Essay The Commodification of Volleyball

Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports.  These sports often govern society's way of life.  People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends.   Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends."  Parents  use sports as a teaching tool for their children.  Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and  sports have also helped many students with their grades.  Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games.  Adults have

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.

Middle school is a time when kids attempt to figure out how they fit in, and that is exactly what I was looking to do when I started playing volleyball. I was in seventh grade when I decided to try out, and it was only because my best friend was playing. Little did I know just how organized and complex the game was; I just assumed volleyball was a more intense version of “don’t let the balloon touch the ground.” I never thought that I would become so passionate about this sport that it would have an impact on my character.

In volleyball, there are set rules that every player must follow. Teams have different methods to help their players understand the rules. Some teams memorize them and have “tests”, others learn from experiencing the rules while playing. The exigence behind learning the rules is so that the player knows how to play the game as an individual and as a team. Knowing the rules of volleyball is essential for a well-functioning team. Along with the rules, a player must understand the terminology used consistently throughout the experience.

* Equity affects nearly all aspects of our lives none less than sports such as beach volleyball. Sport is an integral part of today’s society and as such, sport should be organised, participated in and distributed in an equitable manner.The aim of equity in sports is to encourage all people, regardless of age, gender, disability or ethnic origin to participate in and develop their potential within sport. Disputes over equity have been apparent in our society for hundreds of years, over such things as gender, religion or race. A framework developed by Figueroa deals with equity. It consists of five levels that link together – individual, interpersonal, institutional, structural and cultural. The following paragraphs demonstrate the use of

What do you think when you hear volleyball; serve, bit, pass, net and ball. It's so much more than that it's aggression, passion, oomph,uphill battle, and love. At first I thought volleyball was just for fun, but then one day that all changed. "Hurry up and make sure that you have everything you need," my mom shouted. "Okay, I'll be out in a minute," I replied. I promptly jammed my shoes into my bag, zipped it and rushed out my bedroom and down to the front door. My mom rushed in and said, "Let's go." We seemed to accelerate down the road. As we approached the gymnasium the car and dashed into the building. Legion points into the game everyone started to glance around frantically

When you type in Female Athletes into a popular search engine like Google, the top hits are links that redirect to articles titled, “The Top 50 Hottest Athletes of 2016," “Unlimited List of Hottest Female Athletes In The World. In contrast, when you do the same for a Male Athlete you find articles about the “Best Male Athlete ESPY Award” and ‘Most Fit Male Athlete in Sports”. We see such a stark difference, even though they perform the same tasks. At an early age, parents tend to encourage the male child to participate in sports whereas they encourage the female child to join a dance or arts and crafts class instead. “You throw like a girl” is an expression that is often used, equating athleticism to masculinity rather than femininity (Hively

Within sport, as throughout society, gender differences exist. The socially constructed phenomenon of gender dictates a dichotomous system whereby females are feminine and males are masculine. Focusing on females specifically, society determines the feminine traits and roles ascribed to this gender. Being domesticated, slender, passive and heterosexual are a part of the desirable appearance that society has formed surrounding femininity (Wolf, 1991). On the other side of the dichotomy is the masculine realm that sport plays into. Sport is fuelled by muscle, power and aggressiveness, which are behaviours and images associated to masculinity. Sport therefore, defies all existing female gender ideals. It would be assumed that females have no place within this institution due to the gender clash. However, female athletes do exist, and many are very successful. For this to work, sport has established and reinforced the social constructions of gender that exist in society. Female athletes are viewed as inferior and are pushed into gender appropriate sports. Furthermore, they are often labeled as masculine until they can prove otherwise, and so great attempts are made to reassert femininity. The stigma associated to being masculine or homosexual for female athletes is so great that many have become irrationally fearful of this label. The sexualisation of the female body and overt displays of heterosexuality are used in

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.

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.

“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).

Women’s participation in sports has changed over the centuries. In ancient times, men dominated societies. Women were viewed as the caretaker, a provider for life. Women who did participate were criticized and were thought of as threatening. In 18th century America, women were considered inferior to men because of the belief that women are the weaker sex. A woman’s purpose in life was to take care of the house, children, and husband. When they did want to participate in recreational sport, they need to be able to negotiate with men and with other women because societies did not make it easy for women to participate. For example, there was a

Principal component analysis performed on the second questionnaire resulted in twelve factor-based scales: 1) Aesthetics and Femininity; 2) Danger/Risk and Violence; 3) Team Spirit; 4) Fair Play and Morals; 5) Speed; 6) Advanced Skills and Precision; 7) Commercialism; 8) Strength and Endurance; 9) Equipment; 10) Masculinity; 11) Excitement and Challenge; and 12) Cognitive Efficiency. All sports labeled as feminine scored high on scale one, Aesthetics and Femininity. Attributes such as “aesthetical”, “beauty”, “graceful”, and “sexy” loaded on the same factor as “feminine” and “womanly”. In contrast, the sports labeled as masculine scored high in Danger/Risk and Violence, Team Spirit, Speed, Strength and Endurance, and Masculinity (Koivula, 2001).

Race, gender, history and sexual orientation play major roles in women's participation in sport. Through out the history of women in sport, opportunity has increased. Many athletes and coaches are presented with the issue of sexual orientation throughout their sporting career. Regardless of sexual orientation, all female athletes are affected by heterosexism. One's racial or ethnicity background greatly shapes the experience they may have in sport. This essay explores the many issues women in sport face today.

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