University Southern California Trojans
"Game Face" Exhibition Comes To USC's Fisher Gallery
September 07, 2004 | USC Athletics
Sept. 7, 2004
"Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?," an exhibition that celebrates the popularity and success of women's sports, opens this Thursday, Sept. 9, at the USC Fisher Gallery. Co-curated by Jane Gottesman and Geoffrey Biddle, "Game Face" is an extraordinary collection of photographs and stories from female athletes about how sports have shaped their identities.
Sponsored by MassMutual Financial Group (including OppenheimerFunds, Inc.), the collection includes 139 color and black and white photographs and stories. Each image offers a unique answer to the question at the heart of the exhibition: What do girls and women look like, freed from traditional feminine constraints, using their bodies in joyful and empowering ways?
In addition to "Game Face," the USC department of athletics is also sponsoring "The Women of Troy" - a celebration of 125 years of women's athletics at USC. Curated by senior associate athletic director Lisa Love, the exhibition features 38 color and black and white photographs of USC women, including Olympic medal winners Lindsay Benko, Kaitlin Sandeno, Blythe Hartley and Lisa Leslie.
"Game Face" and "The Women of Troy" will be on exhibition at the Fisher Gallery Sept. 9 through Oct. 30. The Gallery is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
For more information, please check out the USC Fisher Gallery website.
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Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?
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• Mary Lou Retton's five-medal win - including the gold for all-around performance - at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
• Brandi Chastain blasting the USA's game-winning penalty kick against China, falling to her knees and joyously peeling off her jersey at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.
• Billie Jean King trouncing Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" match in 1973.
Yes, women's roles in sports have come a long way since the pre-Title IX days.
In 1972, Congress enacted Title IX, legislation that provides for gender equity in federally funded education, including athletics. As a result, more women play sports now than ever before. With the passage of that bill, the face of women's sports in the United States changed forever.
Gottesman, a former sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle, was disappointed with how women's sports were covered - all too often they were denied space in the paper. When they did grab the headlines, it was usually for reasons other than achievement on the playing field.
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Gottesman, a former lacrosse player who interviewed as many of the athletes as possible to learn the stories behind the photos, published those accounts in the book "Game Face."
The exhibition - and book - explores not only what a female athlete looks like, but what makes her tick. The photos reveal women's complex relationship to sports, as well as men's support for the athletic females in their lives.
