Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America

by Julie DiCaro Narrated by Julie DiCaro

Overview

“Sidelined is the feminist sports book we've all been waiting for.”
-Jessica Valenti

Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women's rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women's advocate

In a society that is digging deep into the misogyny underlying our traditions and media, the world of sports is especially fertile ground. From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women's pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, this area of our culture is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us-whether or not our work and leisure time revolve around what happens on the field.

No one is better equipped to examine sports through this feminist lens than sports journalist Julie DiCaro. Throughout her experiences covering professional sports for more than a decade, DiCaro has been outspoken about the exploitation of the female body, the covert and overt sexism women face in the workplace, and the male-driven toxicity in sports fandom. Now, through candid interviews, personal anecdotes, and deep research, she's tackling these thorny issues and exploring what America can do to give women a fair and competitive playing field in sports and beyond.

Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women's teams fighting for equal pay and treatment, and looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America-and the power in fighting back.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Julie DiCaro was an especially rare phenomenon—a woman on sports talk radio who was allowed to express an opinion. With palpable and justified anger, DiCaro outlines the underlying sexism of her industry, the harassment she and other female reporters experienced when they dared to report on the sexual misconduct of male athletes, and the evil and anonymous Internet trolls who hurl fat insults and threaten rape and other violence. This title is perfect for audio. As a radio personality, DiCaro certainly knows how to use her voice—slightly raspy and always honest in tone—to emphasize her compelling arguments. She is angry, fiery, and full of grit but funny and wry, too, as she encourages women in the industry and female sports fans alike to support women’s sports and women sports reporters. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Praise for Sidelined

“Sidelined is the feminist sports book we've all been waiting for. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or not, Julie DiCaro's work will captivate you.”
—Jessica Valenti, author Sex Object: A Memoir

“Sidelined is a remarkable window into what American sports culture—a powerful and enduring distillation of masculine power and privilege—tells us about the state of inequality in America. A must-read.”
—Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her

“Shame on the public and the press for treating sexism and misogyny in women's sports as a game. This book digs deep into why and how it happens and how it can be stopped.”
—Soledad O’Brien

"A writer, a lawyer, a columnist, a friend, Julie DiCaro has fearlessly taken on homophobia, racism and sexism in Sidelined, connecting with anyone who's been carelessly hurt or needlessly slandered.  She's the teammate who makes everyone better."
— Lesley Visser, Hall of Fame Sportscaster

“If there is any justice, Sidelined will become a cornerstone text for everyone who works in—or cares about—sports media. The level of insight that Julie DiCaro provides holds the key for making us more open-minded and empathetic about the sexism that pervades the industry. It is also written with a snappy flair that reads like the best sports writing.”
—Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast

“There’s no other current book that captures the challenges women face in sports media, and DiCaro does this masterfully. Bringing a feminist lens to the world of sports, this book sets itself apart with its reporting and relevancy.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Journalist DiCaro debuts with a sweeping takedown of misogyny in America’s sports media and professional leagues. . . . [Her] investigative journalism chops shine through in her insightful interviews, and she crafts engrossing narratives out of historical events like the battle to get female reporters access to locker rooms after games. Ultimately, DiCaro believes that if media outlets, teams, and fans want to address the deeply entrenched culture of inequality in the way women are treated in sports, they need to ‘grow the f*** up.’ This bracing call to arms is a step in that direction.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A gifted writer, [DiCaro] moves deftly between her own experiences and the voices of other women. . . . Sidelined delivers a powerful call to action for women and men within the industry, as well as sports fans, who can also play a role in cultivating diversity and ending misogyny.”
—Booklist

“Through anecdotes, interviews, and focused research, [DiCaro] shows the myriad ways these problems are structural and institutional, while highlighting female athletes and reporters who continue to break barriers by refusing to be sidelined.”
—Shelf Awareness

Library Journal

★ 03/01/2021

Women in sports media encounter unique challenges, whether it is facing online harassment from fans or the athletes they cover, or having to fight for equal access and pay. Sports journalist DiCaro writes about the barriers women face and incorporates her own experiences throughout. DiCaro has covered sports for a decade, including in her current role as an editor at Deadspin. She begins by recounting the history of women receiving access to locker rooms and covering athletes. The author intertwines her own experiences working in a male-dominated field and dealing with misogynistic coworkers, with comprehensive research and interviews that shed insight on how other women in sports media, including Mina Kimes, Kristen Ledlow, and Marisa Ingemi, cope with mistreatment and harassment. While readers may know of the difficulties that women face, both online and off, it is incredibly powerful to hear women share their own stories, and these sections will stay with readers long after they finish the book. VERDICT There's no other current book that captures the challenges women face in sports media, and DiCaro does this masterfully. Bringing a feminist lens to the world of sports, this book sets itself apart with its reporting and relevancy.—Pamela Calfo, Plum Borough Community Lib., PA

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Julie DiCaro was an especially rare phenomenon—a woman on sports talk radio who was allowed to express an opinion. With palpable and justified anger, DiCaro outlines the underlying sexism of her industry, the harassment she and other female reporters experienced when they dared to report on the sexual misconduct of male athletes, and the evil and anonymous Internet trolls who hurl fat insults and threaten rape and other violence. This title is perfect for audio. As a radio personality, DiCaro certainly knows how to use her voice—slightly raspy and always honest in tone—to emphasize her compelling arguments. She is angry, fiery, and full of grit but funny and wry, too, as she encourages women in the industry and female sports fans alike to support women’s sports and women sports reporters. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-12-19
A sports journalist for Deadspin reflects on the perils of being female in a toxically male-dominated field.

DiCaro, who segued from a career as an attorney into public relations and then, at age 40, into a position in sports talk radio, focuses primarily on the many difficulties of working at the radio station. After she lost her job during the pandemic, she realized that she was “far from the only woman who had run smack into a brick wall, unable to rise above a part-time, after-hours show.” Drawing on her own experience, as well as those of other women in sports media, she discusses in appalling detail the corrosive effect of the ongoing personal criticism of her voice and appearance by predominantly male callers to the show and, even more distressingly, the multiple attacks by Twitter trolls, including “death threats, rape threats, attempts to get me fired from my job.” DiCaro notes that as a woman sports reporter, it's far easier to get a job reporting objective facts from the sidelines than one where the journalist is allowed to express her opinion. The author insightfully analyzes the hidden biases involved in sports reporting, most notably that her co-hosts seemed all too willing to dismiss claims of sexual or domestic violence against players, in part because the shows depend on sponsorship by local teams. DiCaro aims much of her anger at Barstool Sports, the online media company that “definitely engages in advanced-level trolling.” Some may assume the author is just settling scores, but Barstool has a long reputation of harassment. The first chapter, about women sports journalist who came before, the “smashers of glass ceilings,” condenses material from other sources, and DiCaro occasionally veers off topic. Still, she provides enough solid evidence to convince readers that sports media remains a bastion of male privilege.

An eye-opening and dispiriting account of biased behavior.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177030302
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/16/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Behold: Smashers of Glass Ceilings

Inside the Original Struggle over On-the-Ground Sports Reporting

I loved pro sports growing up. The summer after my fourteenth birthday, I plastered every inch of my bedroom walls with posters and pictures of the Chicago Cubs, covering up the rainbow-and-doves wallpaper I had so lovingly picked out only a few years before. I spent Sundays in the fall with my friend Emily; we'd ooh and aah over which Chicago Bears players were the cutest, but also complain about how far the defense had fallen since Buddy Ryan left for the Philadelphia Eagles. And, of course, there was Michael Jordan, looming over all of it from a poster that took up the entire length of my door.

I don't know why sports journalism never seemed like a serious career path to me back then, but it probably didn't help that I didn't see many women doing it. Secretly, I used to practice calling play-by-play for the Cubs in my head (sometimes, I still do), but when it came time to decide what I wanted to study in college, I told people I wanted to go into journalism, not sports journalism, or law, not sports law. I often wonder if that would have been different if I had grown up seeing as many women covering sports on TV as I do now.

The women I did see covering sports? Legends. I was fascinated by Melissa Isaacson covering the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune. I envied Lesley Visser on CBS TV, on the court after games, getting to talk to all our college basketball hero's. Cheryl Miller got to cover the NBA and its players, not only as a broadcaster but as a peer. Miller, having led the USC Trojans to back-to-back NCAA championships and her USA teams to Olympic and International Basketball Federation (FIBA) gold medals, was already more accomplished than many of the NBA players she covered. By the time the WNBA was announced in 1996, Miller had already moved on to coaching, heading up the Phoenix Mercury for a few years. Miller never got to play in the NBA, but she continues to loom large as one of the greatest Americans, male or female, ever to play the game.

I'd always assumed the first group of women through the door got there because of their preexisting fame. Phyllis George, who smashed through the glass ceiling to work on The NFL Today, had been Miss America; her time in a very different kind of national spotlight gave her unique leverage as she built a career in TV. Cheryl Miller, one of my idols, had ridiculous credentials: She was a college basketball giant, both in stature and in reputation. But there was a group of women I didn't know about because they took up the fight long before Barbies and stuffed animals fell away in favor of soccer balls and baseball mitts in my life. It didn't occur to me then how many "regular" women, who hadn't been superstar college athletes or pageant winners, had fought to make way for the rest of us. It was only later in life, when facing my own challenges as the only woman working at my radio station, that I began to delve into their stories.

It's tough to say who the first woman across the threshold into a pro sports locker room was, as several women were pushing for access in different sports in the mid-1970s. In 1975, Robin Herman, a twenty-three-year-old reporter for the New York Times, had been trying to get NHL teams to grant her access to locker rooms for a year, with no success. Back then, almost all sports reporters were men, and access to the players as soon as they came off the ice was important to every sportswriter. That's when they got the most genuine and emotional reactions from the guys who had just played the game.

Not that being in the locker rooms was always easy or fun. Sports are weird in that they are the only beat in which reporters are expected to interview subjects who are in various states of undress. And the rooms themselves are usually cramped, smelly, humid-definitely not the kind of place anyone would choose to hang out.

For women covering sports, going in the locker room was never about nudity. It was about that all-important access to the players. And, sometimes, also about basic human dignity. At Fenway Park in the 1970s, the women were not allowed to eat in the same area as the male sportswriters, even though they were doing the same job. In 2019, the Chicago Cubs were roundly criticized for putting up a historical press credential outside the press box, presumably to show how times had changed. The credential read no women admitted and had a picture of a pink poodle on it.

According to ESPN's excellent documentary on the first women in pro sports locker rooms, Let Them Wear Towels, it was during the 1975 NHL All-Star Game that everything changed. Before the game got underway, a reporter asked the two coaches at the pregame press conference if they were going to allow women into the locker room. The coaches looked at each other, shrugged, and said, "Sure, they can come in." So into the locker room went Robin Herman and her colleague Marcel St. Cyr.

Herman, formerly an assistant dean of research at Harvard's School of Public Health, wrote in a 1990 New York Times op-ed that, looking back, she was only allowed access that night because "responsibility was diffuse." The All-Star Game meant two coaches managing what wasn't quite an actual game with players they didn't usually coach. Herman believed that the coaches allowed them into the locker room "on a whim," maybe even a "dare." But that whim literally opened the door for women in sports writing.

As soon as the two women got into the room, Herman told ESPN, the cameras and microphones immediately swung in her direction, with someone yelling, "There's a girl in the locker room!" Though she insisted the game, not she, was the story, it was hard to convince her male colleagues that was the case. Said Herman, "The game was boring. A girl in the locker room was the story."

Of course, the response from some of the players was less than ideal. As Herman interviewed player Denis Potvin, another player yanked off Potvin's towel, leaving him completely exposed.

Still, Herman said later, "My post-locker room quotations showed patience and good cheer. I was twenty-three years old and fairly new to my job, and not yet beaten down by the abuse and slamming of doors that would follow this one-time opening."

Unfortunately, the All-Star Game didn't set the precedent Herman hoped it would. Owners and coaches in other cities continued to block locker room access to women, sometimes physically, sometimes using police. But once the barrier was broken, things started to change for women in sports.

At the same time that Herman-the only woman in the sports department at the New York Times-was breaking the NHL barrier, Jane Gross was doing the same with NBA teams while covering the New York Nets. The daughter of a sportswriter, Gross admitted in Let Them Wear Towels that she likely got her job as the result of nepotism, but her timing was astute. In 1974, women filed a class action lawsuit against the New York Times, titled Elizabeth Boylan et al. v. The New York Times. It's well worth reading the whole story behind the lawsuit in Nan Robertson's excellent book. The Girls in the Balcony. Robertson wrote:

There were forty women reporters to three hundred and eighty-five men reporters, and eleven of those women were in family/style. Of twenty-two national correspondents, not one was a woman. Of thirty-three foreign correspondents, only three were women. There was only one woman bureau chief, just appointed to Paris. In the Washington bureau, with thirty-five reporters, only three were women; the number had not gone up in nine years, although the staff had nearly doubled in that time. There were no women photographers. Of thirty-one critics in culture news, only four were women. Reviewers of drama, music, movies, television, and books were all male. The sports department had one woman and twenty-three men. There were no women on the editorial board, which had eleven members. There were no women columnists. Of the seventy-five copy editors on the daily paper, four were women. Almost all the lower-paying, lower-ranking jobs were confined to women.

That suit was eventually settled in 1978, and the Times was forced to hire more women. Reading the writing on the wall, other newspapers began hiring women as well, and some of those women wanted to write about sports. Major League Baseball's obstinance aside, by the mid-1970s, newspapers were resigned to the fact that they had to hire women reporters across the board, and that led to the hiring of some of the true giants in the industry, women like Christine Brennan, Lesley Visser, Claire Smith, and Michele Himmelberg.

But back to the locker rooms. To this point, no one had challenged MLB to open up their locker rooms to women. Enter Sports Illustrated's Melissa Ludtke. Melissa grew up in a family of five children, with a baseball-loving mother and college-football-loving father. In 1977, Ludtke was assigned by Sports Illustrated to cover the World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. Concerned about having access to players immediately following the games, Ludtke had been slowly and quietly lobbying the players for access to the locker room in the World Series. She had secured permission from the Yankees, and then Dodgers pitcher Tommy John took Ludtke's case to the Dodgers' locker room on her behalf. John told Ludtke, "I'm not going to tell you it was unanimous, but we know you have a job to do, so come on in."

John, an affable guy who loved to tell stories, tended to minimize his role in helping women break through the literal barrier of the locker room door. When I asked him about Ludtke, he said, "I was a player rep for the Dodgers, and I was the union guy. We're in the World Series, and they came and said, 'Would you guys have a problem if Melissa Ludtke comes into the locker room?' My question to the people that asked it, I said, 'Is she licensed? Does she have credentials?' And they said, 'Oh yeah.' I said, 'Then why not?'"

John told me he took the case to his teammates, asking, "'You guys, would you have a problem if there is a female reporter in the locker room before and/or after the game?' and they said, 'No.' But then everybody was panicking in the Dodger front office: 'Oh, we've got to get cover-ups. We've got to get a wraparound for all you guys.' I told the general manager, and I told Peter O'Malley, 'Peter, I don't walk around in front of my teammates naked, so why would I do that with somebody I don't know?"

It's worth noting that, until this time, women sportswriters, typically made up of a grand total of one at any given game, were forced to wait in the hallway outside the locker room while their colleagues talked to players immediately following the game. The women had to request access to players, then wait for a team PR rep to bring the players out to speak to her, usually quite a long time after the player had spoken to male sports reporters. And after they had already told their story at least once to other reporters. As Betty Cuniberti, the first woman in the Dodgers' press box, said in Let Them Wear Towels, "Half the human race was shut out of this profession for no good reason." She went on to point out that, at the time women were trying to gain locker room access, there were no women in the US Senate and no women on the US Supreme Court. Any room with any kind of power at all was usually all men.

John, who played for the Dodgers off and on for six seasons, agreed that keeping women out of the locker room was nothing more than sexism. "People feel that baseball is a man's sport. No, it's not. It's a people sport," he told me.

Yankees manager Billy Martin had been allowing Ludtke to enter the locker room through a side entrance and sit on the couch in his office, which Ludtke later described as being like having a bleacher seat to what was going on at the players' lockers.

In Let Them Wear Towels, Ludtke said the 1977 Yankees locker room was filled with drama and large personalities, like Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner, and Reggie Jackson. The ongoing name-calling and war of words was the story in 1977. And all that was taking place in the locker room-making access to the players immediately postgame vital to covering the team. In a 2018 podcast interview, Ludtke told me other women had been in NHL and NBA locker rooms by 1976, saying, "Both professional hockey and professional basketball had very much moved further down the line, due to their commissioners pushing those leagues to provide equal access to women who were reporting on sports."

MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn got word that Ludtke had been lobbying teams for access. Even though MLB hadn't been directly challenged on their locker room policies, it was clear they'd been thinking about how to handle it when they were.

To back up a second, Ludtke already had a relationship with the Yankees, and she'd been taking baby'steps to slowly work on getting the same access to the players male sportswriters had. "I spent a lot of time around the Yankees and, by the end of the season, I had worked under the radar very, very closely with the PR people at the Yankees," she told me. "So the last two games of that year, 1977, the Yankees left me a clubhouse pass for the last two games. I had made enormous progress by taking a sort of gradual approach.

"So when we get to the '77 World Series and the Yankees are in it, I feel I'm all set with the Yankees, this is no longer an issue," Ludtke told me. "I went over and wanted to make an effort with the Dodgers, because I had never covered them, to be sure they knew I might be coming into their locker room after [the game]. I had a pass that said I had access to the clubhouse. I was going above and beyond what I needed to do, but it's what I felt I should do, just prepare them and sort of get ready. So in doing that, the Dodgers ended up taking a team vote, a majority of them said, 'Listen, we understand she has a job to do, fine. We get it.' And that is what led to me being banned from the locker room."

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