Gendered Relations And Masculinity Is Influenced By Football

Gender classification is a predominant topic within today’s sports and is most broadly understood through the portrayals of sports media. Through overt and covert ways, sports media has continued to promote a masculine representation of sports (Millington & Wilson, 2010; Messener, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). By understanding the way in which sports media portrays sports, one can recognize how masculinity has dominated the world of sports. With the aid of two unique studies of sports media, this paper will critique the way in which media has effected the gendered depiction of sports.

The fact that the football field is an all-male space connects it to patriarchy. It isn’t just about men dominating women, but also about men dominating other men. “We become adept at taking the feelings that boil up inside us-

In boy’s football, boys can grab their opponent’s chest to push them back. If girls were to play with boys, boys could not be able to push back girls without being called out for being “unmannered”. Boys are generally also bigger, heavier, and taller than women. When it comes to sports such as football, men naturally have the upper hand. To make the game equal, there would have to be a whole new set of rules on what boys can and cannot do. Even so, many schools still implement co-ed teams, saying that girls should be able to play with boys and that it is false to say that girls cannot compete with boys on an athletic level. They also claim that putting boys and girls on the same team promotes gender-diversity and equality, whilst also

Football is an American sport that consists of two teams composed of 11 men. On the 100-yard field, they go head to head, trying to keep the other team from advancing the ball down the field toward the end zone, resulting in a touchdown or field goal. Football pits the two teams against each other. The offense, which possesses the ball, is placed against the defense, which tries to prevent the offense from advancing the ball. Several different resources can contribute to a team’s success. Some of those resources are funds, talent level of players, and favorable position on the field, which makes it easier to score points. The four sociological perspectives, structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and social exchange theory, all credit different reasons for one team being able to achieve this goal more often than another team. Nevertheless, any of the sociological perspectives you view the sport from, football is a very complex entity. Football is more than just a group of men pounding one another. There is a complex equation that eventually equals success; the differences between these perspectives are the components of the equation that are most heavily weighed on for success. Although it may be a combination of all three perspectives that leads to success in football, it is fair to look at the game from each perspective individually because each holds important insight into what truly leads to a successful football team.

Football is a sport known for the excitement it brings to the audience and to the players. This sport is being played around the country professionally, and throughout colleges and high schools. With all the tackling, screaming, touchdowns, and energy football produces, people either love the sport or find it to be too dangerous. Many people who believe football to be a dangerous sport especially fears the danger it puts high school students in. The concern of young lives being at stake just to be a part of a sport makes numerous people question football in high schools. What those people don’t realize though, is that football in high schools is an amazing opportunity for young men (and in some cases young women) to prepare for life and the trials it comes with. Playing football in high school will teach young men to learn to have a great work ethic, make quick decisions to better not only themselves but the others around them, and give them a chance to get athletic scholarships for colleges.

Continuing to brain wash the young men today with the “sports is a mans world” mentality only helps to repeat the cycle of nearly oppressing women in the industry. It keeps men feeling secure when it comes to their masculinity, yet making a woman’s fight for respect a never ending struggle.

I observed the basketball championship game in McCarthy center and, while sporting events are mostly seen as a male-dominated activity, I saw more girls in the audience than boys. I, myself, got up at six in the morning to wait in line to get a spot to watch the game. This breaks the stereotype that girls are uninterested in sports. However, after the devastating loss, most people went back to their gendered stereotypes. I, along with the girls around me, were crying at the heartbreaking finale, while some boys in CM took to breaking things in the halls. This alines with the gender stereotypes that women are more emotional and men are more violent. While I do believe that we, as a society, are moving away from suffocating gendered stereotypes, there are some that we still preform subconsciously. The younger generations are moving forward with making gender non-conformity the new normal, however, we are far from ending the fight to break gendered

Prior to the late 1980s, there has not been a great deal of research done around the between masculinity and its relationship or influence with sport, but it appears that in recent times it has been widely researched with various different theories and concepts developing from this research.

A singular and limited view of masculinity has hijacked professional sports, the NFL especially, and has led to a culture where many players cannot tell

Many people regard football as the most violent sport a person can play. Masculinity is often seen in football and players are always trying to prove their dominance over one another. The violence that people see in football is attractive to many and they love to see a receiver come across the middle and get “lit up” by the linebacker. The vicious hits that the fans love so much are also the cause of pain for the players who are the ones getting hit.

One of America’s favorite pastimes is (American) football. The bonding that football brings to families from all different backgrounds is truly amazing. Hollywood also has its own obsession with football. Hollywood tends to sensationalize the “masculine” aspects of the sport, even if the real life story is different. In this analysis, I will focus on the “real life” movies Remember the Titans, The Blind Side, and Rudy. Each of these movies tackle different issues that many men face. Each movie has examples of a certain type of masculine ideal, and how each character portrays their masculinity, women included.

With the rise of feminism, gender inequality has been quite the topic in todays time. With the wanting of equal rights and treatment it has been pointed out as per which all places males have the hegemonic overview and women are the oppressed; one of the areas where its unequal in gender is in sport. This paper will examine and break down the issues regarding sex and gender biases within sports in modern day media and how it can be resolved.

While basketball had an extremely big influence on my gender identity, growing up in a house of predominantly women; myself, my mother, and my two sisters, had an extreme impact on me, and how I viewed femininity. My Mother, extremely proud of us all, held no reservations, no expectations of gender, and was open to anything we wanted to try as children to establish an identity for ourselves; a true gift in which not everyone is exempt to. Growing up in a household that was flexible and fluid about personal identity and gender, I found this to be an extremely influential gendering institution.

Sports become stereotyped as gender-neutral, feminine, or masculine based on conceptions regarding gender, gender differences, and beliefs about the appropriateness of participation due to gender (Colley et al., 1987; Csizma, Wittig, & Schurr, 1988; Koivula, 1995; Matteo, 1986). Sports labeled as feminine seem to be those that allow women participants to act in accordance with the stereotyped expectations of femininity (such as being graceful and nonagressive) and that provide for beauty and aesthetic pleasure (based on largely male standards). A sport is labeled as masculine if it involves the following: 1) attempts to physically overpower the opponent(s) by bodily contact; 2) a direct use of bodily force to a heavy object; 3) a

In another research, Bryson (1987) found that sports have always been a construction of hegemonic masculinity. A sport such as football receives attention and is linked with masculinity where the use of force, violence or aggression can be seen. Women who attempt to do sport are merely challenging the hegemonic masculinity is already in place.