Robyn Ryle is a sociologist, writer, and sports fan who has taught about gender, race, and sexuality to college students for twenty years. Her previous books include She/He/They/Me: For the Sisters, Misters and Binary Resisters and Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration. She lives in Madison, Indiana.

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1. When All Cheerleaders Were Boys: Sports and Gender Segregation 2. How to Tell If a Woman Is “Really” a Woman: Gender Testing and the Olympics 3. Throwing Like a Girl: Are Men Really Better Athletes Than Women? 4. Sport for Everyone?: The Case of Transgender Athletes 5. Bow or No Bow?: Sexuality in Women’s Sports 6. Inside the Boys’ Locker Room: Homophobia and Men’s Sports 7. Why the Dutch Are So Good at Baseball: Globalization, Sports, and the Legacy of Colonialism 8.The Best Italian Baseball Player Is Black: How the Histories of Sport and Race Intertwine 9. Riding a Bike, Raising a Fist, and Taking a Knee: The Long History of Sports, Activism, and Social Change Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

Did you know that cheerleading was originally thought to be too macho for girls? This book delves into all the ways that our gender, sexuality, or race-based assumptions and expectations about people affect how we see their performance on the playing field, often ignoring what people are actually doing out there. Robyn Ryle uses clear sources and text to show how often the expectation comes first, and then the results are interpreted to fit what people wanted to see. Modern issues around transgender athletes, activist players, and homophobic announcers in different sports are all examined with a steady but light tone, showing how society and sports affect one another in ways we never think about.