First published 2006
Billie Jean King initially resisted Bobby Riggs's relentless challenges and provocations. For months, the self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig baited her while she dismissed his antics. Then Margaret Court suffered her humiliating defeat in the Mother's Day Massacre. King realized she had no choice but to accept the match despite enormous personal and professional stakes. She would face Riggs in what became the Battle of the Sexes, played before a raucous crowd in the Houston Astrodome. The worldwide spectacle transformed the social landscape for women forever. Selena Roberts chronicles this wild moment from the 1970s, tracing the collision between two outsized personalities. King grew up as the daughter of a homemaker and firefighter in 1950s Norman Rockwell America. Riggs was a gambling minister's son who craved attention more than he believed his own sexist rhetoric. Roberts reveals the complexity of the Kings' marriage, the social revolution pitting feminists against chauvinists, and King's wrenching coming-out story told in intimate detail for the first time.
Genres: 20th-century, gender-studies, feminism, biography-memoir, activism, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, social-change
Setting: Houston Astrodome, Norman Rockwell America
Period: 1970s
288 pages · Paperback · Three Rivers Pr