Today thousands of gymnasts around the world participate in the sport of gymnastics. This is a sport that has existed for more than 2,000 years. Every day children practice for many hours hoping that someday they can follow their dream of becoming an olympian. Before kids could practice gymnastics as a sport, it was used for many different things in history. It was used in a way that no one would have ever thought that gymnastics would have been more of a girls sport than a guys. Gymnastics relates to rights and responsibilities in American History because of the respect of boys gymnastics compared to girls gymnastics.
Gymnastics was first used in Ancient Greece. The ability of gymnastics was used by men to get ready for war. By using this idea to get ready for war, it facilitated the bodily development through a series of exercises (Strauss, Michael). Gymnastics was a highly valued attribute in Ancient Greece for many years. Also, it was mandatory for all students and children to learn the sport of gymnastics. Using the sport of gymnastics in gym class helped all children become more active and more fit. Eventually, gymnastics was developed into schools. It was taught and perfected to all students. This also helped young boys to get ready for when they grow up and have to use it to get ready for war.
As gymnastics developed more and more, there was a controversy of the participation of boys and girls in American gymnastics. While girls gymnastics was still trying to develop, boys gymnastics was becoming a nationwide sport (isport, gymnastics). All boys participating in the sport were taught how to perform specific activities on each different apparatus. They were taught a specific technique to be able to master each and ...
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...rried gymnastics popularity throughout the world. Gymnastics started out being a training tool for only men, to being an all guys sport around the world, to being one of the most popular Olympic girl sports in the world. Sometimes it only takes that one person to change the whole idea of one sport. Gymnastics is that sport that no one would have ever imagine that it would have only been used for guys at one point and now it is a girl based sport. It only takes one person to break out and do something different for everything to change.
Works Cited
http://www.gymnastics247.com/history.html
http://usagym.org/pages/home/gymnastics101/history_artistic.html?prog=pb
http://gymnastics.isport.com/gymnastics-guides/history-of-gymnastics
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-gynastics-ancient-greece-modern-times
Works Cited
Hult explains that in the era between 1890-1920, women physical educators were a tightly knit, dedicated group committed to a tradition of restricted competition, self-governance, and a feminine approach to individual and team sports. They believed that all girls and women should have the opportunity to participate and enjoy sport, not only the talented elite as in the competition-driven male philosophical structure (87). Play-days and sport-days with emphasis on team building games were a means of perpetuating an image of an ideal American female athlete: feminine, beautiful, strong, yet always 'aware of her delicate reproductive system' (89).
Athletics were an expression of the philosophical, religious and civic values that were at the very heart of Greek culture. In the world of the ancient Greeks, well-educated individuals were expected to be balanced mentally, spiritually, and physically (http://www.mediaconcero.com/olympic/olympia/ideal_o.php, September 27, 2004). It was felt that athletics aided in the creation of such an individual. Athletic events during this period were not simply displays of physical prowess, but an integration of the facets of Greek culture.
1. Through the readings, films, and discussions, we have looked at the image of women in sport. Discuss the images of women in sport and how they are affected by today's cultural ideal of women.
Ever since sports has been introduced into our society it has always been gender specific. Today, sports are still gender specific but not as much as before due to the change in social norms. Many people enjoy playing sports. For some it may be the competition, for others it may be for the love of the game. It has been difficult for individuals who enter non-traditional sports for their gender. Women have especially struggled with this matter until the Title 9 was issued. Before Title 9, many women were not allowed to participate in track and other sports that were not considered feminine. During the Victorian Times, women were only allowed to play sports that didn't make them look sweaty, tired or just messy. They had to stick to the norm of being conservative and looking proper. Can you imagine, they had to even wear skirts for baseball and other sports? How can you be comfortable and play well in that kind of an outfit? When it came to tennis, they had to look graceful like a ballerina. The main concern in playing a sport is enjoying it and playing it well. It never had to do anything with being part of a beauty contest. Women were given limitations into what sports they could participate in. However, realistically women were just as good as their counterpart when it came to playing sports in which they were not allowed to play.
In the past the Olympic games were used as a way for the Greeks to honor their gods. Today the games are not an honoring but more of a social gathering. What’s great about the games today is that everyone has equal opportunity to compete. No matter your gender, size, ethnicity, or wealth, all you have to do is work hard and
For years gymnastics has been a sport that many children participate in. But as the years have gone by it has turned into something other than a place for kids to grow and learn. Its overwhelming commitment has continued to replace kids’ childhoods with stress, mental and physical pain and eating disorders. Many results have come from this change in the gymnastics society. Gymnasts have come to a point where they have been told and directed to understand that winning is the only important factor in gymnastics. “ It’s about the elite child athlete and the American obsession with winning that has produced a training environment wherein results are bought in at any cost, no matter how devastating. It’s about how cultural fixation on beauty and weight on youth has shaped the sport and driven the athletes into a sphere beyond the quest for physical performance.” (Ryan 5)
When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey, and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a man can play, with equal skill, if not better. Much has changed for women since the 1970’s. One of the most important events that have happened in the world of female athletics is the establishment of professional athletics for women. Educational Amendments of 1972.
Fraser, Allen. “What a great gymnastics movie should be.” The New Yorker. conde Nast, n.d. May. 17 Feb. 2014
As it becomes increasingly acceptable for women to be athletic in American culture, a new question arises: in which sports should women be allowed to participate? From a physiological standpoint, it has been scientifically proven that female bodies do not differ significantly enough from male bodies to prevent them from participation in any "male" sports. This division between "male" and "female" sports clearly stems from age-old, socially constructed norms of femininity and masculinity. When women attempt to challenge these societal molds by participating in sports that are traditionally male, the intricate web of norms is disrupted. Like many other instances where traditional social constructions are tinkered with, individuals and communities are forced to reevaluate how they think about and categorize their surroundings. I would argue that women's participation in athletics, especially in non-traditional sports, is instrumental in breaking down stereotypes and social confines that have plagued women for centuries
2. What are the social and cultural costs and benefits of an individual (male or female) entering a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex (eg women who enter body building, power lifting, boxing; men who enter synchronized swimming or field hockey)?
Gender barriers have always existed in the field of sports. I will be focusing specifically on women in the field of bodybuilding and men who enter synchronized swimming in order to illustrate the social and cultural costs and benefits of these individuals entering their given sports.
When a woman or man joins a non-traditional sport for their gender or sex, it can have drastic social and cultural costs. These impact not just the individual but also the entire community. When a person challenges the gender roles of society, then they change the perceptions of what men or women are capable of doing, they further androgynize cultural norms, and they open up sports for others.
The Ancient Olympics were huge in introducing sports and events that we now play. The sports that were played in the Ancient Olympics consisted of boxing, chariot racing, riding, pentathlon, discus, javelin, jump, running, and wrestling. All those sport would have never been played without the Greeks introducing them. These sports have become very popular and a lot of people play them. For example wrestling can be played at very young ages and all the way through high school. Another example is running, jumping, javelin, and discus which are all played in high school and some even in elementary.
When it comes to women's sports and popularity in the 21 century it has been little progress made toward gender equality for woman sports, now in the 21 century more kids and adults know who some of these females athletes are but as far as media coverage goes for female athlete are in the shadows of the male athletes dominance and the tradition that males developed in sport due to what gender establish athletics first, because women sports were brought up years after men athletics had been established.
...d to secondary positions and now women’s athletics was controlled by men where as in the past decade it was controlled by women (Antunovic & Hardin, 2013).