Whether someone is a male, a female, or transgender, sports is something they all have a chance to participate in. Most individuals involved in sports are grouped into teams. Together as a team they score points to win their games. In most cases males will play on an all boys team, and females will participate on an all girls team. For those who are transgender it depends on how they choose to identify themselves. The number of coed sports teams are little to none. One may find themselves asking why this is. Team sports should be not be gender neutral because of conflicting opinions regarding coed sports, stereotyping gender inequalities can hinder unity within a coed team, and varying differences in physiologies cause unfair games. Firstly, there are conflicting opinions regarding coed sports. If a male hits a female, people could become hostile to the male and accuse him of being too rough. Others would think it completely unfair when athletes …show more content…
It is scientifically proven that males are stronger than females, having more muscle and endurance. This would form complications if teams were to convert to coed. The males could overpower the team and females would get little chances to fully participate in the sport. There are only a select few females that are physically on par with male athletes. Even if females were to be exceptionally talented in their sport, someone larger in size can use that to their advantage and outdo them. It is unfair for a female who is talented in her sport to be easily outrun by a male who has much longer legs at their disposal. Also, teams could have the upperhand if they have more of one gender then the other. Thus causing difficulties with an unfair game, the team with the most males can have a physical advantage to the team with more females. With the varying difference in physiologies, problems will occur and affect the fairness of the
The setting up of co-ed, or mixed gender, teams in schools has been highly debated by many students, parents, and school staff. Some argue than not allowing girls and boys to play on the same team promotes gender stereotypes among kids, while others claim that because of differences in body size and strength, boys and girls should not be on the same team. Co-Ed teams are in place across the nation with many claiming that they “promote a healthy environment where boys and girls are equal”, but the reality is that the forming of co-ed teams in some sports like football or basketball is not a good idea because boys won’t be able to get as physical with girls as they would with boys, nor would they be able to play by the same rules.
“It’s frustrating, but that’s just the way it is now,” Kate Hall said after losing to an opponent. Hall had just been stripped of her two-year reign as state champion to a transgender female (male-to-female) athlete in a high school track competition. Transgender women should not be allowed to compete with biological females. Every time a trans female makes the team a biological female is stripped of their chance to be on the team and every time a transgender female athlete places in an event another female loses the opportunity to achieve their goal of success. Recently, many transgender athletes have been competing alongside the gender with which they identify themselves, instead of competing with their biological equals. The differences in male and female physiology are the reasons why men and women compete in separate events in sports. If it is unfair for men to compete against women then how is it fair for men who identify as women to take on biological females.
Women have struggled for more than two centuries to be taken serious as professionals. There should not be a double standard in sports especially if it is loved and played by both genders. Over the years, females have competed against the stereotype of being too fragile both mentally and physically to play strenuous sports. The passion and work ethic of the female professional athletes is just as strong as the males and everyone should be treated equal and be able to have a chance at making a better living for themselves as well as their family. One area that still faces a continual struggle in sports is gender equality. Female
For example, according to Cassandra Meuret, author of “Co-ed Sports is Something That Should Not Be Considered” states “Imagine football being mixed with both men and women. A 250-pound linebacker charging at a 150-pound woman doesn’t exactly seem like the safest scenario.” (Meuret 1). Another example is strength. Stated in the article “Should sports be co-ed?” “strength is another big factor. The world’s strongest woman, who bench pressed 531 lbs, does not compare to the world’s strongest man, who bench pressed 1,008 lbs.” (S 1). We should not integrate men and women into the same team because with this difference in strength being as drastic as it is, that is not fair to the male or the female in the situation. Say the sport that is co-ed is football, someone who can press almost double as another person, is to tackle the smaller one, that could lead to a harmful injury. Strength and muscle capacity may be important to the difference in men and women, but height is another fatal factor. The article “Should sports be co-ed” provides another example of “NBA basketball player at 6’6.98” (2007-08 Player Survey: Height), which is well above the average height of a WNBA basketball player at 5’11.84” (2002-03 WNBA Player Survey Averages), the women would be at a disadvantage.”( S 2) With almost a foot difference, the male could reach the net a lot easier than the woman could. With this height difference, this causes the male to have naturally longer legs, with a longer stride. “The world record holder for the men’s 400m dash time is 43.18 seconds, which is 4.42 seconds faster than the world record holder for the women’s world record at 47.60 seconds (400 Metres).” (S 3). Say the world's fastest man, and the world's fastest women competed in a race. The male would win because of the difference in leg strength and
In the world of sports it started off that girls could never play sports and then in 1972 a public law called Title IX came to existence which allowed girls to play sports but not with boys. Today the question is asked should girls play on boys’ sports teams? One would think that girls should not play with boys on a sports team because boys are just naturally taller and stronger than women and they would dominate the girls in a fully contact sport. Another may think that if a girl is truly capable to play on an all boys’ sports team, then she should not be denied the opportunity to try out for an all boys’ team. Some other people may believe that sports at younger ages should remain co-ed because boys and girls body types are still
The reason girls should be allowed to play on a boys sport is because of cheerleading. Cheerleading is labeled as a girl sport and if a boy is on the team most of the time he is labeled gay or he has a lot of feminine ways. That is the same as saying that wrestling is an all boy sport and if the girls on there are playing then they are either gay or have manly ways. Which technically is not always true. If boys are allowed to play the most popular sport there is out there than girls should be able to play on an actually football team instead of labeling it powder puff. Sports that are just like a boys team are labeled completely different, in which they should all come
When I was in middle school I played the sport called Soccer. The main reason that I decided to play soccer for me is because my friend’s Jazmin and Cassie how are girls and Evan how is a boy were all able to play soccer together. We could all be on the same team together because middle school is coed soccer. That comes to reason soccer is the main sport I think of as a coed sport. But as I found out that is only true until students are out of middle school. Then the coed is no more. In high school and on to being professional, there are a few clubs that may have coed if there's not enough players for each gender to be none coed.
The first reason is playing coed sports would have many advantages, one of them is that it increases the way that they distinguish themselves individually. Boys and girls like to play on the same teams because it gives them freedom to be with the opposite gender. Guys and girls hang out together outside of sports and teams, why not let them play a sport together. Statistics have shown that having coed sports reduces depression in girls and if in coed sports at an early age boys learn to respect girls sooner. This is one on of the few but very important reasons.
Beginning with the most prevalent controversy, the obvious physical advantage males have over females. “Weight, shape, size, and anatomy are not political opinions but rather tangible and easily measured.” (Connor) This is a strictly a fact, that men have natural, biological, and evolutionary advantages in many aspects of physical exertion, however, it wouldn’t be fair to say that woman have no hope in physical dominance over any man in the 21st century. Females in male sports aren’t just sitting ducks waiting to be beaten, they have a similar polar edge including speed, flexibility, and quick thinking. Looking at an example of this, Massachusetts high school wrestler, Danielle
Official athletic teams are developed in Junior High School, around the same time that feelings for the opposite gender arise. My point is that if two separate genders, male and female, are placed within the same team, feelings or affection for the opposite gender will become an obstacle for physical and athletic performance. Due to lack of focus, I believe that this will result in numerous losses.
Therefore, they need a higher level of competition. The boys' sports teams have a higher difficult competition, but a girl is unable to join since the ban from a sports team being coed. The boys' sports team provides a chance for the girls to step up their level and keep learning, so I believe girls should play on the boy’s sports team. Having the team coed, girls can gain more strength.
There are no significant gender differences that were found in the strengths to muscle cross-sectional area also known as CSA ratio on knee extension or elbow flexion (Miller et al). That allows women to build body mass and muscles just as men and there are no difference in flexibility so men are able to compete just like women for example like the olympics. There are a lot of sports now that women and men are able to play like football, soccer, softball, swim, and etc. However, competitions are split male and male and female versus female. This is made to make sure the woman that aren’t as athletic are in harm but on occasions some schools and activities they are allowed to play against each other for fun and training. A recent study that had a coach from Germany and Canada train both genders and see their cohesion- performance similarities. The analysis revealed that both male and female have the same strive, stamina and performance (Eys et al).
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.
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
People might still say that the segregation of genders in sports are making gender equality impossible, but the separation of genders in sports is not because one gender is better than the other. It is to ensure the fairness and equality. Women and men are naturally built differently and they both are both truly strong but in different ways. In order to keep sports fair, just and equal, the best thing to do is to keep sports separated by