BOOK/MOVIE ANALYSIS

A League of their Own

It 's supposed to be hard ! If it wasn 't hard , everyone would do it

The hard is what makes it great ' --- Jimmy Dugan to Dottie Hinson

Through the movie A League of their Own ' one can see how the more sexist views of the culture of this time in America permeated throughout this account of the Girls Professional Baseball League which existed from 1943 until 1954 . A League of their Own ' is a snapshot of what was once the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that

was formed when many young men were active in World War II . Philip Wrigley , chewing gum mogul and MLB owner feared the major leagues would disband so he created the girls professional baseball league

One of the obvious cultural views during the time this movie depicts is that of feminizing the baseball players to make them more acceptable to that culture at the time . Although they wore shorts under their baseball skirts , the fact that they were to wear skirts that were very short for this time while playing the athletic sport of baseball is just one of the clues to how the All-American Girls Baseball League was to be as much about show as it was about talent . In one part of A League of their Own ' the scout Ernie Capadino intends on passing up the player Marla Hooch who is unattractive yet proves to be a great switch-hitting slugger . Capadino was told to find girls who play ball well and are equally as attractive

Another argument supporting the existent and greater acceptance of sexism represented when putting this All-American girls team togehter was that the female professional baseball players were at least in the beginning of this venture considered more seriously as princesses rather than as serious baseball players in this era , as we hear the announcer comment , After the first month of league play , the shine still isn 't off these diamond ' gals . Alice Skeeter ' Gaspers says legging out a triple is no reason to let your nose get shiny - Betty Grable has nothing on these gals . Helen Haley has not only been a member of several championship amateur teams , she is also an accomplished coffee maker (Marshall , 1992

Even the radio program that is played during the tryouts at Harvey Field makes fun of the idea of a woman 's baseball team . During the radio program , the girls baseball team is referred to as the masculinization of women

The female baseball players have mandatory etiquette classes they must attend to portray a lady-like ' image . Even some of the names given to these female baseball teams at this time rings of what we would today consider sexist in its lowest such as Rockford Peaches Racine Belles ' Milwaukee Chicks ' Fort Wayne Daisies ' and Muskegon Lassies

Of course then you hear the announcer say things like : Then there 's pretty Dottie Henon , who plays like Gehrig , and looks like Garbo . Uh-uh , fellas , keep your mitts to yourself...