I picked up my first baseball at the age of 3 and believe it or not at that exact moment I fell in love with what would become the single most important aspect of my life. I cherished it, I worshiped it, and breathed it all in. The smell of the fresh cut grass, the freshly powdered chalk, or even the metal clink of the bat every time it made connection with a baseball; this was love. My passion for baseball began to slowly shape who I identified as in the world, in terms of my masculinity. I allowed my love for baseball to begin to shape my masculinity and shape what it meant to be a man through my eyes. I learned everything I knew about being a man through my experiences on the baseball field. According to MacArthur, Penn State professor, …show more content…
“Stereotypes of heteronormative masculine inexpressivity have been prevalent in Western cultures for decades” and this contributes to a male’s inability to express emotion or feel as though their emotions should be controlled. Growing up in a household of five males, emotions were scarce and very rarely did we ever express “negative” or “feminine” emotions with one another. As Good et Al. points out, younger boys who cry “are quickly reprimanded for their behavior and told that “big boys don’t cry,” because “crying is for girls”; these are the words I was told as a child and often times I allowed that notion to drag on throughout my adolescent years which led into my early adult years. I recall some of my earlier games when I was a child and I specifically remember times that my team would lose; those times for me were always the hardest to deal with because inside I was having an internal battle with my self on whether or not it was acceptable to be upset or not. These notions of masculinity are all a social construct on the basis of which these ideas hold up a power structure within a society that we accept and need. Michal Foucault, a well-known queer theorist mentioned that “truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power”; Foucault is arguing that what is “true” within a society is not necessarily relative but instead he is offering us the idea that what is true within a society is determined by the “multiple forms of constraints” which, inherently “induces” power. Due to the heteronormativity within baseball I felt a constant pressure growing up to be the best.
I went to countless baseball games and I saw men that were phenomenal athletes and I felt as though I needed to play like him or have money like him in order to be a man, or good at baseball for that matter. It is also important to mention that men are stereotypically seen as strong and tough within sports which led to a lot of the pressure I felt, primarily because from the time I was very young, I felt that because I was a boy/man I should be good at all things physical (this included baseball). Through my experiences through baseball I have learned so much so, while it seems that baseball has only contributed negatively to my life, I would argue that it has greatly contributed to my self-confidence, work ethic, healthy competitiveness, etc. So, this is significant because it shaped the man I became in high school; your stereotypical jock who only cared about himself and his sport. I allowed societies notion of what it meant to be a man to shape how I perceived the would and overall dictate the lens I viewed the world from. I began to become very selfish and disregard the subjectivity of anyone who wasn’t in my group of
friends. I lacked any sort of reciprocity and allowed my notions of the world to be narrowed or closed off to new perspectives. I would argue that the way I performed in society wasn’t the same person I was with my family but my adoption of hyper-masculine traits oppressed my ability to be who I really was, who I really am today.
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
This is simply leaning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. The article examines the way sports focus and define what it is to be masculine. Many interview subjects when asked why or how they first got involved in playing sports reported that it was just thing to do or even said, “I was a natural”. Let’s clarify something; there is nothing natural about throwing a ball through a hoop 36 foot away nor is there anything natural about hitting a baseball thrown at 98 miles per hour and hitting it with a 32 inch bat. Playing sports may feel “natural” to some, but you must be exposed to it first before mastering the skill. This exposure can come from an early age of observing other peer or family influences playing sports and learning their behaviors. Of course, a boy can be born with amazing hand-eye coordination, but this does not predispose him to a career of hitting baseballs any more that it predisposes him to a life as a brain surgeon. By listening to the men interviewed in the article, it became clear that their adoption of self definition of natural athlete constructs their masculinities, and observation learning from exposure to sports subconsciously influenced decisions to play
It was the beginning of a new softball season, and I couldn't wait to get out there with my team. At our first practice I remember feeling back at home on the field. Just when I thought this was going to be our teams best season, my parents moved me to a private school. Leaving what I was familiar with was not an easy task, and deciding if I would continue my passion of softball with a different team was even more difficult.
Historical and sociological research has shown, through much evidence collection and analysis of primary documents that the American sporting industry can give an accurate reflection, to a certain extent, of racial struggles and discrimination into the larger context of American society. To understand this stance, a deep look into aspects of sport beyond simply playing the game must be a primary focus. Since the integration of baseball, followed shortly after by American football, why are the numbers of African American owners, coaches and managers so very low? What accounts for the absence of African American candidates from seeking front office and managerial roles? Is a conscious decision made by established members of each organization or is this matter a deeper reflection on society? Why does a certain image and persona exist amongst many African American athletes? Sports historians often take a look at sports and make a comparison to society. Beginning in the early 1980’s, historians began looking at the integration of baseball and how it preceded the civil rights movement. The common conclusion was that integration in baseball and other sports was indeed a reflection on American society. As African Americans began to play in sports, a short time later, Jim Crow laws and segregation formally came to an end in the south. Does racism and discrimination end with the elimination of Jim Crow and the onset of the civil rights movement and other instances of race awareness and equality? According to many modern sports historians and sociologists, they do not. This paper will focus on the writings of selected historians and sociologists who examine th...
Respondents to the questionnaire were overwhelmingly male at 84%. Mills writes in her book Chasing Baseball that success at sport has been long seen as a sign of mas...
Women don’t receive the spotlight in sports very often. Usually, the men in baseball, football, basketball, and soccer have higher salaries and are paid attention to more. This wasn’t the case with a special league of female baseball players. These ladies sparked a thought in peoples’ heads in the mid 20th-century. Could women really play a professional sport instead of staying home to do the housework? From 1943-1954, women in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights women were believed to have in society and in the workplace as they began playing a professional sport as a form of entertainment. Men, who would usually fulfill this role, were drafted into the military with the responsibility to serve during the war. The AAGPBL quickly became a world-winning group of women athletes and kept baseball and peoples' hopes alive during a time of weakness in American history.
Sports, in general, are a male dominated activity; every “real” male is suppose to be interested and/or involved in sports in the American society. However, it is not expected of a female to be interested in sports and there is less pressure on them to participate in physically enduring activities. These roles reflect the traditional gender roles imposed on our society that men are supposed to be stronger and dominant and females are expected to be submissive. As Michael Kimmel further analyzes these gender roles by relating that, “feminism also observes that men, as a group, are in power. Thus with the same symmetry, feminism has tended to assume that individually men must feel powerful” (106).
A central theme in this film correlates to the first concept of the 7 principles describing gender socialization in the United States (Rozema, notes, 2014). This film pervasively focuses on males as the more valued sex (Rozema, notes, 2014). Here, women should easily partition back into a doll mold or submissive role apart from the masculine roles women were called upon to fill during the war. The importance of men never left the focal point. For instance, the black and white scene presenting all the heroic baseball players enlistment to fight for their country, the announcer praises the men for fighting for America, yet questions, “what does this mean for baseball” (Marshall, 1992)? How would baseball continue without men? Ostensibly, a women’s baseball league was a desperate attempt saving rich men’s pocketbooks. Initially, most sport lovers and supporters (mostly male) viewed the women’s league as a superficial and an insignificant replacement to the “real” male version. Just as Dottie expressed to her daughter in the opening scene as she is packing her suitcase, “It was never important to me, it was just something I did” (Marshall, 1992),...
I wrote this poem because I enjoy the sport of baseball. I like to play and have fun with my team mates and its just amazing and I love baseball.
Many people don't understand the point in playing baseball. Why would someone swing a stick, hit a ball, and try to get back to where they started before the ball returns? What pleasure is there in that? Why not participate in a sport like wrestling or track where there is an obvious level of individual improvement and therefore pleasure. Well, I play baseball because of the love I have for the sport, and because of the feeling that overwhelms me every time I walk onto a baseball field. When I walk onto a field I am given the desire to better myself not only as an athlete, but also as a person. The thoughts and feelings I get drive me to work hard towards my goals and to be a better person. The most relevant example of these feelings is when I stepped on the field at Runyon Complex in Pueblo, Colorado during our high school state playoffs in 2003. This baseball field will always be an important place to me.
Sports are the biggest source of entertainment around the world. There are many sports in America, but baseball is our pastime. Baseball is what started America’s interest in sports, and millions of people love the sport to this day. A baseball game is a very special event. Attending a game makes you realize that baseball really is more than a game.
The sport of baseball in the United States exists in a dynamic social world. Although the sport of baseball has evolved as an international game and other popular sports have emerged, baseball remains America’s national pastime. The sport of baseball has a long history and has experienced numerous cultural changes.
I stood yesterday afternoon engaged in the immense time consuming game of baseball. I stood there contemplating on what ideas, mainly about baseball, were being distorted and confused. Then it hit me…
Children learn the differences between men and women’s roles in society from a young age. It is not something that is biologically instilled; rather it is something it is taught by observing the roles each gender partakes in their respected fields. When it comes to employment, children distinguish jobs like nurses and teachers are usually for women and firefighters or presidents are for men (Jacobs 2008). This may because they see members in their family holding these positions or being taught in school that certain genders usually hold certain positions. The same is true for children and associating gender roles in sports. Men usually become basketball, football, or soccer players. Women are not the first gender children think about when it comes to being athletic in competitive sports. Boys start to understand what masculinity is because of participating in sports and do not want to be called “fag” or “sissy” (Douglas Hartman 2008). They may kick the ball around with a male family figure, like a father, who instructs and criticizes...
Sports in the United States are not only looked at as entertainment, but a way of life. Baseball once looked at as Americas pass time has taken a back seat. College football changed American culture by opening doors for masculinity, feminism, race diversity and the, disconnect between athletes and the general population.