” On the Sidelines”by Guy Harrison Foreword by Julie DiCaro
This book and its content is badly needed in this society today. After tons of hard work over the years, women in the work place have take many jabs about what their role is expected to be. That at least is a male view. Now we see women in what long has been considered a male domain and that is sports.
More often than not, on television women are “sidelined” to the fluff pieces from the side of the court or end zone out of the way. Women haven’t been viewed as capable of making good reporting options but instead are allowed to gather interest stories. Even in that they are likely to be judged by how they look on the screen. Beauty is expected to be why they are there, according to a large male populous that is interested the sport.
This book by Guy Harrison deals with gendered neoliberalism and he has the interviews of female sports persons and their experiences in trying to improve their own job status to the point of a promotion. Their is a segment of this country that believes if a female has made it ot a good paying and lucrative status in sports they had to have slept with the boss.
Harrison spins a cohesive narrative on the subject with women in the industry concerning double standards, hiring bias, harassment and emotional turmoil for women that is not expected in men. The industry sees this as natural and sees no problem with how it is handled.
However, some things may be getting better. Consider Kay Adams as host on Good Morning Football on the NFL Network. She is the moderator but allowed to give her thoughts. The guys with her have shown no gender bias towards her in the show. Adams comes across as knowledgeable and an equal to the others.
This book is genuine,however, the reading of it comes out like a legal brief. It is boring to read and takes a very extensive vocabulary to as through it. I am not considering it as a sports book.
About the Author: Guy Harrison is an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Foreword – Julie Di Caro is a senior writer at Deadspin. Her work has appeared in places like the New York Times, Washington Post and Sports Illustrated.
Thank you to the University of Nebraska Press for sending the book to me for a fair and honest book review.
