Stereotypes Of Women In Sports

Every two years, one lucky country gets the honour of hosting the Olympic games, whether it be during summer or winter. Athletes from countries all over the world attend these games to prove to themselves and everyone watching how hard they have trained for their event, whether that be summer sports such as gymnastics, swimming or track and field, or winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding or bobsledding. Just as people from all over the world come to compete, there are people who watch the Olympics from all corners of the world. As viewers, we often do not think of those athletes who compete as individuals. We see them as part of a team, specifically, as members of the team competing for whichever country we are cheering for. We simply watch men and women compete for our own country. This causes viewers to forget about the people who are competing, and the struggles they have overcome just to be part

It is believed that this is the reason that women have been subjected to the public humiliation that is gender verification and sex testing (Reeser, 2005; Müller, 2016). Women are also subjected to having to prove their ‘femininity’ whenever they severely out-perform another woman, or when they surpass the expectations of males. Due to the need to verify that a woman is indeed a woman, the IOC has largely contributed to the stigma around what it means to be a woman in recent times. The IOC has also played a role in comparing women to men whenever they surpass a male’s expectations while doing something considered “manly”. It appears as if sports are segregated by sex primarily because it is believed that men are superior and are able to outperform women on any occasion. If this was true, there would be no need to “prove” a woman’s femininity so she can play a