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Dick Button
(1929 - )
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 The
Arena of Masculinity : Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of
Sex by Brian Pronger
"Incongruous
and seductive, the combination of homosexuality and sport makes
one wonder about the meaning of sex. This book, while
exploring the special athletic experience of homosexual men, also
speaks of much more. The gay experience of athletics is a
lived metaphor for the more general experience of being an
outsider on the inside, of being a stranger in one's own
home. By proposing an understanding of our culture's
sexuality, a sexuality based on a grossly unjust order of gender,
this book offers substantial criticism of the way in which we all,
heterosexually and homosexually, go about our erotic lives.
This is not so much a criticism of people as it is a criticism of
culture that has created an ugly gender order, which, through its
myths of power, conceals the truth of our humanity by making us
see each other always through the filter of gender." -- From
The Arena of Masculinity by Brian Pronger "I
think this book is very well researched and extremely interesting,
although at times it felt as if the author fell in the realm of
"orthodoxy" that he was analyzing and deconstructing.
Tough subject, though, for as the author intelligently describes,
sports are another tool of the patriarchal orthodox
social/economical system, and as consequence, people without an
acceptable role in that system really have no place, in some
sports at least. In my opinion, the best thing about this book is
the thorough analysis that the author makes about how our culture
created and struggles to maintain the patriarchal system which oppresses
mainly women and anyone else who does not fit in neatly. An
excellent read, could not put it down." -- Anonymous Review
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Button, Dick (Richard Totten Button) (1929- )
PRO
FIGURE SKATER
Born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, Button
became in 1948 the first and only man to win the Olympic, World,
European, North American and U.S. championships in one year.
After retiring from competitive skating, Button
became a sports commentator.
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Excerpt:
American figure skater, winner of men's figure
skating gold medals at the Olympic
Games in 1948 and 1952. He also won the United States
championship seven times (1946-1952) and the world championship
five times (1948-1952). Button's athletic performances greatly
enhanced the popularity of men's figure skating.
Born Richard Totten Button in Englewood, New Jersey, he began ice
skating competitively at the age of 13 and won the United
States novice title at the age of 14. In 1946 he won the first of
seven consecutive titles at the United States Figure Skating
Championships, and in 1947 he placed second in the world
championships and won the first of his three consecutive North
American championships (1947, 1949, 1951)...
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Excerpt:
When Button was eleven, he wanted a pair of
skates for Christmas, and got them. But he was disappointed. His
father had bought him hockey skates instead of figure skates. The
skates were exchanged. Button at the time was a chubby 160 pounds
at only 5-foot-2 and his first teacher said he would never be a
good skater.
So his parents took him to another teacher and
within five years Button won the first of his seven straight
national championships, 1946 through 1952. He also won five
straight world championships, 1948 through 1952, and two Olympic
gold medals, in 1948 and in 1952. He won the 1949 Sullivan Award
as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete, the first time it had
ever gone to a figure skater...
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February 8, 1998 --
Fifty years ago, Dick Button became the first American figure
skater to win a gold medal at the Winter Games in St. Moritz,
Switzerland.
Hear Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane
Hansen talk with the two-time Olympic gold medalist and former
figure skating color commentator.
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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