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about women in sports
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Feminism as Sponsored by Gatorade and Nike
The fourth wave of feminism is here and it is based solely on physical achievement. Exercise and sport has become one of the few arenas in which female competition is welcomed and savored. Commercials feature prominent female athletes challenging males, chanting the slogan "anything you can do, I can do better." Due to a variety of factors--improved knowledge about women's health, decreased focus on child-bearing, a cultural ideal of a fit and trim body--athletic success is now an acceptable and applauded goal for women, but at what cost?
Part of this focus on the body must be due to the backlash against feminism. I am not speaking of Susan Faludi's theory and examples, but instead of a further backlash against her and everything for which she stands. The focus on the physical is a reaction against the intellectual. It is as if these women are saying "screw postmodern feminist theory. I've got work to do." I have met high school students who say feminism has nothing to do with them and that they are not feminists themselves, but these same girls win basketball scholarships and fight the school board to be placed on the football team. Where did the feminist label get such a bad reputation? Susan Faludi has some ideas in Backlash, but the student athletes will likely never read her book. They have little patience for feminist theory, but appreciate feminist practice. Instead of getting active in politics or academia, they get active on the courts and fields. Feminism has become not a battle of the minds, but a battle of the backhands.
When the United States' women's team won the World Cup, the nation rejoiced. Soccer is not known as an American game, especially with its worldwide popularity. For some reason though, women have often been encouraged to play soccer in physical education classes the past twenty years; this is likely because no special equipment such as helmets, padding, etc. is required, thus keeping public school budgets well in check. While the men's team lost, the women's team won. It gave the United States a source of patriotism, a rariety in these global times. However, what I heard most comments from spectators did not revolve around the game itself, but the moments immediately following the dramatic conclusion. When Brandi Chastain stripped off her jersey and ran in her sports bra, that was the image that most people remember.
The warm blackness of summer nights, settling over your lawn and drifting down familiar street signs, over coffee shops closed for the night and broken down asphalt. Dust, collecting on creaking wooden floorboards and swirling through age-old sunlight. A song forgotten, notes away from your ears. Nostalgia is an emotion that all human beings experience and know well. Willa Cather expands on this fact, infusing her award-winning novel, My Ántonia, with sentimentalism and melancholy. Cather tells a tale of home, drawing from the idealistic “American dream” that all Americans know well. Jim Burden, a young orphan, moves to the countryside, spending his days watching men work in the dusty fields and find community amongst themselves. He adores
Women have faced an uphill battle throughout the history of sports whether it is to be able to compete in sports, to attain equal funding for programs, to have access to facilities, or a number of other obstacles that have been thrown in their ways. Women have had to organize and administer their own sports structure rather than compete within the men's structure that existed. The sheer strength and determination of many women sports heroes is what propels women's sport to keep going. One theme that has predominantly surfaced in this fight though is the merging of women's programs with men's, oftentimes only when they are successful enough to stand alone on their own.
Marcia K. Anderson. ”Women in Athletic Training.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 63.3 (1992): pp. 42. Journal Article.
The ideal images of female athletes presented in the films for this class have had a strong connection to the images of ideal women in society in general. Like the ideal image of women, there are many variations of the ideal image of female athletes. While Dare to Compete tracked the evolution of the role of the real female athletes, the feature films we watched presented varying views of the ideal female athlete, which has been different in different times and places.
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. When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a Man can play, with equal skill, if not better.
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).
In Willa Cather's My Antonia a special bond is formed, shattered, mended, and eventually secured between the main characters, Antonia Shimerda and Jim Burden. Jim and Antonia seem to be destined to affect each other's lives dramatically, from the beginning of the novel.
Unfortunately, the life in America is not as cheerful as Antonia taught it would be as she experiences lots of hostility, hardship, and misfortune. However, throughout all the predicaments and obstacles, Antonia preserves her beliefs and never succumbs to the values of a new, American culture in an attempt to shape her life. Antonia is a very positive, generous, hardworking, and exceptionally independent character. These innate traits of her personality follow her through the “thick and thin” as she swears by them under all the circumstances. For example, besides the language barrier and cultural differences, Antonia suffers the death of her father who committed suicide as the result of disappointment that he had experienced in America. Instead of scorning the meaning of life, she did whatever it took to provide for her family, which was experiencing an immense economics hardship. Everything that she earned, she gave to her family as she valued them over herself. Eventually, due to her wit and charm, Antonia got a job in the town where she found her passion for dance and made friends. Unfortunately, her passion for dance was viewed as inappropriate and her boss insisted that she chooses between her friends and the job. Unwilling to follow the orders and disappoint her friends, Antonia
There are two sides to every coin. This is something to keep in mind when examining the topic of gender in sport. Specifically, I am speaking of the costs and benefits of a male or female entering a sport in which he or she is not traditionally accepted for their gender. The two sides to this concept lay not only the individual's sacrifices as the underdog, but also in the benefits the individual encounters on his or her adventure into uncharted territory. Of course, it is a struggle for the individual to become accepted by the sport world, and also the general public. It can be an uphill battle in order for him or her to even be able to participate initially. On the other hand, upon crossing the gender boundary, the individual can earn great recognition. This brings the concept to another level; there are cultural benefits that arise from an individual entering a non-traditional sport for their sex. Three movies that we viewed in the first half of this course have served to demonstrate the individual costs and benefits involved when women become involved in sports that are not traditionally accepting of the female sex. After close analysis of "Girl Fight", "Pumping Iron II", and "Personal Best", effects that these women have on the female culture as a whole, to this day, become clear.
On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Airlines flight operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed two miles from the runway in Buffalo, New York, killing all fifty people aboard.. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation that followed stunned the American public and identified the need to closely examine the regulations governing pilot training and pilot rest requirements, with a strong focus on regional airlines (Berard, 2010, 2). Currently, the United States government has passed HR 5900, which was titled the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 and is now called Public Law 111-216 (Public Law 111-126, 2010, 3). The bill targets five focal points that will force the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to run an even safer operation. These focal points include creating a pilot record database, implementation of NTSB flight crewmember training recommendations, FAA rule making on training programs, pilot fatigue, and flight crewmember screening and qualifications (Berard, 2010, 4).
The female athlete triad consists of three parts; disordered eating i.e. anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. “Originally termed ‘female athlete triad,’ the name was derived at a meeting led by members of the American College of Sports Medicine in the early 1990s” (Kazis & Iglesias). The meeting was held due to an alarming increase in stress fracture rates, decrease in bone mineral density, and menstrual dysfunction. In 1972, the passage of Title IX was passed that mandated equal athletic opportunities for men and women. Since then, there has been a record high of almost 2 million female athletes participating in high school and college level sports. With the increase of female athletes, there is also an increase of competition whether it is to be the fastest, strongest, or skinniest. Athletes either at a collegiate level or an elite level, have unrealistic expectations placed on them to maintain a low body weight. Pressure to attain a perfect body can come from all different outside forces, such as: coaches, teammates, parents, siblings, and the athlete herself. The obsession to achieve this goal can lead to other health-relating problems such weakening bone density which will lead to stress fractures and irregular menstruations which can possibly lead to fertility issues in the future.
The story The Metamorphosis revolves around Gregor Samsa, a devoted son and brother who works tirelessly to provide for his family, waking up finding out that he has been transformed into a larger than life insect. Franz Kafka enlightens the readers to how being dependent on one person can lead a family to being weak when that support system is ripped away from them. The situations that Gregor is put into knocks him down from the head of the family into nothingness while at the same time boosts his family from that nothingness into being a strong support system for each other. Gregor 's transformation, his dependency on his sister for food, his injury, the family choosing strangers over him, and ultimately his death are all things that lead to this downfall, or metamorphosis.
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 past decade or so, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of women dominating in their respective sports. As well as, seeing women dominate in their professional sports, we’ve seen women become more prominent in broadcasting, and reporting on sports as well. An occupation that once was male dominated, is not so much anymore. These strong female figures, such as Ronda Rousey, Venus and Serena Williams, Maya Moore and Erin Andrews are making waves and names for themselves in sports history with their notable athleticism, feministic views, and sports knowledge. These great women are making a statement that sports are not just for men, but also for both men and women, and sports previously where only men participated are starting to see women enter that field. Even in a male
Mearian, Lucas. “Dennis Ritchie and Steve Jobs: quite the juxtaposition.” To Tell The Truth. By