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Women, Sport,
and Film - 2004
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If I, in six years, wrote a script about women and sports it would be a lot different then the movies made today. Movies made today are all about hope, success, and triumph. In six years I suspect the consumers will be tired of watching women play sports and there will no more professional venues for women to play ball in. All those girls that looked up to Mia Ham, ect., will be left longing to run through a 100,000-seat stadium.
My protagonists will be the young adults that grew out of today's "tween" generation. This is a generation of girls that know physical excellence is possible for women because they were pressured to play and shine during school but now they have no forum to show off. In my movie, the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) has been dissolved and neither will the short-lived WSA (Women's Soccer Association) because of low-ticket sales and Nielson ratings. These young ladies will have to find an audience if they want to play.
Sports sells, but sex sells more. The antagonists in my movie will be male chauvinists who try to convince the ladies to play in bathing suits. Of course the girls don't agree, and through grass roots campaigning and funding they start a sports league in which they can play. They find their popularity and audience when the media gets a hint of this story about humanity. Everyone wants to see a story of self-made success on the evening news after the reports of wars and drugs.
The movie will end on a semi-happy note. Yes, the girls have succeeded; they are having a ball playing ball. The movie will end with a burning question: "how long will it last this time?" The public may soon get tired, just as they did with the WSA after the 2003 season.
Are people watching because they enjoy watching competitive athletics? Or because they enjoy watching athletic women run and bounce up the field or court? Is the sport selling or is sex selling? Will Americans ever be able to separate sports from sex when it deals with beautiful women? These are the questions my film will raise.
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