John Riordan: Two US sportswomen in tough battles of their own
Brittney Griner, one of the greatest female basketballers of this past decade, has been in custody in Russia since February 17, charged frivolously with attempting to smuggle vape cartridges containing hashish oil into the country.
How does the memory of A League of their Own exist for you, if at all?
Thirty years ago this summer, the now iconic Penny Marshall directed baseball movie hit the big screens in the US and was both a critical and box office success.
This charming, funny and sentimental film rode the enduring wave of cinema audiences's love for wartime nostalgia while also opening the eyes of most people to a remarkable and brief chapter in the history of America's pastime.
But it was also a brilliantly crafted riposte to the male-dominated lens through which we all consume sport.
I rewatched it last week, prompted by an anniversary rerelease review by Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian and the lifting of the Major League lockout which rendered possible the return of the baseball season next month.
My memory of A League of their Own was sketchy and way off base. Young me saw a team of women playing baseball for some unknown reason and being shouted at by Tom Hanks for some other unknown reason. I didn't understand the deep cultural necessity that existed in the early 40s to create the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) - not only were the best players from the Major League shipped away for World War II propaganda stunts thus preventing games from happening, small-town America was losing men to battle and morale was in the balance.
At the height of our 2020 lockdown, Netflix shoved out a beautiful documentary about one of the real life players, Terry Donahue, whose claim to fame up until that point was that she had been paid to play in the Chicago-based league for that fleeting season. As it transpired, she had also been hiding a 65-year lesbian relationship from even those closest to her.
It was a great and heartbreaking story but one that might have not been possible had it not been for the Hollywood treatment which the producers of A League of Their Own and the director, in particular, deemed important enough.
It remains beloved and quotable to this day, somehow enjoying cult status while also being able to boast nine figures in revenue by the time its initial run had reached home.
It did well in Ireland and the UK too, thanks mainly to the star power of Geena Davis and Tom Hanks while it was helped along in no small part by the popularity of one of its cast members Madonna's hit song written for the soundtrack - the suitably wistful "This Used to Be My Playground" went number one in the US, top five in the UK and top ten in the Irish charts.
Everyone in the cast was in their heyday so it's worth a revisit for their performances alone but now that I have a better idea of how baseball operates in the American consciousness, I was able to enjoy it in a whole new way.
Then you have the glaringly obvious critique of gender roles in sport and society as well as the long shadow cast by war in Europe. The players pitch fastballs at a large photo of Hitler for practice and it's up to their washed-up alcoholic manager, Hanks' Jimmy Dugan, to forcibly remove a telegram from an overly officious deliveryman in order to deliver the news of a dead soldier to one of his newly widowed players.
In short, it's timeless and essential today more than ever.
"There's no crying in baseball," Rockford Peaches manager Dugan famously roars at his Right Fielder, Evelyn Gardner, whose costly error forces the concession of a run.
His comic cruelty would win no praise in our more enlightened era and his journey towards compassion for his players and for their overall societal significance would have had much less credibility were it not for the skills and vision of his director. One of his central character traits is that he does not know how to talk to women, especially when sportswomen who fight hard for their own agency and voice.
If that sounds familiar itās because weāre still there.
A more contemporary female director, Jane Campion, who will probably win an Oscar this weekend for her work on The Power of the Dog, recently got into bother when her clumsy award acceptance speech included a backhanded compliment of Venus and Serena Williams (who were in the room because of another sports movie, King Richard, a biopic of their father which is doing the awards circuit).
Campion rightly called out the difficulty of being a female director but sadly chose to compare and contrast it with what it must be like to be a Williams sister. At least they didnāt have to compete against men, she joked, unwisely. It backfired.
Itās not fair to single out Campion when trying to reckon with the treatment of women and women of colour in sport. She is after all a very good example of someone who has overcome her own adversity.
Itās a recent example, itās high profile and there is a degree of levity.
Meanwhile, America has absolutely no idea how to deal with the thorny situations of Brittney Griner and Lia Thomas.
WNBA Star Griner, one of the greatest female basketballers of this past decade, has been in custody in Russia since February 17, charged frivolously with attempting to smuggle vape cartridges containing hashish oil into the country. Her uncertain fate was a non event until just after the invasion of Ukraine. And while there is some logic to think that family members have chosen to keep the situation under the radar for fear of stoking increased tensions, the lack of publicity seems not be helping anything.
Griner has suddenly become a noteworthy pawn in a geopolitical nightmare that has deepened tenfold since she was accosted.
US consular officials were able to visit with her for the first time on Wednesday and reported that she was doing well. The State Department had said Russian officials were denying them access to her contrary to the requirements of international law Under Russian law, prosecutors have up to a year -- and 18 months in extreme cases -- before they are required to bring her to trial so the stakes are huge, even without her own country trying to figure out how best to deal with Vladimir Putin.
As with many WNBA players, Griner needs to supplement her relatively small income and short season by vying for contracts abroad. Russia is a much more lucrative place to ply her trade. So itās all the more unfortunate that she has found herself drawn into this cruel situation.
Now throw into the mix her homosexuality and the deep homophobia of the Russian government and the fear rises further.
But as ever, when it comes to the United States and international relations, it is inward that the reckoning should face first. Yes, the actions of Putin are demented and unjust but the moral higher ground was ceded 20 years ago. And yes, the treatment of Griner is unfair and potentially barbaric but there is much to improve on domestically too when it comes to LGBTQ athletes.
This past weekend in Georgia, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer called Lia Thomas was competing at the college national championships. The headlines surrounding her hit doomsday levels. The participation of this 22-year-old transgender woman, was held up by some as āthe beginning of the end of womenās sportsā. As it transpired, she won one event and failed to overly impress otherwise. She certainly didnāt dominate her competitors, only some of whom bore any grudge to her gender nonconformity and she didnāt break any records.
But she is being held up as a convenient punching bag for the religious right of America which is doing everything in can to tear the country apart. Young people in all too many states now live in fear of who they are.
Lia Thomas is not representative of a problem that needs to be countered. But Brittney Grinerās real problems are being tragically ignored.
