Stereotypes In Sports Essay

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The idea of sport matters. From casual or competitive, to amateur or professional, the practice of sport has existed alongside the dated sociological institutions of government, medicine, family, or law. Gladiators in the Roman Empire entertained thousands in ancient stadiums like the Colosseum, while Native American created and practiced games like stickball or lacrosse across what is now the United States. Since the origin, sport has become more organized and regulated. There are now thousands of categories and subcategories of sports, ranging from physical sports like wrestling, to motorized sports like Formula One racing, to even electronic sports like the popular video game League of Legends. Sport has now merged into the world of business …show more content…

From a very young age, boys are encouraged to compete, play, and engage in many sports while girls are encouraged to pursue and limit themselves to other, more “civil” or “friendly” activities like hopscotch or jump rope. Girls are often stereotyped by other boys as “less athletic” and “weaker”. Boys make fun of other boys for “throwing like a girl” or “acting like a sissy”. Even in online and electronic sports, women are stereotyped and underrepresented. This stereotyping at the most basic and early levels carries over and exists throughout sports today. Sports are categorized and labelled from the very beginning as either masculine or feminine. Boys are encouraged to play high contact physical sports like football and wrestling, while girls are encouraged to perform in less physical sports such as cheerleading or volleyball. Yet sport participation has shown to be beneficial and crucial activity, as Sandra Hanson points out in her publication, “Young Women, Sports, and Science”. Hanson writes that “from a Critical perspective, sports may be a particularly valuable resource for young women (perhaps even more so than young men) because the worlds of competition (whether in sports or in other areas) and male networks have often excluded women”, and that, “women who do participate in sports most likely benefit from the same socialization, integration, status, and recognition that benefit male athletes” (pg.

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