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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've often thought about the idea of sports and masculinity. It seems obvious at first that men are better at sports right? Men are supposed to be physically active and women domestic. At least that's what society tells us. I think that the people who truly think women don't belong in sports need to get with the times and are a little naive. But at the same time I think someone who says a woman is equally predisposed to be good at sports as a man is being a little too righteous. It's really a complicated debate. It comes down to nature vs. nurture. What about women being "worse" at sports is socially constructed and what is natural? Although they should be seen as equal on many playing fields such as the workplace, the home, and in politics, women and men undeniably have different strengths and weaknesses associated with their sexes. Men physiologically have more lean muscle because of their testosterone production and therefore are more "athletic" on the whole. It gets difficult though when you try to draw the line between a woman's sex and her gender role being the reason she can or can't perform at sports. How much of a role is society playing in telling little girls to not want to play sports, but with dolls instead? If they were given the choice, would more girls want to play sports? Or do a lot of women play sports just to prove that they are as capable as men? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that the world of sports is historically a man's world going all the way back to Ancient Greece and the first games. And so I give a lot of credit to any woman who emerges with success in a man's realm. It's always fun to see a women compete with men like Anika Sorrenstam or Danica Patrick. I think many women are just as serious about sports as men, especially those who play them, it's just unfortunate for them that the vast audience of sports fans in general are men and they tend to overlook the women's sports. One idea that's crossed my mind is that maybe women should try inventing more of their own sports. Inventing a sport is hard because we already have our 4 or 5 main sports. But I was just thinking that it's hard to prove yourself against a man in a sport that men created. Maybe instead of women trying to measure up to men by being good at all the sports men play, they can create their own. Look at the success that field hockey and softball have had--two sports that are predominantly all women. So I think more sports along those lines would be beneficial for women. I'm not saying that women shouldn't play basketball, for instance, but I personally enjoy watching women's sports that are tailored more towards them, rather than watching them play the same sport men are playing 2 channels over.
ReplyDelete