Theoretical Ethnographic And Conceptual Background

When individuals, male or female, decide to enter a non-traditional sport for his/ her gender, there will inevitably be benefits and costs. Because sports themselves are divided along gender and race lines, one would expect that individuals who intend to play a sport deemed by culture and by society as counterintuitive are bound to be criticized and alienated because of their choices. Difference automatically threatens conventions, traditions, and expectations, and hence, it threatens the individuals who belong to that traditional sphere. Because sports are affected as much by funding as they are by issues of diversity and accessibility, the following questions address those issues: which group of people

Woman’s sustained involvement in ‘male’ team sports has only occurred relatively recently. Woman’s participation in sport has been blunted by

The discrimination and stereotyping of women playing certain types of sports has become a problem much larger than anyone would think. Sexism in sports is a minoritized mindset throughout the world; even though women are practicing the exact same thing as men, they are still seen as a lesser player based on their gender. Sexsim is spreading like an epidemic to countries around the world, killing many dreams of young women in the world of sports especially.

It is also believed that female athletes become objectified in the media as an “attempt to limit female power, thereby reinforcing hegemonic masculinity” (Pederson,2002). Mass media and sports are one of the most commanding hegemonic social institutions and there is a strong link between athleticism and masculinity. It is due to this hegemonic masculinity that women, in many ways are considered inferior to men and treated as if they have no place of their own in sports, where only male power dominates.

The abuse of power to exploit and dominate women within sporting bodies is not a new concept to society and may seem complex however, to gain insight on this topic one may observe the role of masculinity in sports. Sport has been a masculine domain where men are able to assert their dominance, strength, and bravery. Directly addressed by the three I’s: inferiority, injury, and immorality in Authors Eileen McDonagh’s and Laura Pappano’s article Playing With the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal In Sports women have been marked as physically inferior to men (McDonagh and Pappano, 2008, pp.181-187). Additionally, society feared that if women were allowed to compete in masculine sports it would promote damage to their vital organs, homosexual affiliations,

Sport has been one of the most important socio-cultural learning experiences for males and females. Sports provide an amazing release for people of all ages. People are requested and welcomed to play sports at any age. Sometimes there are many limitations due to personal reasons that restrain people from participating in sport such as money, peer pressure, location, etc. For the last century males are expected to be strong, independent, and athletic. Male athletes masculinity symbolizes an image of physical health, and sexual virility throughout their bodies as well. Nowadays, women’s participation in sports is becoming popular but it is still overshadowed by men’s. According to the Women’s Sport Foundation before the title IX “given equal athletic opportunities, women will rush to fill them; the remaining discrepancies in sports participation rates are the result of continuing discrimination in access to those opportunities” (“ Title IX Myths and Fact”). Under the title IX, female has the playing field been. Women now can participate in many sports, which were only played by men before. However, the main reason that female usually do not participate is due to gender inequity. Some of people believe that the inequity in sports has not changed over the years, especially opportunities and benefits. Although sports provide opportunities for both males and females, female participating in sports generally have less opportunities to

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 other words, men are the default in sport and women are “othered.” While women have been, and continue to be, disadvantaged by sport media, a newer gender issue has been given more attention in recent years. As the typically restrictive categories

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.

Over the past 50 years, women’s sports have become more prevalent not only in the United States but also across the world. The ability for young girls and women to participate in athletics provides an avenue to experience competitive environments as well as build self-confidence in a world still dominated by men. During the early stages of women’s sports, the main idea was to show that women were worthy of having their own teams and organizations as an extension of the existing men’s sports. In other words, to prove to everyone the women could play many of the same sports that men could play.

“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).

Worldwide, there has been an increase in participation in sports (Silvers and Mandelbaum 2012:357). However, there are inequality gaps resulting in fewer women participating in sports (Heagreaves 2000:184)

This essay is going to critically evaluate whether ‘sports initiatives are a great way to empower females’. Gender is ‘the assignment of masculine and feminine characteristics to bodies in cultural contexts. It is a socially constructed category that involves roles, expectations, and responsibilities that are not biologically determined’ (Grewal & Kaplan, 2006). This definition shows us that it is not just physical things that define what gender is but also what roles there are. It is important as one of the big issues in sport in gender inequality, when males and females are not treated as equals in sport as well as in everyday life. For example in sports such as golf the males and females play the U.S. Open on different weeks and the

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

In the last one hundred years women have made tremendous inroads in many facets of life. Of that there can be little doubt. Women may now hold jobs, own property and participate in professional sports. Today women can compete in sports, once a vestige of male domination; there is now room for women in that arena. But even today women in sports are not portrayed in the same light as their male counterparts. To a large degree this is because of today's cultural ideal of women.