Gender Roles In Sports Culture

In contrast popular male athletes that are un-married or who don’t always have a girl on their arm have to defend their heterosexuality. For example, Cowboys ex- quarterback Troy Aikman was constantly questioned about his sexual preference due to the fact that he is un-married. Also MBL catcher Mike Piazza was constantly reference in the media as questionably homosexual, again just because he is not married. When magic Johnson spoke out to the press about his health and admitted to having HIV, he immediately stated that he is not gay, just because HIV is stereotyped as a homosexual disease.

Up until recently a person could not be gay in the military. Homosexuals were honorably discharged from the military. In 1993 President Clinton attempted to change this tradition. He received much opposition from politicians, citizens and the military. The result was a compromise, a don't ask, don't tell rule. This meant that the military personal was not to inquire about sexual preference, and that service members were not to be blatant about their sexual orientation. Another macho activity is sports. Gay men in sport have not been accepted. " There is much at stake in maintaining the silence about gay men in sports and in discouraging gay male athletes from revealing their identities"(Coakley 234). To even talk about homosexuals in sports would threaten the system of gender classification. The fact is though there are homosexuals in sports and they are discriminated against. In the locker room athletes use anti- gay banter as part of daily life. Homosexuals in sports live in fear of the truth about their sexuality coming out. Although recently studies have shown that organized sports are becoming less homophobic. People in sports are becoming more tolerant of homosexuals. But the value of a homosexual athlete is of core importance. " Gay athletes with high human capital are much more likely to come out of the closet to their teams than are gay athletes with medium or low human capital"(Anderson 12). As homosexuals are slowly accepted

Ward touches on the social context for interpreting public responses to male and female athletes coming out, and this example of Michael Sam details the harsh and cruel reality that society will never be fully accepting to gay and lesbian athletes. Invisibility is the best defense when it comes to athletes being gay and lesbian, but it doesn’t signify approval or disapproval when people have paid lots of money to see a match and they’re more bothered about what type of person is playing. I don’t’ care about Michal Sam’s sexual preference, and the only thing that we should view him as is a phenomenal athlete who could bring a lot to any NFL team. He had an extremely good final year playing college football, rated the best in the country at his position; but because of how super-sized NFL players have become, he's smaller than anyone else at his position in the NFL. While playing with the Baltimore ravens, he gave it a good 12 months, mostly on the practice squad and the whole time he was on this team he was constantly ridiculed and humiliated, which lead him to retire soon after due to mental illness. It takes a lot of will power and strength to continue to try and be the person you’ve longed to be, and do the job you’ve always wanted to do with the majority of people in American hating you for what you are outside of the field. I wish him the best. It isn't just latent homophobia that's costing him; it's also losing himself as a

Football is probably the most hyper masculine sports someone can be involved in. However, just Michael Sam’s being out is so helpful in taking apart the ignorance around homophobic stereotypes. It goes to show, a broader aspect

Sports have always been effective in challenging the oppression of minorities by showcasing their talents and abilities and not dwelling on their differences. If a gay athlete is able to perform as well as straight athlete then the two are equal. Minorities face major amounts of inequality, however sports is one the few areas that minorities are offered equal footing.As well as being a tool for ending racial conflicts, it is also an influential stage that can encourage its audience to view the world through a different lens.Sports can be a very powerful avenue for change in society because of the number of viewers. Thus it is very common and effective platform to spread a positive and core message that not only has the potential to reach millions but also to change society. Sports are a reflection of a societies strengths and weaknesses. In Jackie Robison case, the racial prejudice and discrimination towards him was the reflections of the weaknesses in society at the

I believe heterosexism in the world of sports is viewed as a masculine thing. Although, football players would give each other a tap on the butt implying good game this could be viewed as a none masculine thing to some. I am not a big fan of sports but from what I see, hear, or read about from time to time I feel homosexuality pertaining to sports has gotten better. The unspoken message, sport players should not date the same sex, especially males still exist. Overall, some sports players choose to reveal their sexuality if he is homosexual and others do not to avoid being ridiculed.

I believe that if something exists in society, past and present, and no matter how "good" or "bad," it will probably end up staying in place for a long time. Yes, slavery was abolished and women have more rights now than they used to, but racism and sexism are still a prevalent issue today. It may not be as much of an issue is some areas today as it was in the past, but there are still so many scenarios where it does heavily exist. The issues of racism and sexism are very dominant in society, and are still reflected on certain sports today whether we want to see it or not. We're not all blind to it, but many sports teams (for example: football and basketball) are predominantly black athletes. But then again, there are other sports that we see

In the article “Out of the closet and into the gym” Duncan tries to explain the important of a masculine image to the gay society. In other to explain it he interviews four gay men and ask them about their image and body. The men explained that working out and gaining muscle is a type of acceptance into the gay community. The

Boy’s sexuality is another key issue that is associated with cheerleading. Moreover the stigma that transpires from the participation in cheerleading, boy’s participation in female dominant sport surely raises questions their sexual identity, understood within the viewpoint of gender. Boys that choose to cheer are observed and identified as gay. For example, before I became a male cheerleader, my Dad made the assumption that all men who did cheerleading were gay. I know that at first I was cautious of becoming a cheerleader due to the idea that your sexuality would never be left alone. After deliberating this matter with the other older kids that participated in cheerleading, Isaac rested assured that the other kids doing the sport did not

Some read in dismay while others read in pleasure when Jason Collins decided to express his sexual orientation in the May edition of Sports Illustrated. It heralded the beginning the gay rights movement in professional basketball. Little did anyone know how tough the struggle for equality would be. The rise of homosexual athletes is a well-documented journey through the years. Their struggle and perseverance is a key component in their battle and their everlasting courage is inspirational. The fight for equality (to be treated equally among peers without any discrimination) is a daily battle amongst these professional athletes. Even if they are very talented, gay athletes are discriminated against by both fans and media. Until professional

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the new sexual education curriculum being taught to children from a younger age and how it will affect them. Some people say that children are too young to be learning this information and then how they use it will be in a negative manner. What frightens most parents is that they can raise their children as they wish, but have very little control over what other people do with their children (Wolfe, D. A. 2015, February 28).The Ontario sex-education curriculum is an necessary step to address the fears of parents that their children could be victimized, harmed, or take part in behaviours that carry significant risk but the new curriculum is quite different from the older version because it is more explicit, it also is going against catholic school

Being a young person, and defying stereotypes of homosexuality in a conservative high school can be a challenge. The preconceived notions about gay people normally include something about flamboyancy, inferiority, lack of masculinity, nonexistent athleticism, and a high voice. Being a person that generally defies these stereotypes in high school, and into college, is not easy by any means. In a high school, sports can be a natural way of life, except if you are gay. You’re automatically presumed to be athletically inferior as a gay person, and sports are typically out of the

After the controversy of how Michael Sam’s football carrier will be affected because he came out about being gay, Dale Hansen responded with a commentary expressing, “You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by her roots? You are the fourth guy taken in the NFL draft. You kill people while driving drunk? That guy is welcome. Players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away? You lie to police trying to cover up a murder? We are comfortable with that. You love another man? Well, now you have gone too far!” This quote assists in comprehending the view people have of gay people. The thought of having a gay person on a football team bothers people more than the thought of having an abusive man or murderer. People talk about gay marriage as if it is such an issue. The prejudice many have toward gay people is truly inhumane, and more states should allow them to be together.

“My concern is about the people who are gay in groups that aren’t accepted as gay, specifically, in my mind, male athletes. I don’t think that there’s enough room or acceptance at this point in the world and at Wayland High School for those people to feel comfortable being out,” Rosenthal said.

Modern society has successfully continued the “tradition” of telling males what they must accomplish and need to be in order to prove their masculinity. Within our society men who are seen as masculine are perceived as being, “Non-emotional...Aggressive...Tough-skinned...Strong, active, and self-confident” (Cernovich, 2012). However, this notion of masculinity has created an image for men to follow as a way to prove they have self-worth and are accepted by society. This hyper masculinity has quite possibly affected all males in some way, shape, or form but because of its widely accepted presence and more importantly has created a stigma that has out casted males of the LGBTQ+ community and more specifically males who identify as homosexual. From data collected in 2013 and organized by statistic portal known as Statista, about 1.8% of the males in the United States identify as gay compared to the 97.8% identifying as straight. Although this percentage may seem insignificant to the whopping 97%, they face many social issues mainly done by other males who see themselves as being more “manly” or “dominate”. Even with this all being said, why is the masculinity of homosexual men such a controversial topic amongst males?