Battle of the Sexes (2017)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Battle of the Sexes (2017) – J. Dayton & V. Faris

Yesterday, a student in my social psychology class linked a youtube clip of Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson to our subject’s facebook group, so I had a look.  Although it was an older talk, it wasn’t long before I discovered Peterson’s more recent comments about gender relations (cherished by the alt-right).  To me, they represent “essentialist” thinking – men and women are different and constrained by their biological differences and that is how it ought to be (so says Peterson, or at least he implies that people will be happier if they follow the rules set out deterministically by biology and evolutionary history).  Of course, I heartily disagree, noting that gender differences on most personality traits are very small and shouldn’t be generalised and moreover, even if any differences exist they shouldn’t be represented as a constraint on what any one person or group of persons should be expected to do (and so on).  So, perhaps it was a happy coincidence that I found Battle of the Sexes in my mailbox on the same day.  Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris take us back to the early seventies and those more naïve days when “womens’ libbers” were just starting to tackle the (unrepentant) male chauvinists out there and a tennis match could become a focal point for debate about gender roles and abilities.  So, the film is a history lesson of sorts, no doubt aimed squarely at the current terms of the debate and the pussy-grabber-in-chief.  It is also a recreation of a particular event, a bio-pic of a moment, when 55-year-old Bobby Riggs (played by expert mimic Steve Carrell) challenged 29-year-old Billie Jean King (a nice turn by Emma Stone) to three sets to put male supremacy to the test (or to confirm it, in Riggs’ eyes).  Riggs was a bit of a joke and probably didn’t take any of this seriously but others around him did (although the film keeps things light). A separate theme focuses on King’s awakening same sex attraction and the pressures it puts on her marriage and her game (Alan Cumming is there to support her though).  Ironically, it is Australian Margaret Court (now an unabashed and outspoken gay marriage opponent) who is her biggest female rival.  Of course, King won the big match (hurrah!), although since I was not yet 6 at the time, I don’t quite remember it – but I do remember the seventies and Howard Cosell (appearing as himself in archive footage here) and the music and the gauzy feel of the moment, all captured beautifully here.  Those were different times.