The Sports Revolution by Frank Andre Guridy

The Sports Revolution by Frank Andre Guridy

Author:Frank Andre Guridy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER 6

Sexual Revolution on the Sidelines

WASHINGTON AND DALLAS WERE INTERTWINED IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE might imagine in 1972. In addition to Bob Short’s move to the Metroplex, in December 1972, the NFL franchise known as the Washington Redskins dethroned the Dallas Cowboys, their bitter rivals, to win the conference championship and a trip to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, two more occurrences, one in Washington and the other in Dallas, would dramatically alter the experiences of people defined as women in the world of sports for years to come. On June 23, 1972, in Washington, President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act. The omnibus bill not only provided unprecedented amounts of federal aid for college students but also contained a clause that outlawed gender discrimination in education, thirty-seven words that changed everything: “No 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.”1 The clause would be referred to simply as Title IX, and it would inspire advocates for women’s equality in athletics and drive male athletic directors batty for decades to come.

In his remarks during the bill signing, Nixon said nothing about gender equality. In fact, he criticized at length what he saw as the law’s inadequate response to federally mandated busing programs to ensure racial integration of schooling, one of the hot button issues of that year and that decade. Many whites were reacting to the legislative measures designed to address historical racial inequalities in the United States. Still, though he may not have realized it, the law Nixon signed would radically transform the educational experiences of the nation’s girls and women, and some of those changes were most visible in the sporting realm.2

A few weeks later, the Dallas Cowboys NFL franchise decided to refashion its cheerleading squad into a professionalized group of young women entertainers who would dance in provocatively designed outfits to provide sex appeal to cheerleading. It would take a few years for the full ramifications of this decision to become apparent, but it would dramatically change the world of sport. Both Title IX and the formation of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had a profound impact on the feminist movement of the 1970s. While the Houston Astrodome was a scene of triumph for Billie Jean King and the US feminist movement, Texas Stadium became another historically significant scene where the impact of feminism and the sexual revolution was much more ambiguous. In some ways, both scenes represented two distinct and overlapping currents that shaped gender understandings in the United States during these years. Or maybe, in hindsight, they weren’t so distinct, since sports and cheerleading were—and still remain—significant arenas where women have articulated their understanding of themselves as athletes, performers, and sexual beings. The sexualization of cheerleading brought the sexual revolution to the world of sports. In turn, sports exposed some of the contradictions of the sexual revolution.

* * *

Once upon a time, cheerleading embodied male vigor and strength.



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