Dottie and Kit how unattractive one prospect is, even though she is a power-hitting double-threat. In a touching speech, the girl’s father makes a moving speech, “I know my girl ain’t so pretty as these girls, but that’s my fault. I raised her like I would a boy. I didn’t know any better. She loves to play. Don’t make my little girl suffer because I messed up raising her. Please.”
We also see other gender ideologies expressed in the film that relegate women to sex objects at worst and something to be appealing to men at best. As one announced notes, “Then there’s pretty Dottie Henson, who plays like Gehrig, and looks like Garbo...And there’s her kid sister Kit, who’s as single as they come.” We see that the ideologies of gender are constructed in this way by social interaction, as men most often dominate women’s gender roles. This was especially true in the era during which the film takes place. In addition to this, we see that perceptions of self also contribute to gender ideologies. We see this in the example of Marla Hooch, who is so unattractive when its time to board the train to training camp she folds up inside herself,
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