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.