These ideologies are resisted by physical performances and critiques by
participants of either gender.
Throughout this dissertation, the multitude of ways in which gendered ideologies,
practices and bodies were simultaneously resisted, challenged and negotiated in day-to-
day lived experiences demonstrated the complexity of gender relations and the difficulty
in creating equality of opportunity predicated on ideas o f difference. There is additional
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263
irony to challenging the saliency of the concept of gender with a document suffuse with
gender references. As noted by Foucault (1979) resistance always reifies the dominant
system by being in opposition to it. Hence, in order to resist gendered ideologies, one
must reify gender by re-naming and redefining it.
Practice and Ideology
The reproduction of gender difference more often involved the reproduction of male
physical superiority and female physical inferiority. Such ideologies, practices and
bodies were reproduced in a number of ways. First, there was often a refusal to promote
equal practices for men and women. This was demonstrated by the gendering of field
positions and the tendency for male players to take away plays from female players.
Such reproductions carry within them and reproduce a number of gendered assumptions.
Ideologies of male physical superiority were evident in positional segregation, as men
were more likely to be placed in the most prestigious and authoritative positions. This
denied female participants practice at these positions and an opportunity to learn and
display competence at these positions. Implicit in such behaviors was an ideological
assumption that women’s leisure is secondary to men’s. The women whose plays were
taken were denied experience, participation and pleasure. In such examples, there
appeared to be an underlying assumption that competition and victory were more central
than recreation and enjoyment. If recreation or enjoyment were the goal, then players
who were presinned to be weaker would still have equal participation. Instead, victory
was privileged by players who behaved in this way. This was in direct opposition to
other incidents which privileged recreation and participation.
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In some instances, ideologies of gender difference were reproduced in pro-feminine
ways. The signifying of stretches at first base as a superior female trait constructed a
space of female valuation. This type of valuation, however, was limited, as gender
difference was also reified by denoting flexibility as a female trait.
Some players issued challenges to ideologies, practices and bodily reifications of
gender difference. Even given the smaller pool of talented women created by differences
in opportunities for experience and the quality o f women’s experiences in sport, many
women were very skilled. These women’s superlative play at “male appropriate," “female
appropriate” and “gender neutral” positions provided a challenge to ideologies of male
physical superiority. By demonstrating that they were not inherently worse simply
because they are women, these women challenged the factual basis of such ideologies.
At the same time the existence of some less skilled men revealed what these ideologies of
masculinity seemed otherwise to mask, that not all men are inherently physically superior
to all women. Ideologies of competition versus leisure and gender were further combated
by the competitive performances of some women, resistance to competition by some men
and negotiations of rules enacted to accommodate novice players. Many women took
specific pleasure in displaying their competence and ability to men who demonstrated
belief in sexist ideologies. The conscious efforts of women like Kathy and Mary to throw
out these men at every opportunity and the exhortations for Jen to “bum” the short
outfielders provide excellent examples of these tendencies.
The interaction of resistant and reproductive ideologies, practices and performances
often resulted in negotiations. Most importantly, coed softball negotiates gender norms
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simply by creating a space in which men and women can potentially have equivalent
leisure experiences simultaneously. Traditional ideologies of exclusion were resisted by
incorporating female participation, at the same time this resistance was tempered by
positional segregation and usurpation which marked the allowed space for female
participation as a devalued one. Such factors limited and shaped participation and
potential leisure enjoyment by gender. In addition, this demonstrated how gender
underlies assessments of one’s body by others and to some extent by one’s self (Giddens,
1991; Goffman, 1979). While a space was created in which there was a valuation of
female ability, experiences, ways of knowing and doing, a false assumption that there are
specific gender differences undergirded most of these negotiations. This assumption
created gendered expectations which were reproduced through gendered practices and
interpretations of events and individuals. Concurrently, the existence of novice players
required that many norms of competition be negotiated with ideologies of recreation.
When women were given opportunities to play, it was usually at “female” appropriate or
gender neutral field positions. Others were then able to undermine their performance as
‘'good for a girl. " These types of negotiations can minimize the effect of women’s
demonstrations of the inaccuracy of many gendered ideologies.
Discourse. Assumptions and Ideology
The ways in which individuals discursively interpreted events and others in the sub
world of coed softball revealed the workings of gendered power relations. Discourse
demonstrated reproductions, challenges and negotiations of gender as part of an on-going
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power struggle over these meanings. Discourse reproduced hegemonic gender relations
in a number of ways.
♦ The re-framing or inaccurate description of what was actually occurring when
female bodies out-performed male bodies. This includes the over valuation of
male contributions and performance, an under valuation of female contributions, a
tendency to downplay male errors and to overplay female errors. These
tendencies acted to protect ideologies o f male physical superiority by re
interpreting events to always already present males as superior to females.
♦ Men were most often perceived as the voice of authority, even when what they
said was inaccurate. Men frequently insisted upon strategies and instructions
which were inaccurate or inappropriate and sometimes instructed when others
would have suggested. In one example, a man even physically pushed his
teammate to follow his exhortations despite the fact it was absolutely the wrong
strategy and the female base runner was well aware of the correct one.
Many women challenged masculinist discourse by verbally noting female ability.
This was an attempt to force others to become aware of female contributions and
performances by refusing to allow a verbal re-framing of the performance to favor
interpretations of male physical superiority. This involved noting excellent play by
women. It also encompassed critiquing the inclusion of gender in potentially gender-
neutral situations. When others marked gender, some resisted even the marking of
gender. The contradictions and negotiations here are apparent. While on the one hand
women often marked gender in order to highlight female ability as part of resistance, this
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267
marking was resisted because it reified the idea that gender is a meaningful determinant
of ability and performance. While the history of gender relations does influence practices
and ideologies, this does not reflect a “natural biological” fact. Women often openly
critiqued such assumptions by resisting the verbal reproductions of male physical
superiority. Other times the resistance was more subtle as teammates discussed and
critiqued other’s reproductions of gender. Finally, women often verbally resisted by
becoming a voice o f authority. Many women on teams insisted on coaching bases, others
shared strategy and direction with teammates. As previously noted, often a negotiation
between hegemonic ideals of male physical superiority and resistance to such ideals
occurred.
Negotiations of discourse represented a conversational middle ground between
assumptions o f male physical superiority and resistance to such ideologies. The primary
negotiation was to value female contributions, but to mark them as distinct or different
from male contributions. This was accomplished by promoting a “ goodfor a girl"
mentality. Players often noted female contributions, but marked them as unusual. Hence,
Kathy could be framed as the best woman on the field. Even though she may be the best
defensive player, by framing her as the best woman, the myth of male physical
superiority remains intact.
Reproductions. Challenges and Negotiations Concluded
The above discussion reveals the complexity of studying lived experience. In the
same space -- and often simultaneously -- gendered ideologies, bodies and practices were
reproduced, challenged and negotiated. Table 7.1 displays some key threads of analysis
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268
as to how ideologies, practices and material conditions were reproduced, challenged and
negotiated during the course o f this study. All of these examples of resistance, challenges
and negotiations point more fundamentally to the complexity of studying gender
relations.
Table 7.1- Reproductions, Challenges, Negotiations
Reproductions Challenges Negotiations
Material
Conditions
-The larger pool of
experienced male athletes
-Gendered rules such as the
two base walk
-The limits of bodies- size,
strength, coordination, etc.
-The growing pool of expert
level female participants
-Rules which require equal
participation by women
-The middle range
bodies of intermediate
players
-Differential rule
enforcement such as the
slide and avoid rule
Ideologies -Men are physically superior
-Men should hold the
positions of authority
-Women require physical
protection
-Men are not physically
superior
-Biological sex is not a
determinant of ability,
attitudes toward
competition, or authority
-Some women are good
athletes
-Some women are better
athletes than other
women and are
comparable to male
athletes
- A balance between
recreation and
competition
Practice -The gendering of field
positions
-Positional usurpation
-Males acting as authorities,
even when some females are
more knowledgeable and
experienced
- Women playing male
defined positions
-Women excelling at any
position or on offense
-Women confronting men
who usurp their positions
-Women acting as
authorities
-Women playing gender
neutral positions, but
remaining locked out of
the male defined
positions
-Concessions made for
novice women, but not
intermediate or
advanced women
Third Wave Feminism
A new feminist perspective has recently emerged which theorizes this complexity.
Calling itself third wave feminism, this perspective builds on second wave feminist ideas.
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This means acknowledging the changes second wave feminism has made, but also
recognizing that a host of new (and old) issues and problems require attention. While
recognizing the importance of second wave feminism’s focus on equality of opportunity,
third wave feminism problematizes personal quality of life issues to demonstrate how
equality of opportunity by gender is only a partial solution. Because intersections of
class, race, sexuality and cultural politics all affect personal experience, providing
equality of opportunity by gender is often undermined, incomplete, or fails to address the
nature of the opportunities or available experiences. Understanding that contradictory,
competing and paradoxical visions and ideologies always inform the movement is
paramount. These contradictions must be politicized as part of an ongoing struggle to
improve quality of life and experience (Heywood and Drake, 1997). Understanding how
power affects everyday lived experience and incorporating intersections of identity is
central to the third wave feminist project. The goal is to develop modes of thinking that
can come to terms with multiple and constantly shifting bases of oppression, including
the multiplicity of the factors which make up identity (Brooks, 1997; Zita, 1998). It is
imperative to facilitate coalitional politics based on understandings that take into account
the ways in which we are oppressed and we oppress, sometimes simultaneously
(Heywood and Drake, 1997). Third wave feminism explores the role of cultural
production in experience, therefore theorizing cultural production as action. These
actions can be simultaneously reproductive, resistant and contradictory within this sphere
(Heywood and Drake, 1997). Clearly, these types of insights are exemplified in the
world of coed softball. Parallels between coed softball and other coed environments, like
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work and politics, make it likely that similar experiences of power relations exist.
Despite the gains made in these transitional environments, gendered power relations
remain problematic. For example, Reskin and Padavic (1994) describe similar situations
in the world of work. Their work highlights how despite increasingly coed or mixed sex
work environments, ideologies about natural and cultural differences continue to inform
the structure of opportunity for women at work. In particular, a gendered division of
labor similar to the gendering of field positions reveals how ideologies of ability by
gender continue to inform the opportunities to which women have access in the world of
work. Specifically hierarchical authority and the tendency of males to hold the higher
status and authoritative positions, despite increasing numbers of women in the work
environment, was consistent with my findings. The concomitant devaluing of the roles
assigned to women seemed very similar to the devaluing of female positions, particularly
catcher. Further, Reskin and Padavic (1994) found that it was employers, not workers,
who frequently made gender a salient factor in assessing ability. This was similar to the
gendered rule structure in coed softball, as well as umpires and managers assessments of
ability. At the same time, analogous to what I saw in coed softball, women’s resistance
to sex segregation often resulted in negotiating some positions as suitable for either men
or women, while retaining the highest status positions for men and the lowest status for
women. Understanding the complexity of this situation can be facilitated by third wave
definitions of the concepts of reproduction, challenge and negotiation as presented in my
work.
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The concepts o f reproduction, resistance and negotiation were used to examine the
merger of social and material effects on embodiment and experience. Understanding
reproduction, resistance and negotiation is a complex process. As demonstrated in the
forum of coed softball, each can be complicated. Reproduction can be overt implied
support for, or reification of gendered ideologies. Such ideologies necessarily reproduce
gendered practices and bodies. Gendered bodies are shaped and limited in specific ways
through the enactment o f these ideologies. Challenges can be even more complicated.
Some challenges stand in direct opposition to reproductions o f ideologies, experiences or
practices. These types o f challenges point to the inaccuracy o f ideologies through
performances. Such performances change the nature of bodies and their concomitant
experiences. Other challenges question the legitimacy of gender at all as a determinant
of ability or a factor in experience. This is more complicated as naming gender reifies the
concept, even if the naming is designed to stand in opposition to gendered ideologies.
Negotiations are necessitated by the existence of competing ideologies, practices and
bodies which reflect competing and often contradictory beliefs and experiences.
Understanding this complexity can shed light on how to study gendered power relation at
the turn of the millennium.
Implications for Sociology. Gender Studies and Sport Studies
My findings seek to challenge common sense assumptions o f natural gender difference
and male physical superiority because of the limits this places on both men’s and
women’s lived experiences. The paradox of having to promote equality of opportunity
through assumptions of difference reveals our cultural obsession with gender difference
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and the importance given to maintaining this myth. How experiences in the sub-world of
coed softball reproduce, challenge and negotiate gendered ideologies, discourses and
bodies demonstrates both the inaccuracy of this myth and the stakes involved in
maintaining it.
Employing this type of analysis has implications for sociology, gender studies and
sport studies. Some of these implications are highlighted here.
♦ Contradiction, rather than consistency, characterizes social relations. Often
contradictory ideologies, practices and bodies circulate and interact
simultaneously. Understanding this complexity is of primary importance to
theorizing about the social world.
♦ Studying coed sub-worlds like softball, facilitates understandings of the
contradictions and tensions which emerge as ideologies of gender difference and
equality of opportunity are simultaneously reproduced, challenged and negotiated.
♦ These negotiations, though sometimes reproductive, can result in limited progress
toward equalizing social relations. This is a time consuming process, in which
gains are often small.
♦ By removing gender as a determinant of experience, the tension between limiting
gendered ideologies can be resolved, for example, ideologies of recreation and
competition.
♦ Participation in and the continued existence of coed environments like coed sports
can help alter existing gendered power relations. In particular, it creates the
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acceptance and normalization of a wider range of experiences, bodies and
ideologies.
♦ Leisure is recognized as an important site of cultural production. Often leisure is
overlooked as a less valid subject of study than other areas like work or politics.
Studies like this reveal that leisure is an important site at which ideologies,
practices and bodies are reproduced, resisted and negotiated.
♦ This work points to the importance of focusing on the experiences of ordinary
individuals, instead of simply focusing on the experiences of high ranking people.
In sports studies, this means focusing not only on amateur and professional
athletes, but also ordinary individuals involved in sports.
The simultaneous reproduction of, challenges to and negotiations of ideologies, bodies
and practices revealed that contradiction and paradox, rather than consistency, often
characterize social relations. In Western culture, ideologies of physical gender difference
often have created separate spheres of gendered interactions in public and private life
(Lober, 1994, Reskin & Padavic, 1994; Smith-Rosenberg, 1975). Supporting ideologies,
practices and bodies continue to reproduce gendered practices, ideologies and bodies.
Simultaneously, these separate spheres are breaking down as women and men work, play,
are educated in, and live in coed environments. Challenges to reproductive ideologies,
bodies and practices necessitate negotiations and create a paradox between co-existing
ideologies o f equality and difference. Individuals frequently have no choice but to
engage in daily struggles over gendered meanings and relations. Analyzing this
complexity can be difficult. The sub-world of coed softball provides an ideal opportunity
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to theorize these tensions and struggles. The negotiations observed in this sub-world give
insight into how to navigate this new territory. From the data, it is clear that despite the
continuation of reproductive ideologies, practices and bodies, many ideologies, practices
and bodies are becoming obsolete. Overall, it appeared that a wider range of experiences,
bodies, abilities and practices are normalized and accepted in this forum. It is imperative
that this trend continue. Providing a wider range o f experiences can improve quality of
life. In addition, normalizing a wider range of experiences, abilities and preferences for
both genders could resolve many of the contradictions created by simultaneous ideologies
of difference and equality. Understanding overlapping ranges of abilities, experiences,
bodies and preferences as opposed to dichotomous gender difference can facilitate
equality of opportunity without the limitations o f ideologies of difference. At the same
time, the difficulty in measuring equality without reifying difference must be taken into
account.
Further, cultural studies of sport and leisure have often been marginalized or ignored.
Sport and leisure must be recognized as an important part of Western culture in which
multiple relations of power are reproduced, challenged and negotiated. In particular,
understanding sport and leisure experiences is imperative to understanding gendered
power relations. Further, the foregrounding of bodies in studies of sports and leisure
points to the important historical omission of physical experience from social science
research. Understanding bodily experience is integral to understanding power relations
and quality o f life issues.
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Like many other areas of academia, sports studies often make the mistake o f focusing
solely on so called important individuals. This has often meant focusing on professional
and high ranking amateur athletes, while the experiences and practices of most people in
the culture remain understudied. What ordinary people do in the context o f daily life
must be explored. Ignoring the everyday obscures an important way in which power
relations operate. Who has access to what types of leisure and pleasure is an important
privilege that requires further attention.
The Future of Coed Sports
While the larger implications for understanding gender relations are important, there
are also more concrete observations and recommendations which relate to the sub-world
of coed softball. These recommendations can also be extended to many forums of
cultural production. These include:
♦ In keeping with the idea of reducing contradictions between ideologies of equality
and difference, some of the rules should be de-gendered. Specifically, the two
base walk, the courtesy runner rule and rover restrictions should be de-gendered.
♦ A need for differential rule enforcement to reflect level of ability, rather than
gender. Again, the enforcement of all formal and informal laws should reflect the
specific situation and not an individual’s gender assignment.
♦ All leagues must provide available safety features, including the double first base,
which reduces the risk of collisions at first base.
♦ More women must take positions of authority.
♦ More adults should be encouraged to participate in recreational sports.
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Degendering the rules reconciles conflicting ideologies of difference and equality of
opportunity. While the smaller pool of experienced women, and the proliferation of
gendered ideologies makes rules which protect equal numbers of male and female
participants necessary, rules like the two base walk, courtesy runner rules and rover
restrictions do not need to be gendered. Providing a two base walk for any participant
who walks on four straight balls still prevents intentional walks, while not privileging
male batters. Because only two courtesy runners are permitted per game, stating that the
runner must be the last person out regardless o f gender should have little effect on the
use o f courtesy runners. Finally, allowing the rover to be either male or female actually
allows more women to play the more prestigious outfield positions. In most cases,
having a male rover would not change the game. Eliminating gender from these types of
rules would provide equality of opportunity for players, without assuming the superiority
of male participants. In the society at large the tendency to assume gender difference and
different gender roles remains problematic. Protecting equality of opportunity sometimes
means having to accept the reification of difference in some rules, while most can be
degendered. The demise of affirmative action demonstrates the larger cultures
unwillingness to protect equality of opportunity, not a reduction in the meaning of
difference. This is particularly true with regards to responsibility for childcare. The
forum of coed softball demonstrated how such assumptions can be challenged in mixed
gender environments which privilege equality of opportunity. More importantly, a wide
range of abilities, experiences and preference can be displayed as normal and acceptable.
While a degendering of rules would most likely reduce the number of novice players at
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higher levels of play, the influx of post-Title EX women into softball is already leading to
this inevitable conclusion. An increase in leagues at the recreational level could absorb
the excess novice women. Recreational leagues provide experience with less chance of
novice players being injured.
It was clear that umpires should enforce rules slightly differently to accommodate the
range of abilities and sizes in the recreational sports environment. Such accommodations
should reflect ability, size and strength, not gender. Differential enforcement of
protection rules was particularly problematic. Male players also require protection from
injury, and were given this protection in the men’s game. Better umpire training could
help alleviate these tendencies. Moreover, umpire need to prioritize safety by
recognizing that gender does not determine one’s likelihood of being hurt on a given
play. Leagues should also provide all available safety features. The lack of orange safety
bases in some leagues is inexcusable, especially since many teams place less experienced
fielders at first base.
Further, more women need to be placed in positions of authority, as league staff,
umpires, managers, base coaches and players in key positions. This involves two
separate types of integration. Leagues need to make a conscious effort to hire more
women. Given the number of women with experience at softball, this should not be a
difficult task. In the second case, more women on teams need to take positions of
authority as managers, base coaches and fielders. Sometimes this may be less attractive
to many women. Being a manager can be a thankless job. Sitting on the bench cheering
with one’s teammates is more fun than coaching the bases. Fighting for positions is
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unpleasant and simply not worth it to many players. Many of these tendencies are
changing in the post title EX era, as the pool o f experienced female athletes is increasing
dramatically. Female authority outside of sports is also imperative to creating and
maintaining equality of opportunity. Representation in all forums is necessary to
preserve equitable gender relations. Seeing women in positions of authority in
environments like coed softball may make people more accepting of women in positions
of authority in the world-at-large.
This increase in talented and experienced female athletes will likely have many effects
on the game. The most noticeable change is the decrease in novice women. As the
numbers of women with significant sports experience increase, for better or worse, novice
players will probably disappear from the game. The question is, will the gendered rule
structure, differential rule enforcement, the usurpation of women’s positions and
positional segregation follow suit? The same question could apply to much of North
American culture.
Finally, many Americans are out of shape in part because of their sedentary lifestyle.
The over emphasis on spectator sport in the United States, obscures the benefits and
relative low cost of participatory or recreational sports. Compared to other Westernized
nations, the United States has a relatively undeveloped recreational sports market.
Increasing participation could be beneficial to both men and women. If increasing
opportunities are coed, experiences in this environment is likely to aid in reducing gender
inequity in the recreational scene and in life in general.
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Appendix A
Tables lb, lc, Id, and le show the data separated by the sex of the pitcher, and divided
by all defenses and opponents only.
Table 1
All Defenses
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 139 (59.4%) 95 (40.6%) 234
Catcher 10 (4.3%) 224 (95.7%) 234
First base 32 (13.7%) 202 (86.3%) 234
Second base 35 (15.0%) 199 (85.0%) 234
Third base 143 (61.1%) 91 (38.9%) 234
Shortstop 189 (80.8%) 45 (19.2%) 234
Left field 214(91.5%) 20 (8.5%) 234
Center field 227 (97.0%) 7 (3.0%) 234
Right field 165 (70.5%) 69 (29.5%) 234
Rover 0 197(100%) 197
TOTAL 1154 (50.1%) 1149 (49.9%) 2303
37 defenses consisted of only 9 players.
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Table la
Other Teams Only
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 82 (71.9%) 32(28.1%) 114
Catcher 4 (3.5%) 110(96.5%) 114
First base 23 (20.2%) 91 (79.8%) 114
Second base 17(14.9%) 97 (85.1%) 114
Third base 66 (57.9%) 48(42.1%) 114
Shortstop 105 (92.1%) 9 (7.9%) 114
Left field 100 (87.7%) 14 (12.3%) 114
Center field 107 (93.9%) 7 (6.1%) 114
Right field 59 (51.8%) 55 (48.2%) 114
Rover 0 99 (100%) 99
TOTAL 563 (50.0%) 562 (50.0%) 1125
15 defenses consisted of only 9 players.
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Table lb
Male Pitcher- All Gender o f Participants
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 139 (100%) 0
139
Catcher 1 (0.7%) 138 (99.3%) 139
First base 10 (7.2%) 129 (92.8%) 139
Second base 12 (8.6%) 127 (91.4%) 139
Third base 82 (59.0%) 57(41.0%) 139
Shortstop 101 (72.7%) 38 (27.3%) 139
Left field 123 (88.5%) 16(11.5%) 139
Center field 136 (97.8%) 3 (2.6%) 139
Right field 83 (59.7%) 56 (40.3%) 139
Rover 0 124 (100%) 124
TOTAL 687 (50.0%) 688 (50.0%) 1375
15 defenses consisted o f only 9 players.
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282
Table lc
Female Pitcher-All Defenses
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 0 95 (100%) 95
Catcher 9 (9.5%) 86 (90.5%) 95
First base 22 (23.2%) 73 (76.8%) 95
Second base 23 (24.2%) 72 (75.8%) 95
Third base 61 (64.2%) 34 (35.8%) 95
Shortstop 88 (92.6%) 7 (7.4%) 95
Left field 91 (95.8%) 4 (4.2%) 95
Center field 91 (95.8%) 4 (4.2%) 95
Right field 82 (86.3%) 13 (13.7%) 95
Rover 0 73 (100%) 73
TOTAL 467 (50.3%) 461 (49.7%) 928
22 defenses consisted of only 9 players.
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283
Table Id
Male Pitcher- Others Only
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 82 (100%) 0 82
Catcher 0 82 (100%) 82
First base 9(11.0%) 73 (89.0%) 82
Second base 9(11.0%) 73 (89.0%) 82
Third base 46(56.1%) 36 (43.9%) 82
Shortstop 74 (90.2%) 8 (9.8%) 82
Left field 71 (86.6%) 11 (13.4%) 82
Center field 79 (96.3%) 3 (3.7%) 82
Right field 35 (42.7%) 47 (57.3%) 82
Rover 0 72 (100%) 72
TOTAL 405 (50.0%) 405 (50.0%) 810
10 defenses consisted of only 9 players.
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Table le
Female Pitcher- Others Only
Field Positions Male Female Total
Pitcher 0 32 (100%) 32
Catcher 4 (12.5%) 28 (87.5%) 32
First base 14 (43.8%) 18(56.3%) 32
Second base 8 (25.0%) 24 (75.0%) 32
Third base 20 (62.5%) 12 (37.5%) 32
Shortstop 31 (96.9%) 1 (3.1%) 32
Left field 29 (90.6%) 3 (9.4%) 32
Center field 28 (87.5%) 4 (12.5%) 32
Right field 24 (75.0%) 8 (25.0%) 32
Rover 0 27 (100%) 27
TOTAL 158 (50.2%) 157 (49.8%) 315
5 defenses consisted of only 9 players.
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Endnotes
1. A ball hit into the out of play area has no meaning. It is as if the ball is fouled over a
fence. It cannot be caught for an out, and runners cannot tag up to advance if the ball is
caught. If a player catches a ball and his/her momentum carries him or her into the out of
bounds area, any runners on base automatically advance. This rule exists to avoid players
trying to catch balls going out of play, which often risks injury. If one throws the ball
into the “out of play” area, any base runners receive the base to which he/she was heading
plus one more base. If the base runner was standing on a base, they receive only the next
base. This rule avoids a fielder stopping a play by intentionally throwing a ball out of
play.
2. This was Center City’s ideal play-off format. Other seasons, alternative formats had
to be implemented when rain-outs or teams dropping out of the league necessitated
alternations. For example, one season El Nino prevented all three games of the final
series being played. Another season, changes in team parity necessitated an alternative
league format.
3. This means that the bases could move or slide. Good arguments for both anchored
and unanchored bases can be made. Those who favor unanchored bases argue that on a
slide, unanchored bases prevent injuries caused by improperly catching one’s foot on the
side of the base. Those who favor anchored bases argue that unanchored bases cause
more injury to athletes who slip on bases as they try to push off. Jake, a teammate and
manager of several other teams including women’s fastpitch, told me authoritatively that
unanchored bases have a three times greater incidence of injury (injuries caused by
baserunning only- not including being hit by a ball, collisions and so forth) than
unanchored bases. Personally my preference is for anchored bases.
4. Success and failure are not simply about losing or winning. Making a play one had
not been capable of making a year ago, is a success, even if that person’s team loses.
Working an 0-2 count full and then hitting a shot down the line, is a success, even if it is
caught and the batter called out. Success and failure are more about stretching the limits
and abilities o f the body, about having these experiences, and inscribing them in the body
so more are possible.
5. During the first season of this study a woman took over the league for half of a season.
While she did not last very long in her position (something about missing funds and a
vacation to a tropical island), she did make the league conform to the SCMAF rule of
equal numbers. I had participated in this league for three seasons prior to this change and
recall no instances in which any of our opponents had six men and did not play six
defensively.
6. A put-out refers to a player getting someone out, either on a tag or a catch. An assist
refers to when a player does something that leads to a put out, such as a throw to another
player who makes the tag.
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299
7. Rumors around the league implied that she was fired for “misappropriation of funds”
involving a trip to the Carribean. Several members of the advisory board and the current
league director implied that these rumors were accurate. Due to a pending lawsuit, they
were prohibited from making any direct statements regarding the proceedings.
8. During both coed and men’s games observed, if the game was a blow-out (one team
was clearly dominating the other and inevitably going to win) players sometimes fouled
off or tried to hit pitches they clearly knew were balls. In this case the game is viewed as
over and the experience as “ batting practice.” O f course, no one would want to walk in
batting practice.
9. Once a player has two strikes on him/her only one foul ball is permitted. If a player
hits another foul ball at this point, it is considered a strikeout. This raises the number of
strikeouts observed considerably.
10. The safety base is basically an extension of the normal base. The normal base is
usually white. The extension is usually orange, and extends into foul territory. The
fielder is required to touch the actual base and the baserunner is encouraged to hit the
outside extension. This reduces the number of collisions at first and in my opinion
should be used in all recreational softball games.
11. Occasionally one comes across a novice player who has a knack for hitting. This
often occurs if the person is a transplant from another sport. For example, one novice
man who played with us just prior to the study period had never played softball until he
joined our team. He had been a division I track athlete and poll vaulter, however. His
significant upper body strength led to many surprising hits, despite his less experienced
fielding.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Wachs, Faye Linda (author)

Core Title "It's a person": An ethnographic analysis of gender and power in coed softball

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, sociology of,OAI-PMH Harvest,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor [illegible] (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member), Ball-Rokeach, Sandra J. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-367111

Unique identifier UC11350342

Identifier 9933769.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-367111 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 9933769.pdf

Dmrecord 367111

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Wachs, Faye Linda

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA