Empowerment In Football

Football is considered one of, if not the most masculine sport there is in American society but that does not mean it is not for girls too. Females that play football face a lot of adversity when challenging the gender norms of football but at the end of the tunnel is the empowerment of their participation in sports. Coakley says it best in Chapter 7 when it comes to women playing sports and more specifically ones that are considered “masculine sports,” most people in the United States today believe that women should have opportunities to play sports, but which ones they are able to play is where the disagreements occur. (Coakley, 2017) Football is definitely one of the sports that people have problems with woman playing because it is heavy-contact

I will talk about my personal experience of playing alongside a female football player and then reflect on how this experience touches on the key concept, women playing football are challenging the norm of a sport that typically reaffirms the male-female difference and the empowerment that lies within participating in a male dominated sport.

I experienced first-hand a female playing football, and not playing for an all-girls football team but this girl played on a boys high school football team. Teagen did not just join the football team when she got to high school for fun or just to say she was the only girl to play football in our high school history, growing up she was known as one of the best athletes in her grade and was a stand out star in basketball and as well. When we were younger she was always one of the best flag and tiny tackle football players but there were a few other girls at the time that were also good so she was not out of the ordinary when we were younger. It was when we got to junior high that things became different, once kids are teenagers they become very aware

A girl from my hometown played high school baseball and a girl from a high school in my conference wrestled but those did not quite impact me or have has much meaning to my personal sporting experience the way a girl playing football did. A key concept that connects with my experience and my readings is that sports are a place of reaffirming male-female difference, but it does not have to be that way. In “Women’s Participation in Tackle Football,” they talk about how football is a great sport for providing some women with an opportunity to play a sport who have a diverse size, and in particular women with bigger builds. (Berg & Migliaccio, 2007) Another key concept that my readings and experience helped shape my sporting experience is the empowerment that can come from being a participant in sport. Coakley discusses how empowerment works for females when participating like, “Sport participation offers girls and women opportunities to connect with the power of their bodies and reject notions that females are naturally weak, dependent, and powerless.. The physical skills and strength often gained through sport participation help some girls and women feel less vulnerable, more competent and independent, and more in control of their physical safety and psychological well-being.” (2017) Berg and Migliaccio also found from their