this sporting life

THIS SPORTING LIFE

WHY? WHAT? WHEN? FASHION?

A STORY OF SOCIAL EMACIPATION OF WOMEN THROUGH SPORT

1976 Olympics

1984 Olympics

A tale of class, education and turn-around

SPORTS GO BACK A LONG WAY ORIGINAL OLYMPIC GAMES.

ALTHOUGH EVEN THE MARATHON HAD A ‘MAKE OVER’

AND SOME GAMES WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY WERE PLAYED: CAMBOCK

AND SOME ‘WHO KNOWS’ (WAGERING ON MEXICAN FOOTBALL

OLYMPIC GAMES WERE OF COURSE A BIT ARDUOUS ON THE WEAKER SEX

Women's events were first held in the Olympic Games in 1928

Ist Female Gold Elizabeth Robinson USA, Fanny Rosenfeld 2nd (6 Competitors)

1948 Only USA Gold ALICE COACHMAN

BUT MOST EARLY SPORTS WE KNOW ABOUT PREPARED MEN FOR WAR

HORSES AND LANCES ARCHERY (LOWER

CLASS SWORDPLAY

(WOODEN SWORDS)

ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN FOLLOWED THE SAME SPORTS HUNTING AND HAWKING GELS

AS FOR THE POOR: THE MASS OF THE POPULATIONDog and Cock fighting

REALLY UNRECORDED AS NOT BEING IMPORTANT.

LIFE WAS HARD, NASTY AND BLOODY: AND SO WERE THEIR SPORTING OCCUPATIONS

WE GET GLIMPSES IN WRITINGS AND IMAGES

A SOCIETY WHERE ANIMALS WERE REGARDED AS MAN’S TOYS AND PEOPLE WERE FIT AND HEALTHY, INFIRM OR MAD, OR DEAD EARLY

SOME LIKE BREUGAL GIVE US MORE THAN A GLIMPSE

1612 Cotswold Olympiks And Badger baiting – rat catching

“Revolting Exhibition Among Pennsylvania Miners (1900)

OR A REAL TREAT A GOOD PUBLIC

EXECUTION PARTICULARLY WHEN IT

WAS: a) A MASS EXECUTION b) WOMEN c) COMBINATION OF

ABOVE THE ATMOSPHERE OF A

MODERN SPORTING EVENT WITH FOOD SOLD, FAVOURS SOLD AND HUGE AMOUNT OF GAMBLING.

FOR THE ELITE: ROWING BECAME A SPORT

FOR THE MASSES IT WAS WORK: EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE THE OLDEST SPORTING EVENT IN NORTH AMERICA1930 Women’s winners 1890 View

AND FOR SOME WORKING PEOPLE IT WAS NOT SPORT, IT WAS LIFE OR DEATH. AND

NO PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT EITHER

FOOTBALL GREW UP AS A KIND OF MASS RIOT Butt dyke, adjacent to the

Nottingham Castle, was the archery practice ground, and it was by statute that young lads had to practice archery as an art of war. But over the years football proved a diversion. Edward II in 1314 and later Richard II in 1377 prohibited football, along with quoits, dicing.

In the 'The Anatomy of Abuses in the Realm of England' of 1583, the author classed football as a 'devilish pastime . . . more a bloody and murdering practice than a fellowly sport or pastime.' Henry VIII and Elizabeth I attempted to suppress football but it still flourished.

IN SOME PLACES IT IS EVEN VERY GENTEEL unchecked mayhem

seemed to be the overall object of the games, some played over miles of countryside, pitting entire villages of men and women (numbering in the hundreds) against each other in days-long matches. Crippling injuries were often the result, along with at least one papal dispensation issued to one player who accidentally killed an opponent.

WHEREAS TENNIS HAD A ROYAL BACKGROUND SHAKESPEARE HENRY V:

When we have match’d our rackets to these balls

We will in France, by God’s grace, play a set

Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.

Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler

That all the courts in France will be disturb’d with chases!

he is essentially challenging his cousin the Dauphin to a Court Tennis match with France as the prize. Little wonder that the sport became known as the "Game of Kings.“

TENNIS = TEVEZ (TAKE IT)

AND BECAME THE GAME OF THE EDWARDIAN LEISURE CLASS

WIMBLEDON established in 1875 by the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Established in the USA by Forest Hills Lawn Tennis and Cricket Club.

WITH SUITABLE FOUNDATIONS1897

BUT TAKEN OVER BY HUSSY’S AND YANKEE CARPETBAGGERS 1884 First Wimbledon Ladies

Up to 1870s played in dresses with trains.

No concession made to fashion. Hooks in dressing room to change ones corsets.

Shock 1 1906 Mary Sutton (USA) rolled up her sleeves

Shock 2 1919, Suzanne Lenglen played in calf length dress, Bandeau and no corsets. The English champion Dot Ryan took the whalebone out of her stays.

Shock 3 Alice Marble 1932 played in shorts and bare legs.

BUT IT WAS JUST DAMN BAD FORM TO BE ATHLETIC Vogue 1930 The

modest gracefulness of the British girls was in marked contrast to the masculine style of the American players.

1934 Britain won the Whiteman Cup The Times: A triumph for skirts over shorts.

AFTER ALL SPORTING EXERTION CAN HARM FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS

SO CERTAIN SPORTS FOR WOMEN CONTINUED TO BE CLASS BASED

WITH SOME RISQUE EXCEPTIONS

WHILE THE WORKING CLASSES CONTINUED ON THEIR VIOLENT WAY ‘MILLING AROUND’

AND MEN WERE SOMETIMES VIOLENT TOO Women’s bare knuckle fighting,

stripped to the waist for money with gambling on the outcome.

London: First-staged women fights. The women would punch, use their feet and knee lifting/kicking to all parts of their opponents body. They also could maul, scratch and throw. This resulted in serious injury for either or both fighters. In other reports, in London in 1722 at the Boarded House, near what is now Oxford Circus, Elizabeth Wilkinson, the Cockney Championess, defeated Martha Jones.

WOMEN’S SPORTING ACTIVITIES WAS MOVED ON BY TWO UNRELATED DEVELOPMENTS (1)

Although not good for women’s internal organs a huge movement for cycling. Freedom of movement, exercise and changes in dress to prevent skirts catching in the wheels.

SOME OF THE ‘RATIONAL DRESS’ PROPOSALS DID NOT FIND MUCH FAVOUR WITH CYCLING

WOMEN -Dr Mary Walker CMO – Marietta Stow 1884 ran for California Gov. – Dr Harriet Austin 1865 – Dr Lydia Hasbrouk

EXTENSION OF PRIVATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION TO WOMEN

1902 Smith College

HOCKEY AND ATHLETIC DRESS (IT STARED AS A WILD GAELIC GAME)

IT COULD BE MY SCHOOL Ist International England v

Ireland 1897 played in long skirts, boaters, collars and ties.

GYM SLIP introduced by Madam Bergman a Swedish teacher. But with black stockings and liberty bodice

ONE TRANSPLANTED SPORT THRIVED IN THE NEW WORLD – BUT I DON’T THINK IT HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH COOPERS-TOWN

STOOLBALL Women have been enjoying some

form of baseball for centuries. The predecessor to baseball, stoolball, was apparently invented by milkmaids who used their stools as bats and targets. There is some debate as to how early it began, but it was documented as early as 1450. Stoolball is still played by women in Sussex, England, but no longer with milking stools.

STOOL is the old West of England name for a tree stump. When men played an adaptation called cricket they replaced the milking stool with a sheep hurdle called a wicket.

THOSE PILGRIMS In the 1800’s people began to

recognize the importance of exercise and encouraged women to participate in sports. Women’s baseball clubs were formed at Vassar College in 1866, at Smith College in 1879, and Mount Holyoke College in 1891. Their long skirts were sometimes a hindrance, as a fielder would often get tripped up in her own dress. An instruction booklet at Vassar encouraged the women to use their skirts as makeshift backstops by spreading their legs, citing the technique as “the only safe way to stop a ball.”

SO SPORTING LADIES HAVE COME A LONG WAY

AND GIRLS ARE ONCE AGAIN PUNCHING EACH OTHERS LIGHTS OUT

TWO OTHER INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS THE HUGE RISE OF

SPORTS CLOTHES AS FASHION ITEMS

AND THE RISE OF AN UNFIT SECTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WEARING THEM?

AND ELITE WOMENS SPORT BECOMING SHOW BUSINESS RATHER THAN JUST ATHLETIC

MMMMM

THIS SPORTING LIFE

WHY? WHAT? WHEN? FASHION?