How a battle for locker-room access was about so much more

Sports and politics don’t mix. In truth, that has never been the case. Sports, in fact, reflect every issue, every conflict in society from civil rights to equal justice.

Melissa Ludtke knows this from experience. In the 1970s, when she was trying to cover Major League Baseball for Sports Illustrated, her path to doing the job — which required equal access to the players — was blocked by a powerful and inflexible commissioner. The battle mirrored America’s burgeoning women’s movement, and ultimately ended up in federal court, presided over by a judge with her own civil rights experience. Ludtke tells the story in “Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside,” and on this episode of Equal Time.

Kirsten Dunst’s latest role: Unlikely warrior in continuing gender debate

When a rain-soaked Kirsten Dunst kissed an upside-down superhero in 2002’s “Spider-Man,” fans cheered. The response to the actress and cover girl’s comments in the latest Harper’s Bazaar UK has been far more controversial.

On the subject of gender roles, Dunst, who has a new movie coming out and has been, as they say, “spotted” with actor Garrett Hedlund, told the magazine, “I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued.” She said, “We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work … ”

To be fair to Dunst, she probably didn’t suspect that an actress’s comments would spark so much contentious debate. But when you go beyond your personal romantic situation to opine on relationships in general, you do invite others to join in. And considering the current political, social and cultural arguments over the choices women make and decisions made for them that affect their lives, the skirmish is not surprising.

Do black women need lessons on ‘leaning in’?

Although Sheryl Sandberg’s book came out just weeks ago, it seems we’ve been talking “Lean In” forever. Is the manifesto about women not doing enough or trying to do too much? Will busy working women be able to spare the time to see its lessons as valuable rather than additions to already crowded to-do lists? If women feel guilty about shortchanging home or work, is that really Sandberg’s fault?

As women decide which points in her message to hold close and which ones might be wiser to disregard, black working women, as well as all women in jobs light years away from the Facebook chief operating officer’s lofty perch, are taking at least one piece of advice from Sandberg: They are speaking up.

Myrlie Evers-Williams — Making Her Own History

In the glow of Inauguration Day spectacle, anyone reading reports might think the news flash of the day – after the second inauguration of America’s first African American president, of course – was Beyonce’s lip-synch-gate. Did the beautiful performer have some help in her rendition of the national anthem? And, by the way, did you notice First Lady Michelle Obama’s bangs?

It did surprise me that more was not made of another figure sharing the stage and holding her own with the president, someone’s whose history is also entwined in the red, white and blue flags fluttering throughout the crowd on the mall on that clear Washington day. You could say that without the efforts of a Myrlie Evers-Williams and all she represents, a President Barack Obama would not have been possible in 2008 and beyond.

Meeting Gloria Steinem and making peace — sort of

It’s not that I know Gloria Steinem. But we do have history – personal and political – that not so neatly mirrors the way African Americans and women struggled with society and each other in fights for equal justice.

At DNC Charlotte, taking the ‘war on women’ seriously

CHARLOTTE — The National Women’s Political Caucus is about issues, not party affiliation, as it tries to get more women elected to office. But the issues it cares about — supporting a women’s right to choose, the Equal Rights Amendment and dependent care for women balancing responsibility for children and aging relatives — come with a party label these days.

At the organization’s packed reception at Ri Ra Irish pub on Sunday afternoon, before the official Tuesday start of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, shouts of “yes we can” echoed Obama campaign enthusiasm. National Organization for Women president Terry O’Neill, a familiar television presence, put it this way: “The radical fringe on the right wing has taken over the Republican Party.” She lamented the invisibility of GOP women with more moderate views, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) at the Republican convention in Tampa.