Kathy Switzer, first woman to run Boston Marathon in 1967
Published memoir Marathon Woman in 2009
Marathon-Woman-Softcover-Edition
Visual Map by Abigail West

First woman to officially compete in the Boston Marathon

Rejection by:

  • Society, who thought women too delicate to run a marathon and that she was going to be infertile and undesirable
  • Race organizers: she was expelled from the Amateur Athletic Union after Boston '67
  • Fellow women who also still held the culturally dominant belief that it was not a woman's place to be racing

Representation in the media:

  • Savior boyfriend from race organizer Jock Semple
  • Lack of concern with accuracy (initial publications said she did not finish the race because press time was before she crossed the finish line)
  • Accused her of trying to disguise herself as a man when she was only wearing what was available and practical to her at the time

Overcoming stereotypes about women's capabilities

  • Women can indeed run marathons (maybe even better than men)
  • They can run fast
  • They can run alone
  • They should be allowed to race in the Olympics (Kathy Switzer's life goal)
  • A woman's role is not just to be an object for a man

Lack of diversity in running

Representation of female-bodied runners

Expectations of female bodies to be graceful, pretty, objects of desire

3_ArnieKNick71VestalXXLARGE-copy
Kathy Switzer in one of her Grecian-esque race outfits

Male Gaze

Expectations of thinness
(both the projected image of skinny as pretty and the notion that thin runners are faster)

Development of unhealthy eating habits that are not talked about because they are stigmatized,
which lead to health problems unique to women (loss of period, reduced estrogen, poor bone health),
which are also stigmatized and not talked about.

Kathy Switzer and those of her time in NY Road Runners did not understand why running was not more diverse because it is so accessible #

Boston1967

White people can feel safe running.
They do not think about how people of color may not have that privilege

White Privilege

Obstacle for some black women: hair
Lack of access to solutions to the challenge, like running clothes once were for women

Body Image

Dianne Bondy, yoga teacher, on body image:

  • Body image is a tool of oppression: keep people focused on external things to keep people disempowered.
  • Keeps people from getting to know themselves
  • Keeps people from focusing on other things because they're distracted from learning and being politically engaged

Dianne Bondy
Dianne Bondy, yoga teacher and activist for yoga for all bodies

Allie Kieffer, 5th place at 2017 NYC Marathon and 2nd American

  • "My Weight Has Nothing to Do with How Good a Runner I Am"
  • Called "big" or "strong" (which is condescending in running culture) and people were surprised at her speed for her size--she was expected to fit the model of a thin runner
  • Efforts to lose weight led to stress fracture
  • Now is confident in herself and speaks about how size is not the ultimate key to speed

Allie Kieffer
Elite distance runner Allie Kieffer

Brief History of Women in the Olympics

  • 1900 - First women participated in the Olympics, in Paris, in five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf.
  • 1928 - Women allowed to participate in running events, 800m the longest distance, because any longer was thought to be dangerous to female bodies. Several women were undertrained and collapsed, causing the women's 800m to be banned until 1960.
  • 1960 - Reintroduction of women's 800m race.
  • 1972 - The longest women's running race went up to 1500m. It was still common to think women could not safely run longer.
  • 1972 - Women allowed to compete in Boston Marathon for the first time.
  • 1984 - First Olympic women's marathon, thanks in large part to the work of Kathy Switzer and other pioneers.

Olympia
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863

Brittney Spears
Britney Spears "Before and After" photoshop covergirl.
Advertisements are constantly manufacturing and reproducing an image of what the female body "should" look like, not representing what it actually looks like.

Being gazed upon:

  • as a runner
  • as a woman

dropped image link
Grace Weaver, Double Dutch, 2017
"Emotive figures with Mannerist proportions populate Weaver’s large-scale spiraling compositions with complicated psychological narrative. Most of the long-limbed, bendy people that stretch across Weaver’s canvases are captured in fleeting emotional states – caught with a forced smile, a self-conscious glance, or a passive aggressive scowl. This sense of observation – what is means to observe others, or the tangible effects of being observed – serves as a key subject matter in Weaver’s paintings."

My own experiences and those of my friends as female-bodied runners are often those of catcalls, honking horns, and unwanted attention.

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Running to silver medal in 2017 AthHalf.


I am able to compete for a gold medal in a culture that now considers there to be two races: the women's and the men's.
And yet, I still have to remind my women friends on a regular basis. Just the other day I proudly announced that my friend had won a marathon. Another friend didn't know before we told him. "You won?!" he said. She said, "Well, first female." Two of us piped up at the same time: "AND THAT IS WINNING."
There are still many women who forget this, and do not consider themselves worthy of that title for whatever reason. It is a continued fight for belief in women's abilities.

me
Me, Abigail West, running in the 2017 AthHalf Half Marathon.

athhalf start
Even in Athens, a town with a black population of 25% and a Latinx population of 10%, the running scene is predominantly white. (https://www.athensclarkecounty.com/105/Demographics)

Sports are still not an equal playing field, even when there is representation. Colin Kaepernick, and those who have followed him, refusing to stand during the pledge of allegiance makes the point that racism and inequality and white privilege are still very much present in contemporary American culture.

ck

met
Representation of the female body as through the male gaze and objectified still persists.

I have learned firsthand how this can lead to unhealthy habits that can be physically and mentally detrimental, and lead to injury. I know very few competitive female athletes who have not dealt with the Female Athlete Triad in some capacity at some point in their lives.
(The triad is: eating disorders, loss of period, and reduced bone density)

References