Men and Women Playing a non-traditional Sport for their Gender

The Social and Cultural Costs and Benefits of Men and Women Playing a non-traditional Sport for their Gender

The lines that separate the sexes in sport have been historically rooted in society's way of thinking. Though these lines have lately begun to fade, they are still embedded in the attitudes of the majority of the public. Women and men alike have been and still seated in their respective sports without much room or access to cross that gender line. These limitations take various forms, such as the availability of opportunities that are given to those that wish to enter certain sports to the media portrayals of athletes crossing these gender boundaries.

The costs and sacrifices for an aspiring athlete entering a non-traditional sport for their gender are sometimes overwhelming and detrimental to their sport career. These athletes often experience the frustration of finding training facilities catering to their gender. More so, the lack of financial support from family or even endorsements hinder athletes from pursuing the best training available. Aside from financial considerations, finding willing mentors and coaches willing to blind themselves from the sex of the athlete doesn't come as easy as for instance, Diana in Girlfight. Most importantly, the emotional support that is greatly important in the mental preparedness of an athlete is often not existent. Young children are often discouraged and not offered opportunities to pursue desired sports if they are considered gender bending. In Billy Elliot, though Billy has a real passion and talent for ballet, it is after much time that his family accepts it. Billy's father and brother, employed in mining, a traditionally masculine field, are initially disapproving of his aspirations mostly because of the stigmas on sexuality placed on male ballet dancers. These stigmas appear throughout numerous sports; women who body build or play rough sports like rugby or hockey are often looked at as butch and thus characterized as lesbians. In Pumping Iron II, Bev appears to have been in the best shape, but she is deemed too masculine to win a body building competition. Similarly, men who ice skate or are cheerleaders are considered feminine or gay. On the same note, the strengths of men in these non-traditionally male sports are often doubted; it is speculated that the male might be weak and cannot handle "manlier" sports. Even women who enter male dominated sports are considered to be too tender to play.