sarahfa 's review for:

Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyễn

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

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I grew up with men’s sports being a huge part of my everyday culture. I am from Texas, so of course football (high school, college, and pro) was deeply embedded in the culture, as well as basketball and baseball. My grandfather attended college on a basketball scholarship and later helped start and coach his college’s first women’s basketball team. Many people have described the social, political, and economical ways sports are representative of and deeply valued in American culture. Some of which can be described by that tweet that says “Sorry I said football was diet war.” Hahahhahah

Anyway, I say that to say I find the ways people watch and understand sports interesting, especially as I became an adult and used the new concepts I learned (queerness, feminism, racism, classism, etc) to analyze all aspects of my life and the world. I honestly still like men’s sports and care about them as an adult. (Of course, women’s too.) But it is nice to be able to recognize the ways in which they perpetuate gender roles and nationalism. 

This story was about trans women who played in a pro men’s volleyball team. It is not totally set in our world, and in their world, the pro volleyball world tolerated (depending on the person) them in that world more so than I think they would in our world. 

They played in the men’s league for multiple reasons, including that they obviously make more money and have more brand deals there compared to the women’s league, and that trying to play in any women’s sports as a trans women/girl right now in our world is a hellish nightmare. (Let them play!!!!!!) 

In the story, the commentators never wrongly gendered them. It made me hopeful that men’s sports could one day be more welcoming to feminine men (obviously queer men and trans women, too, but baby steps 🙃). Like if someone on the Astros (example men’s pro sports team) came out as queer or trans tomorrow, it would feel unprecedented. It would be awesome, but they would receive so much homophobia. 

The descriptions of how the public talked about Six and Green felt very realistic. So much tearing them down, and I felt like I was reading comments I’ve seen on so many public queer instagrams/twitters. Also, the way the sports league saw Six and Green as wonderful marketing tools to make more money felt vividly real. 

It was frustrating that Henry didn’t get punished, but at least he was discouraged and saw he wasn’t going to become more popular than Six and Green. I was trying to guess who @transaretrans was, but I didn’t suspect Henry.

I am curious what other people thought! I really like stories exploring gender roles and transphobia and fandom and capitalism in sports. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia