Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?

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A friend was looking for a great book for a young woman, to help ease her into adulthood. The usual fiction fare came to mind, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, To Kill a Mockingbird, and so on. Then I came across Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like? and immediately decided this was the perfect choice for a preteen girl. In fact, it's a great addition to your mother's coffee table, your best friend's bookshelf, and your sister's "girls rule" collection.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
This incredible collection of photographs and personal essays focuses on one crucial question: What does a female athlete look like? Journalist Jane Gottesman, frustrated by the lack of coverage for women's sports in major publications around the country, posed this question to photographers. Their responses, along with Gottesman's own selections, comprise Game Face, a visual record of the diversity, skill, and determination of female athletes.

In her introduction, Gottesman describes the political message embedded in Game Face: to highlight the importance of Title IX, the historic 1972 law stating that individuals cannot be excluded from sports on the basis of gender. The female athletes who run, jump, and soar across these pages are part of a continuing struggle -- for equal opportunities, equipment, and coverage -- that began long ago with pioneering women such as Babe Didrikson. Gottesman pays tribute to female athletes past and present in the final pages of Game Face, by including a timeline of important events in the history of women's sports.

But the heft of Game Face is made up of the unforgettable photographs. Each photo represents a moment that now lives on indefinitely. Gwen Torrence crouches on the track before a race at the 1996 Olympics, her face calm, her posture invoking a meditative state of perfect concentration. Brandi Chastain shouts with joy after the U.S. women's soccer team wins the 1991 World Cup. The winner of a race at a Memphis track meet wipes a tear from the loser's eye and embraces her. A young girl in bell-bottom jeans turns a lighthearted flip on a dusty road in Florida in 1974. Whether exuberant or exhausted, the women in these photographs embody the answer to the question at the heart of the book.

From the unknown to the famous, Game Face presents a wide spectrum of women in motion. Gottesman also mixes the historic, such as a snapshot of the first woman lighting the Olympic flame in 1968, with the contemporary. These juxtapositions -- old and new, unknown and famous -- hint at the amazing breadth of women's sports. Although flipping through Game Face is a powerful experience for anyone, it has special significance for the next generation of female athletes. For these young women, Game Face should be a source of inspiration, a glimpse of the opportunities that are now open to them. (Julie Carr)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On playing fields and street corners, in backyards and gyms, the people in this arresting array of pictures are unselfconsciously exploring the physical and emotional pleasures of competition and play. Each image offers an affirming and satisfying answer to the question at the heart of Game Face: What do girls and women look like when freed from traditional feminine constraints, using their bodies in joyful and empowering ways?
To show America what women’s sports looks like, Jane Gottesman searched through the work of our country’s best photographers, from the newest photojournalists to artists such as Annie Leibovitz and Ansel Adams. The result is a unique and inspiring document of the tremendous impact that the growth of female sports at all levels is having on society—and on women themselves.

Author Biography:

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT - Tom Adamich

Gottesman and Biddle identify the "best" in women's athletics captured in pictorial form by some of the world's best photographers. This winning combination pairs photos of stars, including Marion Jones, Chris Evert, Michelle Akers, Althea Gibson, Amelia Earhart, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mary Lou Retton, Tara Lipinski and Martina Navratilova, with famous photographers and photojournalists such as Mary Ellen Mark, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Tina Barney, Lee Friedlander, Justine Kurland, Ruth Orkin, Eve Fowler, Andrea Modica, Charles Harbutt, Robert Mapplethorpe and Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Wells, April Saul, Melissa Farlow and Rick Rickman. With a foreword by Penny Marshall, director of the women's baseball movie A League of their Own (and self-professed "tomboy"), the authors celebrate women's athletics in their purest form by including anonymous women athletes as well as famous ones, accomplishing great physical and mental feats. Distributed throughout the book are profiles of significant accomplishments in women's athletics, including a profile of a women's football league and an international women's basketball conference. The pictures are symbolic and often tell their own story. A wide variety of sports is included￯﾿ﾽlacrosse, gymnastics, track, rowing, baseball, football. A comprehensive index, as well as a timeline of women's athletics from 1827 to 2000 that includes numerous references to landmark events in women's sports history (including the 29th anniversary of the Title IX legislation that required colleges and universities to fund women's athletics at acceptable levels), make Game Face an excellent reference source for school library media centers and publiclibraries. KLIATT Codes: JSA￯﾿ﾽRecommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2001, Random House, 223p. illus. index.,

Library Journal

Former sportswriter Gottesman began this project in response to the dearth of photographs of female athletes in newspapers and sports magazines. Published in conjunction with last summer's Smithsonian photo exhibition (which will tour for five years), this book features 182 fabulous color and black-and-white photos of female athletes of various races and ages playing sports, from rodeo to roller skating. The images depict the historically significant (Navratilova and Evert arm-wrestling, Katherine Switzer wearing a dress in the 1974 New York Marathon), the well known (Tonya Harding, Brandi Chastain, Mary Lou Retton), and many nameless athletes giving their all for their sport. All pictures include dates, and many have explanatory captions. There are also 15 fascinating first-person essays by women such as the inventor of the Jogbra and those who broke down personal barriers in traditionally all-male domains, like rowing and hunting. However, the photos are the stars, showing the intense joys and sorrows of winning, losing, and just plain participating. Highly recommended for all school, public, and college libraries. Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-This collection of black-and-white photographs features female athletes-amateurs and professional; team and individual standouts; stars of the past and present; portraits and snapshots; and young and old-engaged in various physical endeavors. The theme is variety and progress in women's sports. Each photo is accompanied by an identification of the sport, occasionally with a quote from the player depicted. Interspersed throughout are one- or two-page narratives. One is written by Kristi Yamaguchi's mother. Another is by an athlete who is herself a mother, Carla Overbeck, captain of the U.S. soccer team that won the Women's World Cup in 2001 and the Olympic gold medal in 1996. The book's jacket photo is of the now-famous Brandi Chastain after her winning World Cup penalty shot. The vivid and sometimes inspiring photos are to be noted for depicting more unusual sports for women, such as weight lifting, wrestling, and the discus throw. Just as appealing are spontaneous scenes from households or neighborhood settings showing individual games or informal pick-up activities. A foreword by Penny Marshall, film director of A League of Their Own, and the introduction stress the long way women's sports have come. Throughout the writings there is an emphasis on the freedom and progress that has been achieved since the passage of Title IX in 1972. Although the final segment, "Snapshots from Women's Sports History," begins in 1827, it is particularly interesting to follow the highlights from the past 30 years. A welcome and timely addition for sports' collections.-Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Whether you're from the generation of drum majorettes or Title IX, the athletes of Game Face will inspire you. For women to become strong is a deep part of the revolution. — Gloria Steinem

Game Face is a first. Together these photographs give a face to the critical mass of people who have made women's sports part of the popular landscape. — Billie Jean King

Inspiring! Game Face is proof that a picture is worth a thousand words. This book looks at women's sports from a refreshing perspective. Talk about feeling empowered -- I've got my Game Face on! — Robin Roberts

Game Face is a tribute to the beauty of competition, to the dedication, skill and enthusiasm female athletes are finally encouraged to display. Every one of these women is a winner and so is each of the photographs. — Dick Schaap

A book honoring women athletes has finally arrived. Jane Gottesman's Game Face, in gymnastics terms, is a perfect 10. The photographs are riveting and the text dramatic and informative -- a timely tribute to a major part of the sports scene that has too long been ignored. — Bud Greenspan

These images are striking, distinctive, and evocative. Over the past generation, many of us have arrived at a better understanding of what athletic participation can mean to girls and women. Game Face heightens that understanding. — Bob Costas