Final reflections

My perceptions of US sport before this class was that sports overtake our society and are very prevalent in our lives. I have gained a new perspective on things such as women in sports and the sexualization of women in sport, which I find fascinating. I enjoyed the movie we watched that addressed this, and it stuck out the most to me this semester. I look at sports more critically than I did before, which I think is important. I will definitely will use the information I learned in this class after I leave. Sports are important and we must look at them through a lens.

Sports Page #14

The movie Training Rules establishes the prejudices shown through women's college basketball in the NCAAs. In the documentary, Jen Harris is kicked off the team at Penn State due to her coach, Rene Portland, not allowing lesbians on the team. This caused complete chaos in the sport of women's basketball and had many other women step out to say that they were discriminated as well. This brought to light that sport is not a safe space of LGBT athletes, because many athletes began to speak out about how they had the same thing happen to them. Even though most teams are okay with it, it is the stigma that comes along with it that make it a not safe space. Recently in the media, more players on men's teams have been coming out about their sexuality and the media has made such a large production about it. I think it would be difficult to create a more inclusive culture in American sport. It first has to start with society and the branch off into sports. Due to the fact that many more states are voting yes for gay rights, this affects the American sport. If LGBT feel accepted in society, then this will carry over into other aspects of their lives. 

Sports Page #13

The media glorifies African American's in the media, when it comes to the idea of athletics. Society portrays African Americans as extremely athletic. This is also seen in Hollywood films such as The Blind Side, Remember the Titans, and Coach Carter. These films are predominately based on African American Athletes that usually overcome adversity and oppression. One in particular is Glory Road, which focused on a college team, which was the first all African American starting lineup in the NCAA National Championship game. Hollywood normally portrays African American Athletes as being a part of the lower socioeconomic class, but being very talented on the court. Another stereotype that it lives up to is that the main coach is caucasian, while most of the players are African Americans. In comparison to the documentary, Hoop Dreams, the athletes they follow are African American while the entire school they attend is primarily Caucasian. Sports confine African Americans to a specific stereotype that all African Americans are great at sports. This is an idea that society comes to, due to the fact that it is how it is portrayed in the media.

"You Throw Like a Girl": Sports, (Wo)men & the Gender Order II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkt0Q6p33fo

I was extremely taken aback by this commercial, due to the fact that it shows women athletes like they really are. It does not sexualize or use them as a product, which I enjoyed. The gendered messages shown in this commercial are that women are strong athletes, that can almost endure any obstacle, no matter how brutal. Men could be doing the same commercial with the same tasks and it would be considered normal, but the fact that women are doing it makes the audience think it is "out of the ordinary." This commercial also masculinizes the women athletes and shows them as a strong force. I do not believe there are any major consequences of these messages for young people. Maybe that in order to be a successful athlete, one must push themselves to extreme limits. In my opinion I do not see that as a consequence. I watched many commercials before choosing this one. Maybe because Under Armor is not a very feminine company, could contribute to the style of this commercial. Others I looked at were women athletes that used makeup or hair products that helped them perform better. This is where these women stereotypes come in and how people get the idea that women are sexualized in the media and treated differently than men. 

Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender representation in Sports Illustrated

I decided to look at Sports Illustrated and how they incorporate gender into their website and stories. The first thing I noticed when I visited their website is that they are promoting their swim suit magazine. The only women to even appear on the main page are super models in bikinis that are not even athletes. This surprised me because the winter olympics are going on and women are a significant part of the olympics, but there are only women being sexualized through advertisements on this website. In all the photos with men in them, the men are in action and are making "grunt faces" because they are in action. The headlining story is the USA mens hockey team, who plays Canada today. The tabs at the top of the website are also interesting to look at. They are all predominately sports that men play. It is not until you click the tab saying "more" that there are women sports like women's basketball and figure skating. 

Researchers at the University of Louisville found that of 716 Sports Illustrated magazines that came out between 2000 and 2011, 35 of them had women on them. This is only 4.9 percent (Jezebel.com). Sports Illustrated writes:

"Of the 35 covers including a female, only 18 (or 2.5 percent of all covers) featured a female as the primary or sole image. Three covers included females, but only as insets (small boxed image), or as part of a collage background of both male and female athletes" (Jezebel.com).

This is outrageous because women are not even featured as the main story and if so they are only used as models, not real athletes like the men. This has been happening for many many years and it is what our society likes and consumes, unfortunately. 

Citations: http://jezebel.com/sports-illustrated-loves-models-female-athletes-not-s-500138038

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid?

Whether or not to pay college athletes has been a debated for years to come. There are various pros and cons for this debate. Universities make an abundance of revenue with collegiate sports. They are constantly exploited in the media and most games are televised. They should be paid because they are the reason that these institutions are making the money and there is a lot of merchandise that universities use representing certain athletes, that the athletes do not get any compensation for. Athletes also do not have enough time to have a social life and their scholarships don't even have enough to cover all the expenses that college entails. It would also help families, incase some come from low income families and areas. 

There are also cons that have been brought up for paying college athletes.This has to do with traditionalist standpoints.  "Most traditionalists would also argue that college sports exist not so the athletes could gaine profit, but to foster the true meaning of sportsmanship between colleges" (http://www.youniversitytv.com/news-sports/5704-the-pros-and-cons-of-paying-college-athletes). It would also be unfair to have some colleges, that have more money, be able to pay students more. This would change recruiting and the drive to play. Athletes would be playing or choosing colleges based on how much money they would make. It would commercialize the sport and would not be about the love of the game. 

I have considered this topic and I do not think that players should be paid. It changes the game and is too much like professional sports, which is way too commercialized. The thing I love about college sports is that they are not getting paid and they are playing without any monetary incentives. 

High School Sport

The stigma around high school sport was that it was such a more intensive program and that only the best would play. Coaches would not put you in because "everyone gets a chance." This was the time when college recruiters would start looking at you the moment you stepped foot into high school athletics. It was the chance to get possibly a scholarship and even more. In middle school, practices would maybe be once or twice a week and not everything was mandatory. Personally, when I entered high school I was doing two-a-days, weight training, conditioning, and on top of that actual practice. Due to this stigma, people usually dropped out of the sports they were playing because they did not want to time commitment The objective of high school sports was to get noticed by colleges and to receive a higher education. They are usually never met, athletes probably around their junior year realize if they are going to college for athletics or not. Interscholastic sports are highly regarded by high schools. I can remember that the athletes were treated like kings and queens in school. We got to choose our parking spots and teachers were easier on us. The problems of interscholastic sport are that it is a lot of pressure for 15-18 year olds. The training is intense, while going to school for something that might not even turn out into a career. They are treated as the superiority, when they should be treated like everyone else. It also created rivalries among many neighbors and friends. I remember that I swam on a club team for 10 years and during that time I swam with ALL swimmers who went to my rival high school. It was always awkward swimming against them in high school meets, when we have always been apart of the same team for years. It also divides towns, especially at Friday night football games. I am not sure if there is a solution to rivalries, but it could be in the best interest of high schools to maybe not let athletes slip on by so they will not get in trouble with their coaches.