Obama's Boys' Basketball Game

barack obama basketball

Did anyone else read the story about Obama's all-male basketball game against Joanne Lipman's op-ed about how far women have (not) come? And then feel torn about how much to care that the president "presides over a White House rife with fist-bumping young men who call each other 'dude' and testosterone-brimming personalities," as Mark Leibovich vividly put it in the NYT?

Lipman's most interesting point is that women have measured their progress in numeric gains rather than by a shift in attitudes. Too much bean counting, not enough concern about Google searches of famous women that lead to lots of entries about her breasts. Or about how women are otherwise physically caricatured.

The questions about Obama's hoops game are about both bean counting and attitude. To worry about the numbers of women in his White House, you have to narrowcast. We're not talking about the number of women in his administration or in leadership roles, but the number in a particular inner circle of hoops players and, until domestic policy advisor Melody Barnes busted in on Sunday, golf players too. These are particular slices of access, and so part of me understands why Obama was so quick to dismiss concerns about a boys' club as "bunk," and to say, “I don’t think it sends any kind of message or signal whatsoever.”

But of course it sends a message. This is where the attitude part of Lipman's construct comes in. The original story in Politico about the all-male basketball game didn't move me, because the flap seemed to be over one small self-contained sphere. But Mark does a really good job of showing how basketball and golf spill over. This is about how Obama's "comfort level with staff members is not always perceived as equal." And that is tricky. On the one hand, you can't tell a boss or anyone else who to be totally at ease with. And maybe one reason he's not as comfortable and intimate with his women staffers is his incredibly strong relationship with Michelle. On the other hand, well, he's the president. And if his feelings about sexual politics in the workplace, however nuanced, mean that women aren't as close to him, they won't be as powerful either.

Photograph of Barack Obama by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images.

Tags: obama's all-male basketball game

Emily Bazelon is a founding editor of Double X, and a writer and editor at Slate.

Comments

obama bball...

By: swmobill | Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:57

here's the problem with all boys' basketball at work. it's is WORK, not leisure time. all employees should be invited to play. they don't have to, but should be invited. if the boys need their time together, it needs to be during non-hours. i've had at least two different occasions at work where this type of thing happened. it's not bad, but it can lead to the perception that that particular group is getting special treatment. i had one of my folks be the official "inviter." his job was to make sure that when we went to lunch or dinner everyone was invited in our group. another time we changed what we were going to do and where we were going to eat because we invited boht males and females. and you know what, it worked out great. but the boss, because he or she is the boss has to include all his folks in the invite or it looks like favoritism. now, granted like most things this isn't 100% the rule all the time, but it should be the 90% rule.

Let boys have their game...

By: jenellen1214 | Tue, 10/27/2009 - 09:42

C'mon now, ladies...this is silly. We don't have to be included in everything.

I have been playing ice hockey for more than 10 years, both in co-ed and women's leagues. I know from personal experience that men are different when they are doing sports (more manly, if that makes any sense), and that's okay. They need that guy time occasionally, without a bunch of women horning in on their game. This is not sexist, it's nature.

For me personally, when it came to co-ed hockey, I just felt too oppressed when I played with the guys, even though I can be a beer-drinking potty mouth at the rink with the best of them. So now I only play women's games. In the end, I am just not big enough or strong enough to keep up with most guys and compete at a level that was satisfactory for me. I'm okay with this.

I imagine there are plenty of places where women can play basketball in Washington DC. Let the president have his game with his buddies.

I think this is ridiculous.

By: Bunnyhop234 | Mon, 10/26/2009 - 20:09

I think this is ridiculous. I am a woman and can't understand why women have to nose in to everything men are doing. Men don't try to interrupt women's time together. Men like to just hang out with men sometimes, it is healthy for them.