Crossing Boundaries: An International Anthology of Women's Experiences in Sport Review

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(More customer reviews)The jacket description of this remarkable collection is exactly on target, "the first anthology of its kind, international in scope, cross-cultural in context, and uniquely female in content." While the subject is women in sport and all the contributiors women, the book is as much for men as for women. One group in particular who would be well served by the experience and insight shared in this book is fathers of daughters increasingly involved in sports and play at practically every age.Women in sports are here to stay and the numbers will grow in spite of the popularity of the male "monster sports," football, baseball, and basketball which, as forms of entertainment and business, increasingly exhibit the shadow side of sport formerly monopolized by professional wrestling. Women in sport is a different story, a story of grace and beauty, courage and honor, disappointment and hope, pretty much what William Faulkner called the old verities which explains perhaps why the subject has attracted some of the best writers and poets of our time, represented here in abundance, Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, Beryl Markham, Carson McCullers, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, May Sarton, Anne Sexton, Jean Rhys, among others. One could look a long time to find a book of any kind on any subject with as many all-star contributors. The boundaries crossed in this book are cultural and national but more importantly the main boundary crossed is that of our misperceptions of women in the world of sport. Like all good writing, this book makes us see, that is, makes us more conscious, in this case more conscious of the sense of joy and discovery that sport can still bring.

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Crossing Boundaries: An Anthology of Women's Experiences in Sport will help you discover, understand, and appreciate the depth and complexity of the female experience in sport. This is a journey to the center of feminine identity, a survey of past and present voices that lead you into the minds, hearts, and souls of women in sport. The largest literary compilation of writings on and by women in sports, Crossing Boundaries serves as a chronology of attitudes and a catalog of experiences. International in scope, some of these pieces have been translated into English for the first time, thus expanding the sports canon.

All genres are represented-poems, short stories, prose memoirs, journalistic accounts, plays, and novels-to illustrate the broad reach of the literature written by women from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives. This is the female story in and out of sport, one told by outsiders, insiders, spectators, recreational athletes, and transnational sports heroes.

Crossing Boundaries starts with an important historical perspective dating back to Cynisca, the first female victor in the ancient Olympic Games. The book goes on to examine themes which have long been included in women's writings yet have been long overlooked by both feminists and literary critics. These themes include:-the significance and centrality of the body;

-the impact of exclusion and the female reaction to it;

-the role of the female spectator as an outsider;

-the female identification, connection, and ultimate merger with nature;

-the connections women make with others in and through sport;

-the athlete's identity; and

-the metaphorical uses of sport.Because women had for so long been excluded from official sports, relegated for centuries to the role of passive spectator, you will find literature about play, dance, movement, games, and exercise-activities often considered ancillary to and preparatory for the more important activity of sport. Similarly, since the editors extended their search to other countries to expand the limits of the contemporary Western perceptions of sport, you can widen your understanding of the female sporting experience.

The young women who took advantage of the passing of Title IX by the NCAA in 1972 to take part in high school and college sports have now become mothers, and their daughters are following in their footsteps. A new atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement for female athletes of all ages means more and more women are experiencing the joy of sports participation. This book connects generations of women and girls with a vivid, compelling sporting heritage.