The end has come

This will be the final blog for my Sport Management Class, Sport and Gender. However, I do believe that I just may continue blogging on general topics or stay connected to the blogging world by commenting on other topics, just to stay current and see other points of views on those topics.

This semester was the first time that I have ever blogged and before this point I never had any real interest in opening a blogger account. Blogging to me was just another way to waste time sitting and looking at a computer screen, or was another social network like facebook and myspace. However, I have found that blogging was an overall interesting and effective way to communicate my opinions and views on issues that were current and important that we discussed or covered in classes. Although my class was a very opinionated and outspoken class, I did find that there was alot that was left out in class that were revealed in others blogs, which made the subjects we covered that much more interesting.

Blogging for me was a way to see controversial issues such as women body builders and the Caster Semenya case in a different view. Instead of being one sided and bias towards the issue and only taking into account what the media portrays and how I have been conditioned to think, I was able to gather a better understanding of the issues by seeing/hearing my classmates points of view and or experiences and deciding for myself how these people that are in opposition of the societal norms are viewed and how they view themselves. This allowed me to open my eyes to the fact that everything is not black and white, but that there is an entire gray area that in some cases overshadows that black and the white area all together, and this area needs to be taken into consideration when I formulate my opinions about certain situations.

I have learned alot from this class not only in sports and gender, but in how to accept those who are on the curve of what is an acceptable social norm and what is not. Based on the debates in class and the blogging done outside of class I have also become a more verbal individual able to express my opinions respectively, clearly and with understanding of different views.

I really enjoyed this class and found it to be a valuable stepping stone for my future in working as a personal trainer in corporate fitness. I feel that I am more capable of understanding differences and seeing people for who they truly are and not for what they are capable of or their sexual orientation or how they disrupt and social norms.

Thanks Dr. Spencer :-)

Grotesque or Beautiful?

For this blog I wanted to discuss the issue of how women body builders are viewed in society. Before I do, I wanted to bring up the a few different terms that are typically associated with female sex. The female sex is the biological make up of the female consisting of X-X chromosomes instead of the X-Y chromosome makeup of a male. Additionally, the gender role; "a set of behaviors, attitudes, and conditions" that typically exist among identifiable groups (Clatterbaugh, 1997) that is associated with the female sex has a passive, soft, small, submissive, and emotional connotation associated with it. With that being said, the sport of body building is seen in more of a masculine light, portraying stereotypes of masculinity such as big, dominant, muscular, and aggressive. The concept of body building has been disrupted by the involvement of women. Women body builders work to achieve the same body fitness as their male counterparts with the huge highly developed muscles and exceptional strength. While women body builders may see themselves as masters of their sport, the perception of women body builders have been expressed in terms of "un-attractive", "grotesque", "masculine", and "unacceptable" in some cases. The article "Firm but Shapely, Fit but Sexy, Strong but Thin: The Postmodern Aerobicizing Female Bodies" (Markula) describes how the female body is viewed in society and how those societal views can be seen as oppressive. In many cases women are expected to be tight, thin, slim and fit, anything else seems to disrupt or offend this notion of femininity. Markula also goes into detail about how women body builders not only disrupt the social norms of the female body type, but that they create a new body type for women. A classmate and group member of mine elaborated a little more on this issue and mentioned that women body builders see themselves a feminine and do not believe that their physique is offensive, but healthy and beautiful. Many women body builders encompass the same femininity as non-body building women, although they possess a more masculine looking body type. However, there are extreme cases in which body building for male and females, but especially for females, becomes a health risk and may interfere with the natural hormonal process of the female body. This side of body building in general concerns me. I personally find that huge and highly developed muscles seen in bodybuilding either male or female is in many cases disturbing, however I can also see how this particular form of sport represents the beauty of the human body. For anyone to be able to develop their muscles to the point where every muscle fiber of most if not all muscles are noticeable is amazing to me. So from this point I just leave this issue as "to each it's own" :-)

I found this topic to be very interesting and it opened my eyes more to the fact that women are of ALL shapes and sizes whether they are natural or developed, and they should not be made to feel like they are not accepted because of their size. Because of this fact, women should embrace the beauty of their bodies and not try and model their bodies to that of the stereotypical images portrayed in our society. I believe that a healthy body is more important that the actual body size, and if more women just focus on being healthy, and eating and exercising with their health in mind, they can learn to accept their bodies regardless of what is portrayed in the media.

"Limited" NOT "Unable"

For this blog I wanted to elaborate more on a previous blog dealing with athletes with disabilities. In class we talked alot about people with disabilities that participate very effectively in various sports. They compete at a similar level as athletes without disabilities, in fact they have to work much harder to accomplish the same task as their more abled counterparts. As a class assignment we were instructed to give a presentation highlighting topics or issue that stood out to us over the course of the semester. I decided to present about athletes with disabilities. Prior to discussing this topic I did not expect to be as inspired as I was, instead I naturally thought that by me being a soft hearted and emotional person that I would feel more sorry for these atheltes with disabilities more than anything. Fortunately my emotions took me in a different route and I felt more inspired by the stories that were presented. Athletes with disabilities have a different type of determination than their more abled counterparts and the way they persevere and beat all odds and disrupt all social norms against them gives encouragement and the motivation to succeed to people of all physicalities.

In class we talked about two athletes with disabilities that our professor Dr. Spencer has had a personal acquaintance with whom are well know for their participation and success in the sports world. Amy McKnight who is a wheelchair tennis player and Scott Hollenbeck, a wheelchair racer who is also a silver medalist for the Paralympics in Barcelona. Both of their stories were truely inspiring and it amazed me to see how their perceived limitations proved their that their passions for the game triumps over any limitations.

Another story that I was able to relate more to was an athlete from my home town in Dayton Ohio who I believe has opened alot of doors for people of all disabilities and/or limiting issues. Bobby Martin is a linebacker who was born without legs. For as long as I can remember he has always gotten around on a skateboard and uses his hands and arms for mobility. He gets around very well from what I have witnessed and has not allowed his disability to hinder him from playing the game he loves. I find it amazing that even though he does not possess the anatomy to walk, that he is still able to keep up with his average size teammates and opponents. Stories like his and many others like his, just re-inerates that nothing is impossible as long as you have the courage, passion and will power to achieve it.

Kid can do it ALL on one leg!!!

I found this particular article by Mike Fields, and the overall issue of athletes with disabilities to be very interesting and necessary to consider when thinking of sport and gender. The article highlights a kid named Adam Bender who is a catcher for a little league baseball team. He is a unique catcher because he only has one leg!!. We watched a YouTube clip of Adam as he caught, batted, fielded, and ran the bases. I felt that he was incredible and extremely motivating. To see someone at his age with his disability to have the same amount of determination if not more than his peer was truly inspiring.

In class we were given a question to answer, about which term would be more acceptable when referring to individuals who have unique disabilities. The correct answer was "a person with a disability," however a classmate of mine made an interesting point about a different option for addressing these individuals. The option was a "person that is differently abled." He explained his answer as an individual who has only one leg, still walks, but walks "differently." Although his answer was not the most popular answer, I still felt that the reasoning behind the answer made alot of sense, seeing that there are many athletes, and people in general who actively participate in society, doing normal things such as walking and running, however their daily routine may be slightly different, and they way to participate in society may be accomplished by a different means.

For example there was a guy where I am from named Bobby, who was born without legs. He used the aid of a skateboard to help him get around the city, using his arms and hands as his guides. He seemed to get around just fine, and even found himself following his desire to play football as a lineman for a high school varsity team. His participation in football sparked many curiosities, controversy, and concerns, I'm sure, but the fact that he was out there on the field was truly an amazing thing to witness.

I believe, that people with disabilities such as Adam and Bobby, prove that things that seem to be setbacks in life are only opportunities to reach other peoples lives, to bring hope, and inspiration. :-)

We also discussed the issue of how athletes with disabilities relate to sport and gender. When asked if we knew of anyone who was an athlete with a disability, all of our answers were male athletes. This rose the question of whether or not it was more acceptable for a male with a disability to participate in sports than a female with the same disability. This was interesting to think about, and a couple female classmates explained that society tends to cuddle females more in general and cater to them, and react in a more sensitive way, which is one explanation to the question. While this may be very true, I think when it comes to the athletic world many of those stereotypical concerns are somewhat looked past.

Hermaphrodite in Track

Finally after being embarrassed in the media for as long as she was, Caster Semenyana has undergone the sex test and been found to have both male and female traits.

While this is obviously a huge issue in the world of sports and especially track, I still can not believe the way US track and field official handled her case. Caster is only 18 years old and has been globally humiliated for being different. Whether or not this young athlete was aware of her sex difference I still believe that there should have been a better way to go about handling such a sensitive issue.

Finally I believe do believe that Caster's difference should be considered when participating at such a high level of athletics, but not deemed "WRONG" seeing that she may not be a victim of transgender athletes, but in fact have a biological uniqueness about her.

The "GIRLY" blog

For this blog I wanted to discuss the concept of femininity and masculinity as it has been discussed in my SM 4250 class.

Ok so the most recent discussion was based off two articles one of which is titled Sport, Masculinity, and Hegemonic Oppression (Anderson, 2005) This article is full of steryotypical behaviors of how "Real Men" should act and think and just be in general. For instance there is a term in this article called "the big wheel" and that men should "be a big wheel" which is described as "... men must be better than and/or be in charge of other men" or "the top dog." While that in itself would be an interesting subject, the subject of this article came from another steryotype in this article that compared men who cry as being a "sissy girl!!"

I found this to be extremely interesting, seeing that crying is a natural human emotion and that it really can not be linked to a specific gender/sex in general. There was alot of discussion on this particular topic, in which many of the men disagreed with the articles view on crying, but only if the man that was crying, was crying if he had won a championship game or any really big/important game in their life. One classmate in particular (whose name I will not mention lol) stated that "I think it's only girly to cry when you win a game rather than loose the game."

I stand firm to the fact that win, loose or draw, crying in a game or in life cannot and should not be considered a feminine trait!! I do however believe that crying in general for anyone (male or female) on a constant basis or over a game or in life is extremely irritating and may affect the way I see that individual, but I would not think that it should have anything to do soley with their gender/sex.

Gender testing and the case of Caster Semenya

So this class is proving to be a very controversial class full of debates about what is morally right and wrong about issues concerning sport and gender. One issue that is bringing forth major publicity and controversy in the media as well as our class is sex testing on athletes. Sex testing is an issue that was introduced back in the 60's at the Mexico City Olympics, when E. Germany athletes were accused of doping practices. In an article that we were to read titled "The Gender Trap" the author stated that "Adolf Hitler wanted to show the world the supremacy of the Aryan race..." which resulted in the forced entry of Dora Ratjen ( a woman), who was born as Hermann Ratjen (a man) with doping practices. I found this to be an extreme form of the effect that gender has on sports, but not completely unusual seeing how important sports are globally.





However, a new issue with sport and gender goes furthur now than human influence on sex/gender such as doping, to make a women more masculine. The focus now is recognizing the fact that there is a such thing as being born with both male and female chromosomes which is termed intersex or more specific - mosaicism. Intersex individuals are rising alot of controversy in the sports world concerning fairness within the competitions.


I believe that fairness is very important in the sports world especially when it is a major sport that involves fame and fortune. I also believe that there are certain cases where sex testing may be necessary, but only when it is done is discretion to the athlete. For instance in the case with Caster Semenya. She has been getting alot of criticism and publicity because her traits are more masculine than women in track has been in the past. The media is in my opinion embaracing her and avoiding the fact that she is simply a great athlete who may have more determination and purpose to race than other athletes which is why she may train harder which results in her winning.


Caster Semenya is a threat to her competition and they have to find an excuse to her athleticism. This question arised in class; "why wasn't this issue brought up before now when she was competing is smaller events?" My answer would be that she is now a threat. You could also say that racism, discrimination, and some more unfair practices may be to blame as well, but had she not risen to her full potential I don't believe that this issue would have been an issue at all.

A solution to this issue that we discussed in class was to just sex test all athletes that way no one is singled out and publicized, which I totally agree with. Although this would be a very expensive procedure, it's not unecessary. I couldn't imagine being in Caster's situation. The global humilation that she has to put up with is alot to bear for anyone and especially for her since she is only 18 years old.

Another solution that I agreed with is to make a co-ed division for most if not all sports. I love this idea, because although it would be complex in ruling/judging, but if fairness is a value in the sports world this is a fair solution so that everyone could participate without the humiliation and invasiveness of sex testing procedures.