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Re missgan Daile
Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, M1 48109
Women athletes are catching up
By KENNETH F. DYER rate of improvement in times has been program go, and men's sports have tre- a great improvement in strength with
and BARRY R. TOMS greater than the men's. mendous control over it," says women's negligible increase in muscle mass. In
The average difference between the coach Kathy Scott. the same weight program, he argues,
Tuesday, April 5, 1977
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Proposl 1 vote to end
homosexual discrimination
pRESENTLY, the All-Campus Con-
stitution reads:
"The right to enjoy all these rights,
all other rights, and all benefits ex-
tended to students by the University
without regard to race, color, sex, so-
cial class, political views, national ori-
gin, religious creed, or any other arbi-
trary or unreasonable consideration."
And although this seemingly cov-
ers every possible area of discrimina-
tion, there is one glaring omission--
gays and .lesbians.
Currently, there is nothing to keep
the University from discriminating
against persons because of their sex-
ual preference, and MSA is trying to
do something about it. Today and
tomorrow, you can vote in the MSA
election to add the words "sexual
preference" to the list above. The
proposal is MSA Proposal 1, and The
Daily urges a "yes" vote.
GAYS AND LESBIANS have been un-
justly treated at the University
in the past. In fact, the administra-
tion refused to put a clause in GEO's
contract guaranteeing the rights of
gays and lesbians. Homosexuals on
this campus deserve the same treat-
ment as any other student, and they
need proof of that in writing. Let's
not let them down. Vote "yes" on
Proposal 1.
IN 1976, THE AMERICAN woman Miki
Gorman ran a marathon in two hours,
39 minutes and 11 seconds - fast enough
to have won the men's Olympic gold
medal in 1896, 1900, 1908 or 1924.
Fifty years ago, a . woman became
the first person ever to swim the Eng-
lish Channel, and today the fastest times
for the channel crossing - in both di-
rections - are still held by women.
And in shorter events female swim-
mers from East Germany, the U.S. and
Australia regularly turn in faster times
than male swimmers from many other
countries.
All of which adds up to a convincing
rebuttal to the old "self-evident" truth
that biological reasons alone prevent
women from equaling men in sports.
WOMEN MAY NEVER hit a base-
ball as far as Mickey Mantle or serve
a tennis ball as hard as Jimmy Con-
nors. But in other sporting events they.
may be biologically superior to men.
Long-distance running and swimming
provide a case in point. Dr. Joan Ullyot,
a doctor of sports medicine and herself
a runner, says women have more body
fat than men, so even after men have
used up their source of energy (carbo-
hydrates) women can keep going on
their body fat.,
This lets them run or swim farther,
if not necessarily faster, than men, she
says - and it may explain the female
dominance of English Channel swim-
ming.
In shorter races as well as the long-
distance events women's times are pro-
gressively catching up with men's.
THE WOMEN'S 100-meter world rec-
ord was first recognized in 1934 at 11.7
seconds. For the same year the men's
record was 10.3 seconds, a superiority
of 13.6 per cent.
By 1954 the difference in the two
records had declined to 11.8 per cent,
and in 1974 to 9.1 per cent. Between 1934
and 1974 the difference between men's
and women's 800-meter records also
dropped steadily - from 24.6 per cent
to 11.4 per cent.
In swimming women's performances
are. on the average closer to those of
men than in running. And the women's
For the seven of these events in which
both male and female records were
recognized in 1956 the average differ-
ence stood at 12.2 per cent.
PREDICTING THE FUTURE is al-
ways a risky business, but all the fig-
ures available indicate that average per-
formance in speed and endurance events
for women could eventually equal that
of men.
While women may be improving their
performance compared with men, they've
been sadly neglected in the U.S., ac-
cording to Womensports magazine, which
reports that American universities spend
little more than two per cent of their
total athletic budget on women's sports.
"Money is a big part of making a
ey.
Another problem is the lack of fa-
cilities and coaches, Many women's
coaches don't put all their efforts into
their jobs because they feel they aren't
getting any help from school administra-
tors and others, according to one coach.
"AFTER A WHILE, they throw up
their hands and say 'What's the use?' "
she says.
U.S. women athletes also face out-
moded training methods. For example,
the conventional wisdom is that women
-.annot lift weights without developing
bulging muscles.
But Dr. Jack Wilmore, head of physi-
cal education at the University of Ari-
zona, says weight training will produce
15 recognized male and female world Enthusiasm is fine, she says, but you women will develop only one-tenth the
records in 1976 stood at 9.2 per cent. can't really do a good job without mon- muscle mass of a man.
Weho me, Jerry.
THE DAILY extends a hearty wel-
come to Gerald Ford, who makes
his debut as adjunct professor of
political science this morning with a
9:00 lecture to a class entitled Po-
litical Civil Liberties. He will give a
total of ten lectures during the week
to various undergraduate and gradu-
ate political science and public poli-
cy classes.
Sports Staff
KATHY HENNEGHAN ........... Sports Editor
TOM CAMERON ........ Executive Sports Editor
SCOTT LEWIS...........Managing Sports Editor
DON MacLACHLAN .....Associate Sports Editor
Contributing Editors
JOHN NIEMEYER and ENID GOLDMAN
TIGHT EDITORS: Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engel-
hardt, Rick Maddock,, Bob Miller, Patrick Rode,
Cub Schwartz.,
iSST. NIGHT EDITORS: Jeff Frank, Cindy Gat-
ziolis, Mike Halpin, Brian Martin, Brian Miller,
Dave Renbarger, Errol Shifman and Jqmie Tur-
Business Staff
DEBORAH DREYFUSS.......Business Manager
COLLEEN HOGAN...........Operations Manager
ROD KOSANN ..............,..... Sales Manager
ROBERT CARPENTER ......... Finance Manager
NANCY GRAU ..... ..... Display Manager
CASSIE ST. CLAIR........Circulation Manager
BE'I H STRATFORD . . ... . ....Circulation Director
Photrgraphy Staff
ALAN BILINSKY ANDY FREEBERG
Co-Photographers-in-Chief
BRAD BENJAMIN.,......... Staff Photographer;
TOHN KNOX ..........Staff Photographer
,HRISTINA SCHNEIDER ... Staff Photographer
Elaborate security arrangements
have been prepared. There will be
the usual contingent of secret ser-
vice agents to guard against harass-
ment, and students registered in
classes that Ford is scheduled to ad-
dress have been issued tickets for ad-
mittance.
As is the natural way for enter-
prising students, some are scalping
their tickets for a good price. One
rumor making the rounds has it that
members of the Spartacus Youth
League are buying up these tickets
to cause disturbances in the classes.
WE FERVENTLY HOPE that these
rumors turn out to be nothing.
t This lecture series provides a ,tre-
mendous opportunity for many stu-
dents to hear .about our political sys-
tem and government from a man who
has gained expertise in these areas.
It would be a shame if a tactless
demonstration puts a damper on
Ford's appearance.
This is not to say that students
should simply sit back and listen to
Ford. The basic format of most of
the lectures provides for a long ques-
tion and answer session, This is the
correct forum for taking Ford to task
for his actions as president, not
through some cheap, grandstand out-
burst.
COME F Ro M ?
/ 1
i/
Another coach adds that it's the male
hormone testosterone that produces big
muscles, and that women have only very
small amounts of it in their bodies.
While U.S. women athletes operate
under these handicaps, conditions are
different in other countries. And the sta-
tistics indicate sociocultural factors -
like money and motivation-- may be
far more important than biology.
EASTERN EUROPEAN countries en-
courage their female athletes more than
Western countries do, and the smaller
gap between men's and women's per-
formance reflects this.
For example, the average difference
between men's and women's track rec-
ords in nine events with 12 per cent
in East Germany in 1974. In Russia it
was 12.6 per cent and in Hungary 13.4
per cent. But the difference in France
was 15.6 per cent, in South Africa 16.8
per cent and in Belgium 17.6 per cent.
"Considering the handicaps U.S. wom-
en athletes have - lack of money, lack
of facilities, cultural biases against wom-
en's sports - I'd say U.S. women are
doing well,'? says LeRoy Walker, track
coach at the University of North Caro-
lina.
BUT THE j|IGGEST barrier to U.S.
women's sports performance may be
psychological.
"Success in sports is 90 per cent mo-
tivation," says Walker. And here, he
says, U.S. women are at a tremendous
disadvantage because they aren't raised
to be competitive.
American women who are competitive
and successful are taunted about their
loss of "femininity," say Dr. Thomas
Boslooper and Marcia Hayes in their
book The Femininity Game.
Worrying about their femininity, they
lose the will to win and, adds one coach,
"If you don't believe in yourself, you
won't beat anybody."
Ultimately, women's success in sports
will depend on their own heads, says
Dr. Boslooper.
If they can break out of their tradi-
tional role of passivity and non-competi-
tiveness, he says, they can begin to ful-
fill their potential in sports.
i
Letters
to
the Daily
Hash Bash
To The Daily:
Come on students and critics,
hit the recent Hash Bash with
your logic, facts, figures and
rationale and I'll say it doesn't
mean a damn.
The Bash was successful.
The cops were frustrated. The
university was disrupted. The
University - business - city axis
failed to quash the Bash. The
Bash taught young people
about oppression and cops. And
some of the cops learned about
the will of the people.
All you elitist students who
snubbed and sneered at the
Bashers because they upset
your daily routine take heed if
you smoke weed. These people
were out here to have a good
time. Granted, some of their
activities were illegal. The point
is that they shouldn't be illegal,
i.e. smoking weed. The Bashers
put themselves on the line.
They defied and confronted the
oppression that afflicts all of
us. Many were there to defend
our right to smoke marihuana if
we choose. The event publicly
presses for legalization. But
why can't a human rights event
also be a good time?
Many avoided the Bash be-
cause it was "sophmoric."
Does a good time have to in-
clude football or intellectual
stimulation? Many learned
more April 1 than they would
in a whole semester of poli-
sci.
Many students sounded iron-
ically like administrators as
they expressed grief and con-
cern about the "U-M image."
Get off your high wolverine!
That is pure elitism. Why set
yourself off as something so
unique? Education should be a
right, not a privilege for the
privileged class. How en-
trenched are you students?
Think about it. How smug are
you in your little packet of
knowledge? Students used to
lead movements. Now we
scorn them. No time for that
stuff. Society indoctrinates
rugged competitive individual-
ism into our skins. Got to get
those grades etc.
Granted there was some vio-
lence and drinking and smok-
ing. Its illegal in the Bsh con-
text but is condoned and en-
couraged at the football games.
Football perpetuates macho
violence, competition and vic-
tory. Football violence breeds
internal and/or external vio-
lence, but its legal.
Trashing after sporting events
U-S., CCU Ai EGOMA 2cc MILE F I644I* L IMMfl1 1WMntM
Sim
i
4~ ~ ~ ~ ,e~o~E6pA
/i
is OK for respectable paying
fans. Its disgraceful and illegal
for Bashers. Complaints about
trash and public intoxication is
based on images. Trash is not
just trash. There is legitimate
University trash and illegal
dirty Basher trash. Trash is a
manifestation of a lifestyle. We
all trash. Marijuana is not
just something illegal, it is an
image of public defiance or a
sign of decadence. The Bash is
feared because it is a mirror
reflects an accusing image
back to all of us including those
that try to stop it.
Violence that did occur hap-
pened not despite the cops but
because of them. They created
the tension. They weren't there
just to contain the crowd and
violence. They were there to
quash it. They were there to
provoke antagonism to give
them an excuse to use their
stiff iron hand. It was rusty.
The University is the ultimate
source of the oppression. They
called in the cops. They feared
mass disruption. There were
over 50 city cops, 50 undercover
cops and 200 state cops on stand
by. What a waste of manpower
and tax money! But the Uni-
versity is adamant about keep-
ing people separate and alien.
Individualism is encouraged,
mass action discouraged. There
is much evidence to back this
statement. The recent AFSCME
strike, the clerical situation,
Perspective-mW. L. Scheller
LIBERATION has probably be-
come one of the most worn
out words in every language.
Liberation no longer conjures up
the meaning of people rising up
and making a better life for
themselves, but rather one group
of armed bandits seizing power,
by one means or another, and
then proceeding with the now
customary bloodbath. Cambodia
has probably been the most ex-
treme example of this.
The Soviet Union has set it-
self up as the champions of the
"freedom fighters" anld umteen
"Liberation O r g a n i z ations"
around the world. They supply
arms and support the "rights of
the people" in their papers and
broadcasts. In Angola, and now
in other areas, they even sup-
plied the "liberators" with Cu-
ban mercenaries to aid in the
'people's struggle.' Of course the
fact that they could never have
won without them doesn't count.
Last week they had Castro jaunt-
ing around Africa, coincidentally
followed by Nickola Podgorney
of the Soviet Union.
TWO THORNS stick in the side
of this charging Russian bear.
First, the time has come when
the Africans have to start pay-
ing for the "aid" that the Rus-
sians have given. Second, the
Russians may have inadvertant-
ly dropped the ball as the
''champions of the people.'"
Soviet aid and arms, but they What
do mind the strings attached. come,l
Soviet imperialism is definite- greato
ly being slowed. The Un
with bo
FINALLY THE RUSSIANS conflict
have really put themselves in does n
a shakey position by their some- human
what clumsy replies to Carter'su
human rights attacks. By call- ue on
ing human rights and oppres- to capit
sion their "internal affair," even win the
after signing several internation- coming
al agreements to the contrary, concern
the Soviets have lost their claim fluence
as champion of mankind. By United
asking for understanding, even dous a
admitting some of their actions, haps it
their credibility is shot. bloodba
cewled - v m {hmd
woodo
z
ever the eventual out-
President Carter has a
opportunity before him.
nited States has contact
oth sides of the African
, something the U.S.S.R.
ot. If he is serious about
rights and placing a val- <
them, then he should try
talize on the situation and
friendship of the up and
African leaders who are
ned about rights. The in-
of the President of the
States can be a tremen-
sset. If nothing else per-
t can end some of the
aths of "liberation."
1
the GEO situation, U of M lack
of cooperation with the various
Teach-ins, continuous rises in
tuition and housing, mistreat-
ment, threats and harassment
of University employees, off
campus housing, etc. '1e Uni-
versity undermines mass
movements to create feelings of
futility.
Don't athletes, frats cheer-
leaders and other memders en-
gage in smoking weed or other
illegalities. Do you want para-
noia or comfort when engaging
in victimless "crimes." The
Bash was the place to voice
your dissatisfaction with appres-
sive laws.
I'll admit there was some vio-
lence at the Bash. But to ac-
knowledge this and then deny
it in yourself and all around
is to be dishonest with your-
self. Voting for Nixon was vot-
ing for oppression and death in
Chile. To drink Gallo is to drink
the blood of migrant workers.
Unconscious and apolitical pur-
chasing is sentencing Indians
and other third world people to
a hungry and suffering exist-
ence. Scabbing during strikes
undermines the strikers' bar-
gaining position. They ended
the strike by settling for less
than a respectable poverty. And
to think that we students
might've been marked absent.
Ten years from now you'll tell
your kids about the Hash Bash
you participated in when all
you really did was hold your
breathall the way thru the
Diag while sipping your diet
Pepsi on your way to History of
Mass Movements class. Admin-
istration and students get off
your high wolverine!
Bart Plantenga
Editorials and cartoons that
appear on the right side of
the Editorial Poqe are the
opinion of the a u t h o r or
artist, and not necessarily
the opinion of the paper.
d65as ebumn
Distributed by .os Angeles imes SYNDICATE
Contact your reps
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