In Praise of Difficult Women by Cheryl Strayed & Karen Karbo

Author:Cheryl Strayed & Karen Karbo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2018-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

WHEN I ASKED BILLIE JEAN KING what she wanted to be remembered for, she cited World Team Tennis. Founded with her ex-husband Larry in 1973—the same year she beat Bobby Riggs—WTT is the only pro tennis league where men and women, privileged and not, play on the same team, together.

“Equal pay, equal treatment, equal respect. Equal everything, you see?” said King.

She made it sound so easy; it was anything but. Still, it’s easier to be difficult when you know in your heart that you’re right. Billie Jean was and is, and so she continues to fight.

*1As I grew up playing on the public courts of Whittier, California, I can assure you that they were crowded, with torn nets and faded lines and mediocre players like me on the next court, swearing loudly and hitting a nonstop stream of wild balls into the middle of her game.

*2She shared the award with basketball great John Wooden; the award is now known as the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Award.

*3Not that Larry King. This one was a law student who also played tennis on Cal State L.A.’s champion men’s team.

*4The Ladies’ Singles trophy is a salver that bears the mystifying name The Venus Rosewater Dish. If there isn’t an all-girl punk band called Venus Rosewater Dish, there should be.

*5They were Billie Jean King, Rosemary Casals, Judy Tegart Dalton, Nancy Richey, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Julie Heldman, and Kerry Melville Reid.

*6It was such a momentous historic occasion that A-listers Emma Stone (as Billie Jean) and Steve Carell (as Bobby Riggs) starred in the 2017 movie.

*7No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

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