We are supposed to write about the sporting camps going on at OU over the summer. I remember going to all these same camps when I was a kid.
In class today, we discussed the role of gender in sports. As a child, my father was big into the main sports: baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. And that is exactly what I played...all the time. In fact, there was never a season from the time I was 3 years old until I was 18 that I did not play an organized sport.
My girl friends always did cheerleading or gymnastics, while my guy friends and I played the main sports. In fact, as a very young child I can remember that the boys and girls played together, but as we all got older, the girls went to gymnastics and the boys stayed with the main sports.
Is this because of the parents, or is it just the social norm? Or possibly is it advertising and marketing that children see on television?
Honestly, with the way our society is set up, I think it is better for guys to play baseball, basketball, football, etc., and girls to stick with sports like gymnastics and cheer. Kids are judged and called different and weird if they don't play their gender's prototypical sports. Believe me, I remember.
I'm not saying guys and girls can't play any sport they want, I'm merely stating that to fit in to our society, it is better to stick with what is deemed the social norm when it comes to sports.
Just one person's view.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I can't say I agree with you on this one but I do respect your opinion. Like I posted in my blog I grew up admiring my brother and wanting to do everything that he did. This being said, I think it has helped contribute to the way I view women in sports. I would go to his wrestling practice and work out with all the guys, my dad coached the girls flag football team and even in high school the girls and guys track team was combined in practice. I would never tell my child they should stick to the norm and go to cheerleading instead of wrestling or football but its because this was the norm in my life. There was this fantastic wrestler in my high school who was not only deaf but female and instead of calling her weird or different we all looked up to her. Hopefully one day society's norms will change and it will be more acceptible for women to move outside of their gender roles in sports.
ReplyDeleteThe right to disagree, opens up the subject for discussion.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm not sure I completely agree with you either...."main sports?" I just think that puts too much of an emphasis on the masculine dominated sports culture of today. I don't really mind watching not - "main sports", like women's basketball, volleyball, W-soccer, hell-gymnastics during the Olympics (for women) is probably one of my favorite things to watch. I used to guess the scores that they'd get with my mom and we still talk about Olympic gymnastics once in a while.
ReplyDeleteBack to my point....I know some kids ridicule others for the types of sports they play, I was careful in high school not to put my self out there for that kind of ridicule, but I did play tennis, which is not necessarily a manly, or main, sport. I would get dominated by girls on the girls tennis team very consistently, but I didn't really care that much..
yeah..."sticking" into society is a good way to get through it, without drawing un-necessary attention to yourself, but, I don't think conformity, is always the right thing.....
Here's n example, kind of. I sometimes do something that is a bit different than most people, I sit and write lyrics in my notebook while in class, I find lectures boring, sometimes, so I do this to pass time, plus I love writing lyrics. So I write my favorite song at the time... or I come up with lyrics. I don't necessarily think many people do this; and some people have asked me what I am doing / given me strange looks if they see me just writing without looking up too much... I'm really not going to just stop doing what I want to do to express what I want to express because it doesn't "stick" into society. I would honestly do something eclectic, weird, or different to differentiate myself from the rest of everyone else.
Just my take.
Growing up I was the same as you Griffin, I played baseball, basketball, football and to those questioning that, those are MAJOR sports in America today. I remember in 8th grade there were three girls who played on the football team and they were definitely casted out. We didn’t make fun of them it was more that physically they could not play with boys. In that aspect, girls and boys should stick to different sports. However, gender neutral sports such as track, basketball, and golf I feel that anyone can play and it is socially accepted. Now if you were to mix the two genders and made them play against each other the results would be different and I think that is obvious to see. Griffin is right that in some sports males and females should be separated, 1) So they will be socially accepted 2) So the playing field is even. On the other hand some sports can be played by both males and females and it is okay and the social norm. I am kinda in the same boat, but please dont hate me tomorrow in class.
ReplyDeleteSo we've established that, yes, there are physiological differences between men and women that make some differences in some sports some of the time. The amounts of "some" may vary, but let's not discuss the physical aspect of sports right now. You and JRoc both brought up the idea of social acceptance as a reason to conform to gender norms.
ReplyDeleteThis idea that we should conform to society's gender norms without question bothers me. Both you and JRoc support this social acceptance, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for it other than not being made fun of. Kids can be very cruel creatures and there can be any number of other things that can cause judgments and name-calling. And unless we, as the media and as family and friends, teach them otherwise, it continues through to adulthood.
So we come back to the gender neutral sports. We still seem to maintain some stereotypes for the people who compete in these sports. Women in golf? Women in basketball? Men in cheerleading? Men in gymnastics? Even when we are in a "gender neutral" sport, we still have gender norms that sneak in there somehow. How is it that we break away from these views? Classes like this that challenge what we think is one method, but I think there are ways that we as future media creators can help to break these stereotypes.
Without a challenge to the norms, our society and our culture would never change. The advancement of minorities in social and civil rights rests heavily upon this. Just accepting the social norms at face value in order to gain social acceptance gets society nowhere.