The Effect Of Participation On Physical Activity Among High School Students

Starting with how women are portrayed in media, Trolan (2013) states that in today’s society, individuals are shown magazines, newspapers, and television programs with articles and photographs, “of what it means to be a woman or man” (Trolan, 215). This is remarkably obvious when discussing the world of sport. Although women have achieved a somewhat higher level of respect in the everyday world, within the sporting world, “they are still viewed as women first and athletes second” (Trolan, 215). Krane, Choi, Baird, Aimar, and Kauer (2004) also articulate that women participating in sport live in two extremely separate cultures: the sporting culture and the culture in which they face the continual battle between being an athlete and being a woman. Being viewed as

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.

Firstly gender has a marked effect on Australian sports playing and spectating. At the very start of the century woman played few sports because sports were too physically demanding for the body. The widespread acceptance of medicalised perspectives on female bodies served to limit female sporting involvement for a very long time. International Review for the sociology of sport 50 (4-5)pp.430-436. In todays society, there is still continuous inequality throughout the sporting industry amongst athletes and sporting teams. With sport being a strong influence, there are many ongoing consistencies.

Many social factors directly or indirectly shape opinions and influence an individual’s decision to participate in physical activity. These factors change throughout an individual’s life. For example, some children start playing sport because it is fun; others may join a sporting group because their older brother or sister plays that sport. A new sporting complex may open nearby and provide a chance to try a new sport. Coaching clinics might inspire some people to give a sport a go. Teachers can provide both positive and negative sporting experiences.

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

Australia is widely regarded as both characterised and united by sport. Sport has an elevated place in Australia's official and popular national culture, and the country’s reputation for being a 'paradise of sport' has become a largely unquestioned aspect of the Australian way of life. Gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviours, characteristics and actions that a specific society deems appropriate for men and women (WHO, 2014). The established relationship between gender equality and sport is a widely regarded issue in not only Australia, but all around the world. Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including sport and physical recreation

Upon analysing equity and access in sport, it is important that I am aware of what levels of the framework have influenced my sport participation. In Queensland especially, the sport of AFL comes with primarily negative connotations. These preconceived notions about the sport and the cultural have had a negative effect on my participation and approach towards the sport. Gender stereotypes have also been a deterrent in my participation. Sports, such as AFL, require participants to be competitive, courageous, powerful and strong. These qualities are largely associated with male gender stereotypes. Sport reinforces hegemonic masculinity by celebrating stereotypically masculine and activities and attributes, and restricting the behaviour of women.

Chalabaev, A., Sarrazin, P., Fontayne, P., Boiché, J., & Clément-Guillotin, C. (2013). The influence of sex stereotypes and gender roles on participation and performance in sport and exercise: Review and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(2), 136-144.

Sport contributes to gender, race and class inequalities and not very much work has been done to resolve the problem (Messner 1989). Talbot (2002:282) identify the neglect of scholarly articles to address the issue of sexual and structural prejudices, as well as discrimination (in the form of media biases, homophobia, legal challenge of exclusion in sports and sports organisations), as a factor which limit the opportunities for sportswomen (Pirinen 2002:101) resulting in women’s lower participation levels (Pedersen 1996:191).

In today’s society males are more dominant in many contact sport and females are more dominant in non- contact or flexibility sports. That is how hegemony is seen in our society. Stereotypes gender roles

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

Is media becoming the enemy? For the past decades media seems to be earning a bad reputation. Mass media, including T.V, and newspaper has poisoned the minds of people in society, who supports and partakes in athletic activity. It’s evident, that in today’s society, males are the dominant figure in sports. They receive a magnificent amount of media attention than female athletes. This situation not only started recently, but from a long time ago. Young boys have more heroic figures to look up to in action cartoons and heroic images on magazines. Females on the other hand, don’t do not much action figures or heroic images to look up too.

counts? How does motivation and physical activity differ by grade and gender? Based on the information obtained in the study, results for the first research question revealed that when students viewed the physical education learning environment as one that is task or mastery-oriented the student in turn viewed participating in physical education positively. Results also revealed that there was a connection with student insight of the learning climate and attitudes of the student as opposed to self-determination. Results for the second question revealed that associations with attitude, self-determination, and learning climate during the 24-hour pedometer count were not strong. Results from the third research question confirmed results from previous research, that physical activity levels and student motivation decreases after grade six. Results from the pedometer count further confirmed the theory that physical activity declines in grade six. Further studies concluded that gender plays a role in physical activity levels. According to the pedometer counts, boys achieved a greater amount of steps than girls, thus confirming that boys reach a higher level of physical activity than their opposite counterparts. The authors acknowledged that the findings reported with gender levels were consistent with other research conducted in this area.

Just as studies at the collegiate level have found athletic participation to be both positive and negatively related to academic performance, the same came be seen at the high school level. However, in some of the early studies athletic participation was not seen to have an impact on academic achievement (Lumpkin & Favor, 2012). Hauser and Lueptow (1978) found in their study of 852 senior males that graduated in 1972, from five moderately large Midwestern city high schools, that their results were in-line with the results of the 1973, Lueptow and Kayser (as cited in Hauser and Lueptow, 1978) study that they replicated, “do not support a casual interpretation of the relationship between athletic involvement and academic achievement.” (Hauser & Lueptow, 1978, p. 308). Alternatively, that athletic participation was not the underlining reason, but the initial dissimilarities in academic achievement between athletes and non-athletes. Marsh (1993) in his study found a similar lack of effects for athletic participation on school grades. However, he did find participation in athletics during the last two years of high school had a statistically significant positive impact for 14 of 22 senior and post high school outcomes and no apparent negative effects. There do seem to be more studies that find either a negative impact (Beem, 2006; Cook, 2003; Gehring, 2004; Goldman 1991; Klein, 2011) or positive impact (Burnett, 2000; Fejgin, 1994; Lumpkin & Favor, 2012; White 2005; Whitely,