Athlete Searched For Role Models
1975
Peppermint Patty was my role model.
The tough, baseball-playing tomboy of Peanuts was who I identified with as a child when I flipped through the newspaper.
I was the stereotypical tomboy - the only girl on the all-boys’ baseball team. I played third base. I was tough. I had no time for dolls, makeup or dressing up in my mother’s clothes. I wanted to hit, run and shag fly balls.
That’s one reason why the paper held little for me. As I thumbed through newspapers of the mid-to-late-1970s - the years of my childhood - I see why. The sections directed toward women were filled with recipes, makeup tips and hair-styling ideas. The sports pages were filled with jostling, sweaty men, vying for a rebound or hitting home runs.
Where were the women?
Even when an article about tennis star Billie Jean King’s visit to Spokane appeared in one edition, it was about doing make-overs on celebrities. I smiled smugly when I noted that King didn’t seem too jazzed about her new foundation, blush or eyeliner.
The paper’s news didn’t match my reality.
Flipping forward in time to 1997, I’m flushed with pride as I look through the newspaper.
There, on the front of the sports section is a picture of Olympic star Amy Van Dyken, muscular and proud in her stars and stripes swim suit. The article was about the premier of Sports Illustrated Woman, a new magazine featuring the best of women’s sports. The Review is refocusing its sports coverage to include more women on its pages. About 50 of the last 60 papers displayed articles about women in sports on the front of the section, the sports editor tells me.
I’m thrilled, but I also think it’s our duty.
As more professional women’s sports leagues emerge following the excitement of the Olympics, proper coverage will tell young girls they can play - and should.
Those girls could grow up to become the next Dot Richardson, Mia Hamm or Lisa Leslie, stars of Olympic softball, soccer and basketball teams, respectively.
It will tell them they could be an Olympic star or a professional athlete.
Just like the boys.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Cartoon
MEMO: See main story under headline “Passing images”