A closeted athlete is faced with many challenges before, during, and after a game, no part being easy. Before the game they are faced with the locker room. A place that is supposed to be a safe place for the players and yet some phrases raise alarm. The phrases are most likely homophobic and cause the player distress. But they can’t react just in case another player notices their reaction. During the game is just as hard, the player has to focus on playing the game as well as listening to more homophobic slur in the game. And after the game is just like before the game acting like fit the perfect mold of an athlete. Being a closeted athlete is not easy, since homophobia is such a common aspects of sports. And the expectation with sports to …show more content…
Both project’s mission statements express their want for the the acceptance and protection for all players. Athlete Ally bluntly conveys their goal to end homophobia and transphobia in sports and states that they “believes that everyone should have equal access, opportunity, and experience in sports — regardless of your sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” (“What We Believe”). In the You Can Play Project’s mission statement, it declares that the project “works to ensure the safety and inclusion of all in sports - including LGBTQ athletes, coaches and fans.” (“Mission Statement”). Both equality projects are partner with a number of well known businesses and sports associations and leagues, like Adidas, Gatorade, the NWHL, the NHLP, and multiple others. Out of the two equality project, the You Can Play Project is the more well known project because of the fact that every major men’s sports league has participated in one of their videos (Gates), which allows for their message to reach a significantly larger audience. Of the major sports leagues the National Hockey League has been partner with You Can Play since 2013 at the rise of the project repetition. They were the first sports league to take a stance on gay rights. By 2014, all thirty NHL teams had a member express their support …show more content…
Chances are anyone who has been involved in sports either has been coached by or played with a homosexual.” (English). And yet the amount of out LGBTQ atheles are small in numbers, and the athletes who are out are not often talked about. People Magazine released an article in 2014 called The Out Field, which included interviews with six out professional athletes of different gender and sports. Only three of the athletes are currently playing and are out, they are all women. The other three interviewees are men who are now retired from playing professional sports, one being Wade Davis who is the director of the You Can Play Project. A common theme in the interviews, after mentioning the treatment they received or what treatment they were afraid of receiving, was the hope to inspire youth athletes. Each interview ended with what that athletes wanted to do for the youth, each express the want for commonality of accepting sexuality and being a role model (“The Out Field”). At the time of these interviews, the interviewee Michael Sam was actively playing in the National Football League, he was the first openly out active player in the NFL. Another interviewee was Brittney Griner of the Women’s National Basketball Association, who is the first openly out athlete to be signed with Nike (Reed). While there have been other interviews with different LGBTQ athletes, any form of newscoverage of LGBTQ atheltes works for the
Duron is a “guy’s guy” who loves football, baseball, beer, and classic trucks. He’s super masculine and always has been. He had never met an openly gay person until he met his wife whose brother was gay. He began to not like when people said things like “faggot” in the locker room. He began to not like it even more when he had his second son who liked to wear dresses and wished to be treated like a girl. Duron and his wife discovered that there were many other children who were the same way. They discovered that not as many parents were as accepting as they were and it angered them. Duron has an older son who is just like him, a “guy’s guy” but he loves his son who wears dresses just as much and wished other dads in his position would do the
In the sports world, homosexual athletes are often forced to hide their sexual orientation and to keep it as a private matter. This is mainly due to the hegemonic masculinity associated with playing sports. Homosexuality is considered the direct opposite of this and therefore is not associated with sports. Also the way athletes talk to each other in the locker room makes it more difficult for gay athletes to come out. Guys jokingly call each other homophobic slurs or pump their chest by talking about women to express their masculinity. Female athletes, unlike their male counterparts, are considered to be more free to talk about their sexual orientation. But, there still exists the misconception that women who participate in sports are assumed to be gay. In college and professional men’s sports it is beginning to become more common for athletes to be more open to talking publically about their sexual orientation. This brings up the question as to whether or not things are changing in our society so that the acceptance of gay athletes will be more common. More acceptance by our overall society as a whole will lead to more gay athletes – both male and female – feeling free to step forward and be open about their sexual orientation.
On April 15th 1947, Jack Roosevelt Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie, went without a hit in a game which would have been noted only in sports almanacs were it not for the color of his skin. At Ebbet's Field that day, Robinson broke baseball's “color barrier.” The integration of Black athletes into White mainstream sports had begun. Robinson endured a variety of slanderous yells, racial epithets and even hurled objects. The fact that African Americans would be discriminated against in sports was never more apparent. Today, that same vitriol manifests itself in various forms of discrimination. Rhetorical forms of discrimination are just as damaging today as outright bigotry was then. Though rhetorical racism is not as overt, it continually influences an audience that is largely unaware of its existence.
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports, heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports.
Coakley (2009) starts off the chapter by introducing how participation in organized sports came about and how gender roles played a major role early on. He describes how most programs were for young boys with the hope that being involved would groom them to become productive in the economy. Girls were usually disregarded and ended up sitting in the stands watching their sibling’s ga...
Homophobia has been a problem for a very long time, all across the world. For example, during the Holocaust, in which homosexuals were forced to wear the “Pink Triangle”, a pink, upside down triangle, on his or her coat for identification. Of course, the pattern of homophobia is not only shown throughout world history, but American history as well. For example, sodomy laws, laws that rule certain sexual acts as crimes, were established as early as 1963. The penalty for these laws varied from state to state. Some of the punishments include: two to ten year imprisonments or two thousand dollar fines. The cruelty of these homophobic actions should not be accepted any longer. It encourages bullying, denies human beings their civil rights, and continues to foster a mentality of indifference and intolerance towards our fellow man.
Unintentionally, a lot of us have been boxed into institutions that promote gender inequality. Even though this was more prominent decades ago, we still see how prevalent it is in today’s world. According to the authors of the book, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree define gendered institutions as “the one in which gender is used as an organizing principle” (Wade and Ferree, 167). A great example of such a gendered institution is the sports industry. Specifically in this industry, we see how men and women are separated and often differently valued into social spaces or activities and in return often unequal consequences. This paper will discuss the stigma of sports, how gender is used to separate athletes, and also what we can learn from sports at Iowa State.
Most societies view homosexuality as something that is morally wrong. Individuals view sexual relations between like genders as sick. For many years homosexuality has existed, so why Homophobia is related to gender socialization still exists? As a human they see things they cannot understand as wrong in society. Homophobia issues in society are the discussions when subjects like religion and morals are talked about. There are numerous agents of gender socialization in society like family, religion, school, and media. The media is the most pervasive correspondence medium depicts highly stereotyped roles for men and women. Religion is strong emphasis on gender differences with explicit affirmation of the authority of men over women. Family they
What really grinds my gears is seeing homophobia in the modern world. Yes, I acknowledge that it is seen as a sin—especially in the early times when people believe in witchcraft. Seriously, it’s 2016 and we’re having a little fit over who uses what bathroom? We’re having worse things going on! We have ISIS, we have a potential war coming up, we have school shootings and gang violence, and worse of all we have the possibility of Trump being our president and people are losing their marbles over who uses what bathroom? It’s just a bathroom! If it makes you so uncomfortable to go into a bathroom that is gender neutral, then don’t use it! Simple! Being a gay boy in school made me uncomfortable going to the boy’s bathroom/locker room. I grew up in a small town—Oroville, WA—where homosexuality wasn’t really seen, and some people felt uncomfortable by it. I hated going to the boy’s bathroom/locker room because I constantly felt I didn’t belong with them, but I didn’t belong with the girls either…I didn’t know where I belonged. I felt if I went into the boy’s bathroom/locker room, then they would judge me or feel uncomfortable with me in there—I used to think that boy’s hated me in there because they felt that I was looking at them or checking them out
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
Approximately 300 million people live in the United States, and of the 300 million people, nine million people have identified themselves as homosexual. This number could be even higher since not every individual has identified themselves as homosexual. At least nine million people are subject to prejudice, hatred, or discrimination because of stereotypes society has placed on them. Stereotyping has led to discrimination, hatred, and prejudice of homosexuals. This extreme and irrational aversion toward homosexuality or homosexuals is called homophobia and is a major social problem.
Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Her ideas challenged my previous opinion in that I believed that in order for a transgender athlete to play for their non-biological sex was solely to undergo a complete sex. Prior to researching this topic, I was unaware of other methods such as hormone therapy that were available to transgender athletes. Through Castillo’s informative article, I was able to understand that other options are available in order to maintain the fairness and equality throughout athletics. While Castillo argues that transgender athletes must complete at least one year of hormone therapy, Canadian Blogger, Keph Senett, argues otherwise. In her essay, “Where Do Transgender Athletes Fit Into Sports?” which was published in newsletter Matador Network, Senett argues that transgender athletes must complete a full sex change before even considering competing for the opposite sex. Senett’s article did not add much more to my original opinion, nor did it challenge it in any
Gender inequity is widely conveyed in the world of professional sports. Gender discrimination has afflicted professional sports since its establishment. Although women have made and continue to make progress in eliminating the inequalities they face in professional sports, remaining discrimination still exceeds their advancements. Because gender inequality is such a common form of discrimination, it is crucial to recognize why and how it exists and to understand what can be done to overcome and eradicate it.
Homophobia continues in our society, urban and rural, which is apparent in Michael Lassell's poem 'How to Watch Your Brother Die' and in Neil Miller's essay 'In Search of Gay America: Ogilvie, Minnesota.' What are homophobic people afraid of? Do they know? Knowledge and awareness of homosexuality is the best way to prevent homophobia. According to Religioustolerance.com 'Homophobia has a variety of meanings, including hatred of homosexuality, hatred of homosexuals, fear of gays and lesbians, and a desire or attempt to discriminate against homosexuals. The suffix 'phobia' is derived from the Greek word 'phobos'. In English, it means either fear or loathing? (1).