The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football: Sexism and the American Culture of Sports

The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football: Sexism and the American Culture of Sports Mariah Burton Nelson (Harcourt Brace, $22.95) I've always had my suspicions about burly men in tight pants tackling, hitting, hugging, and patting fannies out on a football field. According to Nelson's searing examination of football and other ''manly'' sports, it's even worse than I thought. Nelson argues football is ''an elaborate stage set'' to allow homophobic men to worship their maleness, while indulging in horrifying behavior toward women. She also exposes inequities in male and female college athletic budgets, condemns sex between male coaches and their female athletes, and limns the insults suffered by female sports reporters. But her most riveting chapters (especially in light of the O.J. Simpson case) are those exposing the institutionalized violence and misogyny of the football culture. A- -Rhonda Johnson