The Portrayal of Female Athletes in Film
Portrayals and stories of women in sport and film are varied and unique to the woman, but some common threads can be found throughout these films. Understanding the culture of sport and how women are depicted as athletes in movies shows how society at large views women. The perseverance and strength of women athletes in unjust or unfair situations regarding their sport is a very important and all too common theme. Often in movies with women athletes, are breaking a mold or breaking assumptions about women. Such is the case in the three movies I will examine further: Bend It Like Beckham, Girl Fight, and Love and Basketball. Another main theme of women in sport and film is the unifying nature of sport to bridge all sorts of differences and gaps through its emphasis on teamwork and cooperation.
Bend It Like Beckham addresses many pertinent issues of gender, sexual orientation, and traditional versus modern cultural values. Jess, the main character, has a great talent for soccer to the dismay of her traditional Indian family. She gets recruited for a team and has to sneak around her parents in order to be able to go to practices. Her family expects her to be like her sister, get married early, settle down, and have kids. The image of the woman in sport portrayed in this film is that of one breaking the mold that is set up for her by her family, and culture. Even within the context of her own team she faces prejudice and hardship because of her culture. In a game, a player on the opposite team calls her a racially charged name, which upsets Jess immensely and she fouls out of the game. Another barrier that Jess has to cross is that of gender. She is continuously told by her friends, sis...
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... deal with. In college, her boyfriend's games were always in the better gym than Monica's games, had more attendance and coverage than Monica's games, and he also had an almost celebrity-like status on campus whereas Monica did not. This inequality clearly shows us that our culture in general respects and reveres men's sports as opposed to women's.
The view of society on women's issues is clearly and poignantly portrayed through female athletes in film. Perhaps one day women will have as many athletic opportunities as men, but until then movies like Bend It Like Beckham, Girl Fight, and Love and Basketball need to be made and watched and discussed. Issues addressed in these movies are also symbolic of the tensions of the culture at large such as cultural differences, socioeconomic conditions and lack of opportunity, as well as questions about sexual orientation.
My virtual child’s name is Dominic. He is a white male of average height and weight with blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin. Cognitively he seems younger than his chronological age up until sixth grade. Physically Dominic has always seemed older than his chronological age. The first few months of Dominic’s life were rough at times. I decided from the beginning to feed with formula, and I would respond to different types of cries. At three months he would cry after each bottle and have frequent diarrhea, we then decided to switch to a different formula rather than introducing food (My Virtual Child).
The name of the state was given by the natives, and means “fathers of waters”. Mississippi is the 20th state of the union and had the capitol of Natchez till 1822 when they changed it to Jackson. The religion was catholic but many protests began. In 1799 the three main re...
Diana is an excellent illustration of the many struggles of women to find a place for themselves in sports. On an individual level, defying societal stereotypes is extremely difficult. The buriers that the first person must overcome are often extreme. However once the first person breaks down those buriers, it becomes increasingly easier for others to follow in their footsteps. Diana's struggle demonstrates both how far women have come and how far women still have to go.
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse.
What is the home state to various NFL Hall of Famers and the King of Rock and Roll? One may think the men are from the Sunshine State or the Peach State. However, these successful men are from the Magnolia State. Mississippi’s rich and interesting history shapes the Magnolia State into what it is today.
The state Mississippi is known for many different cultures. These cultures consist of Native American Tunica, Natchez, Biloxi and Western Muskogeans also known as the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. In 1540, Hernando de Soto became the first European to discover Mississippi. He was looking for gold, pearls and silver. He was the first to document the great river into official reports. He called it the river El Rio de la Florida. Diseases caused a decline in the population. The United States forced the Indian tribes out of their homeland. During 1695, Europeans was interested in Mississippi because they were looking for commodities like deerskin, tobacco and indigo. They competed for coalitions with various tribes, which ended in deadly conflicts often, resulted. The French and Indian War created a treaty ending in 1763 gave minimal control of the region east of the Mississippi to England. Then during the American Revolution, the Spanish gained control of southern Mississippi. Mississippi was organized as a territory of the United States and kept their flag....
...ennis, basketball, soccer, and martial arts—have come from the days of cheerleading and synchronized swimming when she was growing up in the ’70s.” Disparities in media coverage and over-sexualized female athletes on magazine covers is something that needs to come to an end because of its effects on both male and female viewers, young and old, athletes and non-athletes. Both female and male athletics influence young people and shape their personality and morals as they mature. Retired WNBA player, Lisa Leslie credits her participation in basketball with shaping her character, as well as her career. “Sports can also help teenagers during an awkward time in their development.” (“Women’s Athletics: A Battle For Respect”). The solution is to come together as a society and identify how to balance the respect for female and male athletes in the media.
One Generation Later, by Huffman, S. Tuggle, C. & Rosengard, D.S, explore the relevant discrepancies in media coverage. The authors assert that more boys than girls indulge in sports activities in school. Studies have examined the impact of Title IX on media coverage given to female athletes as opposed to male athletes to determine if there has been a shift away from negative social stereotypes that are traditionally associated with women’s sports participation toward a more socially accepting view of the female athlete. This has become a huge source of concern. Male students take active part in sports activities.
Within todays sporting community, certain aspects of sport and its practices promote and construct ideas that sport in general is a male dominated. Sports media often provides an unequal representation of genders. Women athletes are regularly perceived as mediocre in comparison to their male equivalents (Lenskyj, 1998). Achievement in sport is generally established through displays of strength, speed and endurance, men usually set the standards in these areas, consequently woman rarely reach the level set by top male athletes. Due to this, the media significantly shows bias towards male sports while we are ill-informed about the achievements in the female sporting community. On the occasion that a female athlete does make some form of an appearance in the media, images and videos used will usually portray the female in sexually objectified ways (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). This depiction of female athletes can cause males to take focus solely on the sexual assets of the athlete in preference to to their sporting abilities (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). Sexualisation of sportswoman in the media is a prevalent issue in today’s society, it can cause physical, social and mental problems among women of all ages (Lenskyj, 1998).
Krane, V. (2001). We can be athletic and feminine, but do we want to? Challenging hegemonic femininity in women's sport. Quest, 53,115-133.
Most people watch some form of sports, whether it be the Olympics or the highlights on ESPN. The NBA and NHL playoffs are underway and theyit seems to be the only news on ESPN. There is almost no coverage of the WNBA playoffs or any female athletics. Tennis isone of the only big sports on ESPN for women. While during the Olympics the coverage seems to be non-stop and close to equal. Women’s participation in sport is at an all-time high and has almost become equal with men’s, however,. sSports media does notfails to show this equality and skews the way we look at these athletes. Through the disciplines of sociology and gender studies, it can be seen that despite the many gains of women in sports since the enactment of Title IX, “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity still dominate media coverage of males and females in sports, which is observed in Olympic programming and sports news broadcasts.
This is evident in films such as Bend it Like Beckham. Both main characters, Jess and Jules, face pressure from their families, teammates and society in general to be the best at both playing soccer and being female. The pressure to excel in sport comes from their motivations and their teammates. For Jess and Jules, it is especially important, since they are representative of all women footballers. They are on one of the few teams for women in the area. If they play badly, others will believe that wo...
The film “Bend it like Beckham ” by Gurinder Chadha shows concepts of how people are treated differently based on their race and identity. The representation of these concepts shows and influenced by how they change an individual's life of the environment. The main character, Jessminder lives in an Indian household, struggles between her and cultural barriers. The film shows how Jess shapes herself because of her environmental surroundings. The themes that are presented throughout the film are; Sexism, cultural barriers and friendship. Through the use of visual techniques such as camera angles/shots, this shows the emotion of the protagonist. Therefore the decisions that the main character chooses are shaped by her environmental surroundings.
The use of canines trace back to the time of the Romans, which used canines for security and hunting. It was common for the Romans and the Spanish conquistadors to use dogs during war time (Losowsky, 2013). In recent war time, the British, German and American military forces have proved that canine/soldier teams are beneficial. In
Whether its baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, or tennis, sports is seen all over the world as a representation of one’s pride for their city, country, and even continent. Sports is something that is valued world-wide which has the ability to bring communities together and create different meanings, beliefs and practices between individuals. Although many people may perceive sports to have a significant meaning within our lives, it can also have the ability to separate people through gender inequalities which can also be represented negatively throughout the media. This essay will attempt to prove how gender is constructed in the sports culture while focusing on female athletes and their acceptance in today’s society.