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A review by spazzaferro
Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women's Wrestling by Dan Murphy, Pat Laprade
4.0
As an encyclopedic resource, this is a very solid book. It is not perfect, as other reviewers have pointed out. There is a lot of assumed information or information out of order. There's also a good amount of overlap that could use some additional editing. Readers would have benefited from an introductory chapter outlining a history of women's wrestling (and the all-female federations and promoters) before going into biography. At times I found myself putting the book down to google someone who had never been mentioned in previous pages.
There is also a bit of an unintentional bias that rears its head from time to time. There's a sentence about WWE's first female trainer Sara Amato that reads: "In fact, she's so good at what she does that she now not only trains women, but men as well." A word of advice-If you're writing a book about women's wrestling, how about not demeaning the women's division by pointing out that someone is a good enough trainer that they can work with men. I don't think this was malicious, but it is sloppy for a book like this.
I'm nitpicking a bit, but when your subject is women's wrestling, it would have been nice to have a woman on the writing team. That omission likely speaks more to wrestling fandom than to the author's knowledge of the subject. On that point they are very informed on the subject and I absolutely learned a lot from this book. I will certainly refer to it often, and think future volumes could (and should) follow. It's biggest shortcoming is not anyone's fault but time. This book was released in 2017, just one year before the women's division of WWE exploded with an all-women's royal rumble, an all women's pay per view, and the first ever women's match in the main event at Wrestlemania 35. It is optimistic about possibilities, but so close to missing the coverage of them. Perhaps future editions can include an extra chapter on this exciting period of women's wrestling and fandom.
Overall, this is a great introduction to the subject, but there is a lot missing from the story, and hopefully a lot more to be written by the athletes and fans in years to come!
There is also a bit of an unintentional bias that rears its head from time to time. There's a sentence about WWE's first female trainer Sara Amato that reads: "In fact, she's so good at what she does that she now not only trains women, but men as well." A word of advice-If you're writing a book about women's wrestling, how about not demeaning the women's division by pointing out that someone is a good enough trainer that they can work with men. I don't think this was malicious, but it is sloppy for a book like this.
I'm nitpicking a bit, but when your subject is women's wrestling, it would have been nice to have a woman on the writing team. That omission likely speaks more to wrestling fandom than to the author's knowledge of the subject. On that point they are very informed on the subject and I absolutely learned a lot from this book. I will certainly refer to it often, and think future volumes could (and should) follow. It's biggest shortcoming is not anyone's fault but time. This book was released in 2017, just one year before the women's division of WWE exploded with an all-women's royal rumble, an all women's pay per view, and the first ever women's match in the main event at Wrestlemania 35. It is optimistic about possibilities, but so close to missing the coverage of them. Perhaps future editions can include an extra chapter on this exciting period of women's wrestling and fandom.
Overall, this is a great introduction to the subject, but there is a lot missing from the story, and hopefully a lot more to be written by the athletes and fans in years to come!