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Practice dictation & shadowing on the daily life story: “Babe” Didrikson
“Babe” Didrikson
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(1)
Babe Didriksen
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Mildred Babe Didriksen 1913 to 1956 was one of the most celebrated female athletes of the first half of the 20th century.
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Competing in the 1930s and 1940s, when conventional attitudes regarding women's participation in sport dominated North American culture, Babe Didrickson rose to fame by dominating not just one but a number of sports.
(4)
Didrickson flouted conventional notions of femininity and proper female activity by excelling in field events such as javelin and shot put in addition to traditionally male dominated sports such as baseball, swimming and golf.
(5)
Interestingly, Didrickson would always have to battle popular accounts that attacked or questioned her femininity and sexuality.
(6)
As a woman with a large, muscular, athletic body, Didrickson was often accused of having an unfair advantage over other women and often regarded as not being a real woman.
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Born in the state of Texas, Didrickson rose to athletic fame, quickly representing the USA in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she won and set records in the javelin and 80 meter hurdles.
(8)
Later in her career, Didrickson turned her athletic attention mainly to golf, a sport in which she was immensely successful.
(9)
Interestingly, however, Didrick seemed tired of the popular innuendo regarding her unfeminine appearance and made a conscious effort to change her image in favor of a more traditionally feminine one.
(10)
She donned dresses and makeup in place of her sweatpants and makeup less appearance.
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Didrickson's controversial career underwent A twist when she fought the American Athletic Union A.
(12)
A U, which had stripped her of her amateur sports status after she allowed her image to be used in endorsements for cars.
(13)
When offered amateur status reinstatement, Didrickson refused, challenging what she believed to be the A A U's antiquated rules and regulations.
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Aside from her incredible athletic accomplishments, Didrickson is an important historical figure because of the challenge she made to the male dominated institution of sport.
(15)
Didrickson challenged those within the institution of sport to question gender values at a time when the political environment made it difficult to do so.
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Didrickson prefigured by several decades the challenges to sport made by other female athletes such as Billie Jean King, Martine Navratilova, and Florence Griffith Joyner.
(17)
Didrichs enforced a reexamination of the meaning of sports, making many aware of the social and political importance of an institution typically not thought of as such.