Gender, Race and Sexuality: The Importance of Equality at a Young Age

Traditionally women were viewed as equipped to participate in sports, and their involvement was viewed as unfeminine and undesirable. This Article Examples the women were viewed as unfeminine to the sports that men play and undesirable. Young girls who are given an early opportunity to participate in sports may be more prepared for the male in classrooms. Even though women have often been relegated to second-hand citizenship in the same socializing, integration, statues, and recognition that benefit male athletes. (By; Sandra L. Hanson)

As the nation’s gender inequality continues to diminish, things like sports stereotypes, and labour force conflict cannot be understood without understanding the term of identity. Identity work is explained by Schwalbe and Mason-Schrock in 1996 as “anything people do, individually or collectively, to give meaning to themselves or others” (as cited in Ezzell, 2009, p. 1). I propose to examine inequality based on gender identity and in depth the process of stereotype issues, - how people construct stereotypes in gender inequality in the context of sport- among women Rugby. The academic literatures are based on gender identity/ inequality, where it provides many examples of individuals deflecting the norms “by ... creat[ing] a unique identity as heterosexy-fit— simultaneously tough, heterosexual, and conventionally attractive” (Ezzell, 2009, p. 14). With the intention of deflecting/ creating an exception to these norms, it only creates greater issues as not only does society view them in a certain way, but also the player themselves. The overarching goal of the proposal is to address the social issue and understand why society to this date gives harsh views towards women’s rugby with a common stereotypical view. As an illustration the views were described by Ezzell (2009) who conducted a personal communication with some female rugby players who stated that other views them as: “scary, butch lesbians,” “she-males,” “he-shes,” “lesbian man-beasts,” and “butch,

Woman’s sustained involvement in ‘male’ team sports has only occurred relatively recently. Woman’s participation in sport has been blunted by

In our culture sports is a big part of our lives and culture. When it comes to the most competitive levels of athletics, there seems to be a lot of tension. Nowadays most people want to have equality between the male and females, but when it comes to sports it seems to become unclear when it comes to both gender having equality on sports: We all want athletics to do excellence, but people think this is more commonly found in men. There are many things we do not see through our T.v., such as how females in these sports team teams are treated comparable to any males team.

A sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Sports originated in early history as males only, and was often used to see which male was more dominant. In today’s society sports have a different meaning and is played by both genders, but still holds a mentality of superiority. In this essay, I will be arguing the Social Constructs of Masculinity in Sports in the language and the actions used when performing these activities through both genders and how some actions are acceptable for one gender and not for the other. Using Laurel Richardson’s article Gender Stereotyping in the English Language, and X: A Fabulous Child’s Story by Lois Gould. The article and story will help distinguish the use of words in our society and how they are incorporated in sport and how the actions of a person that does not fit the social standard faces repercussions for their actions.

For centuries, there has been a perception that sports and athletics are associated with masculinity hence gaining domination by the male gender. This has over the years led to women sports being regarded as inferior to the male sports. As a result, the stereotyping of women and the female gender in sports has resulted in most ladies avoiding and shunning from taking part in various sports. However, since the 20th century, women have started accompanying their male counterparts to certain sporting events and also taking part in activities that involved mid exercises like ice skating and dancing. This led to the female gender securing an opportunity to venturing into sports more so the organized sports.

Through the movies viewed in this course this semester, we saw women who were able to play against men and still keep their femininity. Nothing is lost when playing sports not traditionally meant for a particular race or gender. Society must become more understanding when it comes to the sports different types of people play and hinder from stereotyping anyone when they participate and perform well in that sport.

The sport stimulates diverse definitions that invite distinctive forms of recognition and appealing feminities, through its cultural reference to rock ‘n’ wrestling, pin up girls, comic book heroines and 5 dominatrix (Pavlidis, 2013). The experience of the sport allows women to gain a sense of empowerment as well as the sense of healing and the ability to transform them as individuals and far importantly, test the cultural norms about females embodied capacities. The general perceptions over roller derby be apt to be perceived as a cultural realm that places forth a sexualised womanliness while simply embracing masculine antagonistic behavior (Pavlidis, 2013). Through the increasing popularity of Roller Derby, critical questions have developed over the cultural forces that structure women’s aspiration to be involved in a sport that interprets itself as alternative and liberated, through its challenge to bring about gender ideals thought of as the norm within society. This popularity further provides understanding made between the connections of the ideas of creativity and sport, which presents apprehension into how to challenge the continuous gender in women's sports (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006; Hargreaves, 1990; Wearing,

Without much argument, it can be said that ideas power, dominance, and violence can be associated with sports. These characteristics are traditionally considered masculine. (Woods 103) Therefore sports are associated with masculinity. In addition to the idea that sports are masculine, there is a history of male domination of sport; “...male athletics predated the rise of female athletics...”

Over the course of time, sports have come to signify masculinity; athletics such as football and basketball easily having come to deem where one fits in terms of societal norms regarding gendered bodies. One could argue that sports, in a modern context, have come to be synonymous with the idea of athletic and/or muscular bodies, which are those that are not regarded as the bodies of ideologically feminine ones given the intense and high pressure nature. In “Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain” written by Michael A. Messner in 1988 sheds light on the idea that traditional images of femininity have come to solidify male privilege through the construction and naturalization of gendered characteristics regarding women such as weakness, fragility and dependency .

“Women who play men’s sport have constantly to negotiate their status in traditional cultural contexts of men’s power and privilege, and in a general discourse of femininity, patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality” (Craig & Beedie, 2008).

In today’s society males are more dominant in many contact sport and females are more dominant in non- contact or flexibility sports. That is how hegemony is seen in our society. Stereotypes gender roles

In this specific case, focusing on the rejection of the other, we can turn to competitive sports and its connection to masculine heterosexual desire and the prominence on sexuality. Sport is a productive logic; it conditions the body to act a certain way. Sports gives us the idea that the way to go about living our lives is through this penetration, aggression and protecting the home front. The kind of ‘selves’ that are produced establish its wholeness by dominating space and excluding everything that gets rejected as the other. Pronger illustrates how sport colonizes desire and produces it in a narrower way, and gives us suggestions moving forward. He emphasizes that competitive sport is a discursive framework that produces particular kinds of bodies, selves and subjects. Pronger argues that such masculine learning begins when boys are initiated into male sport in which the phallic desire to penetrate and the anal desire to resist penetration are existent. “Boys raised on competitive sport learn to desire, learn to make connections according to the imperative to take space away from others and jealousy guard it for themselves”(Pronger, 382). This is specifically linked to the competitive sport of football. Pronger argues that

Dominant groups in society often set up normative ideas about bodies, genders and sexualities in order to preserve the societal hierarchy that greatly benefits them. White, cisgender, heterosexual males are often at the top of this hierarchy and are the active perpetrators of their imposed rigid standards. Categories are created by these dominant groups to exercise their control and those who do not fit or refuse to categorize themselves are punished, either metaphorically or literally. In the sports realm, these norms are ubiquitous. However, in this paper, I argue that sports can both uphold and challenge these normative ideas about bodies, genders, and sexualities through normalized practices it normalizes that are considered to be different from the outside world. Sex-tests and gender policies in sports competitions uphold the idea that there is a biological difference in genders and rigidly implement the gender-binary. On the other hand, the practice of contact sports and the use of locker rooms as a voyeuristic experience challenge normative ideas about bodies, genders and sexualities. These practices are standard in the sphere of sports a

There are many repercussions that are projected upon both men and women when they enter into a sport that typically isn’t thought of as gender appropriate. Some of those cultural and social stigmatisms may be abandonment by your peers, and friends questions regarding your sexuality, and even in some cases criticism as to how you are living your life. In some cases, it may lead to you not being accepted by either group, theone whose norems you are not following, of as well as the one with whom you are trying to get involved. This paper will address all of these issues and how these seemingly negative situations can, will, and are, leading to growth. It will also discuss how this is a situation where repercussions are