Phyllis Graber, also known as Phyllis Graber Jensen, is a former American tennis player.
Phyllis wanted to play tennis at Jamaica High School, but there was no girls' tennis team there. She requested to be a player on the boys' tennis team, but girls were not allowed in boys' sports under New York City Board of Education rules. [1] [2] [3] Therefore, she filed a complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, then chaired by civil rights leader and future congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Ira Glasser worked with her on this matter. [4] In September 1970 Phyllis made her case before the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and in February 1971, the New York City Board of Education voted to allow boys to compete with girls in non-contact sports. The only vote against this was the vote of Mary Meade, the only woman on the Board at the time; Meade was notable as having been the first woman to become principal of any coeducational high school in New York City, when she became principal of Tottenville High School in 1937. Phyllis then joined the tennis team in 1971, becoming the first officially sanctioned female member of a formerly all-male high school varsity tennis team in New York City. [1] [5] [3]
She also played on the women's tennis team at Cornell University. [1]
Phyllis worked as a staff photographer for the Boston Herald from 1984 to 1992 and is currently employed by Bates College as director of photography and video for the school's communications office. [1] From August to October 2021, the Maine Jewish Museum exhibited "Shalom, Sisters," a selection of her photos highlighting Jewish women in Maine. [6]
As noted by the New York Times , the book Radical Play: Revolutionizing Children’s Toys in 1960s and 1970s America (2023) "traces a direct line from the Graber case to the emergence of an androgynously named teenage doll, Dusty, introduced as an anti-Barbie by the Kenner toy company in 1974." A version of the Dusty doll could play tennis. [1] [7]
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pets. Toys can provide utilitarian benefits, including physical exercise, cultural awareness, or academic education. Additionally, utilitarian objects, especially those which are no longer needed for their original purpose, can be used as toys. Examples include children building a fort with empty cereal boxes and tissue paper spools, or a toddler playing with a broken TV remote. The term "toy" can also be used to refer to utilitarian objects purchased for enjoyment rather than need, or for expensive necessities for which a large fraction of the cost represents its ability to provide enjoyment to the owner, such as luxury cars, high-end motorcycles, gaming computers, and flagship smartphones.
Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll which Handler had purchased while in Europe. The figurehead of an eponymous brand that includes a range of fashion dolls and accessories, Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. The brand has expanded into a multimedia franchise since 1984, including video games, animated films, television/web series, and a live-action film.
Ruth Marianna Handler was an American business magnate and inventor. She is best known for inventing the Barbie doll in 1959 and being co-founder of toy manufacturer Mattel with her husband Elliot, as well as serving as the company's first president from 1945 to 1975.
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Rose Cecil O'Neill was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer. She rose to fame for her creation of the popular comic strip characters, Kewpies, in 1909, and was also the first published female cartoonist in the United States.
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The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the abbreviation PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled in New York City public schools. It is the oldest and largest sports league in the United States. The PSAL serves both boys and girls. The PSAL holds competitions in a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports in fall, winter and spring seasons. In 2007, the league included 185 schools involving nearly 2,400 teams.
Renée Richards is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who competed on the professional circuit in the 1970s, and became widely known following male-to-female medical affirmation, when she fought to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open.
Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She is a renowned second-wave feminist psychologist and the author of 18 books, including the best-sellers Women and Madness (1972), With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979), and An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir (2013). Chesler has written extensively about topics such as gender, mental illness, divorce and child custody, surrogacy, second-wave feminism, pornography, prostitution, incest, and violence against women.
Julie Heldman is an American tennis player who won 22 singles titles. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles Champion at age 12, U.S. Champion in Girls' 15 Singles and Girls' 18 Singles, Italian Open Singles Champion, Canadian Singles and Doubles Champion, and U.S. Clay Court Doubles Champion. She won three medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and three gold medals at the 1969 Maccabiah Games.
Donna Geils Orender is a sports executive and a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She was formerly president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and senior vice president of the PGA. Currently, Orender is the founder and CEO of Orender Unlimited, a Jacksonville, Florida–based advisory and consultancy firm. She travels the world as a motivational speaker and advocating for the empowerment of women and young girls through her non-profit organization Generation W.
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"Moroccan Christmas" is the eleventh episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office and the show's eighty-third episode overall. The episode aired in the United States on December 11, 2008, on NBC.
Lynn Pressman Raymond was an American business executive who joined her husband Jack Pressman in developing and growing the Pressman Toy Corporation, and was an innovator in creating and licensing toys based on hit television programs and professional athletes in her two decades as president of the firm following her husband's death in 1959.
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Thelma Thall "Tybie" Sommer is the only living American woman to have won two World Table Tennis Championships.
Marjory Logan Gengler Smith is an American retired tennis player. In 1973, while a student at Princeton University, she was captain of the women's tennis team and led them to an undefeated season in 1972. She was the top ranked player at Princeton, the number one-ranked female player in the Eastern United States, and the first woman to be featured, as "Princeton's Best Athlete", on the cover of Princeton Alumni Weekly. In 1973, inspired by the Battle of the Sexes between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, Gengler took on Jeffrey Lewis-Oakes, the top ranked men's junior varsity player, but lost the match. Gengler competed at the US Open in mixed doubles in 1971, 1973, and 1974 and in doubles in 1971, as well as singles in 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1971. She also competed at Wimbledon in mixed doubles in 1972. Gengler is married to retired professional tennis player Stan Smith.