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participation and success by women will eliminate the token aspects of responses
to them. Or will the cognitive inconsistency be resolved by devaluing
the achievement of a black belt (a pattern found in the occupational world).
The long-term results are interesting because the issues involved are so fundamental
to the ideology of gender typing. (Smith et al. 1981, 20)
Sexual stereotyping—“any woman who boxes must be a lesbian”—
was another constant. As recently as May 1994, the Irish boxer Deirdre
Gogarty told British video journalists, “I’m always afraid people think I’m
butch. That’s my main fear. I used to hang a punch bag in the cupboard and
bang away at it when no-one was around, so nobody would know I was
doing it. I was afraid people would think me weird and unfeminine”
(quoted in Hargreaves 1996, 130).
Still, resistance toward female involvement in combative sports seems
to have softened somewhat over the years, especially when the female involvement
is amateur rather than professional. Said the father of Dallas
Malloy, a 16-year-old amateur boxer profiled in the Sunday supplement of
the Seattle Times on August 8, 1993, “We’ve tried to encourage our daughters
to do something interesting with their lives, not be a sheep. I have a
feeling whatever Dallas does, she will always be different. She’ll do anything
but what the crowd does.”
Joseph R. Svinth
See also Boxing, European; Jûdô; Wrestling and Grappling: Japan
References
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Cahn, Susan K. 1994. Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in
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Cayleff, Susan E. 1995. Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson
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Dines, Wayne B., ed. 1990. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. New York:
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Duffy, Tony, and Paul Wade. 1983. Winning Women: The Changing Image
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Dulles, Foster Rhea. 1940. America Learns to Play: A History of Popular
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Fairbairn, W. E. 1942. “Self-Defense by Women.” New York Times
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Gilfoyle, Timothy J. 1992. City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and
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688 Women in the Martial Arts: Britain and North America