A Glow of Pleasurable Excitement

“Every game in which you take part requires skill, dexterity, coolness, and courage with presence of mind. Cultivate and play all the sports you can open air, and they will make you a fitter type of perfect womanhood” (p.3) This could be one of the most important readings in the book because of the huge impact all the events in the writing had on our society. I believe that the main purpose of this article is to tell about women and there past dealing with sports and also sports fashion. One thing I was so surprised to learn in this academic reading is that women used magazines, books and instruction manuals such as “Ladies’ Home Journal” to learn techniques of different sports and also the appropriate dress for each activity. These manuals and books led women to have confidence and competence in the new activities they would be participating in. All of the physical training in this period challenged past expectations for women because of all the acquired skills and strength. The ability to compete really started the change of gender roles and really challenged the past ways. The reading also shows how huge it was for women to be able to form a comfortable and appropriate dress while participating in athletics. Women were able to change uncomfortable clothing to a loser dress so that moving around was easy to do during sports. This reading really has so much information targeted at many different people. Women’s athletes are a main intended audience and should know a lot of this information. I liked this reading for many different reasons, it had quotes that were interesting and made the article more personal. The reading also had some journal references that really showed that it was reliable. One thing that could have made the article even more effective is more statistics. Overall this reading was effective but not perfect!