ABSTRACT
As the film A League of Their Own revealed to the American public, women once played professional baseball in the USA as a part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).2 While some questioned why any moviegoer would want to watch a film about women playing baseball, the film, like the league itself, was quite the crowd pleaser and cheered as a feminist Hollywood revelation.3 In contrast, the actual professional league has not fared as well when studied by academic critics because of its emphasis on femininity, which critics contend means that the league failed to bend or change gender expectations or performances.4 The league, though, occurred during World War II when there was a restrictive paradox for women: they were to perform masculinity as part of their duty to the nation, but remain women and abandon all performances of strength once the men returned home.
