Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias. By Susan E. Cayleff. Women in
American History. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, c. 1995. Pp. xiv, 327. $29.95, ISBN 0.252.01793-5.)
She was arguably the greatest female athlete of the twentieth century. Babe
Didrikson Zaharias was also the media’s favorite target, in good times and bad. In Babe:
The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Susan E. Cayleff attempts to illuminate the carefully constructed private life and the flamboyant public life of one of America’s greatest female athletes of all time. Babe Didrikson was born in East Texas to working-class Norwegian immigrants. A gifted natural athlete, Babe dominated women’s track and field events at the 1932 Olympic Games. Battling gender norms of the 1920s and 1930s, Babe retired from track and field and soon began to dominate another sport: golf. Babe was known throughout her career for her self-promotion and flamboyant personality. Her marriage to wrestler George Zaharias seemed to quiet speculation of her lack of feminism, but then a close relationship with fellow golfer Betty Dodd cast doubts on Babe’s deliberate attempts to prove her womanliness. Cayleff compares the life Babe actually lived to the life Babe tried to invent through the media. Cayleff leaves readers with her interpretation of the two drastically different lives.
Perhaps Cayleff’s greatest accomplishment in Babe is her portrayal of Babe through the years she desperately tried to create and manage her feminine character. Cayleff argues that one of the main reasons Babe took up golf was because of the sport’s notoriety as a ladylike sport. Prior to her transition into golf, Babe was repeatedly put on display by the media as a tom-boy, muscle moll, as being of a third sex, and as dressing and acting like a man. As her marriage to George Zaharias and career in golf coincided, Babe intended to show everyone that she was a lady who could compete at the highest level, but at the same time was the epitome of a womanly wife. “All the while I was enjoying being Mrs. George Zaharias. That’s what I’ve been ever since we were married, whether I was keeping house or playing in a golf tournament.” Babe proved she could play both characters.
Cayleff makes plain the fact that Babe was a bully and mean-spirited towards most women she competed against, but what legacy did she leave competitive female athletes after her untimely death? Certainly Babe paved the way for many female athletes, especially in the realm of self-promotion, but Cayleff provides little evidence of this. Even though Babe had a significant hand in creating the Ladies Professional Golf Association, it was not created because Babe wanted to leave any kind of lasting female golf legacy. Babe helped create the LPGA because she was looking for other opportunities for competition. More exploration into what Babe accomplished for female athletes in general would have added to this work.
Given the better acceptance of homosexuality today’s society, contemporary readers want an answer to the question: Did Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Betty Dodd have a sexual relationship? Although Cayleff alludes to such, no explicit answer is given. Cayleff should not bear the fault given Babe’s not-so-subtle measures to hide any evidence of a sexual relationship existing. The truth is that there was no answer for Cayleff to uncover. Twenty-first century readers would, however, demand an answer and find Babe lacking in this regard.
Cayleff suggests that Babe’s intentional cover-up of her sexual life led to a generation of lesbians losing a self-proclaimed lesbian hero. Given the male/female cultural norms and Babe’s desire to appear normal, it is no surprise that she hid her private life and never gave explicit answers regarding her relationship with Betty Dodd. Cayleff rightly states that Babe was too busy shouldering other, mostly athletic, burdens. Even with all of her charisma, trophies, and championships, Babe realized society’s prejudices towards lesbians was an opponent she could not defeat.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias left Texas with a lasting sports legacy. Indeed, her hometown proudly hosts the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum Foundation, an annual golf tournament in her name, and numerous scholarships in her name. Interestingly, in keeping with Babe’s determination to hide her sexual relationship with Betty Dodd, the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum website never mentions Betty Dodd’s name, and while not proclaiming an undying love between Babe and George, George’s name is mentioned in several places.
Jaycie Smith
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