Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy

This book uses the world of sports in order to reveal the complicated history of gender, sexuality, race, and social justice while connecting those stories to today’s athletes. It highlights the ways sports often contribute to inequalities, but also how they can help make the world more accepting.

Robyn Ryle is a sociologist, writer, and sports fan who has taught about gender, race, and sexuality to college students for twenty years. Her previous books include She/He/They/Me: For the Sisters, Misters and Binary Resisters and Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration. She lives in Madison, Indiana.

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. When All Cheerleaders Were Boys: Sports and Gender Segregation 2. How to Tell If a Woman Is "Really" a Woman: Gender Testing and the Olympics 3. Throwing Like a Girl: Are Men Really Better Athletes Than Women? 4. Sport for Everyone?: The Case of Transgender Athletes 5. Bow or No Bow?: Sexuality in Women's Sports 6. Inside the Boys' Locker Room: Homophobia and Men's Sports 7. Why the Dutch Are So Good at Baseball: Globalization, Sports, and the Legacy of Colonialism 8.The Best Italian Baseball Player Is Black: How the Histories of Sport and Race Intertwine 9. Riding a Bike, Raising a Fist, and Taking a Knee: The Long History of Sports, Activism, and Social Change Notes Bibliography Index About the Author