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The role of women in sports
The role of women in sports
Race stereotypes in sports
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The film industry has always had the reputation of depicting society in a erroneous matter. Just like anything else, the film industry is a business. What that really means is that many things exposed to the public have been catered to what audiences are expected to admire. The media isn’t for illustrating real problems, it is for presenting pictures that the public will receive well. So if americans want to see young successful male athletes, that is what hollywood will create. It’s the simple notion of supply and demand that the media works around. This continues to work because men and women have such short attention spans that they always want something new. All forms of media (besides news) have the ability to adapt to their audiences, showing them want they want to see. It wasn’t until 1976 that a woman (Barbara Walters) was allowed to co-anchor a nightly news show. About twenty years later, the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) had its inaugural season starting a movement for women’s sports in America.
Anyone who has mediocre knowledge of sports, or film, likely has a few favorite sports movies. Everyone can recognize the sight of Rocky Balboa ascending the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Everyone can recognize the words of Coach Herb Brooks as he gave his illustrious speech to team USA at halftime in their game against Russia. How about the Titans going undefeated in their first season with Coach Herman Boone? All of these memorable moments have created the landscape that is sports film. The memorable moments these films comprise of are not the only things that make them similar. What about the fact that these three
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well-received films all feature predomina...
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...y any means,
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she is perhaps the strongest female character in a sports movie society has seen in recent years. Without a question, Oher is the lead role in this film, discovering his natural talent for football and getting drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. A decade or two ago this would’ve been the film, a black boy learning to play football in a predominant white family with the exclusion of Bullock’s role. Nonetheless, a lot about this movie shows the audience that she is just a strong (if not stronger) that most males in the film. In many instances, she is shown at practices attesting for this boy with extreme brutality against these college head coaches portrayed as cowards. Her role may not be as a center in the WNBA, but this shows great progress for the film industry showing a woman who is superior to most male rales in the film.
...ennis, basketball, soccer, and martial arts—have come from the days of cheerleading and synchronized swimming when she was growing up in the ’70s.” Disparities in media coverage and over-sexualized female athletes on magazine covers is something that needs to come to an end because of its effects on both male and female viewers, young and old, athletes and non-athletes. Both female and male athletics influence young people and shape their personality and morals as they mature. Retired WNBA player, Lisa Leslie credits her participation in basketball with shaping her character, as well as her career. “Sports can also help teenagers during an awkward time in their development.” (“Women’s Athletics: A Battle For Respect”). The solution is to come together as a society and identify how to balance the respect for female and male athletes in the media.
Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
The Civil Rights Era impacted the realm of sports in a great and powerful way. Throughout the mid 1900s, many minority athletes emerged through all odds and began to integrate themselves in the white dominated athletic business. These athletes endured constant hardships in order to achieve their goals and dreams; facing much racism, segregation, and violence. Minorities across the country began to look up to these sportsmen and realized that anybody could attain greatness despite the social troubles of the time. Stories depicting the struggles of minority athletes soon arose and grew popular among different cultures. These true accounts passed from generation to generation, each admiring the courage and bravery of athletes and how important they became in obtaining an equal society. Producers and directors soon found a way to revolutionize the film industry by retelling the racial discrimination that minority athletes faced. Remember the Titans, The Perfect Game, 42, and The Express are all examples of how minority athletes overcame racial adversities in order to obtain the championship. These Hollywood movies contain many inaccuracies that draw away from the true impact minority athletes had during the Civil Right Era. Although these films do depict the racial components of the time, they do not depict the accurate occurrences of the stories they try to recreate.
modern media is objectified and put on the screen for male viewers. Films are a
The first film we watched was a documentary entitled, Dare to Compete; it provided a brief history of women in film, focusing primarily on American women in sport from the late 19th century to the present. From this film we gained a notion of where women have been and how far we've come in the sports world. In fact, the growing equality, autonomy and independence of women throughout the 20th century from the suffragette movement to the adoption of Title IX and the Equal Rights Amendment is linked directly with the growing prominence and acceptance of women in sports. The main themes of the film, along with the examination of women in sport, were the celebration of the female athlete and how far women have come in the sports world as well as a reminder that female athletes have not yet attained the same status as male athletes.
The entertainment industry in America is no different then it's parent culture. Both men and women in this industry have identities placed on them, and they change based on their career. Women are given more negative ascriptions than men in the media. That is how Americans identify people they read about, with the identities
I was especially interested in this movie because I am, myself, a college athlete. This movie brought out the importance of having a life and goals other than playing a professional sport. Too many young athletes these days have unrealistic goals of going to the pros, while in actuality the chances of them doing so are next to impossible. Many athletes are in college just to play their sport, and do not care about their academic performance. Eventually, the limelight will fade and professional athletes will become has-beens left to reminisce about their “glory days.”
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
Within todays sporting community, certain aspects of sport and its practices promote and construct ideas that sport in general is a male dominated. Sports media often provides an unequal representation of genders. Women athletes are regularly perceived as mediocre in comparison to their male equivalents (Lenskyj, 1998). Achievement in sport is generally established through displays of strength, speed and endurance, men usually set the standards in these areas, consequently woman rarely reach the level set by top male athletes. Due to this, the media significantly shows bias towards male sports while we are ill-informed about the achievements in the female sporting community. On the occasion that a female athlete does make some form of an appearance in the media, images and videos used will usually portray the female in sexually objectified ways (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). This depiction of female athletes can cause males to take focus solely on the sexual assets of the athlete in preference to to their sporting abilities (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). Sexualisation of sportswoman in the media is a prevalent issue in today’s society, it can cause physical, social and mental problems among women of all ages (Lenskyj, 1998).
Most people watch some form of sports, whether it be the Olympics or the highlights on ESPN. The NBA and NHL playoffs are underway and theyit seems to be the only news on ESPN. There is almost no coverage of the WNBA playoffs or any female athletics. Tennis isone of the only big sports on ESPN for women. While during the Olympics the coverage seems to be non-stop and close to equal. Women’s participation in sport is at an all-time high and has almost become equal with men’s, however,. sSports media does notfails to show this equality and skews the way we look at these athletes. Through the disciplines of sociology and gender studies, it can be seen that despite the many gains of women in sports since the enactment of Title IX, “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity still dominate media coverage of males and females in sports, which is observed in Olympic programming and sports news broadcasts.
Having knowledge of the entertainment world, it seems to be a fast-paced, competitive business. Over the years, sports has been integrated into entertainment, therefore, it has contributed to a business of its own. The goal of a business is to increase revenue and to make a profit, by any means necessary. In regards to sports, society displays this field as male dominant because of the idea that males can be more dominant in the world than women. Also, women’s sports did not come about until the 20th century, while male sports can be traced back to the first Olympics in Ancient Greece. Another factor to genderized sports is the perception of each body: “men are active and athletic, and women, by exclusion, are not” (Ólafsson et al. 5). Furthermore, most female athletes stop playing sports in their teens. This is due mainly because of the low amount of role models that females can look up to in the media. While for boys, they are exposed to their favorite male athletes on different media outlets daily. Boys look up to athletes so much, that they strive to be like them and to one day reach the level of their idol. They will work and play hard throughout high school in order to be drafted onto a professional league for sport that they play. But, what they don’t understand is that, their chances to make it to becoming a professional athlete are slim to none, and if they are able to make it, at what cost? Boys tend to postpone getting a higher education or creating a plan B due to being so focused on making it into the business of professional sports. As many don’t make to the professional level, they become impoverish. Even if they do make it, there is a chance of injury and misspending, which are factors that most likely are not cons...
There is, of course, a huge difference between the ways women are typically supposed to act and what is expected from a typical athlete. Whereas women are expected to comply to their gender role prescribing passivity and compliance, athletes are connoted with an aggressive, competitive nature. Furthermore, society trains women to be ashamed of their bodies and supplies an unrealistic ideal body type and encourages restricting feminine clothing, whereas athletes must have a keen understanding and appreciation of their bodies. In this way, athletes are implicitly coded as male. Though women and men can both be great athletes, of course, gender roles limit the social image and expectations for individuals based on their sex. It is culturally impossible for a woman to be considered both fully athletic and fully feminine – or, in the words of a Bend It Like Beckham character – "There's a reason why Sporty Spice is the only one without a fella!" This is particularly problematic for films portraying women in sports. Mainstream cinema tends to glamorize women and portray them in ways that comply with their gender role. To at the same time depict them as athletic presents conflicts with their filmic image. As a result, films which feature a female athlete tend to compromise her athletic image and apologize for her gender-nonconformity and participation in sports in a variety of ways.
The media and television broadcasting of women is not all negative. But current culture is constantly taking the easy way out. It refuses to explore different ways in which women can be represented. That is why for years to come women will still be seen as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked or seen as unimportant entities. Whether it’s motherly birds on kids TV shows or scantily clad dancers on Monday Night Football, the portrayal of women has yet to catch up with what real life women are like. There are single women, obese women, and smart women. Women who are single mom’s, lesbians, or don’t have any children at all. Women are able to do the same type of work as men without being manly. The day that women are treated as equals on television will whole new level of success for feminism.
Gender equality in sports is still an issue that will be dealt with many years to come. Great advancement has been made through history and accomplishments did not go unnoticed. There is the fear that Title IX, with time will not be as strong or it might be ignored with time. But it is also a powerful weapon that can be used in the legal system to make sure women have their rights protected and saved. We can say that female athletes have enjoyed the fruits of this law to provide them with confidence and empowerment. Although, some women athletes will still face adversity because of racism and ignorance, but looking back at the past decades the fight for gender equality is well worth the fight and determination.
Why is the Film Industry one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world? Simple. People like entertainment. Movies are entertainment. Movies are like books, only they're visual. People like seeing other people cast in roles, and playing out a story. Why not turn to plays instead, you ask? Movies give people the actors and the stories, along with background music, special effects, and overall satisfaction within a 2 hour period of time. Movies can also take you to a physical state that theatre can not. They take you to real physical locations instead of just a cardboard stages. It's the same reason people like television so much.