Women, Sports and Stereotypes
In almost all the movies we have seen, the women go through a series of changes as they grow older. They might or might not choose to continue with their sport (although movies are usually shy of showing women who actually choose to abandon a blossoming sports career in favour of something more 'socially acceptable'). However, when we first meet the female heroine in almost all the movies, she is a young tomboy. The figures of Jess in 'Bend It Like Beckham' or Monica in 'Love and Basketball' are remarkably similar as children. They both wear boyish clothes, shun typically girly clothing, and prefer to spend their time with boys. Of course, the movies make it amply clear that these girls only want to play sports with the boys – they have no sexual interest in them. In 'Bend It Like Beckham', for example, Jess is clearly contrasted with the other Indian girls who watch the local boys playing football not because they like the game but because they want to see the boys with their shirts off. Even in 'Love and Basketball', Monica loves Quincy, but she never lets him see that until after prom night; before then, they are simply neighbours, friends and ballplayers. Even in a movie like 'Remember the Titans', which has no clear female protagonist, the little girl is shown hanging around boys all the time with her father, but she too has no interest in them except as sportsmen.
The second stage is when the female protagonist has to confront her biological femaleness. This happens with the little girl in 'Remember the Titans' when she starts spending time with Coach Boone's children, who are more conventionally "girly". At first she scorns them, but after a while a friendship grows up between them. She...
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...g formal skirt-suits (as shown in the opening sequence of 'Remember the Titans', at the funeral). It seems even more significant that this is not only the case in movies. In real life too, we find this happening. For example, in the first movie about women sportsmen, we find the dramatic transformation of the sportswoman who was a champion jumper, runner and even diver. After a certain point, she discards her boy-short hair and her shorts for longer dresses, longer hair and a husband. She even abandons sports like running and jumping for something more sedate – golf, in her case. This was, to me, the most crucial point to remember when watching all these movies – they are not portraying idealised situations. Rather, in showing the transformation of the tomboy into a sort of 'superwoman' who combines the best of both worlds, the movies are only reflecting real life.
...white people were the change-makers and shapers of Vodun, when actually black people adapted their religion to suite oppressive conditions. As time went on “Voodoo had become less of a religion than a political association [which was] and inherent characteristic of black religion from the slave period” (46). This happened not only in America, but in Haiti as well. This not only highlights the evolution of Vodun from religion, to a political force, but also the adaptability of Vodun as well.
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
However, the discrepancy in media coverage is getting better with time. There is a realization of the importance of balanced attention with regard to gender in sports programs. Therefore, there are increased efforts to ensure that several sport programs show women participating in games. This will lead to a better perception of sports by girls. Eventually, girls will change their attitude about sports.
Since living in Haiti as a child, this is the first time I have researched the impact of Voodooism on the lives of Haitians. As a scientist, I want to document how the religion of Haiti quantitatively affects the worldview and lives of the people. I want to know if the science that I have learned and been taught would make sense in the Haitian culture; and as I have been trying to relate my faith to my scientific understanding, I wonder if Voodooism and theoretical science can coexist? Are US American methods of science appropriate and applicable to the Haitian context? I am on a journey to discover what Voodooism is and means and then how that relates to science.
Do I sacrifice my ‘womanly attributes’ by making the choice to ski down a mountain with a 3000+ vertical drop, while traveling at 50-60 mph? Does my choice to do squats and engage in strength training, or my desire to do 300 sit-ups each night in order to achieve a six-pack, make me less of a woman? Is it odd that I do not enjoy displaying polite, ladylike behavior during every second of my existence? I do not think so. Society today would not exactly agree either, yet society today is far different from the early 1920’s. Today, the desirable female body image is not necessarily a thin, dainty woman. At some point in history, though, something went terribly wrong. Women were conditioned to drink tea and mingle socially over snacks while knitting. The progression for women in sports has been slow, and women still have a long way to go in order to achieve the towering status of men’s sport. Although times have changed since the 1920’s, women continue to struggle with issues of the past—the notion of “mannishness” and the characteristics that compose the ideal female athlete.
Voodoo has evolved from the time it was first practiced in the United States by both male and female slaves, into a religion synonymous with the “Voodoo Queen”, Marie Laveau and her primarily female followers. Marie was herself a creole, born in the late 1700s to “an old slave woman on her mother’s side, and on the other hand the best French blood of Louisiana coursed in her veins.” Marie’s rise to “queen” coincided with voodoo’s shift towards being known as female dominant and gained the legacy of being primarily practiced by women . She was so famous and trusted that white “celebrities of the day” (lawyers, merchants, and legislat...
Voodoo is a syncretic system derived from deeply rooted Africanist beliefs and colonial French Catholicism. African-American religious systems and subcultures can be seen in Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other Antillean areas. In the Fon language spoken in Benin, vodun means an invisible force, terrible and mysterious, which can meddle in human affairs at any time.
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
Stalcup, Brenda, ed. The Women's Rights Movement: Opposing Viewmpoints. San Diego, California: Greenhaven press, Inc., 1996.
The image of blood plays an important role throughout Macbeth. Blood represents the murders that Macbeth had committed, the guilt that went along with the murders and the pain that it brought on him during his downfall. The soldier describes the violence and bloodshed, in the war between Scotland and Norway, "Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds." (I. ii. 43) foreshadows the violent nature of the play filled with murder, guilt and pain. Blood in the murder of King Duncan also plays a major role because it represents Macbeth's guilt as well as his shame for slaying King Duncan. Macbeth observes his blood stained hands and remarks "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." (II. ii. 28) This reveals his guilt and shame because he is comparing his hands to those of an executioner's. After the murder, Macbeth refuses to return back to the bed chamber of Kind Duncan to smear the blood on the sleeping guards, because he is afraid that the blood will incriminate him further. Lady Macbeth smearing the blood onto the guards represents them trying to rub their guilt off onto the guard. "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt" (II. ii. 73) but this proves to be ineffective because Macbeth ends up murdering t...
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
Ruddick, Nicholas. "'The Peculiar Quality of My Genius': Degeneration, Decadence, and Dorian Gray in 1890-91." Oscar Wilde: The Man, His Writings, and His World. New York: AMS, 2003. 125-37. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth has a series of motifs or patterns of imagery such as ambition and greed, unnatural deeds versus human nature, females and evil, and hallucinations, however the one pattern of imagery that the reader can recognize everywhere in Macbeth without the word beginning said is blood.Blood reveals the theme of violence and cruelty in Macbeth.Where there is violence there is blood, where there is dishonesty there is blood and even when there is uncertainty there is blood.In the next paragraphs I will recognize how bloodshed results in victory, guilt and finally tragedy and how it reveals the theme of violence and cruelty.
The Heterosexual matrix consists of three components of gender norms such as sexuality, sex, and gender to which a female should be accompanied to follow these as how she acts and looks to other people. “ ‘For example, those born biologically female will innately and permanently be feminine and heterosexual.’”. (Lecture 8, page 2). This means the matrix outlines what is expected to be from that particular sex and obey the rule to only like the opposite sex, and dress the way one should the opposite sex see. These ideas impact women who play sports by feeling they are judged. Some women naturally like to be a tomboy but to others, it seems offensive or its disrespectful of their perspective and culture. Women feel ashamed and that they feel no respect as an athlete. “Because of the conflation of gender conformity and sexual normality in everyday life, long hair deflects lesbian suspicion by signaling heterosexuality-whether the athlete is straight or not.” (McGann & Musto, 109). This would be part of the gender norm because it has been commonly seen for many traditions that women have their hair classy and long to their sides.
As more people are claiming their rights and being accepted by society, the media is forced to reach the obedience in a modern way. Women are fighting for they equal right and starting to play leading role in movie and TV shows. For example, not so long ago, I watched “She’s the Man” a movie played in 2006 by Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Byrne’s character, Viola been playing soccer in place of his brother who didn’t want anything to do with soccer or any other sports for that matter. Bynes is really good at soccer and loves sport. She didn’t let herself brake by the tough guys in her team who think she was a man. She subsequently shows the absurdity of gender biases by being the best at what she loves. This type of movie prove there is nothing abnormal to our behavior and it do not make us less of a person when do not conform to norm of