The professional sports industry was still stuck on the traditional masculine ideals of aggression and competition that drove the creation of organized sports in the late nineteenth century, long before women were allowed to participate. Winning still mattered, of course, but it wasn’t the only thing that mattered to sports fans. Being a whole person was powerful, but the economics of sports (defined and maintained by men) didn’t leave much space for that. Contracts penalized the rocky road inherent to life, especially the one commonly traveled by women.
