The Griner Effect: Opening Doors for Women in Sports

            Britteny Griner, Baylor’s basketball star, could be crucial for women’s basketball in the media. Griner brings aggression, power, and command to the court. Her intensity is exemplified in her statistics: 14 career dunks and numerous NCAA records; most recently she became the first women’s player to reach 2000 career points and 500 blocks. Her dominance on the court is not consistent with typical views of women in sports, but this is not a bad thing. When an abnormal performance occurs, society reinforces gender views more vigorously, but in the case of Griner, perhaps her masculine play can help bring more viewers to women’s basketball and women’s sports in general.

            The question hinders on the sexuality of Griner, because her performance in the game, as a whole, is so crucial given the current presence of women’s sports in the media, and society immediately tackles the topic anytime a female athlete performs masculinity. There must be at least some pressure on her to keep up image as heterosexual, but she seems not to mind too much. This could be very attributable to her feelings towards the game. She is not one to believe that sexuality and sports mix. Thus,she keeps her performance to the court without pushing the gender boundaries. Some may question, but they more than likely will not find an answer. Griner is regulating societal views of women’s basketball. When people see Griner play, there are too many similarities to men’s basketball that it can be hard not to watch, and these performances gain media attention as well as questions of sexuality.

            So it becomes clear that women in sports are stuck in a paradox when dealing with media attention. When players behave masculine, it is not something society views as pleasing, yet it is precisely masculinity that most viewers want to see. This view of gender in sports eliminates the role of women entirely. If Griner can continue to inspire and lift the players around her to a heightened level of intensity/masculinity while ignoring the negative comments about sexuality, then women’s basketball should see an increase in viewership, provided that sexuality only be questioned with probable cause (similar to testing male athletes for PEDs). I do not doubt that numerous people disagree with what I am saying because I am suggesting that sexuality be ignored, but society has already begun to naturalize this belief, meaning Griner is just another step towards righteousness. Like Caster Semenya who fractured society’s gender lines, Griner’s outstanding performance on the court is picking at the same fragile wound, and the gender lines are dying. As they do so, a new door opens in the realm of women’s sports.