Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy

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

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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.

Have you ever wondered why most cheerleaders are girls? It didn’t used to be that way. Up until the early twentieth century, all cheerleaders were actually boys. And why do some athletes, like Caster Semenya, have to prove they’re women while there’s no testing for men? Why do athletes like Megan Rapinoe and Colin Kaepernick use sports as a platform for social justice, and should they?

These questions and more are examined in Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy: The Evolution of Gender, Identity, and Race in Sports. Robyn Ryle uses the world of sports to examine the history, controversy, and current conversations around sexuality, race, and social justice, bringing in the stories of today’s athletes to highlight where things stand in the present. Topics covered include gender segregation, gender testing, transgender athletes, sexuality, homophobia, globalization, race, and activism.

Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy shows the great strides that have been made in the sports world recently, but there are still questions that remain and work that needs to be done. This book brings to attention the ways in which sports can contribute to inequalities, while also demonstrating how sports can also help create a more just world for everyone.