One reason women are greatly underrepresented in power positions like those in the national government is the media’s depiction of them as powerless. Young women do not aspire to high government positions when they fail to see frequent role models. They perceive leadership as masculine. Continue reading “July 23, 2013”
July 21, 2013
This week I emailed Acura, the car maker, to make clear my disapproval of the company’s ad in the New Yorker magazine dated July 22. It showed a photo of a car and another of a woman with the words MADE FOR MANKIND. This ad appeared to be stating that cars and beautiful black women are made for mankind. “What do you have for womankind?” I asked Acura. “Or, better yet, for humankind?”
Continue reading “July 21, 2013”
July 16, 2013
When in 2001 I wrote a book of vegetarian recipes called Meatless Meat, not many Americans were interested in becoming vegetarians or vegans. I wouldn’t have been, either, if I hadn’t suddenly discovered that I could no longer digest meat.
July 14, 2013
A few years ago a film director named Max Tash decided to prepare a film called “Girls of Summer” about a group of baseball players named the WBL Sparks. “WBL” stands for “Women’s Baseball League.” The girl players are, at most, 12 years old. Each year a team of girls 12 years old and under is selected by the director of the League, Justine Siegal, to play in the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament, which takes part at Cooperstown Dreamspark in Cooperstown, New York. Continue reading “July 14, 2013”
June 28, 2013
Have you ever read the magazine of Major League Baseball? It’s called MLB Insiders Club Magazine, and you can subscribe to it through the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. One of the regular features of this magazine is a set of stories written by fans about their wonderful experiences in ballparks. They are heart-warming.
Until you begin to realize what they omit from their stories. Continue reading “June 28, 2013”
June 3, 2013
About 40 years ago, I finally had to accept the fact that I could no longer digest meat. An operation had destroyed my system’s ability to handle it.
May 29, 2013
Baseball movies have improved. No longer do they depend on fantasy for effect, like a long-dead ballplayer appearing in the cornfield, or a worn-out player with a magic bat. Happily, now they deal with reality. They feature the type of serious fans I wrote about in Chasing Baseball (McFarland 2010) or the type of women I included in my forthcoming eBook, Who Ever Heard of a Girls’ Baseball Club? Hurrah for that!
May 17, 2013
A new documentary, “The Girls in the Band,” features women of the 1930s who, prevented from joining all-male bands, formed their own groups and toured the country. Discrimination by male musicians gave them a new adventure. But traveling through the South was something they want to forget, says a trumpeter with one of these bands.
Continue reading “May 17, 2013”
May 5, 2013
Ho hum, another biographical article of a major league player, this one appearing in the prestigious New Yorker of May 6.
Continue reading “May 5, 2013”
April 8, 2013
Major League Baseball has become concerned about American children. Not as many children are as interested in baseball as they were before 2000. They don’t watch baseball on television as much as they used to, either. “Children are the paying fans of tomorrow,” says economist Andrew Zimbalist, “and baseball cannot afford to treat their waning interest with indifference.”
Continue reading “April 8, 2013”