Burn The Ships: A Microcosm For Gender Based Inequalities In Sports

In the United States, softball provides a useful platform to observe and reflect on the numerous gender based inequalities seen within sports. The film, Burn the Ships, provides a holistic understanding of these inequalities through showcasing the Akron Racers who are one of five teams that participate in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF). The NPF consists of altruistic women who dedicate their time to a job that lacks compensation and numerous other privileges seen in Major League Baseball (MLB) and men’s baseball in its entirety. Through a socialistic lens, the Akron Racers are a microcosm for gender based inequalities within softball and female sports as a whole, ultimately suggesting why the gap between softball and a full-time job exist;

The root of gender based inequalities seen within sports, most specifically softball, are preconceived notions, which often stem from highly influential individuals (i.e. parent/coach/mentor) during the developmental stage of adolescents. The common perceptions exist because individuals of high authority have confined the boundaries to which gender exists. For example, the Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters story illuminates that sex segregation and common perceptions begin to form even as little as four and five years old (Messner, 2015). Messner proposes that society should not look at these gender inequalities separate as boys and girls, but rather comprehend the environments of the children and how the children declare themselves into divided paradoxical categories (Messner, 2015). The foundation of his ideology derives from the “social organization of gender difference” being “so clearly tied to gender

The Akron Racers are social agents combating the gender based inequalities, and the players are pioneers for advocating a much needed cultural shift in the institutional structure of softball. A large portion of eliminating these stereotypes and preconceptions surrounding softball will be changing the way we transform the children’s foundation of sport (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015; Buning, 2015). Rauscher and Cooky argue the cultural shift will only occur if adolescents develop leadership through an empowering and protective setting (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015). For example, Messner highlights that the “gender regimes of children’s sports may be increasingly challenged”, when post Title-IX women and, “heroic female athletes become more a part of the cultural landscape for children, (Dworkin and Messner 1999)” (Messner, 2015). In addition, Heaphy’s solution to combating the inequalities has high correlation with Rauscher and Messner’s ideology regarding a cultural shift through social agents (i.e. the Akron Racers) that empower children. The documentary displays the Akron Racers are activists towards the cultural shift of softball because, during