Why Females Should Play Male Sports: The Bloomer Girls Example

The Bloomer Girls are known for their bloomer style attire they wore to honor suffragette Amelia Bloomer established hundreds of teams and competed across America from 1890 until 1934. Bloomer Girl teams were established in the Midwest, the east and the south primarily made up of young women looking to find options to play baseball in a time where women’s professional baseball limited. So why females should play male sports? This essay will contextualize the era America in which the Bloomer girls played in to answer this question. Also it will analyse what was the current state and attitudes in America like during this time period. Secondly, this essay analyzes the ways men viewed women and the restrictions and exclusions that kept women from effectively participating in sport. Lastly, this essay will conclude by discussing “Title IX” and how it played a critical role in the development of contemporary women’s sports but didn’t fully level the playing field. While society has made significant strides since the Bloomer Girls as evidenced by the success of pioneers in women’s sports and successful women athletic programs, there are still issues as demonstrated by the ongoing testosterone test female track athletes are subject to take.

The Bloomer girl teams traveled frequently and faced local competition, semi-pro, and even men’s minor-league teams. Due to the frequent travel, this leads most of the teams to have grueling schedules. Despite the schedule conflict the Bloomer girls still remained competitive in their matchup and won a majority of their games. Not only were the Bloomer Girls successful during their 44-year stretch but, they also gave women an opportunity to travel and play a male-dominated sport. Unfortunately, the societal opinions during the 1930s about a women’s inferior capabilities to play sport caused the downfall of the women’s professional baseball and the Bloomer Girls in 1934.

Main Body: Contextualization

When the context of America from which the Bloomer Girls came from is considered, what they were able to accomplish during their forty-four-year span was impressive. Although, women had been involved in sport and physical culture America made it very difficult for females to participate in sports. Sports were a space created by males and for males with complete disregard for female's desires and aspirations. Through sports men were taught to demonstrate their masculinity by displaying their strength, aggression, and resilience. Because the original idea of sport was to teach men to be men, female participation in sport was seen as troublesome. Many believed that if a female participated in sports, she would acquire masculine traits that would be detrimental to her health. During the late nineteenth century, the medical beliefs on the apparent threats of female exercise demonstrated the ideologies of biological determinism that led to the reproduction of gendered bodies. The belief was that if females participated in sports and physical activity, they would cause damage to their reproductive systems. In efforts to so-called protect women from damaging their bodies, females’ sports and activities were modified to make them more “gender appropriate” more so to sexualize females.

To keep females from over “masculinizing” themselves rules and regulations were created that altered female attire that ultimately affected their performance. In early professional female professional baseball, the game was “performed” rather than “played”, it was almost circus-like. The theatrical nature of female baseball games was far from what the men’s games were like. Because sports were seen as a dominant male space many females lacked basic athletic skills to compete with the quality of the men’s s games. To gain attraction females began to mimic the men’s baseball games but added their own feminine twist, they caught balls in their skirts, drank beer on the bench, and even kicked at umpires. This was an effort by females to keep spectators entertained, while also distracting them from their poor playing skills.

While in America being female and participating in sports and physical culture was certainly looked down upon, females have continuously made efforts to ensure their place within sport and physical culture. At a time when the universal feeling was that females were physically inferior and belonged in a “private sphere” serving as guardians of the home the development of the Bloomer Girls in the nineteenth century created a space for women to competitively compete across the country while making a living in what was assumed to be a male sport.

Main Body: Primary Analysis

The view of women in during the nineteenth century is best captured by the newspapers of the pastime. This section of the essay will expound upon the way females were depicted specifically in the sport of baseball by analyzing these primary resources. An article titled Bloomer Girls Barred published by The Pittsburgh Press on September 23, 1895, acknowledged that the Boston Bloomer Girls game that was scheduled to happen the day before was postponed due to the mayor’s disapproval of the Bloomer Girls attire. The decision by the mayor is no surprise considering the time period. In the 19th century if you were a woman who played baseball the assumption was that you were boastful, unladylike, and disgraceful. To follow ideals according to the Victorian standards of femininity many women played baseball in long-sleeved dresses. The attire that females were required to wear were not designed to help females excel at sport but rather it was uncomfortable and restricted them from performing effectively. Because the heavy influence of Victorian fashion that created an exaggerated, flamboyant look that emphasized giant long skirts, it was very unusual for women to wear anything that looks like pants. This makes the mayor’s statement in the Pittsburgh press make more sense as to why he disapproved of the trouser attire. The trousers went against the societal norms of how women should dress during the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the mayor also may have disapproved of the trousers because they may have not been perceived as showy attire that would attract a male audience. While attire was one issue females faced while trying to integrate themselves into a male-dominated space it certainly was not the only issue.

America's societal views of women in sport and physical culture made it incredibly difficult for women to find a place within sport. The dominant that surrounded America in the 19th century was that men were physically superior to women thus; it was immoral for men and women to compete against each other especially if women displayed masculine traits and were triumphant. In 1907 The Harrisburg Star Independent published a newspaper column titled Object to Women Playing Baseball. The Bloomer Girls were scheduled to play against an amateur team in Louisville, KY but, ministers insinuated that members of the Bloomer Girls team should forfeit because women had no business competing with men in baseball. Sport and physical culture created a barrier between men and women that ensured men avoided feminization at all costs. On the other hand, women were encouraged to partake in sports and activities that accentuated femininity. This is due to the flawed medical beliefs about a women’s body which should be held accountable for the creation of the barriers between men and women. Through the flawed understanding of the women’s body society feared that women engagement in physical activity would physically damage her body. This caused women’s physical activity and sport to be modified for their protection. Country clubs were deemed a safe place for women because it gave women an opportunity to exert themselves “privately” and keep them from challenging male dominance.

In a 1922 news article from The Watchman and Southron titled Strength or Grace, A director of an art school believed that physical education should be aimed to teach men strength and women grace. He insisted that women have no reason to gymnastic type stunts such as rings, parallel bars nor should they even play baseball, instead women should partake in esthetic dancing and leave the other activities to men. A girl and her father argued the director’s statement by saying is there specific reasoning as to why women can’t build strength? Why can’t women learn helpful skills that baseball teaches them? This newspaper article really highlights the societal views of women during the 19th century. More importantly, showcases the state of sport and physical culture during the time period. Men and women were completely separated when it came to sport, sports were either categorized as a male sport or a female sport. The original purpose of sport was to teach men masculinity and the moment women stepped into male-dominated spaces and challenged those ideals she was chastised. These ideals all came from the fear that women would “masculinize” and somehow become superior to men. Constantly through this time period females were held back from progressing in sport due to fear and the dominant ideals of femininity.

From these newspaper articles, it is clear that women faced many uphill battles trying to insert themselves into sport and physical culture. But women did not just sit around and let society hold them back. The Bloomer Girls who are acknowledged for being the pioneers of women’s baseball they challenged all the barriers that excluded females from sport. The Bloomer Girls played a crucial role in women’s sport as they spent 44-years proving to America that women were not physically or athletically inferior and they were capable of competing against men. Unfortunately, despite The Bloomer Girls' competitive nature and winning history American society still viewed men superior to women in sport. The last Bloomer Girl team split in 1934 which marked the end of women’s professional baseball.

Main Body: Discussion

American society has come a long way from the time of the Bloomer Girls, the implementation of Title IX in 1972 opened the door for female’s equal opportunity within sports. The establishment of Title IX forced American society to recognize a female’s rightful place within the male-dominated space of sport. Prior to Title IX, just one in 27 women played sports, today that number is two in five. Today, despite advances America has made to include women, there is still clear gender discrimination that limits opportunities for women in sports.

Even with the success of Title IX, the playing field for women was still not level. An article from the Seattle Times reported that division I athletic departments spend twice as much on men’s programs that women’s programs. Furthermore, on average top-tier division I schools spend $45,000 more dollars on male athletes than they do females. The difference in the amount of money spent shows heavy favoritism towards male athletics. Collegiate sports clearly value the male programs over the female’s programs. The reasoning behind this could be because, despite accepting women in sport culture the overall view is still women’s athletics are inferior to men’s, so women still have to be able to prove they belong. Another factor could be just the overall popularity of men’s sports and the general idea of today’s society that there are just certain things women cannot do athletically on the court or field that a man would be able to do.

Even despite the continuing gender discrimination of women in sports, female athletes have found great success in their respective sports. For example, the US Women National Soccer Team despite the surrounding issues on the pay gap between the USWNT and the USMNT the women’s team has been far more successful than the men. in just eight world cup tournaments the women have won four world cups, then men have one zero contest and the last time they placed was 1930. Furthermore, the Washington Post reported, that the USWNT generated $900,000 more revenue than the men’s team from 2016 through 2018. Being that the USWNT has generated more revenue than the men’s three consecutive years we can assume the women’s team has become the more popular team. This is a huge accomplishment considering America's pastime and the societal views on women that kept them out of the public eye. To even have women represent the country by playing in national tournaments shows the progression that not only America has made but, also women’s sports in America.

Conclusion

The attempt finds a way that excludes female participation in sport has always been an area of conflict in our society. The Bloomer Girls challenged that for 44-year by traveling across the United States taking on experienced competition and doing so successfully. Even with the views, America had against women’s participation in sport the Bloomer Girls had their own agenda. They were determined to make a change and prove to people that women rightfully deserve equal opportunity when it comes to sports. Without the efforts and success of the Bloomer Girls bringing importance to women’s baseball but overall women’s sports in general who knows what the current state of women’s sport would be like. While women’s professional contemporary sport is not perfect as they still face obstacles such as fewer media coverage and low pay and sexism. We still must acknowledge those who paved the way and worked towards the progression of women’s sports and made it possible to play and even be offered job opportunities in the field of sport.

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