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08/04/2021 08:30 AMDuring a 45-minute phone conversation, Linda Fuller’s energy doesn’t flag once. She picks up a thread of conversation and follows it eagerly until another thread dangles in her peripheral vision, and then she follows that one.
That energy and focus has propelled the Madison resident through writing or editing more than 30 books and more than 250 professional publications and conference reports, largely revolving around sports or women or both. That enthusiasm has also carried her as a two-time Fulbright scholar, first to teach in Singapore in 1996 and again to engage in HIV/AIDS research in Senegal in 2002.
Linda earned her PhD in communications studies from UMass and was a professor of communications at Worcester State University until 2002, then became a senior fellow in women’s studies at Northeastern University. Linda has also taught and worked in journalism—she was town correspondent in her former hometown of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, for The Reminder and wrote “The Christian Science Monitor: An Evolving Experience in Journalism” (2011), a project that was “especially exciting as they allowed me in despite my not being of that faith,” she says.
As listed on her website, LKFullerSport.com, Linda’s extensive body of work also includes editing “Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender” (2006), writing “African Women’s Unique Vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS” (2008), editing the two-volume Sexual Sports Rhetoric (2009), co-editing “Women, War and Violence” (2010), writing “Female Olympians: A Mediated Socio-Cultural/Political-Economic Timeline” (2016), writing “Female Olympian and Paralympian Events” (2018), and editing the two-volume Sportswomen’s Apparel (one book on the United States and another on the rest of the world) published this year.
Let the Games Begin
Readers may have noticed a theme woven throughout Linda’s work—sports. And because the Olympics is the pinnacle of the sporting world, and because Linda digs deep into everything that grabs her interest, much of her focus lies there.
The expert researcher, who signs her emails “Sportingly, Linda,” has visited every Olympics host country going back to Greece, where the first Olympic Games were held in 1896.
“My goal in life had been to visit every country that has hosted the games, but now I need a new one as that was accomplished at Oslo in 2011,” she says.
Linda says she can’t pick a favorite of all the countries, “but probably the most interesting would have to be to say that I’ve been in Sarajevo, which no longer is there,” she says. “Of course, probably the most amazing was to go to Olympia in Greece. That blew me away.”
More recently, she’s written about “the gendered language of sport,” she explains, which has focused on the Olympics and Paralympics. These days, she’s carving out time to fulfill a contract for the book Female Olympian and Paralympian Athlete Activists: Breaking Records, Glass Ceilings, and Social Codes while also contributing a piece on the sportswear of Tokyo 2020 to an edited collection.
Clothing at the Olympics is a hot topic now as some female athletes move away from the standard skimpy uniforms in favor of functionality—although one team wants its bikinis smaller, Linda says.
“The women’s handball team have said they’re not going to wear bikinis, they’re going to wear shorts,” she points out. “The beach volleyball team has said, ‘We need our bikinis smaller because we can’t get dirt in them,’ and then there’s a German team that’s wearing unitards.”
Linda’s favorite Olympian is Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer who won a bronze medal in the 2016 games and the first woman to ever wear hijab in the Olympics. A Barbie doll has been crafted in her likeness.
On the topic of women’s athletic clothing, Linda comments, “It’s just been wonderful to watch Serena [Williams] in her catsuit and all the different things that people are doing. It’s all happening—body suits and burkas, and the whole topic then of, ‘Do I wear boxer shorts or do I wear a skirt?’
“See that’s the question: Who’s policing this?” she asks. “Who’s making the decisions on what’s being worn? And the answer is, it’s men in these various organizations telling the national teams what everybody is going to be wearing. But, you know, when you think about it, you just can’t get over it because it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry. It all boils down to the commercialization. It all boils down to money.”
Another hot topic is American gymnast Simone Biles’s recent withdrawal from competition.
“I more prefer the coverage on the courage it must have taken her to say this is going on,” Linda says. “We’re learning how brave and strong some of these young women are.”
Japanese tennis player “Naomi Osaka is a fascinating case study, too,” Linda says. She is scheduled to give a talk at the Northeast Popular Culture Association’s annual conference in October, which will be virtual, called “From Tokyo Rose to Naomi Osaka: Images of Japanese Women in Media.”
As for the Paralympics, those hold a special place in Linda’s heart. The events are held almost immediately following the summer and winter Olympic games and feature competitors with a range of disabilities. A few examples include athletes who are amputees or paraplegics, and those who have muscular dystrophy, vision impairment, and intellectual impairment.
“I’m deliriously excited about the book that I’m doing on female Olympian and Paralympian athlete activists,” Linda says. “I get all teared up because they’re just so inspirational and wonderful. My goal is to get everybody aware of the Paralympians—‘my’ Paralympians, as I call them—because they’re amazing. I mean, holy smoke, when you hear about these women that are skiing and they’re doing archery and they’re visually impaired, it makes you feel like you’re never going to complain about anything ever again.”
One of Linda’s favorite Paralympians is Jessica Long, an American swimmer whom Linda has met.
“She was adopted from Siberia,” Linda says. “Both legs had to be amputated. She’s won every swimming award that there is, and she’s beautiful and blonde and she’s a spokesperson for all sorts of helpful things.”
Another favorite is snowboarder Amy Purdy from Vermont.
“Same thing,” Linda says. “She lost her legs. She won on Dancing with the Stars, for heaven’s sake.”
Academia
Linda says she’s interested in sport because “it’s out there and it’s so important in people’s lives, either as escape or for gambling or for just enjoyment or whatnot.”
She adds, “What I developed—or tried to develop, and continue to be developing—is what I’m calling ‘gendered critical discourse analysis.’ Don’t forget, when you’re in academia you have to sound really smart and you have to be able to do all these very bizarre things and get published and whatnot, so my idea of gendered critical discourse analysis is really only saying I like to look at sport in terms of what the language of it is, what is said about it.”
Though she holds a PhD and is widely published, Linda says, “You’d be surprised what I don’t know. I don’t know a lot of little details. I’ve written a book on the Super Bowl—don’t ask me who these teams are. I’m really more interested in the dark side of the Super Bowl and what’s going on with domestic violence and sex trafficking, and that there are more avocados eaten on that day than any other. I’m more of a social scientist looking at what happens to be sport, because it’s a multi-billion-dollar business and because everybody talks about it. What I’m interested in is the language of sport.”
Massachusetts to Madison
Linda and Eric, her husband of 57 years, lived in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and have spent summers in Madison “forever,” she says. They decided to retire here about six years ago on Eric’s family property on Hotchkiss Lane. Linda and Eric have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and three granddaughters. They also have two Siamese cats and a white golden retriever.
On meeting Eric, Linda, who says she grew up in the projects in Springfield, Massachusetts, recalls, “I was from the other side of the tracks. His mother asked my mother if I could come for some weekend. So we came late after work—I love to tell the story; we should be walking down [Hotchkiss Lane] when I tell you this—but we get there and I go, ‘Oh my God, is that your house?’ ‘No, that’s the garage, but come on in.’ My mother goes, ‘Marry him, marry him,’ and it’s just been a wonderful life.”
Their eldest son lives in New Hampshire. His wife is German and has completed the Ironman triathlon, Linda says. “I kid you not, she went to Kona, Hawaii. She was just here last week, and she rode her bike for 50 miles and then she came back and went running with my dog. I’m like, ‘Get outta here!’ She is totally wonderful. I dedicated my book on Olympic events to her and she got all teary.”
Their middle son and his wife live in Suffield—“They’ve got our three grandgirls,” Linda says
Their youngest son is a filmmaker who lives in Branford with his girlfriend and has his own media business. He is also attending culinary school, Linda says.
“He loves food—not so much cooking, but learning about it, so he’s going to hopefully combine filmmaking with food,” she says.
On becoming permanent Madison residents, Linda says, “It has definitely been a wonderful decision.” They have a tennis court on their property and belong to the gym Joint Effort, which is for members 55 and older. The couple has also been very involved in Schiller Shoreline Institute for Lifelong Learning. Naturally, Linda has given several lectures there, most recently on gender-based violence.
“Most of all, Eric and I have been involved in the Madison Winter Club,” Linda says. “It’s really been a lifeline and such a great way to meet people.” Linda also enjoys cooking and entertaining at her home, no doubt treating her guests to deep, thoughtful, and intelligent conversation.
“I kind of lead these two lives,” Linda reflects. “I’m this grandmother and have fun and cook and whatnot, but my heart goes toward helping women that are so oppressed around the world that need our help.”