Gender Stereotypes in Non-Traditional Sports
Because of stress from families, grief from peers, or doubts from coaches, it is difficult for an athlete to enter a sport that has traditionally been classified as a sport of the opposite sex. Athletes love the challenge of sports, the thrill of competition, and the benefits of achieving - all qualities that men and women share - however, certain sports also exude qualities of femininity or masculinity, grace or sheer power, and these qualities complicate the qualifications to enter specific sports. On the surface, ballet is graceful, soft, and poised, and a "real man" would never possess such characteristics. Ballet, in reality, requires strength, stamina, balance, but because the jumps and turns of a dancer appear to be effortless to the audience, the work and strength behind ballet are rarely recognized. In boxing, the athlete's skill is evident by his or her strength and fighting ability, but traditionalists do not believe that women should display such aggressiveness. Individuals who enter into a non-traditional sport for their sex do have opportunities to excel in what they are passionate about, although these accomplishments often come with notoriety, labels, and sometimes even the loss of support of their family and friends.
The difference between sports that are traditionally women's and those that are traditionally men's comes from historical thoughts about women's ability to endure physical activity. One of the dominant myths surrounding women was that they were inherently weak, and if they tried to become active, they would destroy their reproductive organs, and thus fail at their foremost occupation (Hult 84). This myth has been debunked, however the mentality rema...
... middle of paper ...
...
No.4, November 1999: 403-420.
Billy Elliot. Universal Pictures, England: 2000. www.billyelliot.com
Girlfight. Screen Gems, New York: 2000.
Holmlund, Christine Anne. "Visible Difference and Flex Appeal: The Body, Sex,
Sexuality, and Race in the Pumping Iron Films." Women, Sport, and Culture. Eds. Birrell, S. & Cole, C. Human Kinetics Publishers: 1994.
Hult, Joan S. "The Story of Women's Athletics: Manipulating a Dream 1890-1985."
Women and Sport: Interdisciplinary Studies. Eds. Costa, M. & Guthrie, S.R. Kinetics Publishing: 1994.
Oglesby, C.A. & Shelton, C.S. "Exercise and Sports Studies." The Knowledge
Explosion: Generations of Feminist Scholarship. Eds. Krammarae, C. & Spender. Athene Series, Teachers College Press: 1992.
Scott, A.O. "Billy Elliot: Escaping a Miner's Life for a Career in Ballet." New York
Times, New York: October 13, 2000.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley. The Act has 11 titles and there are about six areas that are considered very important. (Sox, 2006) The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 made publicly traded United States companies create internal controls. The SOX act is mandatory, all companies must comply. These controls maybe costly, but they have indentified areas within companies that need to be protected. It also showed some companies areas that had unnecessary repeated practices. It has given investors a sense of confidence in companies that have complied with the SOX act.
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).
Young girls and women symbolize femininity with being a ballerina. Kelso comments that in the shadows of the spotlight lurks an abusive world of eating disorders, verbal harassment, fierce competition, injuries, fatigued, and malnourished dancers (Kelso, 2003). In today’s world of ballet, dancers suffer from always being in pain, worrying their body image is not the right look they need to have to get lead roles resulting in the development of eating disorders, and male ballet dancers are stereotyped as being homosexual when most of the male dancers are in fact heterosexual.
It goes without saying that a person's gender, racial and social origins influence their participation in sports. Particular races and genders often dominate certain sports. African Americans, for example, tend to dominate football and basketball, while Caucasians tend to dominate ice hockey. The same holds true for gender as well. Football is an entirely male dominated sport, while horseback riding, gymnastics and figure skating are much more female oriented. How and why did these divisions come about? Determining the origin of gender goes beyond the scope of this paper, however one can speculate about how gender classifications and stereotypes affect one's role in the sports arena.
Transgender is defined by Wikipedia as, “the state of one's gender identity (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) or gender expression not matching one's assigned sex.” The article explains how a transgender individual may define themselves as having the characteristics that are normally associated with a particular gender but will choose to identify elsewhere on the gender continuum. It use’s the love story of Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker as an example. It took five years for Zackary to transition from male to female and Rhys from female to male. But both truly believe that they were born the wrong gender, and choose to correct this wrong with hormone treatments, surgery and personality changes that to the more tradition eye may seem absurd and abnormal. This is one of the main reason such transgender couples are talking about their transformations. To beach this gap between transgender’s and the rest of the population. It is believed that by educating society, we are more likely to accept something than if we do not fully understand the parameters that surround such an issue.
Sara M. Evans, in her book, Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century’s End, chronicles feminist activities over several decades from just before the beginning of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960’s through the 1990’s. Doctor Evans was born in 1943 and currently teaches at the University of Minnesota in the history department after receiving both her B.A. and M.A. at Duke University and then later her PhD from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Living life as a transgendered person is not easy. There are very few times when someone comes out as transgender and their lives are still relatively easy to manage. There are a copious...
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.
The concept of hegemonic masculinity, as described by R. W. Connell, is becoming more applicable than ever, namely in the world of sport. This notion was developed nearly twenty-five years ago, yet remains highly influential in the social construction of gender roles. In current Western societies, there is an automatic assumption that women involved in sports are all lesbians, and men posses more masculine traits than one who is not involved in sports. This double standard emphasizes the inequalities within the athletic community. The emphasis on masculinity brings forth different consequences for men and women, where men are regarded as strong and powerful, while women are intrinsically seen as more masculine (Baks & Malecek,
Sports, in general, are a male dominated activity; every “real” male is suppose to be interested and/or involved in sports in the American society. However, it is not expected of a female to be interested in sports and there is less pressure on them to participate in physically enduring activities. These roles reflect the traditional gender roles imposed on our society that men are supposed to be stronger and dominant and females are expected to be submissive. As Michael Kimmel further analyzes these gender roles by relating that, “feminism also observes that men, as a group, are in power. Thus with the same symmetry, feminism has tended to assume that individually men must feel powerful” (106).
her career or athletics — and also conform to the old standard of beauty and sexuality. This is evident in films about female athletes, who face immense pressure to be perfect both on and off the playing field, andto represent their gender in a
Abrams 1604 - 1606. Peterson, Linda H. "What Is Feminist Criticism?" Wuthering Heights. Ed. Linda H. Peterson, Ph.D. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.
As women, those of us who identify as feminists have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at what cost do these advances come with?... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/whatisfem.htm Bidgood, J. 2014, April 8 -.
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.
Over the course of the thirty years spanning from 1959 to 1979 there were many incidents that led to a need for a system to reduce human factors in major accidents, but in the seventies, there were some significant accidents that highlighted a need for action. A very notable crash was the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 on December 29, 1972. The flight was making their approach in Miami when the landing gear light would not illuminate. All members of the flight crew attempted to troubleshoot the problem with the autopilot on. Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructed the pilot to divert away from the airport at 2000 feet while they figured out the issue. The autopilot function...