Women, Sports and Stereotypes
In almost all the movies we have seen, the women go through a series of changes as they grow older. They might or might not choose to continue with their sport (although movies are usually shy of showing women who actually choose to abandon a blossoming sports career in favour of something more 'socially acceptable'). However, when we first meet the female heroine in almost all the movies, she is a young tomboy. The figures of Jess in 'Bend It Like Beckham' or Monica in 'Love and Basketball' are remarkably similar as children. They both wear boyish clothes, shun typically girly clothing, and prefer to spend their time with boys. Of course, the movies make it amply clear that these girls only want to play sports with the boys – they have no sexual interest in them. In 'Bend It Like Beckham', for example, Jess is clearly contrasted with the other Indian girls who watch the local boys playing football not because they like the game but because they want to see the boys with their shirts off. Even in 'Love and Basketball', Monica loves Quincy, but she never lets him see that until after prom night; before then, they are simply neighbours, friends and ballplayers. Even in a movie like 'Remember the Titans', which has no clear female protagonist, the little girl is shown hanging around boys all the time with her father, but she too has no interest in them except as sportsmen.
The second stage is when the female protagonist has to confront her biological femaleness. This happens with the little girl in 'Remember the Titans' when she starts spending time with Coach Boone's children, who are more conventionally "girly". At first she scorns them, but after a while a friendship grows up between them. She...
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...g formal skirt-suits (as shown in the opening sequence of 'Remember the Titans', at the funeral). It seems even more significant that this is not only the case in movies. In real life too, we find this happening. For example, in the first movie about women sportsmen, we find the dramatic transformation of the sportswoman who was a champion jumper, runner and even diver. After a certain point, she discards her boy-short hair and her shorts for longer dresses, longer hair and a husband. She even abandons sports like running and jumping for something more sedate – golf, in her case. This was, to me, the most crucial point to remember when watching all these movies – they are not portraying idealised situations. Rather, in showing the transformation of the tomboy into a sort of 'superwoman' who combines the best of both worlds, the movies are only reflecting real life.
Additionally, Yap’s constitution is derived from the United States, as it has almost 13 identical sections as the bill of rights. The Yapese constitution addresses the essential rights of the people as well as their structure of governm...
“Religion is a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man and nature” (107). When the Europeans colonized Haiti, they brought over African slaves with them. These slaves had already established African religious practices, prior to being brought to Haiti. As the French got acquainted with Haiti, they were also forcing Roman Catholic traditions upon the slaves. As a result, there was the birth of the religion Haitian Vodou. These enslaved Africans were not allowed to practice Haitian Vodou openly because it offended those that practiced Catholicism, the French wanted full control over the slaves in every aspect, and anyone outside of
Remember the Titans is a film from 2000 displaying a true story of a racially divided football team from the 1970s. The movie highlights the relationships of the black and white people, and how they learned to interact with each other in a time when this was not the way of life. It brings up a number of questions throughout, of what is right and what is wrong, and really challenges the characters, making it a very interesting movie to watch. I have seen this movie many times, and each time I feel like I get something new out of it. It is a movie that can be used as a teaching tool, it does a great job of interpreting not only what was happening in the United States of America at that time, but social psychology concepts through real life situations.
From Benin, Africa, to the country of Haiti, Voodoo is practiced by as many as 4 million people and is recognized more and more often. From the start, Voodoo was a very mysterious religion and was hidden away from onlookers, and for good reason. This essay begins in 1719 to 1731, although some have said that Voodoo is as old as Africa itself. Slaves were taken from West Africa and brought into the United States, eventually bringing Voodoo into the society of New Orleans, Louisiana. With the influx of African slaves came the influence of Louisiana Voodoo, or New Orleans Voodoo. The knowledge of herbs and poisons, the use of amulets and charms, the practices of political views and religions were key elements of what we know of today. Unlike other areas of slave trades, Louisiana didn’t separate families from each other, their religions, or their cultures. In 1808, the Embargo Act ended the slave imports to Louisiana and African culture. ...
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.
As it becomes increasingly acceptable for women to be athletic in American culture, a new question arises: in which sports should women be allowed to participate? From a physiological standpoint, it has been scientifically proven that female bodies do not differ significantly enough from male bodies to prevent them from participation in any "male" sports. This division between "male" and "female" sports clearly stems from age-old, socially constructed norms of femininity and masculinity. When women attempt to challenge these societal molds by participating in sports that are traditionally male, the intricate web of norms is disrupted. Like many other instances where traditional social constructions are tinkered with, individuals and communities are forced to reevaluate how they think about and categorize their surroundings. I would argue that women's participation in athletics, especially in non-traditional sports, is instrumental in breaking down stereotypes and social confines that have plagued women for centuries
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
Do I sacrifice my ‘womanly attributes’ by making the choice to ski down a mountain with a 3000+ vertical drop, while traveling at 50-60 mph? Does my choice to do squats and engage in strength training, or my desire to do 300 sit-ups each night in order to achieve a six-pack, make me less of a woman? Is it odd that I do not enjoy displaying polite, ladylike behavior during every second of my existence? I do not think so. Society today would not exactly agree either, yet society today is far different from the early 1920’s. Today, the desirable female body image is not necessarily a thin, dainty woman. At some point in history, though, something went terribly wrong. Women were conditioned to drink tea and mingle socially over snacks while knitting. The progression for women in sports has been slow, and women still have a long way to go in order to achieve the towering status of men’s sport. Although times have changed since the 1920’s, women continue to struggle with issues of the past—the notion of “mannishness” and the characteristics that compose the ideal female athlete.
The image of blood plays an important role throughout Macbeth. Blood represents the murders that Macbeth had committed, the guilt that went along with the murders and the pain that it brought on him during his downfall. The soldier describes the violence and bloodshed, in the war between Scotland and Norway, "Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds." (I. ii. 43) foreshadows the violent nature of the play filled with murder, guilt and pain. Blood in the murder of King Duncan also plays a major role because it represents Macbeth's guilt as well as his shame for slaying King Duncan. Macbeth observes his blood stained hands and remarks "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." (II. ii. 28) This reveals his guilt and shame because he is comparing his hands to those of an executioner's. After the murder, Macbeth refuses to return back to the bed chamber of Kind Duncan to smear the blood on the sleeping guards, because he is afraid that the blood will incriminate him further. Lady Macbeth smearing the blood onto the guards represents them trying to rub their guilt off onto the guard. "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt" (II. ii. 73) but this proves to be ineffective because Macbeth ends up murdering t...
As more people are claiming their rights and being accepted by society, the media is forced to reach the obedience in a modern way. Women are fighting for they equal right and starting to play leading role in movie and TV shows. For example, not so long ago, I watched “She’s the Man” a movie played in 2006 by Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Byrne’s character, Viola been playing soccer in place of his brother who didn’t want anything to do with soccer or any other sports for that matter. Bynes is really good at soccer and loves sport. She didn’t let herself brake by the tough guys in her team who think she was a man. She subsequently shows the absurdity of gender biases by being the best at what she loves. This type of movie prove there is nothing abnormal to our behavior and it do not make us less of a person when do not conform to norm of
The Heterosexual matrix consists of three components of gender norms such as sexuality, sex, and gender to which a female should be accompanied to follow these as how she acts and looks to other people. “ ‘For example, those born biologically female will innately and permanently be feminine and heterosexual.’”. (Lecture 8, page 2). This means the matrix outlines what is expected to be from that particular sex and obey the rule to only like the opposite sex, and dress the way one should the opposite sex see. These ideas impact women who play sports by feeling they are judged. Some women naturally like to be a tomboy but to others, it seems offensive or its disrespectful of their perspective and culture. Women feel ashamed and that they feel no respect as an athlete. “Because of the conflation of gender conformity and sexual normality in everyday life, long hair deflects lesbian suspicion by signaling heterosexuality-whether the athlete is straight or not.” (McGann & Musto, 109). This would be part of the gender norm because it has been commonly seen for many traditions that women have their hair classy and long to their sides.
Wilde, Oscar, and Michael Patrick. Gillespie. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Reviews and Reactions, Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2007. Print.
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
Wilde, O. (1945). The picture of Dorian Gray. The Electronic Classics Series, The Pennsylvania State University. p. 3/ Retrieved January 3, 2014 from http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/oscar-wilde/dorian-gray.pdf