‘The Opponent’: a woman’s right to fight

You might think you remember her from the headlines, or rather, “Jerry Maguire‘s” (1996) quick two-minute intro.

“In Seattle, Dallas Malloy, 16,” narrates actor Tom Cruise in the movie. “Her lawsuit helped pave the way for women boxers everywhere. She’s picturing her ex-boyfriend right now.”

That snippet seems to be the premise of Eugene Jarecki’s debut feature-length film, “The Opponent” (2000). Written, directed and produced by Jarecki, “The Opponent” stars Los Angeles native Erika Eleniak (Shauni McClain from “Baywatch”) as Patty Sullivan, a battered woman who learns boxing to defend herself against her abusive ex-boyfriend, Jack (Harry O’Reilly).

Like Dallas Malloy, Eleniak’s a pretty and talented blond. After some early success through the amateur ranks, Patty comes to love boxing.

“I just fell in love with the sport of it,” she says on a radio interview. “Sure boxers get their faces beat in, but so do women, right?”

Like Dallas, Patty was asked why a pretty girl like her would want to fight. Her friend June (Aunjanue Ellis) criticized her hobby, saying it might make her look like “damaged goods.”

“Some people are not going to understand, especially with you being a girl,” says Patty’s trainer Tommy (Jack Colby). “That’s the funny thing about fighting. People will pay to see it, but call you crazy for doing it.”

But Patty Sullivan isn’t Dallas Malloy. Nor is she Mary Kom. She hasn’t shattered any glass ceilings, although the film makes us very aware that there is one. Fred (John Doman), a boxing promoter, initially hires her as a ring-card girl because of her looks.

“Thank god we got girls,” Fred says after he has Patty hold up cardboard signs in the ring while dressed in a sparkly, tight-fitting outfit.

Her trainer, Tommy, also questions why a pretty girl like her would want to start boxing.

“You don’t seem like the fighting type,” says Tommy.

While “The Opponent” seems like it’s very loosely based off of Dallas Malloy’s story, it’s a shame that women still have to prove that they belong in the ring. Women have been “fighting” for their right to fight since the 1970s, taking their battles through the court systems. The Amateur Boxing Association’s banned women until 1998. Women’s boxing didn’t debut in the Olympics until 2012.

“It doesn’t feel right, Coach, using a girl,” says Tommy’s protege Pasqual (Diego Lopez).

This plays into the politics of funding, too.

“We’re always getting excuses about why women don’t get the funding, but when it comes down to it, it’s sexism,” said Lee Shabaka, a women’s amateur boxing coach. 

Women have been asked to wear skirts while boxing to “distinguish them from men.” Their rounds have been shortened because of “menstruation cycles.” 

Tommy even says Patty’s “out of control” multiple times.

Perhaps gender won’t matter as much in the distance future. Young adult authors seem to be writing out these problems in their dystopias, focusing on Big Brother.

“While recent dystopias warn youth about over-reliance on computers, totalitarian rule, class warfare, pandemic panics and global warming, very few ask audiences to think deeply about sexism and racism,” writes Irman Siddiquee in The Atlantic. 

This doesn’t change the fact that sexism and racism still exist more than 90-plus years since women’s suffrage and 50 years since the Civil Rights movement. Look at the how social media fired up the Ferguson riots. 

“The Opponent” may have been slipped by as a could-be Lifetime movie, but that doesn’t mean its messages should be dismissed. After all, ladies, we fought for the right to do everything a man can.

“The Opponent” was written and directed by Eugene Jarecki.