Sexualization Of Women In Sports Essay

“I wonder how many times a Tom Brady is asked about how handsome he is, or J.J. Watt... it’s something that us female athletes have to deal with all the time,”(Hatch.) quoted by the famous Delle Donne of the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) Chicago Sky. Delle Donne is one of the many female athletes, who endure sexism in sports today. Today in society, people still struggle with the idea of females being involved in sports. Sexism is “ the unfair treatment of people because of their sex; especially : unfair treatment of women” (Sexism.) Many would agree that watching an all female athletic game, is not as entertaining as an all male athletic game. Men believe women are incompetent when it comes to sports talk. During a sports conversation, women tend to get ignored

Although over time gender discrimination has grown progressively over the years, one place that gender inequality is not fully present is in the sports world. Gender inequality in sports has been an issue in the industry for centuries. For years and years women faced the issues of lower pay, not as much publicity and not being appreciated as a female athlete. Clearly, even in this prevalent era of alleged equality and impartiality, most sports still remains as a male dominion, as there still is an unnoticed barrier between sport and woman. Through this analysis, I wanted to investigate some of the initial causes for the above circumstances.

In the article titled Face-off on the playing field By, Judith B. Stamper explains girls have their own story of support or discrimination, success also the debate of girls be allowed to compete on boys’ sports team. First, the writer Title IX explains female athletes are been treated second-class for long enough and should pass of inequalities and biases of girls. The writer also clarifies that girls doing sports make them healthier, physically, and emotionally. Other girls that don’t play sports are less likely to use of drugs. In addition, she notes a former Stanford University basketball player Mariah says, strength and independence of things girls learn from sports, the opportunities that are changing women.

Sexism in sports is a wide ranged topic that many people have ignored for most of their lives. Throughout the decades, women have been tossed away and not been allowed to do so many things in their life, that men have been allowed to do. For example, decades ago, women were never allowed to hunt, be seperate from their husbands, or even play sports til the 1900’s. Their only job was to sit home and care for the kids while the men did all the dirty work.

Women have come a long way in the fight for equality – in the 1970s women fought for things like equal pay and equal opportunities in the workplace, yet this is still an issue today. This is even relevant to sport as sportsmen earn more than sportswomen for doing the same job. For years’ gender inequality has plagued professional sports, with people suggesting women’s sport is of a lower quality and women will never be as good as their male counterparts.

Despite the many efforts to break gender define boundaries, the media is the ultimate deciding factor. Women who are in sports are not being covered as equally as men in sports, and when they are, females are being depicted negatively and their athletic abilities are insignificant in

In Princess Culture, Orenstein claims that girls find athletics unfeminine and even claims, “ the 23 percent decline in girls participation in sports between middle and high school has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine” (329). Orenstein here supports her claim with a stat saying that almost a quarter of all girls stop taking part in any sport activity because they think it's unfeminine and unattractive to them. Orenstein goes on with a survey that found that, “ School age- girls reported a paralyzing pressure to be “perfect”: not only to get straight A’s and be the student body president, but also to be “kind and caring” (329). Orenstein uses a hyperbole, when she uses the phrase “paralyzing pressure” to describe the mental exhaustion that girls go through daily to feel satisfied with what they’re doing with their time. This in turn means girls have overwhelmingly high expectations from their mindset to be flawless in every which way possible.

“You hit like a girl”. This statement connotates women being the weaker sex which summarizes what gender discrimination in sports is. Dictionary-wise, it is the discrimination of one’s athletic abilities based on their gender. It is seen in every sport at any country around the world. Both men and women are victims of this but research proves that when are those who are mostly affected. Women receive less recognition than men and are classified as weak. Women too are called “tomboy” for joining a stereotypical male’s sport or for joining any sport in general. With that said, it also prevents people from discovering their true passion for the fear of society’s perception. Since gender discrimination in sports foes not give men and women equal rights and opportunities, promoting sports without gender divisions will lessen this.

Throughout this semester, I have been discussing the underrepresentation of female athletes in the media. This underrepresentation and the manner in which female athletes are being portrayed should be brought up because it affects how the public sees female athletes. This is a problem because it affects how people view women in sports. There are several perspectives in which this problem can be discussed and they are based on stereotypes, appearances, and the type of sports showed in media. I decided to discuss this topic because compared to their male counterparts women are seen as inferior in the sports domain.

“Female discrimination in sports is a common occurrence all around the world, women are seen as less than males.” (Ladrea) Equality in sports is unequal. In the 1800 women got very little attention and did not get the opportunity to play in any sport in America and all around the world. Men could go and try out for different sports teams and workout but for women they were only allowed to stay home to cook and clean. There were some events women could participate in but it could not be competitive, it was focused on getting active and staying active. With the different sex comes different levels, like males skill level is a lot higher than womens skill level, and males get the bigger audience than females do and men are all over the television

There will always be those who question how much of Title IX is actually responsible for these changes. The simple fact is that society is growing toward the idea of accepting females as athletes. Two professors at Emerita, Brooklyn College confirm the belief that “Increased participation and skill development by young women along with society 's greater acceptance of female athleticism has made sport a vital part of the lives of many young women and their families” (Acosta and Carpenter). Title IX has been a major catalyst when it comes to societal acceptance. The law influences people to accept the idea that women should have the same opportunity involving athletics as men have; it creates a guideline for our society that will result in the adaptation of a new societal norm.

People used strong effort to keep women’s sports limited when they wanted to be competitive; that wouldn’t last long (Bell). Women took part in the Olympics of 1900 for the first time. Only 22 women competed and were permitted to participate in golf and tennis (Feminist Majority Foundation). Later in the 1920’s a very stereotypical view was developed towards women and their desire to participate in sports. Their participation became “unfeminine” and “selfish”, and not to mention the fact that all athletic women were accused of lesbianism (Bell).

Insufficient Support Basketball has been in my blood since the third grade. I look up to the female high school and WNBA players. No matter the level of girls’ basketball, I was into it. As I grew up, I continued to play the game that I loved. But as the years passed by I noticed something: nobody was really ever at our games.

If society stops to understand the struggles these women have been facing for decades will have a clearer picture of what steps to take in order to make a change in the sports industry. Men need to put their masculinity aside and advocate giving women a voice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues women in the sport world have faced through history, wage gaps, current issues today, and to discuss findings and recommendations for future research. Title IX is a law that came into effect in 1972, this comprehensive federal law prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

Sports have always been a male dominate sport, especially in schools. It took many years of schooling and fighting for females to be able to participate in sports and have equal education opportunities. “The passage of Title IX, the 1972 Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act, expanded high school athletic opportunities to include girls, revolutionizing mass sports participation in the United States (Rammell, 2014, pg. 136).” Since the legislation, Title IX was passed, sports offerings for boys and girls has changed. Title IX has created many opportunities for girls and young women today since it began 40 years ago. Although Title IX is best known for sports and athletics, is about much more! It also opens the gate for girls to pursue math and science, requires fair treatment for pregnant and parenting students, and protects students for sexual harassment. Over the years title IX has helped females in sports; sadly, there are still educational barriers and discrimination of gender in schools off of the playing field. Despite Title IX 's prohibition against sex discrimination, there are schools across the country that still show signs of discrimination