Gender and Sport: Brittney Griner Dominates Women's College Ball

Brittney Griner is not only the talk of the Women's College Basketball game, but she is dominating the news of the entire sport. She is recieving press from every newspaper to website across the nation. Griner led her Baylor Lady Bears to an undefeated season, and National Championship this season. Her game is being compared to that of men. This type of publicity for a female athlete has not been seen in some time, so this is great for not only women's sports, but sports in general. Griner has unbelievable size and skill sets, that most women dont posses, such as the ability to dunk (pictured right).

The article highlights how Griner dominated the National Championship game with a 26 point and 13 rebound performance. Baylor beat Notre Dame in convincing fashion with a 80-61 win. The article claims that after the game Coach McGraw of Notre Dame made some controversial comments when she said, "She’s one of a kind. She’s like a guy playing with women. It’s just there’s so many things that she can do that I’ve not seen a lot of women (do).” McGraw later clarified her comments stating they were intended to be a compliment. The article also says that whether it was intended to be a comment or not, it would be wise to sensor comments such as McGraw's to make sure that the accomplishments of Griner and her team are kept as "women's" accomplishments and not compared to that of men. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/baylors-brittney-griner-dominates-ncaa-title-game-notre-dame-coach-shes-like-a-guy-playing-with-women/2012/04/04/gIQAZBo7uS_blog.html

In class on 4/17 and 4/19, we spoke about women in sport not getting covered in the press as much as they should. We also did an exercise where it was difficult for everyone to identify any of the female athletes on the worksheet. So this media coverage for Griner and her Lady Bears is a breath of fresh air. It will hopefully open a window to future coverage for women's sports. Coakley claims on page 232 that the most dramatic change in sports over the last two generations has been that women and girls now participate more regularly in sports. He credits this fact to certain factors such as new opportunities that have been created for women. Coakley also claims that girls and women dont have equal share of resources in most communities, which could explain the fact they dont recieve as much press coverage as men.