I'm a 38-year old father of three and I view the WNBA players first as incredible athletes, second as excellent role models, third as exceptional human beings. And, oh yeah, they're women.

I don't really have an opinion about the league's strong emphasis on the feminine side of the athletes. I don't know if they need to but I understand, to a certain extent, why they do.

On a side note, I absolutely LOVE the fact that my 6-year old son's favorite professional athlete is Sue Bird. The kids LOVES football and yet Sue Bird is his favorite player. I think that says a lot about the league.

I'm looking forward to reading all the opinions, though based on what I read in this really good Game On! (you may have heard of it), I assume it's an attempt to de-homophobicize (via the media) a narrow-minded Bush-led nation into following and watching a sports league that deserves so much more credit and attention than it gets.

Whether or not it is right to have to comply in that manner, the WNBA (as you mentioned in your book's chapter "The 'L' Word") has sponsors in corporate America to keep happy and probably has to "make up" for the circus that the media made out of Sheryl Swoopes' sexuality, the “obvious” lesbian following of the sport, and the unfair stereotypes put on wonderfully talented women who are not all that feminine in the public eye... namely, on the basketball court. Right or wrong, the WNBA has to adhere to certain practices to do what is most important- to keep the league going at a continued rate of progressive success.

With all that being said and understanding what is being done here, I will say it is a shame that we live in a world where we can't all be accepted as we are, and in the case of WNBA players, just be appreciated for the joy and entertainment they bring to so many with their talent.

Glad you brought this up, Jayda. I come to see athletes play basketball, not to see their makeup. I think the league is bending over backward to interest male fans and to counter homophobia -- totally unnecessary IMO.

UGH! I thought we'd moved past the days of A League of Their Own.

Thank you AJ! This is an issue that gets under my skin. As Si pointed out (and thanks for the plug), I did write about this. What continues to bother me is that the players aren't accepted for their natural beauty. I understand freshening up for the cameras, but are we seriously still telling young women that you can't look like you just sweated during a basketball game? The WNBA has a rule were you have to stay dressed in your uniform for I believe 20-minutes for media interviews. This is where most players are going to be interviewed. You're telling me they're supposed to whip on some blush for the viewers at home while stewing in sweaty clothes? That's just gross. And why? Every year as the players in general grow more confident in whom they are; they blossom to look just as beautiful on the outside. I was impressed by this draft class and their elegance across the board. I would say that this aspect – makeup courses - could be left behind because their are as many femme-y players are their are masculine. I don’t mind teaching etiquette – all humans could use a few lessens there. But specifically to the WNBA, I'd rather they be taught how to dress on a budget and answer a question with some thought than coat their eyelashes. A great smile and a brain go farther -- and it helps me write. And yes, I hear the guys all time talking about whom looks good and asking me who are the lesbians. But they are professionals. Once assigned a story, the men report on the story. The WNBA is caving when it comes to looks and cannot claim progress when acting so retro.

So if you don't fall flat on your face in front of lesbian cheats who use men just to get pregnant you're a "narrow-minded Bush-led nation". Fortunately, most of the world is (I'm from Europe). If little girls worldwide can go crazy about a Beckham, why can't men look at women and think if they're pretty or not. The WNBA wouldn't need to do this "female" stuff, if it was more like a basketball league and less like a Democrat league. One reason women's leagues are more popular elsewhere is they're not politicized and not involved in overthrowing democracy, unlike the WNBA, which played a pivotal role in thwarting any attempts to put Title IX in line with reality, instead of feminist prejudices it reflects now in the form of sexist quotas that require the proportion of women and men among student athletes to be equal to those among students, even though it is a scientifically proven fact that because of biological differences women have less interest in sports than men, so the proportion of women among athletes will always be smaller than among students. See, the rest of the world does not have Title IX, nor does it have Val Ackerman or Julie Foudy, which is why we have normally functioning women leagues where your players come to earn real money and play a real season. And we root for them because of how they play and not how they look (not that we prefer to look at she males like Katie Smith over ladies like Lisa Leslie). And yes, you will call me narrow-minded and backwardish because insults, yelling and ignoring facts are the only feminist "arguments".