Why There Actually Should be MORE Crying in Baseball
Dottie and Kit Milk Cows by Hand: The True Radicalism Hidden in A League of Their Own
Marla Hooch and the Tough Path to Success for Women That Men Don’t Want to Fuck
That Problematic Pissing Scene
Female Athletes Sexualized So They Can Play: How Nothing Has Changed
One Patronising Moment With Women of Colour: How A League of Their Own Influenced Girls
What Elderly Dottie Living With Her Daughter Tells Us About the State of Aged Care in America
Does the Character of Stilwell Encourage Childhood Obesity?
You Shouldn’t Let Children (Or Younger Sisters) Win if They Don’t Deserve It
Jimmy Dugan’s Transformation From MRA to Feminist Ally
Prisons or Pitches: Why Can’t Female-Focused Content Just be About Regular Women?
Is ‘All The Way May’ A Slut-Shaming Nickname?
How Do You Make A Women’s Sports Movie Without Lesbians: The Queer Erasure In A League of Their Own
Yes, It Is Okay to Laugh At Doris’s Jokes Knowing Rosie O’Donnell Is A 9/11 Truther
Why I’m Making My Son Play Sports With Girls
How A League of Their Own Helped Me Understand My Brother’s Resentment Toward Me
The Problem With Geena Davis and Women Who Are Good at Too Many Things
You Never See Anyone Putting on Sunscreen: The Life-Threatening Message in A League of Their Own
Do We Need Another War to Get Female Athletes the Attention They Deserve?
Why This Spells the End of Movies About Men
Tags: a league of their own, movies, rebecca shaw, thinkpieces
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Now I know what I’m watching tonight.
That Problematic Pissing Scene
Oh god, seriously.
Can we discuss?
Absolutely. It’s been a while since I saw the movie but isn’t that the first time we meet Jimmy?
I think it’s the first time the team meets Jimmy? He just kind of bursts in and goes for a pee.
We, the audience, meet Jimmy when he’s talking with the owner walking the guy’s vast tracts of land. And that’s when he gets offered the job?
Oh yeah, you’re right. So the first time the team full of women meet Jimmy this is what happens. I have massive Thoughts about how aggressive and hostile it is when men use shared restrooms without properly closing doors.
oh god WHAT
That’s … ugh.
Yeah, IMO, the Jimmy peeing scene is of a piece with guys who think it’s ok in, oh for one example a shared jobsite trailer or a portajohn at a festival, to pee and leave the door open so people have to see them whether those people are into seeing them peeing or not. It has always felt aggressive to me, and I think that’s why I find that scene so disturbing.
But isn’t that part of the point of that scene? It’s been a while since I last watched it, but Jimmy starts off feeling very contemptuous and dismissive towards the women on the team. He’s there to collect a paycheck, but he’s not interested in them as people or as players. Plus, he’s also a drunk who is only half-present at any moment. So you combine his intoxication and his total lack of respect for the team, and it is perfectly in character.
I’d say yes and no. In character, yes, but I don’t know if, inside the movie, it was meant to read as hostile and aggressive and I found it.
I wasn’t quite sure, but my first thought about how it was problematic was May trying to sneak a peek at his junk (and not ironically either). Come on, movie. Just because she likes to flirt with and sleep with men and is willing to show her boobs (ON HER TERMS) doesn’t mean she’d necessarily be down for looking at some smelly drunk’s D while pee is coming out of it.
May definitely has standards.
Yeah, I saw it more the way blushingflower describes. Also, Mae wasn’t trying to sneak peek at his junk or flirt with him, she has a stop watch and she and Doris were timing it.
I have failed at remembering A League of Their Own!
I would read quite a number of these.
How Do You Make A Women’s Sports Movie Without Lesbians: The Queer Erasure In A League of Their Own. Oh we know they were all women who carried their own purse.
“My husband is gonna kill me if ____!”
“Bitch do you even have a husband?”
Yep. I genuinely did not understand that one at first, that’s how far the ladyqueer goggles go. Just like how there is no love interest in Bend It Like Beckham, OFC, because the girls are their own love interests.
I have this vivid memory of reading an interview with Gurinder Chadha where she says the girls were original the pairing in the film, thinking she was making a small indie movie then it got picked up and she changed the plotline to just focus on the girls can play sports theme when she realized it would reach the film would reach a wider audience and added Tony in to call back to that idea. But I cannot find this anywhere and Wikipedia says it’s a rumor. So I guess I’ll just have to content myuself with this toast post: http://the-toast.net/2014/01/31/femslash-friday-b…
You Shouldn’t Let Children (Or Younger Sisters) Win if They Don’t Deserve It
Pretty sure this also belongs on the list of Mommie-Dearest-Inspired Think Pieces.
I would read these.
Related thought – why is it that clickbaity titles tend to run really long? Wouldn’t you think that’s detrimental to the goal of getting readers, considering how often that leads to the title being truncated? (And considering the attention span of readers? I nearly wasn’t able to make it to the end of some of these headlines.)
I think it’s actually a good thing on places like Facebook if the whole title won’t fit; means people have to click through to even find out how the title ends.
The first one just made me think of baseball players I would like to see cry.
It Had to be You: Finding Love as a Marla in a World of Dotties
I’ve always had a secret fanfic in my heart where several of the boys Marla’s dad coaches — the ones we see pitching and fielding her hits at the beginning — had hidden crushes on her, including the tallest, handsomest one. I’m disappointed every time I watch the movie, and there’s no suddenly restored deleted scene where just before she leaves, and before her hug with her dad (because that is SO HEARTBREAKING), he walks up to her, twisting his hat in hand, to tell her she’s the finest hitter he’s ever seen, and he’s thought so since they were children growing up together.
Oh, this would be the fanfic that made me read fanfic. My whole heart is swelling up with just those few sentences.
Ahhh. And it doesn’t even *have* to be romantic? It’s just her peer expressing his respect and admiration, and sharing his glad wishes that she’s getting a chance to do what she really loves on a bigger stage because she not only deserves it but earned it.
(Because I still need Marla to sing “It Had to Be You.”)
I got goosepimples at this. I want to read this!
Why This Spells the End of Movies About Men
O to live in this world.
How about the obvious: What the Fuck Happened to Women Playing Major League Baseball This is Some Bullshit
Yeah, I saw it more the way blushingflower describes. Also, Mae wasn't trying to sneak peek at his junk or flirt with him, she has a stop watch and she and Doris were timing it.
Im still waiting for “The Mysterious Enigma of Geena Davis’ Eyebrows”.
LIke srsly girl.
But what if Dottie Hinson were your girlfriend?
Yes PLEASE
I read this today before watching SINGIN IN THE RAIN and the whole time I was watching I kept thinking about potential think pieces. So, thanks Bec. Ruining my favorite movies since August 2015.
That was brilliant. Thank you so, so much.