Posts

Posted on

Deep thoughts…

One of the fun things about teaching a few classes and still working in the real world (not that teaching isn’t working or the real world – they definitely are!), is getting to run the students through situations I encounter. We had a really active discussion on Friday, about a CNN story that I was interviewed for on NFL cheerleaders. For the record, which was a little lost in the story, I have nothing against cheerleaders, I think they should totally be allowed to do what they do. I know they train hard, have to have a dance/gymnastics background, etc. What my comments were about revolved around the idea that cheerleaders are totally important to the NFL game product, and without them, nobody would cheer, etc. Which we all know is clearly false. Cheerleaders are just window-dressing, eye-candy, and something fun for the hetero male population. (Never mind that there are A TON of female NFL fans….)

So the CNN story went up, and we watched Friday, in real time, the hateful, nasty, and just stupid comments go up on their comment board. Some against me, some for me. Some calling me a political partisan, slamming me for not being a model (because only other models can discuss models – so I can only assume KrispyKreme123 is like, Naomi Campbell?), and others just inane and insane.

But the lessons were real, and perfect: 1) people who can hide anonymously on message boards will say things that they NEVER, EVER would say in public. It’s like another identity, an outlet to be totally horrible without being held accountable, 2) being in the public eye, even for a tiny bit, draws in people who want to knock you down, 3) Al Gore invented in the internet for this?!? (I kid, I kid).

The students were horrified. This can happen to you when you write a story? Or comment on something? Yep. You get taken apart. You are called stupid things, and without much sense entering the picture.

Life lessons are always the best teacher. Even for the teachers 🙂

Posted on

Thanks to WKAR…

I taped an interview appearance this week, as a guest on “Current Sports” with host Al Martin, for WKAR (the PBS station at Michigan State). I was honored to discuss concussions and other things, and I especially loved the questions from the studio audience. Live TV?!? Yikes! But the students in the audience were kind and I made it out alive. Thanks to everybody at WKAR and Michigan State.

Posted on

Where’s Waldo?

Actually, meta-Waldo, aka me, is here. Working hard, doing a lot of different projects that I can’t tell you about yet. But I will be doing an interview appearance on Lansing PBS station WKAR, on Current Sports with Al Martin, on Wednesday, with the airdate for the interview on Thursday. I am thrilled to get to share a little of my concussion research with Al Martin and the kind folks at WKAR.

Bringing perspective, and some thoughtfulness, to the concussion and sports debate is one of my big goals.

Posted on

Can we have it all?

If you have not read this article on the climate at Harvard Business School, you really should. I don’t find it all surprising. Women, when knocking on the doors of power and politics, are routinely still asked to make choices. Will you be cute? Will you be smart? Will be you be the bitch? Will you be docile and shy? Will you be aggressive and a lone wolf? Will you be normatively acceptable?

I wonder if men are making the same choices? Just based on the informal survey of students in the classes I teach, I say no. The guys are themselves, coming in with baseball hats, ratty Ts, and unshaven. They raise their hands, say what they think. The women have make-up, a lot of pink (and yes, I dig the color pink too), and seem to be much more self-conscious of speaking up in class. In fact, I have one class where not a single woman has raised her hand yet to volunteer anything. 15 women – all mute – so far.

I am starting to think the bigger question is not what is – or is not – happening in Harvard’s class-driven MBA world. I am thinking about where the roots of girls/women losing their interest in being smart, in favor of being attractive and non-threatening to males. Fifth grade?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s unreasonable to think we can have it all? Maybe we need to chose a side of the street, and own it. Not sure. Something to be thinking about this semester as I teach.

Namaste.

Posted on

School is nigh!

Yes children, I feel your pain. School is starting soon, for some, even today! I am eagerly waiting for Target to change out their “Under Pressure” recorder-driven commercials for Christmas ads, like in September 🙂

It has been a good summer, a crazy summer filled with a lot of stuff. Always grateful for family, friends, good health and good times. That’s all that matters. The rest…just details that we worry about and then have to let go. I have tried to adopt the theory of, will this matter in 5 years? More often than not, it will not.

A year ago, I was moving to Ann Arbor to begin life as a Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan. This year, happy to stay in one place and not disrupt life like that again for such a fleeting and narrow thing. Living out of boxes with one saute pan is an adventure that best crossed off the bucket list. Done. Thanks.

Anyways, here is some of my recent work:

In the New York Times.

On teamusa.org.

Have a fun start back to school! It’s all good.

jcg

Posted on

Interesting question…

Was recently somewhere, doing something (like my vagueness! hee hee) and was asked why I don’t write more on my website. Aka, if I am such a good communicator, why am I not communicating more? An interesting question, and here is the answer: I am writing my fingers off doing other projects, like the book and articles, and I really don’t have many words left to wax wise. Simple as that. I don’t have a need to make my life a confessional either, so that cuts out a lot of material 🙂 Hah!

So here is what I have been up to, in case you need proof, and you know who you are:

Stories for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s website, teamusa.org:
– Paralympians Cassie Mitchell and Kerri Morgan are also, ahem, Ph.D’s in their free time. Crazy busy, and successful, women.

– Chancellor Ramirez is kinda really good at water polo. If only he can master the rules of the nefarious TSA.

– 2012 swimming Olympic gold medalist Conor Dwyer has made some big changes in his life, and he’s swimming even faster.

– I do a story on you, you win an ESPY. Or something like that. Jeremy Campbell is one strong dude.

– Eugene Godsoe is really good at fly…my shoulders hurt thinking of his mileage 🙂

Namaste!

Posted on

Summer…where are you?

OK, I know I have no right to complain about 70-degree weather, especially when I know Detroit will turn permafrost in less than 4 months (dammit!)…but seriously, where is the sun and the heat here this summer?! I love hot weather, don’t mind the humidity either. But this gray, Seattle-like vibe that’s been the 313 summer so far is kind of gloomy. Not to mention the daily news of the city heading into bankruptcy ain’t fun to listen to either.

Even the fish flies don’t look as peppy!

But all is good. Working hard on the book, just back from the Association for Women in Sports Media’s amazing convention in Phoenix and the Associated Press Sports Editors convention in Detroit.

So come on summer, bring the sun and heat! Please!!!!

Posted on

So…

If you hear from some talking head on some TV show that “writing a book is easy” – A) laugh, B) and then don’t believe them. I think the only way the only way you can say writing a book is easy if you didn’t do it – aka you used a ghost -writer 🙂 I am working on two book projects, yes, probably one too many, but they are not easy if you want to do them right. And I am working my fingers off trying to make them super-good. Sooo…keep your fingers crossed to please the writing gods, agents, publishers and we move on…

And Happy Flag Day! For veterans like my Dad, the flag means something special. And for immigrants like rest of my family, the American flag is the symbol of the new life they wanted.

Here’s something I did on U.S. Paralympian Heath Calhoun, who has found his passion on snow.

Namaste.

Posted on

Busy bee time…

Back in the saddle, or should I say, the command and control center for writing. Lucky to be busy, thrilled to be back. Fun to come back to journalism after being away for my Knight-Wallace sabbatical. I feel calmer, more thoughtful about my writing. We shall see how long that lasts in the face of cruel deadlines!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

for teamusa.org, the official website of the U.S. Olympic Committee:

– a story on four-time Olympian Troy Dumais, who still loves diving at 33.

– teen diver Steele Johnson doesn’t leave a minute to waste – or unfilmed. Check out his world.

for the NY Times:

– a look at the rise of NHL players hailing from Switzerland. More cowbell anyone?

Posted on

If it’s spring, it’s student paper/survey time…

So I am at 15 college student survey/interview requests and counting for the past 2 weeks. Why, you ask? Well, every year at this time (and the first week of Dec.), the Association for Women in Sports Media, and some of the board such as moi, get requests from students to interview us for their papers.

And the topics take one of three forms: women in sports media (from the premise we are all sexually harassed and life sucks); women in the locker room (a “controversy” that the kids think is still ongoing); or my personal favorite, my “ethics” of being a female sports journalist. (same ethics as the men: be honest, do my job to the best of my talents and be right/hit deadlines.)

I treat every student with the same patience and kindness as ones before. I see it as a chance to educate, and in some cases, undo some of the bad information they’ve been taught in school. One student, who attends a big name university in the Midwest, was being talked out of her idea go into sports business by a professor…he told her there are no women in that job because women aren’t “biologically attuned” to succeed in the field. She knew that was wrong on its face, but feared voicing an alternative opinion. We talked, and she’s doing her paper on the women who are leading in sports media and business. And yes, we determined that we’re biologically attuned enough to succeed.

It’s amusing how the students think women are new in the field, or somehow that they’re the first ones to stumble upon the topic. (sorry!)

But answering the questions is always fun, because it turns into a dialogue on where we are right now, what we women in the business want to become, and how much further we have to go in educating those who are biased.

So about 1 more week of question palooza…bring it on kids!

Rss Feed Tweeter button Facebook button