Sidelined. Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America. Julie DiCaro.
At first, this book reads like another feminist writing over-dramatically about how the world and workplace has mistreated her in just about every way possible. After delving through Sidelined, though, the reader can see that this book is much more than that. Author Julie DiCaro has plenty to say about being a woman in a male dominated sports culture. It does not take long to see why she has myriad plather to discuss in her book and for good reason, too.
DiCaro, a “recovering lawyer” and now sports journalist, discusses topics ranging from talk radio, pushback on woman’s voice, domestic violence, workplace sexual discrimination, women working together and female sports around the globe amid others as well. Her experience as a one-time talk show host and encounters with many interesting colleagues along the way provides the background to develop this manuscript. The author’s personal experiences of facing and dealing with bias against woman, male chauvinist behavior, perpetual barrages of hate-mail including threats on her well-being push the topic and story to another level.
In one section of the book, DiCaro brings to life the dynamics of working relationships among woman colleagues. The writer argues how woman workers should have been working together if for no other reason to make the workplace a better situation for all. What was written, though, was less than an ideal approach to the scenario. The author’s experience has been that women tend to tear down their female peers rather than show support. Woman often see their female contemporaries as competition. Jealousy often takes over and dominates the reaction and action toward others especially those taking on opportunities in their career. DiCaro writes about how this is a major problem among women in the work place and often holds them back on the career ladder especially in work places that employ few female workers.
When it came to discussing female sports in her talk radio talk shows, the author wrote about the constant blow back from listeners who seemed to always suggest that “nobody cares about woman’s sports.” While there may be some truth to that statement, DiCaro argues that woman make up as much as fifty percent of the fan base for some sports. It only behooves sports radio talk show hosts and personalities to discuss the woman in sports, too, since they play a growing role in the shape of sports these days. What is more is that talk radio also reaches more female listeners now than ever in the past. With that said, DiCaro writes that women journalist are rarely asked to provide their hot takes on the current events in their field. Is this so because their views might be upsetting to the male listeners or is this a function of management not valuing the thoughts of their female employees?
Later in the book, DiCaro introduces a somewhat surprising topic in her experiences traveling to Pakistan as a representative with Woman Win and Right to Play organization. What she discovered and reports in the book is how much the culture of Pakistan is trying to change with regard to woman participating in sports and potential global opportunities that may not have been available to them in past generations due to religious, culture and other societal beliefs of women in general. The author suggests that the culture and attitude about female sports and athletes between Pakistan and United States was not all that different during her travels in that part of the world. “A lack of equity and respect” is how the writer described the atmosphere regarding female sports and participation. Another colleague on the same trip asserted how the sports coverage of female sports is better for athletes in the US compared to Pakistan. The author finished that thought by lamenting “We are, but not by much”.
Another section of the book gets the reader to think twice about how to address athletes promoted by the media when as guests on a show, via noble transactions or even in memoriam, that were either directly or indirectly linked to sexual or misogynist behavior in their past. An example figure is Kobe Bryant, although hardly the first or last sports figure to be decorated for their play despite a checkered past. The author, who admitted to being a rape victim, seemed to have a hard time with her peers (mostly male) glorifying his playing career while mostly ignoring his off the court behavior (accused of rape resulting in private out of court settlement) during his untimely passing in January of 2020. The question being when is it okay for the sports fan to move past that behavior or should they hold these figures accountable as long as they are in the public eye.
The book starts off a little slow but picks up steam shortly thereafter. If the reader can get past that there is much to glean from the author’s perspective especially for the male observer. The back cover praise for this book rallies around how this “text” is a strong “window” into the world of culture in sports media and how woman are still not only in the minority but often experience inequities and biases that make navigating a career in this field more difficult than imagined. It brings to the forefront what is mostly hidden from the uninformed masses. The two hundred and fifty pages or so bring this very real scenario to life and the reader gets a palpable taste of what it is to be a female on the sidelines in this business.
- · You might like to read this book if you like reading books written about the sports journalist professional experiences.
- · You might like reading this book if you seek to learn more about sports culture and its impact on female employees.
- · You might like reading this book if you are talk radio and sports fan in general.
- · You might like to read this book if you work in the media or aspire to break into the business.
- · You might like to read this book if you crave literature discussing woman in the work place.
- Read more about the author on twitter: https://twitter.com/JulieDiCaro
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