ESPN has an interesting story about the famous “Battle of the Sexes” between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs. For those that don’t know, that’s the famous tennis match in which Billy Jean King defeated Riggs in straight sets and changed the arc of history between men and women.
I’ve seen a lot of references to this story in my Twitter feed today, most of them some variation on “HA HA! Riggs threw the match! In your FACE women!” To this I say, “Meh.” Number one, the article is far from definitive. Aside from mentioning that many tennis people believed Riggs threw it (Riggs himself never admitted as much), the entire things hinges on the word of an 80-year-old man who supposedly overheard a bunch of mobsters talking. Even more so, for the past 40 years, he’s kept quiet for fear of retribution or something and he’s the only guy in the world that knows this. That’s pretty thin.
Further, if we assume for a moment that it is true, what’s to be gained by gloating at this point? Sure, if it was fixed, then knowing the truth is I suppose interesting. But when things counted, the entire world believed otherwise. If perceptions were in fact changed (and I have no reason to doubt they were), then does knowing now automatically undo everything the match did for women and sports? Is it the gloater’s contention that it should be undone because it was built on a lie? I just don’t see the point of gloating about this news.
So at best, those gloating are revealing themselves as preening a-holes. At worst, they’re fools getting taken for a ride. Not exactly a couple of great choices.
Something I did learn from the story is that King was not the number one ranked female player at the time. A woman named Margaret Court was and Riggs had played her 4 months prior to King and thoroughly whooped her. That was the match the that pulled King into the mix.
One thing I’d always wondered was, why did everyone think a 55-year old man losing to a woman was a big deal? Think about it- King was 30 at the time and at the top of her game. Riggs wasn’t. So why was it so monumental when she beat him?
The Margaret Court match is why. With that match, Riggs established that he was fully capable of not just winning, but dominating a top-ranked woman player.
As for my own opinion regarding the article’s theis, I find the evidence put forth in the article compelling, but not totally convincing. Mostly, it’s just another cord of wood for the “Battle of the Sexes” fire.
One reply on “Stop with the Gloating about Riggs vs King”
We are not completely removed from the generations that still truly believe that white men are a master of the human species. Eventually, ALL sides of society that cling to a way to make an excuse for their own ability to succeed will be gone. It will be a wonderful world when people can judge each other on their character, morals, skills, work ethic, effort…not race, age, weight, gender, sexual orientation…etc.
The issues of the past are created and perpetuated by those that once and continue to justify their existence. Eventually, all of those perpetrators will be gone and justice will finally exist.