‘A League of Their Own’: A Feminist Classic

Last night, I watched A League of Their Own for the bajillionth time. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid and it remains one of my favorite movies as an adult. When I was a wee lass, I loved the movie because it was about girls playing baseball and the sports montages were exciting and fun. (Also, “There’s no crying in baseball!”) Watching the movie again as an adult alerted me to the different layers of feminism that makes it a classic. There are three aspects in particular that I want to discuss. 

1. Dottie Hinson: the woman who has it all?
One of the main emotional arcs in the movie has to do with the rivalry between sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller. Dottie has the complete package: not only is she an exceptional ball player, both as a catcher and a hitter, but she’s also statuesque and beautiful. Having a husband overseas fighting in the war makes her the perfect symbol for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Kit, meanwhile, has to live in her sister’s shadow, and boy does she resent the hell out of Dottie.

Now, I’ll be upfront and say that I can’t stand Kit or her whiny, unprofessional behavior, but I appreciate her resentment on a storytelling level because it adds another layer to Dottie’s character. Even though Dottie “has it all,” she clearly doesn’t want it all. She’s not comfortable when Ira Lowenstein dubs her the “Queen of Diamonds,” she’s not comfortable with being singled out among her teammates, she’s especially not comfortable with being singled out for her beauty, and her frustration with Kit’s resentment is palpable. As talented as she is, Dottie is insistent that she’ll stop playing in the league once her husband returns from the war. This is a decision that neither Kit nor Jimmy fully understand, and I think Dottie herself knows she won’t be completely satisfied with a life without baseball. I like that her choice isn’t clear-cut as a good or a bad one, and I like that Dottie shows that she doesn’t have to do something just because she’s good at it.

2. Jimmy Dugan: a fully developed male character in a movie about women.
I’ve seen far too many movies about men that have the Token Girl character. The Token Girl is usually the wife or girlfriend or sister of the Important Male Characters, and she usually exists to complain about how much time the Important Men take away from their families to follow their passion or work or sport or something. Jimmy is the male character of note in A League of Their Own, but he has a character arc and distinct personality traits and everything. He is much, much more than the Token Guy in a women’s movie. What would happen if all movies about men had characters with fully developed female characters? I should also mention that this is by far my favorite performance from Tom Hanks.

I also love the subtlety in the relationship between Jimmy and Dottie. He clearly falls for her by the end of the movie. He knows it, she knows it, and her husband knows it, but it remains subtext because they all know he’ll never do anything about it or push at any boundaries. Neither of them comment on it and he doesn’t pine away for her for all time. He knows she’ll never return his affection and he’s okay with it. It’s just so…mature.

3. The movie celebrates all women.
(Or, I should say, all young, cisgendered, heterosexual, white women.) But the women of the Rockford Peaches make up a fairly diverse group. Sexually promiscuous women like Mae are just as likable and celebrated as devoted wives like Betty Spaghetti. Marla, the “ugly” woman, is still an amazing hitter and still ends up married to a loving husband. Doris, always believing that she’ll be the “funny friend” to her sexy friend Mae, gets two fanboys during the championship series. The women on the Rockford Peaches are brassy and quiet, domineering and submissive, sexual and chaste and everywhere in between. They make up a wide range of personalities and we’re meant to root for them all equally.

Watching this movie again only made me love it more. In fact, I have finally come to terms with the Rockford Peaches losing the World Series.

I used to hate the ending of this movie. I spent the entire movie rooting for the Peaches and I was supposed to be happy with their loss so I could watch stupid selfish Kit get what she wanted? Fuck that noise!

But now I see the ending as a perfect summary of what makes the movie a feminist classic.

Dottie, the woman who has it all, the Exceptional Woman, is allowed to have a flaw. When she watches the Belles carry away her little sister on their shoulders, she smiles like the good big sister she is, but behind the smile is a sense of relief that she will no longer have the pressure of being perfect.

Jimmy, the man who dismissed his players as “girls” and “not ball players” at the beginning of the movie, turns down a job to coach a male baseball team. By the end of the movie, he has learned to value his women ball players as REAL ball players…and his newfound respect for them wasn’t contingent on their winning the World Series.

As for the teams? Well, the Peaches may have lost the World Series, but Walter Harvey comes around on the subject of women’s baseball and agrees to give the league another season. The real victory is for women’s baseball as a whole, not one particular team.

In short, this movie is a feminist classic and I love it (but Kit still sucks).