Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon
Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon
Top 10 Most Influential Moments that Have Defined the Image of Women Athletes
1. Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the tennis "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973, decisively putting an end to the idea that men are always better than women at sports.2. Martina Navratilova is the number one player in the world from 1978-86, suffering lesbian baiting due to her supposedly "masculine" competitive-power style, but paving the way for other power players later
3. Florence Griffith-Joyner, Flo-Jo, causes a media sensation when she dominates the Olympics in 1988 (3 golds), performing an exaggerated femininity with her long nails and one-legged tights
4. Kerrie Strug disproves notions of feminine wimpiness or inability to take pain when she makes the winning vault of the 1996 Olympics with a broken ankle
5. Volleyball player Gabrielle Reece becomes the media symbol of "women we love who kick ass"--a new body-power aesthetic that emerges in the 90's
6. Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, and Sheryl Swoopes become marquee players for the WNBA and are featured in "Got Milk?" ads and have Nike shoes named after them
7. After their victory in the Women's World Cup in 1999, Brandi Chastain rips off her soccer jersey just as the men do in victory, setting off a firestorm of media controversy
8. Marion Jones become a constant media presence from her domination of the Olympics in 2000 on, helping to mainstream a more powerful body ideal
9. Venus and Serena Williams completely dominate the tennis scene, ending the stereotype that tennis is a "white" sport, and with especially Serena's muscular physique providing a striking new body ideal for all women
10. Cheryl Haworth, 300 pound teenage Olympic powerlifter (bronze in 2000), is featured in Teen People and The New York Times Magazine and heralded as an alternative to conventional notions of beauty
Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin are the authors of this list, which is chronological rather than numbered in terms of impact.