What is it about Michelle Obama’s arms? I’m fascinated by our fascination with them, in part because they have become a muscular barometer for our mixed responses to strong women. Women bodybuilders usually evoke more “ick’s” than accolades, for example. And as for one of the most famous female flexers, Rosie the Riveter, her well-muscled arm was only in fashion until fascism fell. The 1950s brought a backlash of elfin gamines and voluptuous goddesses to replace and erase our admiration for forte females. But now we have Michelle Obama, a powerhouse executive, partner, and mother – who’s fearless about flexing muscle in everyday life, whether it’s digging up the White House lawn for a vegetable garden, or insisting in the face of blustering chemical companies that what’s left of that grass be spared from poison, what with all the people around, not to mention the fancy new dog.
But back to her much-photographed biceps, which have been called “post-Title IX arms.” Title IX, as you may recall, set into motion far more than sports equity in 1972. It mandated that federally funded institutions could not discriminate based on sex, and worked toward equitable distribution of resources in educational institutions.
For many young women, though, instant access to the world of sports – legitimated by high schools and colleges – was where Title IX’s rubber hit the track, the court, and the playing field. Ask any woman with a sporting spirit who came of age before Title IX, and you’ll hear how girls were kicked out of the gym so the boys could practice basketball, and young women were left to play pick-up softball games in a weedy back lot while the guys got plush practice fields, pricey equipment, and most importantly, the legitimizing cheers from schools and fans that said: Yes – we value your strength, speed, and skill.
I heard a tantalizing local Title IX story of success recently, when the energetic mother of one of my students visited my college class. Our topic that day was gender and sports culture, and she told about being at Washington High School in South Bend, where she was a sophomore when Title IX hit like a gender meteorite. She was delighted to find that suddenly there was a women’s softball team she could play on … ah, but there were no uniforms. The softball players were told that the leftover volleyball uniforms, with their little 1970s shorts should be fine because, after all, “girls don’t slide.” Well! Rather than slinking off in defeat, the next day the whole team crowded into the principal’s office wearing uniform tops … and on the bottom? Nothing but underpants. Talk about uncovering inequity! And the results of this risky play? A WIN; proper pants were delivered to the whole team, pronto.
Now, as you may know, that same Washington High School has produced top-rated women’s basketball stars like Jacqueline Batteast and Skylar Diggins, who owe their success in part to those cheeky protesters who demanded that girls play, too.
Clearly, once you get used to flexing your muscles, it inspires strength of all kinds. I’ve seen my middle-school daughter transformed in the last few weeks of track practice, marveling at her hardening muscles and delighting in her ability to compete and collaborate. She beams when she pulls on her red team t-shirt that teases on the back, “I know I run like a girl, but just try to keep up.” I love the optimism in what some might call a post-Title IX slogan, but the fact that President Obama has established a new White House Council on Women and Girls, to “ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy,” reminds us that we’re not post anything, yet. Look at the gender makeup of our Congress, our Supreme Court, the leadership in our Fortune 500 companies, and you can see that legislation alone doesn’t produce parity. Next Tuesday, April 28, is Pay Equity Day, marking the point at which a woman’s salary finally catches up to her male counterpart’s from the previous year. And that, sports fans, means there’s still work to do.
I think of Michelle Obama’s arms as a call to arms – a call to witness women’s strength to shovel a garden, lift a child, swing a bat, sign legislation, and bang a Supreme Court gavel. Girls and women who are confident in their outer and inner selves inspire friendships and relationships based on respect – and that is good for boys and men, too. Heck, we’re talking revolution here. And this time, everyone gets to play.