We’ve all met athletes, the bigger faster stronger physical specimens that make us all feel envy. However, we've all also met those athletes who, for whatever reason, feel they are better and above certain aspects of life like grades, manners, and even rules. These athletes are commonly referred to as jocks, but jocks and athletes are not even remotely synonymous with each other. According to Urban dictionary a jock is “Almost always football or basketball players, and sometimes soccer or hockey players, jocks are stereotyped as those athletes who are unintelligent, arrogant, and unkind, but who are nevertheless popular within their own clique and are of a high social status in school, attracting many girls and envied by dissimilar stereotypes.” …show more content…
I met Allen at the same school that I met Mitch but one year later in September of 2005 in the beginning of my 1st grade year. Allen was the fastest kid in our class and by far the most physically gifted. Allen was one of the better friends I had throughout 1st 2nd and 3rd grade. But, when the summer before 3rd grade hit, everything changed. That was the year that we both decided to play football for the first time. As we started off I was a decent player on our team, I was in no way near the best player but I could hold my own in the game. But, Allen was light years better than I was and our team knew it. He was the popular one on our team who the coaches and other players and he knew it. Allen loved the spotlight and the attention and started doing whatever he had to to stay in the middle of everything. This was the fuel for what lead me to falsely assume that athletes were “jocks” who by the previously defined definition were self centered and only cared about …show more content…
Towards the end of the parade he came up to our teacher and asked if he could play one of the spare percussion instruments we had, and of course our teacher said yes. After the parade I stayed behind to help clean up our float and I ran into him and we started talking. We talked about music and Zack said he always had played music a lot and was looking for more people to play with. So, I told him how me and my friends usually jammed together on Friday nights and if he wanted to come he was welcome and to my complete surprise he showed up that fry and played with us all night. He continued to do that all summer long, and when school started I had lunch in 7th period and I didn't know anybody in the lunch room so I sat by myself. Then out of nowhere, Zack came over and invited me over to sit with him and his friends who were also on the wrestling team. I was timid at first but I eventually got into conversations with all of them that had nothing to do with sports or booze. We talked about all of our college goals and I began to realize how much I had misjudged these athletes. Sure some of them were terrible self centered idiots, but most of them were just like me with some sprinkled in athletic ability. They had goals, likes fears, hobbies, and friends, but most importantly, they all had respect for each individual. Zack helped me realize that I had a biased view against athletes. I had my view based on two very select people who I had
In the article “Jocks vs. Pukes.” By Robert Lipsyte the article is about people getting categorized as either Jocks or Pukes. Jocks are brave, manly, ambitious, focused, patriotic, and goal-driven while the Pukes are woolly, distractible, girlish, and damaged by their lack of confidence that nothing mattered as much as winning. Jock culture is important to people therefore, more girls are joining sports. In addition, they are more successful when they play as a team. When Pukes are interested in joining a sport they usually get rejected. Kids are usually influenced into the Jock Culture when their parents or coaches expose them to the best athletes and arenas. However, Boys were always taught to be tough, stoical, and to take any risk to win.
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
High school sports are approached with clashing opinions. Some of these opinions are positive, and supportive of athletics. “Athleticism, among many activities, offers teens a physical outlet to exert their troubles, anger, emotions, and other feelings” (Chen 1). This can be observed in nearly all of the football players in Friday Night Lights. This can also be noticed in the world today. “Athletics help high school students understand their own abilities and talents” (Chen 1). This piece of evidence is very accurate when describing high school athletes. Sports can make a high school student humble. As can be seen by the preceding information, high school athletics can have a positive impact on a student’s life.
Jock culture emphasizes on “masculinity and power” (308), which unfortunately increases the likelihood of committing wrongdoings. Male athletes are more prone to take risks simply because it is in their nature. For example, a former freshman teammate of mine was caught cheating on a quiz and had to sit out two games as a result of of his offense. He believed that he needed to cheat in order for him to avoid receiving a lower GPA (Grade Point Average), which would kick him off the team. Another example is another teammate of mine who had naked pictures on his phone. His image of being popular clouded his judgement, which inevitably lead him to a three day suspension from school as well as missing out on five games that were utmost critical. There are so many examples that I could mention with athletes abusing drugs and committing felonies that the list seems endless. These athletes are extremely gifted in their sport, but are vulnerable to do something wrong. “Being treated as a celebrity [and] being freed from normal boundaries” (307) is what impels these proficient individuals to be susceptible to
When we arrived back to camp, the football coach announced that try-outs would be in 3 days. So, my friend and I arrived and compete against 30 other girls for 14 spots. We struggled until we were breathless and drenched in sweat, but we made the team! I made running back and my friend was a linebacker. Although we lost our first two games, we won the third, which was the first football game won in Crane Lake history. A week later color war broke out and I was placed on the blue team. Although my team didn’t win, we came to a close second and worked our hearts out to get there. On one of the last nights, we slept under stars on an overnight and although it was a bit cramped in the tent, we could not have been any closer together. Camp is my home away from
Outsider, the loners and the solitary people. They are found everywhere but the truth of the matter is not everyone is constantly an outsider. Therefore to be labled an outsider is by defination to be labled several things wether with active or subconcious thaught one percieves the loner as different, reclusive or even strange consequently even the misconceptions of them always straying away from others or even of being a misanthrope. Therefore I personally am glad to have spent time in my past walking the halls of a school that, for lack of better phrase, disregarded set sterotypes for the most part. The inhabitants of my school as we arose from elementary to highschool gradually shifted out of these constraints. Where I myself was the outsider.
One study suggested that the worry of potentially confirming the “dumb jock” stereotype might be to blame for any performance gap between student athletes and non-student athletes (Moltz, 2009). Teachers and professors are directly linked to the athletes academic success, and negative perceptions of student athletes in the classroom is a paramount matter because they are exposing them to the stigma attached to athletic participation. This is problematic because when the students are made aware of this bias their academic performance declines because they feel more anxious and pressured as to not confirming the dumb jock stigma, a phenomenon known as stereotype threat. Some studies even show that these stereotyped groups actually perform better than
Why are boys and girls not on the same sports team? They should be! Just because they are a different gender does not mean they can’t be on the same team. They can have all the same skill level, they just need to try hard enough.
changed from being the best athlete in the school to being the only one who
In almost every high school or college setting, there is one or even multiple jocks that fit the definition to a tee. There are countless films and series that display this offensive categorization. It is most prevalent in movies for teenagers such as College, American Pie, and High School Musical, and it also shows up in many television shows such as One Tree Hill, Family Guy, and Pretty Little Liars (Wikipedia). There’s a certain series that even goes over the top with respect to how idiotic they act and certain comments that is is just unfathomable for a college student to have such little sense. The show’s comedic stupidity of the characters is what the show is built around; and people ate it up. I, personally, had first-hand experience with the term as I was considered a jock during high school. It isn’t as prevalent in real life as it is in the movies; but, I heard it often enough to know that it may get on somebody’s nerves if it is an incorrect judgment. It is even possible for a not yet matured student to begin to mold into the stereotype and develop a habit of not being involved in maintaining a quality education. This is just one of the many reasons why people should discontinue using this new-aged term and transforming back to its original, simple definition: “An athlete, especially in a school setting”
She did not play high school sports and I earned six varsity letters during my sporting life in high school. I was even a team captain on my high school track team. One similarity we did have was going into a school and initially not knowing any of the other students. I had this same experience because I switched from going to a public middle school to a private all-boys Catholic high school. Sports were invaluable in meeting people and finding a sense of belonging. I am extremely grateful for sports because without them I am certain that I would have struggled to fit in at my
The main difference between Paralympic and Olympic basketball is that Paralympic basketball is played in wheelchairs. The shot clock, playing time, court and ring dimensions and the number of players on the court is the same as Olympic basketball.
Everyone loves sports stars. They look great, they appear on television and like rock stars, they perform with the entire world watching. No wonder young adults make heroes out of their favorites. Great athletes teach us more than how to swing a bat or dunk a basketball. In the face of seemingly impossible challenges they teach us that success -- whether on the basketball court or in the classroom -- takes dedication, confidence, and a hefty dose of hard work. Unfortunately, Rick Telander's article, "The Wrong People for the job (athlete's as role models)," is a hasty generalization. I believe his article provides the wrong message among young adults, male or female, throughout the world, and discourages the reader from idolizing any particular sport hero. Telander's article includes hasty generalizations, claims, logical fallacies, and even invalid arguments. He doesn't feel athletes, as role models are the right people for the job.
On my seventeenth birthday, my mother asked me to sit down with her to discuss some very important things. She told me I was undocumented. My heart sank and I felt the urge to cry. At that moment, I thought that the future I had envisioned for myself would turn to fantasy. A lot of things started to make sense like how I have never actually seen my social security card, why my parents didn’t let me work, or why I couldn’t get my licence. I believed that my undocumented status would remove all possible chances of getting into college. Without a social security number, I am not eligible for federally funded financial aid including loans, grants, scholarships, or work-study. Why should I be penalized for something I had no control of? The undocumented student stereotype is that we don’t make it into college, that we aren’t successful, that we have no future. It is hard to go through obstacles that my fellow
Getting up one Saturday morning and going up to the school, I was very nervous about whether I would make the team or not. I've always had athletic ability, but since this was a new town, I was unsure about how my skills would compare with the other kids. Football tryouts were a grueling event. When tryouts started, it was explained to all of us that the coaches would run drills in order to gauge our individual skills, and then place us in specific position groups. After the drills, which I did exceptionally well in, Coach Jones placed me in the receivers group. He told me that I was extremely fast, and that I would make a good receiver. It felt so good, not only making the team, but being singled out by Coach Jones as one of the better players on the squad.