Male author offers advice. Get it?

During the holiday break I taught an online sports writing class. It went well. Most of the students did all the work and showed improvement. I might just do it again next year.

So why am I going on about this? Well, I wanted to share a little something about our textbook for the course, “The Sports Writing Handbook,” by Thomas Fensch. It was a very good book. I think it provided a great overview of the subject. It even included a chapter entitled "Guidelines for Writing about Women." I was thrilled when I saw this. Then I read the chapter. I should have known what I was in for when I realized it was only four pages long. The book is more than 250 page in all. But I digress. Even though the chapter is short, Fensch does make some good points. He urges readers to avoid "othering," which means to write as if female athletes are the exception to the rule. An example Fensch uses is to avoid the following:

Arthur Ashe was a great tennis player. Billie Jean King is a great female tennis player.

I use similar examples in class. The above implies that when you say "tennis player," you're saying "male," and when you add "women," you're not really talking about "real" tennis players. It implies that because she is a woman, King is somehow less of a tennis player. I'm not saying King could beat Ashe, although she did kick Bobby Riggs' sorry behind, but that's another story.

And Fensch gives a great piece of advice when he says the following:

When you have completed a story about a woman, go through it and ask yourself whether you would have written about a man in the same style. If not, something may be wrong with the tone or even the conception of your article. Think it through again.

That's good advice for all writers, not just those in the sports section. It's all great advice when writing about people of color, those with disabilities, gay men and lesbians, and any other group that's taken it on the chin in the past.

One more thing about Fensch's book. The chapter that immediately follows the one on women is about writing advance stories. On the very first page of this chapter, in his list of guidelines for writing advances, Fensch warns reporters to be on the lookout for teams that schedule "weak sisters."

What does he mean by a “weak sister”? I’ve never heard this term before, but I guess it means a weak opponent. I wonder why it’s not a “weak brother”? I’m assuming that whoever came up with this term used sister instead of brother because girls are traditionally seen as weaker than boys. The fact is, however, that many girls are stronger than many boys. Furthermore, the use of the term, especially in sports writing, serves to reinforce the stereotype that girls are not meant to be athletes. Things like this turn girls off to sports and further the stereotype that sports are a male domain.

I’m not trying to nitpick the book to death. What I’m trying to do is show how important words can be. The way we use words matters. I find it ironic but sad that this example came right after the chapter on avoiding sexist language. Funny. Or maybe not. What do you think?