Masculinity In Sports Essay

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.

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship program, dedicated just 2 percent of its airtime to women’s sports in 2014, and just four percent when looking at media coverage as a whole (Kroh, 2015). According to the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, women’s athletics receive only 4 percent of all sports media coverage; other studies have put television time as low as 1 percent (Ottaway, 2016). This means that aspiring young female athletes were more likely to see a man participating in sports than see someone that looks like them on the screen. This negatively effects sports culture because children are known to emulate the things that they see on television. If young girls do not see other girls participating in sports then they are less likely to want to participate in sports. And if a girl does participate in a sport it is more probable that she will drop out of the sport than a boy

This article talked about the daunting unequal media coverage in sports of male sports teams in comparison to females.They researched the true differentiations of coverage between men and women sports. The actual percentage difference of coverage of male vs female sports discovered in their research truly is unfathomable. Men’s sports receive 96.3% of the airtime, women’s sports 1.6% and gender neutral topics were 2.1%. When you think back about twenty years ago and the coverage of media people tend to think that America is generally trending positively forward, however that is not the case for the coverage of women's athletics. It has actually gone down since then. Although on the scarce occasion that they are feature in the news, more often than not they are conveyed in the stereotypical way: as wives, girlfriends, or mothers. When media is highlighting these aspects instead of their talent, hard work or success it takes away from their image as an athlete and it demonstrating that it is acceptable to do so in society. However if male athlete achieved equal success and he was a father, that

From the feeling of treading on freshly-cut grass to the exhilaration of victory, football is a sport loved by many. Nearly one hundred eighty-seven million Americans describe themselves as fans of the NFL (Thomas). Truly, the raw passion and intensity that radiates from the field keeps the viewers watching, wanting more. The struggle for power between two teams only heightens the amount of cheering from the stands, because all the audience wants to see is a game of domination. Football emphasizes the image of masculinity through the hulking figures of its players: violent, domineering, and aggressive. Although a game of fine strategy and tactic, there is no elegance on the field, only the singular driving thought of winning by any means.

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

For many years, women have been underappreciated. They are seen as individuals who should only cook, clean, and take care of the kids around the house. As the years move on, women are starting to break those stereotypes and becoming strong and independent. One of the ways that they are doing this is through the sports world. Many professional women athletes have been helping to tear down those stereotypes and let the people of the world know that women are capable of what men can do too. Even though men’s sports are more popular than women’s, the media should acknowledge women’s sports just as much as men’s because the physical activities that women do in the sports world encourage girls to play them, breaks through the gender barrier and increasing the recognition of women’s sports increases funding for them.

The gender difference between male and female in sports is not natural, but it is socially constructed through media, institutions, and the public

The masculinity crisis in the mid to late 1800s was a conclusive factor for baseball and football to obtain their start as sports were an escape from femininity, developed future leadership skills, and ultimately, led to being publicly viewed as dominant. Part of the masculinity crisis was men internally feeling their gender were being threatened by women. Men feared that if young boys spent too much time with their mother, they would grow up to be too soft or modest. Alternatively, fathers would want their kids to be active as a way to grow away from this gender fear and instead, focus on what they perceived as manly; which was sports. It’s worth mentioning that this crisis ultimately led for football to emerge as the masculine sport to be a part of.

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.

Boys and young men are often being urged to be manly. Advertisement always makes men look strong and handsome, as opposed to lanky and unattractive. Our society affects men in a way that women wouldn’t understand. Women think that men have it easy all the time but do they really? They face issues just like women do. A central issue facing boys and young men is that they are forced into being sporty, dull-witted, and physically appealing.

Main idea: High school boys practice compulsive heterosexuality to ensure their masculinity and social status. Compulsive heterosexuality is not particularly associated with sexual orientations, but more to do with behaviors, social interactions, and institutional structures. Male students expressed and measured their masculinity by objectifying girls and their bodies, relentless remarks about sexual conquests, desiring girls, and desired by girls. Being in control of girls’ bodies, overpowering them to alter their bodily functions and inflicting pain were revered as a sign of masculinity. They also thought to believe that forceful coercion to overcome girls’ resistance to boys’ desire was part of a good practice of masculinity.

This study reveals much about the attitudes that persist in society today regarding sport and gender. Early on, sport was created to serve men, evolving as a celebration of maleness, valuing strength, power, and competition. It idealized, promoted, and rewarded successful, elite athletes, established “the dream” as a professional career in sports, and viewed mass participation in sport as a tool to weed out the weak (Hill, 1993). In contrast, women’s sports originated to “address the expressed need for healthful exercise” (Huckaby, 1994). Unlike the competitive warrior mode

which can be reflected in the conventional ideas that the male is more active and athletic than female (Buysse 2004). This essay is going to explore the ways how sport media contribute to the perpetuation of gendered inequalities, it will focus on the aspect of gender stereotypes, disproportion of media coverage and the role

Three common stereotypes associated with masculinity would be self-confidence, aggressiveness, and insensitivity. Self-confidence is a positive trait that men are associated with, however, it can also be a negative trait. Many men are self-confident which helps their self-esteem and boosts their mental image of themselves. Those men who are not self-confident may feel that the stereotype negatively impacts them they may feel like they are not “man” enough. Men and boys are often stereotyped as being aggressive, which I believe is a negative stereotype. Boys are taught from a young age that they need to be physically dominant and that they are supposed to play rough. This behavior that is taught at young age then grows with them over time