‘Learning to Speak Softly’: the autobiography of Roberta Cowell

Jean WilliamsInternational Centre for Sports

History and Culture DMU

Introduction: Gender as a relational concept; RC’s autobiography and historical time

Main Topic: An overview of the autobiography of Robert/ Roberta Cowell

Concluding Wider Context: 1. British Motor Racing history2. Resisting the linear sequence in sports history

Some wonderful recent work on gender as a relational concept i.e. Kasia Boddy Boxing: A Cultural History and Erik Jensen Body By Weimar

History and time: Lynda Nead’s The Haunted Gallery using Michel Serres’ work – compared time to water and conceptualised it as kinetic

‘Historical time is imagined as folded, pleated, and kneaded: it is spatial and topological, a dynamic volume, rather than a linear sequence.’

Motor racing & esp. biography of drivers makes this point nicely.

Roberts Cowell’s Story: An Autobiography is an historical example exploring the gendered identities of one individual – very much in and of its time

I wanted to fly fighter aircraft, drive fast cars, and perform other feats. In my day-dreams I would be the schoolboy’s idol; heroically doing fantastically courageous things, then nonchalantly signing autographs…

My favourite sports were tennis and fencing, but I scraped into the Rugger XV as a wing three-quarter.

‘There is no such thing as a plain or ugly woman, only those who do not know how to make the best of themselves.’

Concluding Wider Context1.Motor Racing after WW2 1945-1976

-1946 GP of Nations Geneva; Italian cars dominated Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari and into the 1950s also Mercedes Benz-1946 newly formed Federation Internationale de l’ Automobile (FIA) established rules for GP and the term Formula One used for first time-1947 British anxiety for a national racing car led to est. British Racing Motors (BRM) Trust with 100 companies pledging support, driver Raymond Mays and engineer Peter Berthon

1949 British GP held at Silverstone; first Motorcycle World Championship in 1949

1950 First Formula One Drivers’ Championship (those of the 1920s now ignored by

historians as ‘unofficial’); first event to count towards this held at Silverstone & then Geneva; Spa; Rheims; Monza and

Nurburgring, plus Indy 500The ‘British School’ develops (Stirling Moss

wins his first TT at 21; many circuits built on disused airfields; lighter Formula 3 acted as a talent identification class and BRMs became more successful)

1964 John Surtees wins GP World Championship title1965 Jim Clark won 6 GPs and Indy 5001966 New 3 litre formulation for GP1968 ‘Wing’ and ‘Wedge’ designs developed1969 Stewart’s first World Championship1972 Ecclestone takes over at Brabham team, BRM win last

Monaco GP, Lotus, Cooper, and Tyrell important teams 1973 Jackie Stewart’s last season & third World

Championship, most successful driver in GP history 27 victories in 99 starts

1975 Death of Graham Hill; many GP cars use British parts and especially engines

1976 James Hunt (Hunt-the Shunt) becomes F1 World Champion; Barry Sheene becomes Motorcycle World

Champion –the British Playboy Motor Racing Stereotype

2. Resisting the linear sequence in sports historyBrooklands 1908-1939 might have been more important for women’s contribution to motor racing than 1946-1976 but…

Then again, how do we define ‘motor racing’ ‘women’s contribution’ and ‘important’(the ‘Dog-house Owner’s Club’ versus the Jackie Stewart legend)(Rallying in 1950s and 60s Sheila Van Damm Pat Moss and Anne Wisdom, driving equestrians)

Gender and sporting bodies: has the urge to classify, regulate and binarise become more intense since WW2?

The 2011 ‘Caster Semenya ruling’: A female with hyperandrogenism who is recognised as a female in law will be eligible to compete in women's competition in athletics provided that she has androgen levels below the male range (measured by reference to testosterone levels in serum) or, if she has androgen levels within the male range she also has an androgen resistance which means that she derives no competitive advantage from such levels.’

As part of their remit to govern and develop sport, national and international organisations classify and legislate on gender (among other identities) in ways that are conservative and out of touch with the way that we would behave in other areas of our lives. While some athletes such as Dennis Rodman can play with this still, there are cases such as Eudy Simelane, the lesbian rights campaigner and South African football player who was killed in a ‘corrective rape’ gang murder in 2008.

How can we historicise gender relations in sport as integral to our research and writing?