性别之战

The True Story Behind the Battle of the Sexes Movie

The 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was a spectacle made for Hollywood. King was at the top of her game, the first female player to win over $100,000 in a year. Riggs was an over-the-hill showboat and self-declared chauvinist pig with a gambling problem. Riggs hoped for one last minute of fame, King to prove that women deserved as much prize money and respect as men.

Ninety million people tuned into “The Battle of the Sexes,” and 44 years later Emma Stone and Steve Carrell are bringing the match to the big screen. The movie details both the on-court drama and the behind-the-scenes turmoil affecting the two tennis legends. The married King had recently begun an affair with a woman, while Riggs was struggling to connect with his family. Here’s what the movie got right about the historic game that made King an icon — and what the filmmakers exaggerated.


Fact: Billie Jean King came into conflict with Jack Kramer

Once a tennis champ himself, Kramer (Bill Pullman) was running the Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament in 1970. That tournament offered women just 15% of the prize money that it awarded the men, despite that the women’s final sold as many tickets as the men’s final did. King challenged Kramer about the pay gap, and when he would not agree to up the women’s prize money, King led a walk-out. She and several other women went on to create the Virginia Slims tour and later the Women’s Tennis Association.

Kramer and King came into conflict again three years later on the eve of the Battle of the Sexes game. Kramer was set to be a commentator for the game, and King threatened to call off the match at the last minute if Kramer wasn’t removed. She argued that he was biased against female tennis players. The network conceded to her demands.


Fact: Virginia Slims sponsored that women’s tennis tour

In retrospect, the cigarette company was probably not the best sponsor of an athletic tournament. But it was the only advertising money they could get. Sarah Silverman’s character, Gladys Heldman, did indeed arrange the Virginia Slims tour. She asked the players to sign symbolic $1 contracts before they had enough money to pay the players and then wrangled sponsors. The women were suspended by the USTA but when the women’s tour proved successful, the two tours merged again.

Once a tennis player herself, Heldman founded World Tennis magazine and supported female tennis players in their support for equal pay. Her own daughter, Julie, even joined the separate women’s tour.


Fact: Riggs played poker with his therapist

He was, truly, a hustler.


Fiction: King and Riggs were old friends

In the movie, the two tennis players seem to know each other well — not only does Riggs call King in the middle of the night to challenge her to a match, but King dismisses the call as typical Riggs behavior. In reality, King says she barely knew the former champion, who was 25 years her senior.

However, after the Battle of the Sexes the two became friends and remained close until his death in 1995. King said she spoke to Riggs the day before he died, and they said “I love you” to each other.


Fact: King did initially turn Riggs down for the match

And he did then ask Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) to play him instead. Riggs defeated Court in the “Mother’s Day Massacre,” which changed King’s mind about playing Riggs.

King and Court really were rivals, their careers intertwined. King’s first major singles success came in 1972 when she upset the top-seeded Court in the second round of Wimbledon. For the next decade, they competed for the top spot of the women’s rankings. Over the course of their careers, Court won 24 majors, and King just 12. That made King’s ability to defeat Riggs after the Mother’s Day Massacre extra sweet.


Fact: Margaret Court is opposed to same-sex marriage

The conservative tennis player has publicly called same-sex relationships “a lust for the flesh.”


Fact: During the “Battle of the Sexes,” Billie Jean King was involved with her hairdresser

The affair really did take place in the period before the Battle of the Sexes. King’s relationship with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett later became public in 1981 when Barnett sued King for a share of the tennis player’s property. In the suit, Barnett argued that because she gave up her career as a hairdresser to become a secretary, confidante, cook “and all other things necessary so that Mrs. King’s energy could be totally directed toward playing tennis,” under California law Barnett was due palimony, according to the New York Times.

King, who was still married to Larry King (Austin Stowell in the movie) at the time, initially denied the affair. But later that year she called a press conference in which she admitted her involvement with Barnett (Andrew Riseborough). “People’s privacy is very important, but unfortunately someone didn’t respect that,” she told The Chicago Tribune. “I did have an affair with Marilyn, but it was over quite some time ago. I’m very disturbed and shocked that Marilyn would do this in such a selfish way.”

Billie Jean and Larry King divorced in 1987. King is now in a relationship with Ilana Kloss, also a former tennis player. She has since become a prominent booster for LGBTQ rights.


Fiction: Barnett showed up right before King’s match to give her a haircut

The scene in which Barnett runs out of her salon to find King and give her a confidence boost (and a haircut) right before her face-off with Riggs is Hollywood fabrication. The haircut did happen but in Los Angeles before King left for the match in Houston.


Fact: Riggs was sponsored by Sugar Daddy

Fact: Designer Ted Tinling did indeed design King’s dress for Battle of the Sexes
Alan Cumming’s character really did dress the female tennis players for the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. A former World War II spy and tennis player himself, Tinling became infamous in the tennis world when he was banned from Wimbledon because his outfits were “too racy,” according to Cumming.


Fact: Howard Cosell draped an arm around tennis star Rosie Casals during the match commentary

The condescending move was all-too-real and broadcast on live TV. The filmmakers edited actor Natalie Morales into the real footage.


Fact: King wore blue suede shoes

Her outfit is now on display at the Smithsonian.


Fact: Riggs was taking 415 vitamins a day before the match

Before the match with Margaret Court, the 55-year-old Riggs enlisted the help of Hollywood nutrition guru Rheo Blair. He began a protein and dairy-focused diet and popped hundreds of vitamins every day.


Fact: Larry Riggs did not attend the match

Selena Roberts writes in A Necessary Spectacle that Bobby Riggs’ son foresaw his father’s downfall when Bobby didn’t take his training seriously. In protest, he refused to attend the King-Riggs match.


Fact: Billie Jean King was carried like Cleopatra into the Astrodome


Fact: When King won, Riggs said, “I really underestimated you.”

King has shared the mid-court conversation, included in the movie, with reporters. Riggs reportedly later said after the match, “This is the worst thing in the world I’ve ever done.”

ESPN once reported that the entire match was rigged by the mob. King denies that this was true, and the directors say that those they spoke to close to Bobby thought the accusation “ridiculous.” The filmmakers probably show Riggs betting on himself to win in the film in order to debunk the rigging rumor.


Fiction: King cried alone in the locker room after winning

King says didn’t get a moment to herself after the historic match. “They kept me so busy after that, but that’s how I was feeling, such relief,” King told USA Today.

P.S.
How Billie Jean King Won the Battle of the Sexes, as Told in 1973

很显然这是一部女权主义电影，但也不乏是一场相当有趣地对人类进化史的回顾。片中到处都是贬低女性的言论，甚至都是公开在电视上，那看得真是让人生气，甚至觉得不可思议。40年前，可以直接在电视上说女人只配呆在卧室和厨房，现在要是这样说，那简直不堪设想。

如果不说这是真人真事，片中很多公开侮辱女性的言论真的令人乍舌，相信任何文明国家的人都会觉得很吃惊，这样的事发生在40年前的美国，也许依然发生在很多地方。还记得去年某位知名电视主持人和某位总统竞选者在车里说出所谓locker room talk侮辱女性的话被公之于众，后果是某位主持人马上被开除，踢出娱乐圈，再也无人问津。据说都要去进行心理治疗。而另一位，成为了美国总统。。。这样看来，好像40年，改变的也不多。

本片正是给人这种感觉：女性争取平等地位已经获得了很大成绩，比如很多职业里，男女获得的工资标准是一样的。但又有很多职业里，男女至今没有实现平等。而且扎根于某些人思想里对女性的鄙视依然没变，只是从在电视上变成了locker room talk。

这也是为何石头妹艾玛·斯通这次的角色是一个非常典型也是非常好的例子，她其实不仅只是赢了这场比赛，而是从这场比赛开始前，她就已经为女性作出了表率：向不公平和不受尊重的待遇说不。 这场比赛，虽然看起来很激烈，但意义并不大。首先不同性别，不同年级的人比赛本来就是违背公平原则，但在备受讽刺后，女选手能做的只能是接受挑战，用比分回敬对方，说白了还是被逼到了这个地步的一种还击。因此当女主赢了比赛，她却没有真的很开心，而是失声痛哭。为何，她要拼命去打败一个歧视女性的人，才能证明自己的实力？因为要争取更多的话语权。只有这样，人们才会听她的观念，正眼看她。我想，很多女性在学业、事业上打拼都是为了这点。

艾玛全片素颜表演绝对值得提名，但并不能算是超越了她之前的表演经历。反而是史蒂夫·卡瑞尔把这个大嘴巴、歧视女性又爱赌博的Bobby Riggs演得可恨又可笑，十分滑稽。这个角色的很多行为真的让我想起某位领导人，他越是说让人大跌眼镜、颠覆三观的话，反而越受欢迎。很多行为让人不知道是该笑还是该骂。我个人觉得卡瑞尔也很值得提名。

本片是在希拉里输掉选举之前拍摄的。如果希拉里赢了，看到这部电影的感觉会更不同。然而不是每次比赛都公平，特别是无法用一定体育规则和得分去衡量的美国大选。当初希拉里是怎么输掉这场“比赛”都没人能说清，或甚至是否最终的结果真的是公正的都很难说。但那场大选其实让我们看到了女性依然没有得到应有的尊重。但更重要的是，很多这样的女性选手，无论在哪个领域，都还在路上，为了赢得尊重而努力，就算这个不够好，还会有下一个。