Playing to Win WOMEN’S SPORT, EQUITY AND BATTLE OF THE SEXES
On 20 September 1973, an estimated 90 million people watched as Billie Jean King prevailed in a winner-takes-all tennis match against 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, who was once ranked as the top male tennis player in the world. Though King walked away from the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ with the US$100,000 prize, she had played for so much more. With Riggs, a self-proclaimed male chauvinist, disparaging the skills of female tennis players and degrading women more broadly at every opportunity, King took the court at the Houston Astrodome to win respect for female athletes and the codes they were competing in. With her victory, she inspired countless women – athletes or otherwise – around the world.
Battle of the Sexes (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2017) dramatises the events surrounding what has been recognised as one of the most significant moments in the history of sport. The film shows King (Emma Stone) fighting for equitable compensation in professional tennis while also balancing new developments in her personal life – specifically, a discreet relationship with hairstylist Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough). In the face of the newly emergent women’s movement, Riggs (Steve Carell) challenges the top players in the women’s game, declaring that the best female players in the world are not even good enough to beat men who, like him, are past their prime. Though King resists Riggs’ initial challenges, she relents after he soundly defeats Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), setting the stage for a defining moment in professional sport.
Teaching with sport-related texts, including films like , opens the door for students to have critical conversations about the sociopolitical issues that permeate sporting culture and our greater
