CLEP US History II

Answer: E - Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King faced off in a 1973 tennis match dubbed the Battle of the Sexes, which was hyped due to the implication that the match’s outcome would demonstrate whether or not women really could compete against men equally in sports. Fifty million people in the United States and 90 million people worldwide watched the bout, making it the most watched tennis match in history. King defeated Riggs in straight sets, which was seen as a valiant victory for the women’s liberation movement. However, many tennis players and journalists noted that the disparity between the players’ ages (Riggs was 55,while King was only 29) made the match uneven. However, earlier that year, Riggs had played another exhibition against a female player, Margaret Court (the top-ranked female player in the world at the time), and he had defeated her handily. Riggs feigned a chauvinistic persona for the match, but it was generally understood by everyone (including King and the viewers) that it was his way of promoting the event. Nevertheless, King’s win enshrined her as a feminist icon.