Combating the Threat of Female Athletes: Affirmations of Femininity and Heterosexuallity in Women's Professional Sports

Abstract

Why is it so common to see female athletes posing nude in magazine layouts, or discussing husbands, children, or future modeling careers, instead of their current profession of professional athletics? My thesis sought to examine the role societal expectations of femininity played in directing the lives and careers of female professional athletes during the 20th century, specifically from World War II to present day. How did society react to these athletes when their sports were first established as professional careers? How does society react now, in the year 2008? Have these women been forced to make concessions that would never be expected of male athletes in order to be successful in their chosen career, simply because they are women? Why are athletics so often associated with lesbianism, and what has this done to women’s professional sports?