Battle of the Sexes clip shows Billie Jean fighting institutionalized sexism

September 19th 2017, 2:00pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

BATTLE OF THE SEXES tells the true story the titular 1973 tennis match between female tennis wunderkind Billie Jean King and ex-champ and chauvinist Bobby Riggs. It’s an inspiring story of a woman competing in a man’s field, and even excelling at it. I can’t imagine how exciting this must’ve been to see in person! In fact, 90 million eventually ended up tuning in – one of the most-watched television events in history!

However, what’s interesting in the above clip, is that it seems that Bobby Riggs isn’t really the main threat to Billie Jean King, but rather Bill Pullman‘s character, playing the head of the sport who is refusing to pay women tennis players equal pay. This is still relevant today, especially as I hear these sorts of arguments about “the different biology between men and women” to justify entrenched and systemic sexism (such as barring women from specific jobs or denying equal pay for the same jobs) from asshole internet commenters and family members I have to tolerate once or twice a year. And yes, that’s SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS’s Tom Kenny as Pullman’s toady.