UNIT 6: Sexual Identity in Sport

NOTES:

-It is important to note the various forms of institutionalized homophobia and gender discrimination that exist the realm of sport which for centuries has been based on the gender binary.

-Gender is a socially constructed term based around concepts of dominant gender ideology and doesn’t always correspond to definitions of biological sex.

-Sport is often tied to traditional view of gender, which emphasizes heteronormative ideals, and LGBTQ persons disrupt that ideology.

-Sport is also a space of gender socialization and ideology that dictate certain ways bodies should look and determines types of masculinity and femininity are valued.

-Dominant sporting masculinity values aggressiveness, strength, domination, and heterosexuality and marginalizes athletes that don’t fit that mold.

-Dominant sporting masculinity has also bred a culture of silence which results in individuals are closeted about their sexuality in order to be accepted.

-Esera Tuaolo and John Amaechi are athletes that have come out but felt required to maintain their machismo in order to fit into dominant sporting masculinity.

-Women athletes constantly deal with negative reactions to showing any kind of masculinity in the sporting world.  Femininity is applauded and masculinity must mean lesbian!

-Hyperfeminity is the opposite of hypermasculinity and it values beauty, grace, and submissiveness.

-It’s important to understand the current state of gender and sexuality in this country is disassemble the hatred that leads to gay and lesbian teenagers accounting for the largest number of suicides amongst that age group.

FINAL THOUGHT:  Gender and sexual identity are complicated characteristics that are based around individuals understanding of themselves and the acceptance of others.  Slowly but surely, the paradigm is changing with more and more athletes coming out and the sports culture in going to have to appropriately adapt in order to be accepting to other genders and sexualities out side of male/female binary that is so pervasive and deep seated into American society.

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

Instructions: While reading the assigned text, answer the questions below in the space provided. 

Please use direct excerpts from the text whenever possible in your responses.

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

-The piece includes various details of the lives, trials, and tribulations of examples of transgender athletes.

-In order to truly conceive of the lives of transgender athletes, the article provides quotes and primary source documents of transgender athletes in order to comprehend their experiences dealing with social construction, bigotry, and gender identities first hand.

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

Playing fields have long been segregated on the basis of sex. But what happens to the athletes whose physiology doesn't match their gender identity? 

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

-transgender

-gender identities

-reassignment surgery

-bodies

-gender

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

1) "For transgender men and women, the physiological traits that distinguish them as male or female don't conform to how they feel about themselves". 

2) "In 2004 the International Olympic Committee ventured the first answer, ruling that any trans athlete who wants to compete against those not of their birth sex must undergo sex reassignment surgery and then two years of hormone therapy—either testosterone supplementation (to go from female to male) or testosterone suppression (to go from male to female)".

3) "Now, whether Godsey makes the Olympics or not, a new life awaits. He cannot help but admit that the throwing circle has long been his safe space: a place segregated by sex, yes, but one in which success does not depend on outward manifestations of gender—his genitalia, his clothing, his voice".

 4) "A physical therapist who was known as Kelly until his senior year of college, in 2005, Godsey is the first American Olympic contender in any sport to openly identify as transgender".

5) "Consider something as simple as going to the bathroom. When using men's rooms—his preference—Godsey usually tries to conceal his chest; in women's rooms he accentuates it by wearing what he calls tight "girl shirts."

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

This piece almost feels like an introductory article about what it is to be a transgender person in Amercian sports culture.  Given that this was written in Sports Illusrated, I wonder how much of their readership understood transgender issues before reading this.  The reality is that gender needs to be navigated and considered as a spectrum which is a difficult thing to accomplish given that much of sporting culture is based around the gender binary.  This article encourages the importance of recognizing and accepting individual gender identities within the traditional sporting world.

LEARNING MODULE:

STEP 1:

When unveiling his support for equal marriage, Obama explained that he’s been “going through an evolution on this issue”.  He says that he originally hesitated on pushing the need for equal marriage further because he thought that “civil unions would be sufficient” and because he knows that the idea of marriage in this country is built “very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth”.  He also sites watching his staff or soldiers in the army wanting to commit themselves in marriages he wants to be able to support that right to marriage for everyone.

STEP 2:

1) “2 out of 3 americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear”.

2) “The average homosexual is promiscuous.  He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship like that of heterosexual marriage”.

3) Ellen DeGeneres “On February 12, an openly gay 15 year old boy named Larry who was an eighth grader in Oxnard, CA was murdered by a fellow eighth grader named Brendan.  Larry was killed because he was gay.

Over the past 60 years in this country, homosexuality has been discriminated in many truly disgusting ways, with statements such as “2 out of 3 Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear” being a common place belief in the earlier part of the 20^th century up until today.  For a long time, people that didn’t understand that homosexuality is a sexuality people are born with, would think things like “the average homosexual is promiscuous.  He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship like that of heterosexual marriage”.  I think the human consciousness has evolved over the years, and stories like the one Ellen DeGenres told about the Larry King, the 15^th year old eighth grader that was murdered for being gay, are stories that people are truly terrified and disturbed by.  Slowly but surely the paradigm has shifted in America to the point that equal marriage was legalized on June 26, 2015.

STEP 3:

Bryant Gumbel editorial on Sean Avery’s coming out as gay in hockey world was really more of a chance for Gumbel to call out all mainstream sports for being so behind on not openly accepting homosexuality and wonders when such stories of coming out will become “common place. It’s 2011!”.  He explains that many other areas of American life such as politics, education, and media have begun to move past the “issue” of homosexuality and Gumbel wonders, “why is the sports world still lagging when the law says it needn’t be and logic says it shouldn’t be”.  He explains that he applauds Avery’s bravery to come out and that he admires the way Avery “isn’t making a big deal out of something that shouldn’t be” considered a big deal.

STEP 4:

The argument of this video is that while straight people assume that their own sexuality is “normal” or “natural” and that homosexuality is “foreign” or “unnatural” the reality is that they are not taking into account that no one has the ability to choose their life course and sexuality, it’s something each person is born with.

STEP 5:
I was extremely confused when watching the trailer for the film The Celluloid Closet.  The film appears originally appears to willing to discuss the issue of homosexual stereotypes and issues in film over the years but the tone of the trailer and the commentary is bright and happy.  This film appears to be groundbreaking film considering it's subject matter but instead comes off as more of a fluff piece with a bunch of A list actors talking about how they feel about Hollywood's view of homosexuality.

STEP 6:  It is incredibly ironic that Hilary Swank won the Academy Award for best actress playing a woman who identified as a man named Brandon.  Amercian culture and society is built upon ideas of labels and the binary that leads to very narrow ways of thinking.  In politics for example, for years there were only Democrats and Republicans, or men and women, or good and evil.  Gender is a spectrum, and I think it's very difficult for people to truly acknowledge that if they grew up in a heteronormative social construct.

STEP 7: The students from the "You Can Play Project" at Ohio University realize the various fears, inner struggles, and discrimination people face when wanting to join a sports team in college and they are working to make collegiate sports inclusive and supportive of all sporting participates regardless of factors of sexual orientation, religious belief, or race.

UNIT 5: The Role of Race and Gender Identity in Sports

UNIT 5: The Role of Race and Gender Identity in Sports

NOTES: Racism and Sport: Exploring the Past Expanding Possibilities for the Future

-Racism is a belief that one race in superior or inferior to another.  Racial separatism is a belief that races should remain segregated. Race is important to study because it is involved in memory categorization and it affects the sociopolitical structure of society and history.

-Institutional racism reflects patterns of negative and oppressive behaviors, laws, and societal factors that affect identifiable groups based on race or ethnicity.

Racism and sexism are tightly woven into societal fabric to the extent that we accept these things as a society making us all racists and sexists on some level.

-Understanding degrees of societal discrimination could help in visualizing a totally inclusive society. 

-Racism was a norm in sports over the years, sports teams were segregated and blacks athletes weren’t allowed the same resources or literally “even playing fields” to white players. Negro League Baseball started in the late 1880’s as a result of white teams not allowing blacks to participate.

-Jackie Robinson was the first black man to join the all white Dodgers in 1947 but faced disgusting bigotry for most of his life.  We became an equal rights activists and helped in breaking down color boundaries for black athletes.  Althea Gibson was the first black woman to win Wimbledon and despite her success she also faced discrimination for her participation.

-Although segregation is no longer legal, racism is still rampant in major league sports.  Patrick Ewing, Papakouli Diop, P.K. Subban, and Dani Alves are athletes that have faced harassment from sports American and European sports fans while on the playing fields.

-There has been a nasty pattern of college basketball teams exploiting black players without offered adequate educational counseling to ensure they succeed in life post college sports since not everyone will make it to the majors.

-The Washington Redskins and the Indians sports teams continue to use Native American imagery to sell their brands at the expense of a culture they know nothing about and they don’t care about stereotyping or exploiting.

-A huge issue in men’s professional sports is the fact that white men control team ownership, coaching, and other positions continuing a cycle of white privilege.

-Intersectionality is a term that described the navigation of the complex intermingling of gender, class, race, and sociopolitical life.

-It is important to note that racism can be combated in sports by making players and fans more aware, by teams taking a string stance against it, by carrying our international campaigns against it, and including more ethnic minority players in sports.

FINAL THOUGHT:

- Racism, sexism, and issues of gender equality are intimately intertwined in a complicated web that affects sport, public policy, social construction, and pervasive discrimination based on prejudice.

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

Instructions: While reading the assigned text, answer the questions below in the space provided. 

Please use direct excerpts from the text whenever possible in your responses.

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

-The piece utilizes primary source documents in the form of interviews, radio shows, sports and sport broadcasts to outline overt cases of discrimination and derogatory language used against women of color.

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

In this paper we use sport to encourage ‘white’ people to deconstruct the privileged lens

through which they construct and view ‘black’ people. (491)

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

-pornographic eroticism

-representations

-sport

-race

-social stereotype

-African American women

-sexist regime

-derogatory

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

1) Journalists’ fixation with Serena’s diet, weight, fitness, and appearance then shifted into

categories of ‘pornographic eroticism’ and ‘sexual grotesquerie’. Her breasts and bottom

were fetishized via headlines such as, ‘Size up Serena Williams at your own risk’ (Stevens,

2006), ‘Serena out to kick butt’ (Epstein, 2006), and ‘Easybeat? Fat chance’ (Crawford,

2006a), and photographs of her allegedly abnormal gluteal muscles and weight. (498)

2) Hyper-muscularity as both a new social phenomenon and a denigrating stereotype is

especially evident in sport, which has embodied in the past the ‘natural’ superiority of men

in contrast to the ‘otherness’ of female athletes as objects of ridicule, weakness, inferiority,

decoration, passivity, and as erotically desirable yet transgressive, but which is now

searching for new ways to disparage the powerful and therefore ‘uppity’ African American sportswomen. (492)

3) A common strategy for reasserting masculine hegemony in sport is

via ‘pornographic eroticism’, in which sexuality is constructed as the ‘primary character-

istic of the person represented’ (Heywood, 1998). Heywood distinguishes ‘pornographic

eroticism’ from ‘athletic eroticism’, in which sexuality is ‘one dimension of human

experience, as a quality that emerges from the self-possession, autonomy, and strength so

evident in the body of a female athlete’. (492)

4) The unremitting construction of black women as primitive, transgressive, and ‘wild’ ensures that black women’s bodies remain the focus of white analyses of black capacities, which are easily watched, desired, and possessed but also pathologized. (494)

5) ‘Pornographic eroticism’ is particularly prominent in media coverage of women’s tennis,

where many players’ physiques and performances are the objects of a constant gaze and are

monitored for ‘excess’ (Harris & Clayton 2002; Kennedy, 2001; Miller, McKay & Martin,.

1999; Stevenson, 2002). (495)

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

This article does a great job explaining the current position of white privilege and understanding the ways in which white people view people of color in sports culture and beyond.  The countless examples of white men and women criticizing, analyzing, and tearing apart black women’s bodies are deplorable.  The important message in all of this is for white people in particular to understand how powerful race and gender are and to always keep in mind the institutional properties of these issues.  Many people don’t realize they’ve said something racist or sexist when they are saying because those aspects of discrimination have become such an integral part of their lives.  Pieces like this should be mandatory for middle school and high school kids to read in school so they can have a more well rounded understanding of the intersection of race, sex, class, and gender.

LEARNING MODULE:

STEP 1:

“How progressive a person seems to be on the surface bears little or no relation to how prejudiced he or she is on an unconscious level – so that a bleeding heart liberal might harbor just as may biases as a neo-Nazi skinhead”. (53)

“Something similar happened when she showed subjects a list of people who might be criminals: without knowing they were doing so, participants picked out an overwhelming number of African American names.”. (54)

“Images of women as sexobjects, footage of African American criminals on the six o’ clock news—“this is knowledge we cannot escape” explains Banaji.  “We didn’t choose to know it, but it still affects our behavior” (55)

“One thing is certain: We can’t claim that we’ve eradicated prejudice just because it’s outright expression has waned”. (56)

“The study of culture may someday tell us where the seed of prejudice originated: for now, the study of the unconscious shows us just how deeply they’re planted”. (56)

WRITTEN PIECE:

Annie Murphy Paul’s piece “Where Bias Begins: The Truth About” is an eye opening analysis of research done on stereotyping throughout humanity regardless of upbringing in culture.  We have all been conditioned by our surrounding, by the people who raised us, by our schools to help us interpret the world.  Since day one, each of us absorbed countless advertisements that tell us what to by, who to be friends with, what job to have.  Most of all, the advertisements and larger institutional entities like mainstream media have taught us prejudice.  Fox News makes their money by scaring older white folks into thinking feminists are taking over the world.  No one likes to think they are a racist, but like Murphy Paul’s article explains “One thing is certain: We can’t claim that we’ve eradicated prejudice just because it’s outright expression has waned”(56).  Today we live is what people think is a post racial society when the reality is that the stereotypes are more covert then ever before and are sin some ways scarier than we could have ever imagined.

STEP 2:

Janell Ross’s piece “When Gender Discrimination and Racism Collide” provides a details description of one of many cases of violence against women of color at a higher education institution.  The concepts of race, sex, gender, and class are all pervasive and institutionalized on a very deep level, as heard when a white frat member referred to a black sorority member as a “fat black bitch” in the UCONN case.  There are layers of hate there.  All of these forms of bigotry and sexism are intertwined and go hand in hand as we discussed earlier in this unit when talking about intersectionality.

STEP 3:

- A common theme in this slide show of pictures is the theme of women being “lascivious by nature”.

- Many of the women in the images are scene sprawled on the floor in very animalistic way.

- There appears to be an absolute obsession with large butts in most of these images and it’s interesting how the slide show pairs many of the modern butt images with older derogatory and racist cartoons of African women eroticized for the tribal and exotic appeal.

-The slide show features many images of black women totally naked and on the ground as if they were pushed there in a submissive position.

-Many of the other nude photographs show black women on top of other inanimate objects like fruit, which associates them with those fruit allowing viewers to fully objectify the model.

-The last video of the white man talking about the sexualization of black women to the black man is particularly damaging because there is tragic stereotype of young African women that denotes curves and puberty with innate sexuality. 

-There is also a perspective from many of these photos that appears to be pleasing the male gaze in that there is a destructive assumption that women’s bodies are to be dominated by men.

-One of the most troubling parts of these images is that black women are caught in strange position of constantly being sexualized, especially if they are photographed naked, which could provide a breeding ground for insecurity and lack of self-confidence about one’s body.

-The depiction of black women without clothes and in provocative positions unfortunately is tied to a sickening stereotype that black women are loose, lack modesty, and are constantly seductive.

-This depiction of women throughout this video is a perfect example of the Jezebel troupe.

STEP 4:

After analyzing the Tidesport’s “2015 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball” and other article on the site, it’s apparent that there are many positive changes happening in hiring practices of in the sporting world but there are often issues that force steps back as well.  For example, Dr. Richard Lapchick of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport was quoted saying, “Although            the total percentage of            players            of color has steadily            risen over the years, there has been a concern in Major League Baseball about the relatively small            and declining percentage of African-American            players”.  It is vital that organizations like Tidesport exist to constantly be able to report on these issues, as they are happening in order to provide real and consistent change.  Some of the facts are disturbing such as “In 2015 there            were four people of color serving as general managers            in MLB including two Latinos,            one African-American and one Asian-American. There were three at the start of the            2014 and three            in the 2013 season.  The largest number of GMs of color was five in 2009 and 2010”.  I think if these facts were  announced more publically so the viewers of mainstream sports really knew these numbers, people would be more vocal about wanting change.

STEP 5:

1)      The image of Serena William on the Body Issue of ESPN is one that says quite a bit.  The image is of a naked Serena Williams in a pose that covers her breasts and gentalia, a shoot that one can assume was called something like “classy nudity”.  In many ways the image is stunning, her dark and shinny body in contrast with the white background is artistic in a way.  I wonder what her intentions were with doing a shoot like this.  Maybe Williams feels confident about her body and felt like she wanted to do something edgy and glamorous.  There is no question that she has become a sex symbol in the sporting world.   Yet, I can’t help but think about McKay’s piece about Williams in that “her breasts and bottom were fetishized via headlines such as, ‘Size up Serena Williams at your own risk’(498).  Perhaps this is Williams’ way of saying “Screw the media, I will do whatever I want with my body whenever I want”.

2)      It’s surprising to me that Sports Illustrated would put a young black woman on the cover of their magazine considering the publication pays more attention to sexually objectifying women in there swimsuit issue then anything else.  Seeing Mo’Ne Davis on this cover is pretty epic and possibly signals a large movement in the most recent paradigm shift.  Not only is she on the cover, but she looks powerful and strong.  The photo captures Davis mid throw with a look of intention and confidence although not a look that would be classified at “feminine”. The “pornographic eroticism” referred to in McKay’s piece appear to be absent here and the image is empowering and shows a respect for Davis’s athletic excellence.

3)      The image of the Serena and Venus Williams on the cover of the New York Times Magazine is commanding.  The image is the two sisters in a black and white photo made all the more visually stimulating by the contrast with the white background.  The women are holding hands, a gesture that appears to solidify the familial bond the two share, a compelling image that says something like “We are two powerful women that made it to this point in our careers together and that’s pretty awesome”.  Both women are in athletic attire that shows off their muscles and fitness and the look on their faces are pure confidence and dominance.  This image seems to spit in the face of the “white male-centred viewpoint that is normative in mainstream media” that McKay disassembles in his piece.  The image reads to me as proud and forthright with a lot of style and class.

UNIT 4: Femininity Versus Feminism and Beyond
NOTES: Why Equity Involves Ideological Changes
-Each sport is played very differently than another sport so it is difficult to judge gender advantages.

-Western culture has harvested the notion that men and women are so different physically, they almost appear to be different species.

-When men and women are considered physically different, a notion rises that men and better at sports than women and also perpetuates an idea that women shouldn’t compete with men in case they are harmed.  These notions are contrary to an understand that physicality can’t be based on an entire group; it should be based around an individual's abilities.

-Most individuals don’t consider the gender complexities and various dimensions when comparing abilities.  They instead compare themselves to their own sex.

-Sports divided by sex don’t reflect actual physical difference.  Instead it conserves an old way of thinking that men’s sports are more important, more interesting, better, and much more of a real thing than men/s sports.

-Western feminist movement truly began making headway when women demanded the same rights as men.  The more transnational movement have increasingly involved an emphasis of drawing on the history of women raising families and being empowered through expressing their culture.

-Mediatyping tends to have negative effects like stereotyping and objectifying genders

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

-This article supports it’s argument using primary source documents in order to provide evidence of the gendered perspectives surrounding the comparisons between men and women’s basketball.

-The piece offers critical analysis of the primary source documents to exemplify hegemonic masculinity and race relations in basketball and it’s effect on the more recent views of women’s participation in the sport.

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

This article argues that women’s professional basketball has been defined as a cultural arena that is primarily about gender. (404)

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

-gender
-heterosexual femininity
-naked female aggression
-fetish objects
-representations of masculinity and femininity
-normative femininity

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

1) “The media have recently focused on the idea of women’s basketball as representing a “purer” form of the game—the WNBA apparently demonstrates the way the game “should” be played.  The rhetoric of purity is deeply embedded in a discourse of morality: The female players of the WNBA function as morally superior athletes in comparison to those of the NBA”. (405)


2) “However, despite the overwhelming African American presence in the league, at present, the WNBA has been characterized more in terms of normative femininity—maternal, moral, collaborative—than according to dominant representations of Black women, which in other arenas have emphasized sexuality and amorality”. (405)

3) The “moral” feminine bodes of the WNBA players perform the cultural work of destabilizing the racial bodies of NBA players.  In other word, media portrayals of the defiant, “bad” behavior of professional male basketball players situates the WNBA as a positive alternative, a sport that emphasizes a kind of feminine behavior and attitude that contains the unruliness of the NBA. (416)

4) The fact that WNBA players do not perform the exaggerated moves and jumps of the NBA has worked to emphasize team camaraderie rather than the showboating and scene-stealing of the NBA players. (411)

5) Clearly, this particular section of the Website contributes to a dominant ideology that women are overly concerned with clothing and fashion. (412)

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

Banet-Weiser’s article articulates the various ways in which basketball is a sport that’s gender and race politics are changing rapidly.  With the arrival of Title IX, women’s participation and high performing athletic statistics have skyrocketed but the hyper masculinity and heternormativity of the sport has changed the way the media and audiences view women’s role in basketball.  In positive ways, many critics of the sport view women’s basketball as going back to the original way the game was suppose to be played.  In other ways, women’s agency and voices are placed in a strange position of feeling a pressure of being expected to be feminine and motherly while also maintaining aggressive sporting techniques.

LEARNING MODULE:

STEP 1:

Dave Zirin’s film “Not Just a Game”, takes a much needed critical look at the history of women in sports in American.  Zirin explains that hegemonic masculinity is often based on a certain idea of manhood that has become normalized over the years.  This masculine norm has become so privileged and heteronormative that is has become a manly dominant ideal with which everyone else in society is compared to.  It’s almost bizarre to think about now but over the centuries, men’s positions of power and authority led to beliefs that women were too fragile to play sports amongst various ridiculous claims.
For me, one of the saddest parts of sexism as it has occurred over the years is the idea that an active, athletic, and independent women is unfeminine or even unattractive.  It all stems from the idea of the importance of the male gaze, that a women should base the value of her appearance on what men think.  The real message from this archaic way of thinking is that men’s opinions matter more than women’s so if men say women shouldn’t play sports for a bunch of pseudoscience reasons, thats the way it’s going to be.  I’m feeling grateful for my feminist predecessors fighting for women’s rights in times when some of the claims against women playing sports were insane.  How does one argue with unsearched, unfounded, and offensive crazy talk?

STEP 2:
Jean Kilbourne’s piece “Killing Us Softly 4” provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of advertising in relation to gender, racism, violence against women, and various other social issues.  Kilbourne explains the unrealistic standards of beauty that advertisements provide viewers that in turn breed self esteem issues in order to make money and sustain capitalism.  She also breaks down the concept of female objectification and how the dehumanizing of an individual leads to violence against women.  Perhaps the most disconcerting part of all of this is how these negative images of unrealistic female perfection are forced upon women from a very young age.  It’s important to be aware and acknowledge the obsession with thinness in American culture and to be able to critically view advertisements in order to live healthy lives challenges the status quo.

STEP 3:
Both of these videos are great in how they dictate through scientific studies the high levels of female athleticism in sports.  I was imaging that the comments below the videos would be encouraging of these findings but instead, the comments are filled with misogynistic blabber about how they think the studies are incorrect or lacking.  A comment that stuck out to me under the Jennie Finch video was a woman named Ashley who commented, "I think it's kind of funny how guys talk so much crap about how softball's so much easier than baseball but once it's proven wrong they can't accept it".  That is my point in a nutshell.

STEP 4:
David Zirin's piece "Nine-Year-Old Plays Football, Kicks Ass, and Maybe Changes the a World" is a great example of the changing tides of perceptions of gender in sports culture.  After years and years of scientists and other make professionals telling women they would never be able to compete with men in sports, a little girl like Sam Gordon flips that notion on it's head.  Gordon is part of a new generation of women that feel empowered and capable of anything because they were born into a world where they get support from their peers more than ever before.  This is not at all to say that sexism is gone or that heteronormative and dominant masculinity don't still exist, but it is apparent that movements like feminism have paved a way for young woman like Sam Gordon to have a chance to challenge the gender binary and kick some major ass.

STEP 5:
Albert Chen's piece "How Mo'Ne Davis, Taney Take Center Stage at the Little League World Series" is a perfect example of the importance of the presence of young women participating in male dominated sports.  Davis comes from an inner city league with little to no funding do to socio economical factors and she one of the best players on her team of all boys.  Chen's article is written in a way that makes the reader think "this is just the beginning of her career" which is inspiring to read in a magazine like Sports Illustrated, a publication that's most popular swimsuit issue features objectified and mostly almost naked women on the cover.  Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this article is reading about how much encouragement Davis receives from her coach, her teammates, and her community which will hopefully ensure her success in sports further down the road in her life.

STEP 6:

FEATURE ON WNBA WEBSITE 1) Zavadil, Josh. “Everything is clicking for EDD and the Sky”. 2015. http://www.wnba.com/news/everything-is-clicking-for-edd-and-the-sky/ 2) Yonack, Sam. “Rookie Report: Achonwa’s Comeback”. 2015. http://www.wnba.com/news/rookie-report-achonwas-comeback/ 3) WNBA website. “Sky Guard Gemelos Is Shining Example of Perseverance”. http://www.wnba.com/news/sky-guard-gemelos-is-shining-example-of-perseverance/ 4) WNBA website. “Bentley And Sun Making Early Season Statement”. http://www.wnba.com/news/bentley-and-sun-making-early-season-statement/ 5) Photos of the week. http://www.wnba.com/photos/photos-of-the-week-june-16-22/ 6) History at WNBA Website. http://www.wnba.com/history/ 7) State at WNBA website. http://www.wnba.com/stats/player-stats/ 8) Zavadil, Josh. “Race to MVP: Elena Delle Donne”. http://www.wnba.com/news/race-to-mvp-june-23/ 9) Zavadil, Josh. “Race to MVP: Skylar Diggins”. http://www.wnba.com/news/race-to-mvp-june-23/ 10) Josh, Zavadil. “Race to MVP: Maya Moore”. http://www.wnba.com/news/race-to-mvp-june-23/

HOW THE FEATURE REPRESENTS FEMALE ATHLETES 1) The piece overall supports Elena Delle Donne’s great performance in her last few games. EDD was quoted saying “The [coaching staff] have been telling me to attack way more, be aggressive, don’t let the defense decide how you’re going to play. You’re the one who needs to be the aggressor.” 2) The report covers player Natalie Achonwa and speaks of her mostly in high regard, acknowledging her intelligence on the count.  The author said Achonwa is the “unquestioned leader of the team—vocal and personable, passionate and playful”.  I feel like those descriptor’s are very specific to her gender. 3) The piece covers Jacki Gemelos, a player who was drafted to Minnesota Lynx but tore hear ACL 5 times over the years and couldn’t play.  She recently healed and has been back on the court.  The article makes reference to her crying “tears of joy”, perhaps an allusion to her femininity whilst being a competitive players. 4)  The article compliments the players “confidence” and her “ability to create”.  Bentley makes references to “we” instead of “I” when talking about her team.  As the 5) It’s refreshing to see that the site for the most part dedicates itself to showing action photos and demonstrate the thrill of the game instead of using women as props or sexual objects. 6)  This tab on the website has minimal information about the start of the league except for a few key dates.  I was hoping to read more about the history of women in basketball.  It would be informative and empowering if they provided more information, maybe something like the Dave Zirin “Not Just a Game” video. 7) There is a whole portion of the site that features statistics of the players in the WNBA separately into categories.  A chart like this would be helpful when determining key similarities and differences between male and female basketball. 8) Elena Delle Donne appears to be the current WNBA star standing 6 foot 5 inches.  When discussing her statistics, I was again very impressed to see her only judged upon her ability and skill level. 9) When evalutating Skylar Diggins in the running for MVP, the analyst not only mentiones her impressive stats but also her leadership skills.  Leadership, camaraderie, and teamwork appear to be valued skills in the WNBA. 10) It’s interesting to read the way players are judged in sporting events.  All the women in this category are in the running for MVP and sports analysts have determined there worth based upon their sports stats.

UNIT 3: Unpacking Values: A Way To Understand A Culture of Hegemonic Masculinity

UNIT 3:

Unpacking Values: A Way To Understand A Culture of Hegemonic Masculinity

-Value systems are comprised of beliefs, value systems, hope and dreams, and ideas about ways to live that we acquire from family members, guardians, teachers, communities, and institutions to name a few.  

-The education of values we receive as children is called “ cultural transmission”, beliefs that are reproduced and become a part of everyday life.

-Cultural transmission can have positive effects which include learning of traditions, learning right from wrong, developing a moral code, and having the opportunity to share one’s culture with others.

-Negative effects of of cultural transmission can result in individuals not wanting to accept other cultures belief systems and believing that their way is the“normal” way of doing things.

-Cultural transmission in sports can involve the passing down of ideas that are considered important to a specific sport.  For example physical exercise and a competitive attitude are values of American football teams. Entire communities and governmental agencies can encourage these beliefs by providing financial assistance to these programs.

-Examples of cultural transmission

-father teaching son football

-girls encouraged to participate in individual sports

-urban kids playing sports like basketball or karate that require less expensive physical space

-the weather and temperatures of living locations can affect which sports kids participate in.

-colder weather; skating, hockey

-warmer weather; outdoor basketball, tennis

-Communities affect the way belief systems become embedded in sports.  Communities that are more individualistic focus on not only the team dynamic but also inward motivation.

-Socio-economic status affects which populations of kids are able to play certain sport based on what they can’t and can afford.

-Communities that focus on the group dynamic tend to encourage working together, supporting teammates, teamwork, and selfness in order to achieve a group goal.

-It can be difficult to understand our own value systems because they become partially unconscious as we grow up but it’s important to look in ourselves to understand why we hold the beliefs and values we have.

-Gender is is socially constructed by society prescribing each gender specific qualifications that are deemed appropriate or inappropriate based around the concept of what is considered “normal”.

-Hegemonic masculinity can be found in the dominant cultural construction of sport in using the image of the male body as the ultimate example of the desirable male athlete.  Achieving this physical goal systematically has been shown to increase a man's social capital in the realm of social construction.

-Because much of sport culture today has been based around archaic Victorian ideals, women have had to work extra hard to demand respect and and equal standing the sporting world.  Some theorists argue that women and women are much more similar in their physical capabilities than wa physically thought.

THEME OF THIS UNIT:

Social construction and value systems directly affect every aspect of social conditioning and women’s participation in sports is a challenge to the hegemonic masculinity sports culture was built on.

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

Instructions: While reading the assigned text, answer the questions below in the space provided.  

Please use direct excerpts from the text whenever possible in your responses.

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

-The article explores research into “The Televised Manhood Sports Formula” in order to understand the perpetuated narrow minded view of masculinity that is advertised to young men watching mainstream sports.

-The researchers of the piece explored and analyzed hours of commercial footage televised during popular mens sporting events and investigated and examined the subject matter of those advertisements to help comprehend messages young men are receiving from corporate America.

-The study examined qualitative and quantitative data from pre-game and postgame shows to achieve a well rounded view of sports programming.

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

“This article, based on a textual analysis, presents the argument that televised sports, and their

accompanying commercials, consistently present boys with a narrow portrait of masculinity,which we call the Televised Sports Manhood Formula”. (380)

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

-masculinity

-advertising

-gender

-race

-aggression

-violence

-values

-inductive method

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

1) “Our analysis revealed that sports programming presents boys with narrow and stereotypical messages about race, gender, and violence. We identified 10 distinct themes that, together, make up the Televised Sports Manhood Formula”. (381)

2) “Images or discussion of women athletes is almost entirely absent in the sports programs that boys watch most. SportsCenter’s mere 2.9% of news time devoted to women’s sports is slightly lower than the 5% to 6% of women’s sports coverage commonly found in other sports news studies (Duncan & Messner, 1998)”. (382)

3) “Moreover, as Table 3 illustrates, the commercials’ common depiction of women as sexual objects and as “prizes” for men’s successful consumption choices articulates with the sports programs’ presentation of women primarily as sexualized, supportive props for men’s athletic performances”. (384)

4) Commentators consistently lauded athletes who most successfully employed physical and aggressive play and toughness. For instance, after having his toughness called into question, NBA player Brian Grant was awarded redemption by SportsCenter because he showed that he is “not

afraid to take it to Karl Malone”. (385)

5) This injunction for boys and men to be aggressive, not passive, is reinforced in commercials,where a common formula is to play on the insecurities of young males (e.g., that they are not strong enough, tough enough, smart enough, rich enough, attractive enough, decisive enough, etc.) and then attempt to convince them to avoid, overcome, or mask their fears, embarrassments, and apparent shortcomings by buying a particular product. (386)

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

The values and views of this article encompass the idea that hegemonic masculinity is systematic and institutional problem preserved and maintained by the people in power which in America society is white men. Understanding the privilege of white men aids in discerning why exactly there us such a short-sited and small-minded view of masculinity is. Society as a whole suffers from this simple yet harmful vision of manliness in that it inherently is part of a system that only benefits white males while paradoxically boxing them into a pressure to practice very specific forms of masculine behavior in order to conform to the group qualifications.

LEARNING MODULE

STEP 1:

Domestic violence is a difficult thing to talk openly about for a variety of reasons.  Anyone who has experienced domestic violence first hand or knows someone who has can understand that the trauma can be paralyzing and many people repress the hardest memories they have in order to cope and carry on with their lives.  For the longest time it was essentially taboo to openly talk about issues of domestic violence in America and the world at large.  Although it is still very often a difficult thing for people to discuss publicly, videos such as “NFL Players Say No More” show some evidence that the paradigm is slowly changing and that members of a powerful institution like the NFL are backing the movement that there are no excuses for abuse against women of any kind.

The first thing that came to my mind while watching each of the NFL players speak was that this group of men represents a popular form of masculinity.  As we discussed in the Messer, Dunbar, and Hunt piece, popular male sports athletes are a huge part of “The Televised Manhood Formula” that much of America’s young male youth watch and look up to.  It is a powerful statement to have men who normally perpetuate aggressive, violent, and competitive nature on the sports field speak frankly about issues of violence in the home.  Society has deemed the men in this video as heros, the epitome of American success and athleticism, values that young men eternalize in a very big way.

STEP 2

Name of film	How do the following films create meanings and messages about sports, males, culture, and society?
The Blind Side	The Blind Side exemplifies the intersection of race and masculinity in team sports and a socio-economic difference in what sports young people are exposed to based upon their income bracket.
Varsity Blues	Varsity Blues perpetuates the image that football stars are untouchable and even at the high school level, can be considered local heros.
The Sandlot	The Sandlot shows a representation of male participation in sports that encourages men to determine their social capitol by comparing their athleticism to other men.
Miracle	Miracle is a film that explores that values of winning and teamwork as essential parts of what is determined as success in male dominated sports, using quotes in the trailer that are meant to inspire and romanticize team sports such as “a dream that united a team”.
Youngblood	Youngblood is a film about hockey that glorifies and encourages violence on the rink In order for men to assert their masculinity and alpha status to the group.
The Wrestler	The Wrestler addresses aging in popular sports and explores the concept that youth and hegemonic masculinity rule the world of wrestling.
Raging Bull	Raging Bull depicts the use of violence and scare tactics in boxing and shows the ways in which inspiring fear in opponents is a hyper masculine way of demanding respect.

STEP 3:

1) "Kris Jenkins' View of Life in the NFL Trenches," by Greg Bishop provides a truly intimate look into what its like to be a football player.  Jenkins describes “Piles, oh, my God, they’re brutal. I’ve had my ankles twisted. I’ve been bit. I’ve done stuff. I’ve tried to break guys’ elbows, pinching people, twisting ankles, trying to bend up their arms, pop an elbow out. Why? I had to fight back”.  Jenkins explains that football is far more dangerous and gritty when you are in the thick of it, and that asserting one’s masculinity through playing dirty is a common practice amongst players.

2) “Mentally, we’re conditioned to be tough. We’re conditioned to feel no pain. The only injury I ever felt while playing was when one of my knees tore. That’s the only time I felt pain and was like, O.K., that hurt”.  Jenkins, whether he knows it or not shows through this statement that he acknowledges a social construction to the game, that maleness is associated with toughness and repressing pain to show strength.  

3) “When I was a little kid, I got picked on. I didn’t start hitting my growth spurts until high school. I was the smallest kid in my class in junior high. When you get bullied, you either cower and shy away from the world, or you go ballistic. I didn’t get to the point where I felt like shooting people. But I fought back once I could”.  Jenkins, like many young boys (and kids of all genders) experienced bullying and learned from a young age that proclaiming one’s fortitude, attitude, and ability to defend one’s self is a way to assert dominance.

4) “The first warning is the first meeting you have with an agent, when you realize this is real. My choices count at this point. I’m going to be prostituting myself for the next 18 years of my life”.  Jenkins seems to accept his fate as being a number, being valued for his physical being more so than anything else in order to achieve success, which allows him to detach from the more immediate consequences of constant violence.

5) “The violence, we love it. The madness, we love it. We love measuring ourselves in it.

Those guys express themselves with their pads. You soften the game, you’re taking away their freedom of expression. Nobody wants to see flag football, and now, you might as well give guys flags, tell them to hug afterward, all that”.  Jenkins further explains that when playing the game of football, you become an entertainer and you figure out what people want to see, or, what they have been told through various advertising and powerful institutions they should want to see.

STEP 4: JACKSON KATZ:

1) Katz explains that hegemonic masculinity affects men from a young age in that the dominant culture provides examples for men to follow that are defined as manly and valuable.

2) There is learned behavior young men are exposed too as kids that encourages a belief that men must become real men with masculine attributes like being powerful, assertive, independent, and tough.

3)  There is a pressure for young men to conform to the narrow-minded ideas of masculinity or else they find themselves subjected to being called a wus or any other plethora of demeaning words designed to harm a man’s ego and sense of manliness.

4) Dominance, power, and control are concepts that are perpetuated by mainstream media that young men see in films, commercials, and TV shows defining what it is to be a man.

5) Male violence has become a widely accepted part of masculinity, so much so that it is considered a “norm”.

6) Violence acts such as murder, assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence are disproportionately committed by men in the US presenting the idea that there are major issues with American understanding of masculinity.

7) Violence in general is often cyclical.  Perpetrators of violence are often individuals who have been abused themselves.

8) Addressing issues with masculinity in American culture benefits men as well as women especially considering that the majority of violence that takes place in this country is from men assaulting men.

9) Men develop what Katz refers to as a “Tough Guise”, a survival suit of sorts that appears to help them to deal with male pior culture when in reality it is holding them back from truly connecting emotionally with themselves and others.

10) Katz explains that the “Tough Guise” isn’t just a male problem, it’s an institutional problem that all genders can help in rectifying by rejecting violence in association with celebrated masculinity in popular culture.

STEP 5:

#	Theme	How/if this emerged in the regular broadcast	How/ if this emerged during the commercials
1	White males are the voice of authority.	The hosts of the show are a man and a women.  A man is narrating most of the show.
2	Sports is a man’s world.	During this game, the focus is women’s sports and it’s all they are referring too.
3	Men are foregrounded in commercials.	The commercials were mixed and slightly random.  Gender neutral ads for furniture
4	Women are sexy props for men’s successful sports performance.	The women are definitely wearing outfits that are fit for the sport although it’s important to note both players are wearing shirts on top of shorts.
5	Whites are foregrounded in commercials.	The commercials showed mostly white people.
6	Aggressive players get the prize; nice guys finish last.	The hosts of the show keep referencing how competitive the players are.  They keep referring to “domination” as an important part of the game.
7	Boys will be (violent) boys.	The players have been competitors since they were 13.  They are constantly being compared.
8	Give up your body for the team.	Both women describe tennis as being such a large part of their lives and how they will do anything to win.
9	Sports is war.	They refer to the idea of loosing as “taking a beating”.
10	Show some guts!	a commentator did reference good health as the most important thing in sports

The Australian Open is a major tennis event that is held in Melbourne, Australia each year in January.  The event first began in 1905 and first opened to women players in 1922.  The event features womens and mens single and doubles matches.  Formerly, the event was played on grass but changed to hard courts in 1987 and is currently played on Plexicushion.  Serena Willams was the first woman to win matches on two different surface materials over the years. Williams won her 6th Australian open this past January against Maria Sharapova.  The sports cast of the match is listed as “Australian Open 2015 - Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova”.

Themes in Overview:

Broadcasts of women’s sports’ events are very indicative of how the sporting world views gender, sex, and other societal and cultural media today. 1) There was no objectification of the players based on race, sex, gender,fashion choice, body type and far more emphasis on their athletic abilities which perhaps indicates some major changes in perception of women in tennis.

2) Commercials during the event were for the most part gender neutral and indicative of a value on product placement. 3) The tournament coverage was hosted by men and women providing a more diverse voice for the event.

VALUE OF WOMEN'S ATHLETIC ABILITY:

1. In the past (and currently in many instances), it was common-place for women to be judged in sporting events by their bodies and sexuality alongside their talents.  During the Australian open featuring Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, the hosts constantly refer to how “powerful” the women are and how fast they are.  If anything they say things like “Serena Williams makes it all look so easy” in admiration of Williams skill and endurance.
2. The only physicality the hosts refer to is Sharapova’s health when she coughs on the court.  They appear to feel for her, and emphasize the important in health in sports which is refreshing.
3. The male host refers to the first Australian Women’s Open champion Daphne Akhurst with praise, referencing that she was the first woman to win the event 5 times.  It is encouraging to hear male commentators discussing victories for women’s rights in such a highly publicized event.
   
   
   
   
   

PRODUCT PLACEMENT:

1. As with every highly publicized event on television, the product placement in the Australian open, is everywhere.  Billboards for KIA, Jacobs Creek, Hisense, ANZ.
2. The broadcast featured so much product placement that they had a live Twitter feed going during the whole event allowing viewers to interact with the sports coverage and weigh in on the match.
3. The event also serves as a massive advertising campaign for Melbourne tourism with the name of the city in almost every shot.
   
   
   
   
   

GENDER NEUTRAL EVENT COVERAGE:

1. Perhap one of the more positive aspects of the women’s single Australian Open coverage is how gender neutral the commentary was.  The event, hosts by a man and women, allowed equal speaking time for each host, more of a conversation between the two.
2. The gender of the players competing wasn’t at the forefront of the conversation about the match.  Besides using pro-nouns “she” and “her”, the players were never referenced as girls or used as “sexy props” as Messner referred to in his piece.
3. Another aspect to note about the commentary is that the commentators, although diverse in gender, were both white.  Tennis has for so long been a game in which the wealthy could only participate in order to pay for the lessons, practices, outfits, rackets and is still often a difficult sport to break into without having a privileged socio-economic background..  Serena Williams is an example of a person who overcame discrimination to get where she is as one the most successful tennis players in the world, regardless of gender.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:

The broadcast of the “Australian Open 2015 - Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova” surpassed and and greatly rose above many of the concepts included in Messner’s (2000) “The Televised Manhood Formula”.  Messner described the dominant force of hegemonic masculinity in that “televised sports, and their accompanying commercials, consistently present boys with a narrow portrait of masculinity” which has been seen to be very much true of male dominated sports such as football and baseball.  Watching the Australian open with William and Sharapova was exceptionally refreshing and empowering.  It was quite inspiring to watch two women professional tennis players participate in an exciting, competitive, and intriguing game and not have to be subject to sexist dialogue while watching.  As we have discussed in the class before, sports in American culture are popular and pervasive which enables them to have the potential to have serious effects on social change.  I think this match would be a great example to show young kids how women are just as capable of being star athletes as men, and not base their celebrity solely on their appearance.