Sports usually bring people together and celebrate diversities, however, transgender athletes are often left out and treated unfairly. The Olympics for instance, require many athletes to take “gender tests” which basically shows if they are the gender they claim to be. If they fail the test, their medal is dispossessed; this happened to Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan in 2006. It’s quite unfortunate that even in modern times; gender identities are still preventing athletes from excelling.
Another example that demonstrates transgender discrimination within sports would be the New Zealand sport Netball, which is equivalent to basketball. Originally, only played by women but eventually expanding to men. In the 70s, many transgender athletes
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logy of Sport Journal (Tagg 151) tells the story of two transgender women athletes who played Netball during that time period; they discuss what social adversities they had to overcome such verbal/sexual …show more content…
Originally, drag queens were specifically female impersonators but, as time progressed, limitations not longer existed. In today’s society, anyone can be a drag queen/king and they are considered visual artists who perform in numerous ways such as lip syncing, burlesque, bondage, comedy routines, and even live singing performances. A transgender person is basically someone whose gender does not correlate with their biological sex. Trans people don’t necessarily have to identify as male or female because there’s a variety of gender expressions. Most importantly, trans people are not drag queens and should never be referred to as one. In an interview titled “Transformations” between former drag superstar/club kid James St. James and southern drag artist Lyndon Glitterfuck discuss what it’s like to do drag in conservative Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Lyndon states that he works in the service industry and goes to work wearing make-up/women 's clothes, because of this he suffers major discrimination/harassment, especially from religious customers. Another interview titled “Under The Influence” discusses the numerous ways in which films particularly queer films can impact and influence drag queens. Jinkx Monsoon, a well-known drag queen mentions three influential
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.
The knowledge of the dress code makes transgender people to wear boy or girl clothes. Parents in some cases may allow a certain behavior from their kids as a prize for achievement of high grades. The use of the knowledge may come with many rewards. In the article Why transgender teen Jazz Jennings is everywhere
Mental health professional have tried to correct their ‘‘gender identity disorder’’ with brutal aversion therapies. Tran’s youth who came out often faced crises throughout their family and social systems. Once out, developing a sense of realness about their new gender became extremely important. An urgent need develops ‘‘to match one’s exterior with one’s interior’’ In ad...
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.
Gender discrimination is prominent in every industry, but it is as though the sport industry is one of the worst. Women in the work force currently receive only 80 cents to every man’s dollar (Holmes, 2016). However, female athletes both in America and internationally receive a far lesser compensation for their attributes. The only difference of the sports being played is who plays them. There should be no reason why a male athlete receives better pay simply because he had a 50% chance of being born a man. At birth, no one controls the gender, but as they grow and mature, they control their personality and development. Payment should be on personal skills and not gender. As a female STHM student focusing on sport management and a former athlete,
The realm of sport is a very gender specific world. We associate specific sports with gender, for example only men play football and baseball, where women play softball and do gymnastics. Socially it is not accepted for people to break these set boundaries. When individuals attempt to fight the system, there are many social costs, for example being deemed "gay" in the most derogatory sense. However, benefits do arise in the long run, as colleges appreciate students who are willing to challenge societies' prejudices.
Transgender is an umbrella term, meaning an individual’s gender-identity does not align with their assigned sex at birth. Although transgender is a protected class in eighteen states, these individuals still face discrimination within the country and around the world (“Non-Discrimination Laws”). Transgender is not a lifestyle, no one chooses to live their life constantly being discriminated against. Transgender issues should be more educated on and their lives should be more protected. The most common issue transgender individuals face every day is bathroom use.
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).
Imagine going through life believing that you were born into the wrong body. This is how a transgender feels as they go through life. A transgender is a person who whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to male or female sex. This topic is very controversial due to many arguments about the differences between the male and female physique. The natural biological differences between males and a females play a huge role in this controversy.
Many people in society argue about the unfairness of transgenders competing in sports. Transgenders should be able to be on the sports team that matches their gender identity with medical documents proving they have gender dysmorphia. Many other athletes would argue that transgenders being able to compete in sports is unfair. A transgender woman who has higher levels of testosterone than the other women might seem to have an advantage over the other female athletes. Transgender women might have a little bit of an advantage, but they truly feel as if they are women, so they should be able to compete as women.
“Despite the fact that they are both culturally silenced and are under constant threat of physical violence, gay male athletes define themselves as being treated well, perhaps because, as I show, there is a near absence of overt homophobia in the forms of physical and verbal abuse” (Anderson, 861). These openly gay athletes only believe that they are being treated well because they had feared the worst before coming out, but ended up being treated in what they conceived to be a fair manner. A heterosexual athlete will never have to fear the worst when it comes to being open about their
We live in a society were acceptance becomes our main focus and this can sometimes cloud our judgement on what is fair. When sports began to have high school, college, and professional levels, it was done with gender segregation. This was so there was a sense of fairness because without this guideline women would have no role in professional sports, but now we live in a generation where some men identify as women and some women identify as men. Although there is no wrong with such a gender expression it is a complication when it comes to sports. The simplicity of it is that transgender women would have major advantages over cis women which creates an element of unfairness and defeats the purpose of gender segregation in sports.
Gender inequality in the United States is a serious problem, and it is often overlooked. It is a big issue, especially within sports. We live in a society where our culture prefers men 's sports over women 's. Labeling activities as feminine and masculine is a social construction based on stereotyped expectations regarding gender and perceived gender differences (McCullick, 2012). In 1972 Title IX was passed stating that, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This opened up athletics to women and girls (Education Amendment Act of 1972, 1972). Although
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.
Transgendered individuals face an incredible amount of hardships due to their identity. So what exactly does it mean to be transgendered? According, to Human Rights Campaign transgender is an umbrella term for individuals whose gender identity differs from what was assigned to them at birth it is about their gender identity. Transgender deals with gender identity; being born female or male at birth, but identifying with the opposite gender assigned at birth. The acts of violence against transgender individuals are extreme and hard breaking. People of trans continue to face discrimination and oppression on a daily basis. People of trans are often neglected by society and sometimes even by their own loved ones. Additionally, the suicide rate among the trans community is very high due to bullying and rejection they face.