Anna Kessel

This aims to explore the inertaction between women and sport. Sport os taken, in this book, in the widest sense, to include both exercise and watching sport as well as actually playing a "sport". The author is a sports journalist but was not someone whow ould describe herself as sporty. We had some common experience, having no real role model of active behaviour as a child, certainly not from the female members of the family and hating PE (I quickly learnt that if I booked my flute lesson 20 minutes into my PE lessopn, it didn;t given enough time to get changed, play and then get changed back before the flute lesson, meaning I could sit out PE).
Like me, she also almost fell into a more active lifestyle in her 20s and that has continued on and off ever since. I can't relate to her experiences of pregnancy or childbirth (not been on my to-do list), but I can see where she is comming from in that area.
She covers the positives of activity from a physical and mental perspective as well as the more indirect positives - having played sport often includes having been coached, learning how to accept criticism and being able to act on it. The list of top level business women who have played sport to some level can't be entirely co-incidence. I'm not a football fan, but I do understand her arguement about sport seeming to be a very male environment where women are seen as either an inconvenience or totty. In the last year or so F1 has dropped grid girls, which can only be a good move - women should be racing and running the sport, not prancing about in a short skirt.
I suppose my only reservation abouit this would be use of sport and exercise almost interchangeably. I don't "do" sport. I do exercise. I think they are different and there did seem to be a blurring of the lines. However that is only a minor quibble in a book whose main thesis is that women need to be active and to be active we need to cut through the crap about female body image and the reason for exercise being to look good. Like her, I was really encouraged to see the "This girl can" adverts, when the joy of exercise was transmitted through the screen and print media - and none of those women fitted the stereotype of a fit woman. I'm a year ot two off 50 and I am (or I was, prior to lockdown) as fit as I have ever been. 30 pressups? No problem - never been able to do them before, can now. Spin class? Yup, love it! I'm one of the poeple dripping sweat on the floor and being proud of myself when I towel it dry afterwards. Do I wish I'd discovered this in my teens and 20s? Yes, of course I am. But it simply wasn't something that was deemed a positive. I was quickly labelled the clever one, my brother the sporty one - thereby excusing me from having to try - that was his department. I agree that the world needs changing, I hope that this helps to change it.… (más)

In this non-fiction book, sports journalist Anna Kessel investigates the role and treatment of women in (mainly) competitive sport. I'm going to be honest and say that this was not entirely what I expected; the sub-title 'How Sport Can Change Our Lives' led me to think that this would be a study of how sport or exercise can make us feel good, give us confidence and improve our health and fitness. As someone who partakes in a lot of high intensity, but non-competitive exercise, this really appealed to me.

However, the book is actually a feminist study of how women have been treated in the world of competitive and professional sport throughout history and right up until the present day. Despite being not what I thought it was going to be, for the most part this was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. I liked that it talked about how exercise in general for women is generally only promoted in popular media in terms of how it can improve our looks and our sex lives. (I was looking at the cover of a so-called health magazine aimed at women recently, and almost every headline was talking about how to get sexy legs, or washboard abs, how to have better sex etc - instead of focussing on the health benefits. This is something that I feel particularly strongly about.) It also talked about the issues that girls suffer in PE at school - if you are not naturally athletic for instance, you are generally written off from day one. At least this is how it has been for many young girls, although I am certain it is the same for boys too.

The book is very clearly well researched, with interviews with several sporting personalities or women working in sport, and Kessel underlines some of the discrimination that women are subject to in sport - it amazes me that in 2007, there was such a huge furore about a woman commentating on Match of the Day! What century are we living in for goodness sake?!

However, a lot of the book focussed on aspects that didn't interest me so much - obviously this is a very subjective opinion, but I have zero interest in football, whether it is played by men or women, and so I did struggle to keep my attention for the parts of the book dedicated to the passion of football fans.

I also would have liked more about exercise in general, not necessarily competitive or professional sport, and an exploration about how we should be exercising for health and well-being, rather than to get the perfect beach body, would have been very interesting.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in sport and/or feminism. I liked Kessel's engaging and conversational writing style and will keep an eye open for more work by her in the future.… (más)