I have always been a tennis player and fan, but that’s not required to love Battle of the Sexes, an essential film about the epic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. (Recently released on ITunes and Amazon). The tennis in the movie is great, but it’s also:
- A thrilling portrait of Billie Jean, the courageous pioneer of 20th century women’s rights who belongs in that Pantheon along with Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Hillary Clinton;
- A tribute to the the rise of the women’s movement in the ‘70s and the depth of hard-line resistance to it;
- A touching personal story of awakening love and sexuality;
- A snapshot of a moment in time for LGBTQ rights, — three years after Stonewall, but more than four decades before Obergefell;
- Sympathy for the “Devil,” with Steve Carrell playing Riggs as a goof yearning for attention and love;
- Recognizing the real villain: Jack Kramer and the male establishment, tennis and otherwise;
- A Deal with the Devil: the ethical compromise of what do you do when a cigarette company is the only sponsor in your fight for equal pay.
- Perfect casting of Emma Stone as Billie Jean, Carrel as Riggs and Sarah Silverman as the manager of the women’s tour.
Billie Jean King took on Riggs only after he beat the other top women’s player, Margaret Court. Riggs was making a quick buck, doing schtick, having nothing to lose except continuing the hustle by playing other women like rising star Chrissie Evert, for even more money.
But Billie Jean was playing for women’s tennis and women generally, reluctantly carrying a burden greater than any grand slam finalist of either sex. She won easily, but it was no foregone conclusion, especially after Court’s loss.
In the film, after winning match point, she retreats to the locker room alone and sobs uncontrollably, overwhelmed by triumph, relief, and the magnitude of the moment. The sobs gradually give way to a smile amid the tears as she finally lets herself relish what she did.
And she does it while closely guarding the secret of her sexuality, which if disclosed, threatens her career, the women’s tour she built and alienation from her parents. It’s astonishing she could bear the massive pressure from all sides and come through it all. The women’s tour hairdresser, Ted Tinling (Alan Cumming) comforts her after the match, whispering, “Some day people like us will be able to openly love whom we want.”
On the surface, King-Riggs was just a tennis match turned into a circus. But underlying the circus were two other struggles of the 20th and 21st century: Women’s and LGBTQ rights. And like other struggles, the match is an inspiring but painful illustrations of the words of abolitionist Theodore Parker.
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
Paraphrased by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in several speeches as: “The arc of the moral universe is strong, but it bends toward justice.”
At the end of Battle of the Sexes, I had similar “arc of the universe” thoughts. Nearly fifty years after the King-Riggs match and the rise of the women’s movement it represented, we witness continued pay disparity, discrimination, grotesque harassment and gender-based political attacks. Nearly fifty years after Billie Jean’s awakening, gay marriage is legal, but a Senate candidate attracts support in spite of advocating criminalizing homosexuality, while most states permit job discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The Arc of the universe appears to be getting longer, but if we aspire to Billie Jean’s spirit, we can help bend it back toward justice.
