"Politics is a contact Sport"

I really liked reading this article because it discussed concepts that I never really analyzed before which allowed me to relate this new knowledge to real life situations. This article connects a variety of different concepts that all influence one another such as sports, politics and masculinity. I’ve always analyzed the gender differences within sports because the gender inequality in sports is very apparent. I’ve always wondered why is that there are sports that only cater to one gender and not the other such as football. We only see male football teams but not women’s football. When I analyze situations like this, it brings me to more questions like, why is this the case for many sports? Are sports politically structured a certain way? Or does it boil down to personal choice, where women just choose not to participate in “masculine” sports and men choose not to participate in “feminine” sports? This leads me into more questions about masculinity and femininity. What makes a sport masculine and what makes a sport feminine? Society considers men to be stronger and more aggressive who has more upper body strength and is involved with aggressive body contact. Women on the other hand, are considered to be individuals who do not want to be involved with sports that involve such aggression and strength.

This article calls attention to these types of questions as it discusses “gendered” components within all sports. The article makes an excellent point when demonstrating the direct connection between sports and politics. Politics represent the outlook of society and culture therefore represents males in females as society represents them. This same type of relationship is the case with sports and masculinity. A person can be defined or considered as being “masculine” if the play a “masculine” sport. Also, depending on how good they are or not at that sport they may be considered more masculine than others if it is a masculine sport. Along with a man being “more masculine” comes with this man having “more power” is the ideology that society enforces. For instance, this idea was demonstrates during the Presidential campaign with Obama and McCain. During a certain debate, many questions pertained to sports and both of the candidates were praised for being former prestigious athletes. I love how this article really tied together politics, the media, sports and presidential masculinity because they definitely relate to each other and are often not viewed this way.