Coming to an End

This blog made you look from a lot of different angles and points of view.  Since the topic dealt with a lot of controversy, we are able to have a lot of topics and talk about a lot of things dealing with sports, the gender roles, and the homophobias inside sports.  All of us, at one point are athletes or athletic so I think the topic really stood out to us and made us realize the different views within the sports topic.  There was a lot to learn, and also a lot of things that we already knew going into the topic.  We have opened our eyes to different point of view while keeping our own values, and we really hope you have enjoyed our blog because we have enjoyed writing it.

Lauren, Katlyn Tipha

Sports Aggression

An article that I found by Linda Keeler in the Journal of Sport Behavior talks about the differences in men's sports and women’s sports and weather or not emotions play a role in the type of sport being played. Society generally views sports like volleyball and gymnastics as sports for women, and sports like football and hockey for men. The men sports are typically known as being more aggressive and more competitive. That's just how society is; it is preached from a young age that boys are rowdy and aggressive while girls are nice and sweet. But is this really how it is? Keeler presents data from an experiment that shows no significant differences between men's and women's aggression levels on the field. However, men showed higher amounts of aggression than women in normal everyday circumstances. I feel that women showing the same amount of aggression on the field, as men may just show their dedication and passion for the particular sport that they are participating in. This links to the shorter post that I did about women that participate in the Olympic Games. These women don't have to be girly girls to accomplish something, but they also shouldn’t be viewed any differently than anyone else. Keeler states “It is evident from the media and college campuses that women's contact and collision sport participation is increasing. The aggression and love and dedication that women show toward their sport will help them stay successful, because you cannot succeed at something that you don’t enjoy.

Another study that was done shows a positive correlation between aggressiveness and sports. This was found in the PubMed database. This experiment hypothesized that sports serve as a means a way to control aggressiveness of women and help with the individual psychosocial development of men. “The decision to practice sports is up to the individual but seems to be connected with the needs to conform to cultural stereotypes, which portray the man as aggressive and the women as gentle and submissive (Lenzi et al., 1997).”

These two studies show how men and women’s emotions may play a role in the activities that they choose to participate in such as certain sports that they choose to play. These sports may not be influenced based on emotions but may help them cope with their emotions while they play.

~ Katlyn Vickery

                                                                 Works Cited
Keeler L (2007). The differences in sport aggression, life aggression, and life assertion among adult male and female collision, contact, and non-contact sport athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior. 30: 57-76. 

Lenzi A, Bianco I, Milazzo V, Placidi G, Castrogiovanni P, and Becherini D (1997). Comparison of aggresive behavior between men and women in sport. Percept Mot Skills. PubMed database. 84: 139-145

 

 

Females... Let them do it

This is a Nike commercial that shows that women of al ages like to be involved in sports that are viewed as "guy sports" or known to be rough; such as: boxing, football, or even basketball. 

There should be equality in everything that we do as humans, even the sports we may want to partake in. In my eyes, gender does not define a person. Someone can be male, female, or even transgender and still be able to accomplish their goals. The heart and determination makes a person who they are, not the body parts they carry.

~ Katlyn Vickery

Female Olympic Game Particiants

The image below is supposed to represent the Olympic Game rings. Even more specifically than that, this represents females that participate within the Olympic Games. There are more women athletes that compete in the Olympic Games every year. There are more than 200 countries that participate in the Olympic Games, and for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games every participating country sent female athletes to the 2012 London Games. This has changed a lot over the years; in 1996 at the Atlanta Games, 26 countries did not send any females.

 



Many female Olympic Game participants are ridiculed. There is alot of  neglect and even abuse that is aimed toward the female athletes who don’t fit the ideals of feminine physique or thoughs that do not appeal commercially as sex symbols, because they are supposed to "represent" their country as women. An example of this is Zoe Smith; a well known  woman weightlifter out of Great Britain (shown in the picture below).

 



 

In an interview Smith says that she is very good at what she does and enjoys it alot, but it is very hard to keep pushing herself when she has to suffer put-downs for being manly.

 

~Katlyn Vickery

Addressing Homophobia in Sports

This post deals with addressing Homophobia. I think that in order to address Homophobia we need to understand it.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, homophobia is defined as “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality, or homosexuals”.   In this definition there are two negative terms that stick out to me; those terms are “irrational” and “discrimination”.  Another word that sticks out to me is fear.  Why should we fear someone who has a different sexual orientation?  Why do we fear those who are different from ourselves?  Should I fear Jewish people? Should I fear African Americans? The real person that I should fear myself  if these are my views. 

There are many judgments associated with homosexuality.  For example, in the article How to Address Homophobia in Women's Athletics “, they speak on how if a woman wants to play sports she is secretly masculine at heart.  They don’t address the fact that maybe she may have love for the game or that maybe she is forced to play the sport, but the assumptions leak in like rain drops.  This plays into the gender roles that we associate with.  For example the women are in the kitchen, while the men are at work.  These put homophobia into action.  It is my opinion, however, that we are not so against the fact that these couples are the same sex, but however that these couples and individuals are not following the normal gender roles that we as a society create for them.  In order to address homophobia we need to address the gender roles that we are subjected to.

 

Works Cited

Cook, Sarah Gibbard. “How to Address Homophobia in Women’s Athletics” . Women in Higher Education. vol.16 (26-27) 2007. www.genderwatch.com

“Citation.”, Def. 1 Merriam Webster Online. Merriam Webster, n.d.  2 April 2013

-Lauren Tucker

It gets better!

Pro teams asked players to film the "It gets better videos allowing young LGBT athletes and students to believe that there is hope for the future.  Not only do these videos address LGBT issues, but also issues of bullying.  These videos give hope to the LGBT young kids and community.

Works Cited
Woog, Dan. “Year of the Gay”. Between the lines. 2001 vol. 745 (2012). www.proquest.com/genderwatch. 05 March 2012.
www.youtube.com
-Lauren Tucker

There is hope!

According to the article “Year of the Gay”,  Dan Woog writes a compelling piece saying that 2011 was the “Year of the Gay”, in his article he discusses that more athletes had come out of the closet, and that pro players were asked to film “It gets better” videos for young LGBT athletes.  They are taking a stand to band homophobia in sports.  LGBT athletes have even gone as far as demanding that same –sex couple be featured in promotional videos and gay pride parades.  These young athletes want to be recognized by their talent and not the sexual orientation.  This article also discusses how even professionals in the corporate part in professional athletics have taken a stand.  For example many of the LGBT fans have stopped going to the New York Rangers game because the “anti-gay atmosphere is so bad in Madison Square Gardens”.  Another example of this is when Kobe Bryant called an official a “faggot” and had to pay a fine of  $100,000 to the NBA because of the comment.  They are definitely eliminating the amount of slander on the gay community in the sports world.

 However even though there are many people fighting against the homophobia in Sports there are also people that are keeping it alive.  Many of us do not realize the kinds of pressure that we put on our athletes and the pressure is doubled for the young LGBT athletes.  It is not easy to come out at all and especially when you are an athlete.  Many of the coaches and even teammates may treat you differently.  According to the article titles “The College Sport Closet”  Dwight Slater a college football star was recruited to Stanford University, where he thought that he could be comfortable and rid of his insecurity.  After coming out to his teammates and his coach, he felt so uncomfortable that after the first year he quit.  This was unfortunate because many of the fans don’t understand the  trials that these LGBT athletes go through not only in the competition, but in the locker rooms with their coaches and teammates as well.

Works cited

Woog, Dan.  “Year of the Gay”.  Between the lines. 2001 vol. 745 (2012). www.proquest.com/genderwatch. 05 March 2012.

Bull, Chris. “The college Sports closet”.  The Advocate vol. 853 (26-31) 2002. Print

-Lauren Tucker