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.