Battle of the Sexes--a bad idea in 2025, a bad idea in 1973

Watch the amazing true story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King, played by Emma Stone, and Bobby Riggs, played by Steve Carell, in Battle of the Sexes, tonight at 1.35am. pic.twitter.com/5BawE10Mkb

— Film4 (@Film4) May 2, 2023

A perusal of social media demonstrates that tennis fans, as a whole, found today's Battle of the Sexes unnecessary and somewhat offensive. I agree. But I also found the original Battle of the Sexes offensive, and I continue to do so. 

Billie Jean King recently spoke out against today's event, saying that the original event was "culturally significant," but I disagree. I was a part of that culture, and my takeaway then--and now--was that the event promoted that sexist myth that men's and women's tennis are somehow the same, and therefore men's tennis (because men are stronger) is "better." 

If King had lost the match, I can only imagine what the fallout would have been. But the young, in-her-peak BJK beat an older man, and so what? 

I remember Tim Henman, in a very sexist media moment, asking a number of ATP players how many ATP players could beat Serena Williams, and--since there was no Andy Murray around to set him straight--he got a number of accurate, but very sexist, replies. Men are stronger than women, and they are generally faster. Strength and speed are considered superior qualities because, after all, they are male qualities. Therefore, male tennis players are "better" than female tennis players.

This isn't to say that, on a given day, a woman can't beat a man at tennis; it happens every day at clubs around the nation. But a professional male tennis player is very highly likely to beat a professional female tennis player because men's and women's tennis are not the same.  

Some good things did come of the original Battle of the Sexes. For me, the best thing to come out of it was the  2017 film, Battle of the Sexes, which was really well done. And an even better thing to come out of it was the personal transformation that Emma Stone made after she portrayed Billie Jean King in the movie. 

The WTA has come a long way (baby) since the Original 9 broke away from a sexist institution that didn't want them to make any money at all for playing tennis (a movement that was led by Arthur Ashe). But the idea that women's tennis, and all women's sports, are inferior, is very much alive and well. Aryna Sabalenka didn't do the tour, or women's sports, any favors by once again perpetuating the sexist myth that men's and women's tennis are the same. And she certainly didn't advance the cause of women's sports by competing against the openly sexist Nick Kyrgios.