Women in sports have come a long ways in many aspects of the sporting world in a variety of ways but what they have been subjected to along the way can lead to a number of psychological issues that many women have to deal with. Many women have to deal with the stereotype that if they are good at their specific sport, more athletic or stronger than their competitors they must be either lesbian, or that they are not women at all (South African runner Caster Semenya who was raised as a female all her life questioned about her gender because she demolished her competition in an 800-meter race). How could you expect the majority of females to want to become good at something if they know that they will be criticized for it? Women in sport also have to deal with underrepresentation in media coverage compared to their male counterparts. Even when women do get coverage in the sports that they do play it is often done in degrading ways, such as tennis players like Maria Sharapova, and Indy Car racer Danica Patrick who use their good looks and promote their sports by coming off as sex symbols and are recognized by their good looks more so than their actual talents and athletic abilities. What kind of message does this send to the young female athletes? That they have to show off their bodies and appear as sex symbols to gain attention? These problems alone definitely add to the many psychological issues that the female athletes have to deal with. A lot of these problems root from how our society as a whole is, what do you expect from a country that is obsessed with making money and becoming higher on the food chain than others and where males rule and make all the decisions while females are thought of as followers. Slowly great strides in women’s rights have helped to extinguish such problems but as of right now our society still see women athletes as secondary to male athletes. Similar to the problems gay and lesbians face in the sporting world to fix the psychological problems that women in sport have our society as whole must change and until that happens we will continue to see issues like these reoccurring.
Adam Grubb
Kin 339i
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ReplyDeleteThat was a valid point. It is a disgrace to even think of young girls trying to emulate the bad habits of our society and maybe even lose themselves along the way. Unfortunately, the training for such behavior starts at a young age.
ReplyDeleteWe as consumers are exposed to hundreds of advertisements a day. The ones regarding women will typically involve the idea of the sex symbol as was discussed earlier. The males of yeserday wanted to see their women: gentle, weak, subserviant, vulnerable, beautiful and timid. This list of "ideal" female characteristics is not a prominent image of today but is still one that is used when portraying females in society in advertisments. Some additions might be promiscuous and femme fatale, but most of the words in the list might be far from the characteritics seen in women and especially those who play sports. Some males like a vulnerable female and fear what they might not be able to control. Women in sports definitely can demonstrate power, vigor, and persistence. I think some men also think that female athletes are all power and no grace. Women in sports can still be beautiful, sophisticated and graceful. Fragileness may exude beauty, but real beauty comes from versaility. Being able to balance power and grace is what many female athletes have accomplished.
D McWatt
Kin339i
M 7pm