Not only did my ethnic background have something to do with the sports I played my gender also played a big role with how my sporting career has so far. Growing up I played just about every sport. I played baseball, soccer, ice hockey, golf, and wrestling. All of these sports are considered sports that only men play, except for maybe soccer it could be said that its a men’s or women’s sport. While golf isnt considered a “manly” sport it is now considered a sport that both men and women play. “These days, women do everything a man can, including playing certain sports that was once upon a time male dominated. This refers to the sport of golf, which off late has been seeing an increase in number of women players.”(Cassaundra Flores, A League Apart) Even though it’s considered the same sport, men’s golf is really different than women’s. Most of the equipment for men is a lot different than women’s. Women have a very difficult time finding clubs. Though companies are coming out with more and more products for women the market is still dominated by men’s clubs. The same goes for the PGA tour and the LPGA tour. The PGA and the LPGA tour may sound the same but are also totally different. On the women’s tour the conditions are not near as hard. The golf courses average 6,400 yards while on the PGA courses average about 7200 yards. Now the LPGA is becoming more and more popular. They hold a event about five minutes from my house every year. I have seen more and more people each year in attendance. The LPGA is doing the best it can to make women’s golf more popular. They are using very attractive young girls who now play on the tour to lure more people to their events, and it seems to be working. This just goes to show what women’s sports need to make them popular compared to men’s sports which they do advertise for but people just naturally watch because it’s how we think of sport. Back to how I got into playing golf. My grandfather had me on a golf course at the age of four, trying to teach me all the basics of the swing. Sadly he passed away when I was still really young. After that my dad picked up where he left off and taught me more and more about the game. I don’t think that if I were to only have had my mom in my life that things would be the same. There could have been a chance of me playing golf, but it is not likely. I believe that I would have probably been playing a sport that people considered more “manly” like baseball or maybe would have even tried football. I think that my mom would have made me play one of those sports other then golf because she would’ve wanted me to experience tuff sports instead of thinking that she was making me play more girly sports.

When you are young, your parents tell you that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. For myself, I personally wanted to become an NBA superstar. Playing in front of a sold out crowd and hitting game winning shots, I thought it was my calling. My father loves the NBA so it is not so hard to see why I was so passionate. My father’s passion for sports rubbed off on me at a very young age, my mother would even tell you from the day I was born.
When I imagine the day I was born I picture my father standing in the corner of the delivery room, fingers crossed rocking back and forth repeating to himself, “please be a boy, please be a boy.” My mom, without as much movement or emotion was wishing for a girl. You see my parents went into the day I was born not wanting to know the sex of their future baby (me, myself, and I). But why did my sex matter so much, where they not going to love me unconditionally no matter what? The fact is this, if I am born a girl well then for the next thirteen years my mom and I are best friends. Shopping sprees at the mall and pampering at spas will be the majority of my childhood memories. If born a boy then it’s a different story entirely. My youth will be filled with junk food, overnights, farting, and best of all….sports.
You see when I was born we were right on the cusp of the notion that if you were a girl you played house and if you were a boy you played ball. I can even remember back to when I was a little kid playing flag football; every team according to age group had their own individual cheerleading group compiled of girls similarly aged. In the town that I grew up in this was perfectly normal in fact in most cases it was encouraged.
Although I thought I was born in a time where females and sports had not caught on yet I was mistaken. The fact of the matter was that I was just too young to really take notice. The truth is that women have had their finger prints on sports ever since its creation. In a book written by Janet Woolum she cites a woman named Senda Berenson whom is credited with helping spread the rules of basketball in its early years. Woolum says, “Senda Berenson introduced the game to her students at Smith College in 1892. Berenson and her enthusiastic students quickly adopted the game and modified its rules for women's play.” (Woolum p. 86) Woolum also goes on to mention, “Berenson's rules remained in use with only slight modifications until the 1960s as women's basketball became one of the most popular team sports for women in the United States.” (Woolum p. 86)
Middle school was the first time I was exposed first hand to women’s sports. My middle school had women’s sports in both basketball and softball. Although I have no recollection of ever seeing my middle school softball team play, I do have fond memories or watching the girl’s basketball team play. I was on the boy’s basketball team so it was mandatory for us to go to each other’s games. At first no one on the team wanted to be there, some of us would try to sneak out so we could practice in the auxiliary gym. I do not blame this on a lack of interest in female sports but rather the impatience of thirteen year old boys. Our interest in female sports however took an abrupt 180 after the 1999 women’s world cup when then, barely known, Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt after making the winning goal of the world cup. Rather than not paying any attention because of boredom we were fully focused on every play the rest of the season. According to Jennifer Scanlon, author of Boys-R-Us, "Those who study adolescence, however, argue that social expectations even more than physical changes, shape gender roles (Scanlon p.186)." However I feel my lack in interest as a child towards female sports came from their lack of ability as a whole to gain headlines. When you are a child you never dig past the surface. I have always learned by what is presented to me. Well back in the 1990’s women’s sports was not gaining headlines. During a time when Michael Jordan was ruling the hardwood and Elway was doing the mile high there just was not any interest in the WNBA which had just formed and Women’s soccer league which had folded and been re-organized only to fold again. It was not until that moment, when Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt that I even had an interest in women’s sport.
As sad as it is to admit I still do not have much interest in women’s sport. It is not that I am sexist it is just that it is not for me. Some would argue that it is just the culture and society that I was raised in. I tend to not agree with this. Like stated previously I was introduced to women’s sports while in middle school which is still a reasonably young age. The women’s teams in my high school won many championships in volleyball and soccer which I attended regularly. But there is just a level of competitiveness that I fell is missing. It is hard to explain but in my mind it is what sets the two sexes a part.
There are very few times I have made plans in advance to watch a female sporting event. Whereas on the opposite hand I already have plans for Wizards and Redskins games this next week. In fact the few times that I have watched women’s sports is when it is relevant, such as the Maryland lady Terrapins winning the National Championship in basketball in 2006, and the Olympics when I am cheering for the red, white, and blue. So where some would say it is the society I was born into that plays a role on my stance towards female sports, I say it is my need to find and watch the highest level of competition, for that truly produces the most amount of joy.
It is easy to see from afar the impact of sports on our society. Built around it are family traditions, the will to succeed, and countless memories. With ever era in modern history there is an iconic moment in sports associated with it. From Seabiscuit running for the “every man” during the depression to the Saints making to the NFC Championship immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Beyond historical meaning of sports, for some of us sports have molded us into the human beings we are today. They have taught us values, moral, tradition, and most of all they have given us an outlet for fun. That is still what it all breaks down to, the fun side of sport is what keeps us watching and keeps us playing. As our country grows so have the roots of sport which is now deeply imbedded in our foundation. Just like everything else in the world there are still some improvements to be made, but just as we have in the past we will adapt to our surroundings in order to make the world a better place.

Its a little rediculous that they would even say that about her. To go and start a family?? really? I think thats a little much considering all the strides women have made in sport. And i completely agree with what you said about Tom Brady and Willis Mcgahee because if they said that about them the sport world would go crazy. I think men are just as important to start a family no? The man is just as important as the female in that and I think they should be in world of sports too.

Women in sports have always been a “hot” topic for many in society. I only had a few experiences that dealt directly with women and the sport I was playing at the time. My first experience occurred in middle school when my mother decided to coach my basketball and baseball team. No one took our team seriously at first but quickly people started to realize that she knew what she was talking about. My mother did not play sports growing up and she never got into sports besides being a spectator, prior to me. She learned how to coach the games by reading books and impressively taught her self a great deal for which I will always be impressed. My one other encounter with the opposite sex on the playing field occurred during the state tennis playoffs when I played mix-doubles. Every chance I got I sought to over power or try to intimate the girl and the other side and I believe I did that because of the way society brought me up. We are taught from an early age that boys are stronger, tougher, and more intimidating then girls and this is not always the case. However girls receive the same treatment, when speaking of kids board games Scanlon writes “Each of these four games portrays girls in strictly feminine terms and boys in strictly masculine terms with little overlap in traditional definitions (pg 4, 2001).

Throughout my sporting career being a male provided me with some subtle advantages towards the end of my athletic career. Being a male allowed me to continue my career longer then a female would have been able to. I say this because I played recreation sports all throughout school, and there was a league for 15-17 year old males to play in. However there wasn’t a league for 15- 17 year old females. Also, I noticed that this 15-17 male rec. league would get a greater turn out then the girl’s varsity team for my High School. I feel like as a society we have unfairly stereotyped the female athlete and when the female athlete does not fit these stereotypes then we choose not to watch the games. In today’s society we picture the female athlete to be extremely feminine and pretty. When they don’t fall under this category which may have been the case for a physical sport such as basketball, then society loses interest. Also when female athletes do not fit in the category of the stereotypical female athlete then they are often related to male athletes. Jennifer Scanlon put it best when she said, “ the tendency when researchers do mention girls, to discuss them in relation to boys and in terms of dating or mixed social encounters”(Board Games and the socialization of Adolescent Girls, 2). While Scanlon was talking about board games in seem that we can also connect this to sport. The more masculine girls are compared to the boys and when their skill levels don’t match, they are neglected.

Michael Cole

I agree with B Easy’s response. The most popular women athletes have been the most attractive ones. Men get praised for their great athletic performances, while women get praised on their sexual appeal. Female athletes are constantly being challenged—if they aren’t outstanding competitors, they don’t get credit for being a true athlete, and those who may be outstanding athletes may not get the recognition they deserve because they are hidden in the shadows by some mediocre female athlete who just looks great on the field/court. Aside from the challenges they face in opposition to male athletes, female athletes have struggles within their own world that they constantly encounter. -Gincel

I do not recall my gender really affecting my sporting career, however, I do remember having particular sport experiences when I was a young girl. Growing up, I was considered a very big tomboy. I did what the boys did. I grew up wearing, playing, and doing whatever my older brother did. I wore my hat backwards, always wore t-shirts, collected basketball and baseball cards, and played every sport I could--not your typical "girl" one would say. Yes, I played Girl Talk: A Game of Truth or Dare and Sweet Valley High, however, I did not get caught up on the “this is how I ‘should’ act as a female” theme. I think this is rare for a lot of youths, as they are trapped in the world of gender binaries. It interested me a lot reading Scanlon’s journal, because the way some board games staged women as an inferior gender was a ridiculous concept that is also dangerous for the minds of youths, shaping their minds with incorrect, stereotypical ideas, rather than an open mind that both genders are equal.

I went to a private elementary school, where boys had to wear slacks and a button down shirt and, of course, the girls had to wear little matching dresses. Then at recess, we had an hour to play sports, wearing exactly what we have been wearing all day. The boys got to play football, basketball, wiffleball, and any other physical sports. The girls, still in their dresses, played jump rope and did “patty cake” with their girlfriends. How can we play those physical sports in those dresses? Well, this definitely didn’t stop me. Everyday during recess, I was out with the boys playing football, grass stains on my knees and everything. I am so glad I didn’t conform to how I was “supposed” to act as a female enforced by my school. -Gincel

My sporting career was never truly affected by gender because I never played sports growing up. I was enrolled in gymnastics during the summers of my childhood, but that was the extent of my physical involvement. In social terms people view gymnastics as a “female” sport, so it would have been out of the norm for someone to question my involvement. My gender issue comes into play with my non-physical involvement in sports. My favorite sport to watch is football. I am very involved with the game and the interaction that supports it. It gives me a platform where I can hang with the guys, but at the same time I become a threat to the guys because it’s a “man’s game”. So for the most part it always comes as a huge surprise if I know who is playing, or who won, or what play caused the win. Once someone finds out that I’m interested in the sport they want to challenge my understanding of the game by asking me deeper questions until I am unsure of the answer. I guess that is what ultimately soothes the socially grown male ego. I am aware that my choice of study puts me in a challenging position as far as career opportunity. The sport of football is male dominated. The only place you see women involved is in broadcasting. They are usually interviewers that spend all of five minutes looking pretty for the camera. If I’m going to contribute I want it to be with my knowledge, not my looks. I know this is a fine line in today’s society. As Scanlon pointed out in “Boys-R-Us”, girls are taught to define themselves through make-up, shopping, and boys. Society gives us a place to stand and it is always behind the men. It’s no wonder that guys challenge my position and angle in pursuing a career in sports, especially considering that my focus is on football. Men were taught the same social value that women have their place and if it’s in sport, it better not be in theirs. We can have basketball and lacrosse, but hell just might freeze over if we trek into football territory. There is nothing that says I cannot partake in the excitement of football from its history to its live action—except my gender.

Gender never really effected my sporting experience. I played all the sports the most males play growing up, (football, basketball, baseball). Although, i never played any of these sports with females i never thought there was anything wrong with this because i didn't know of any girls that would have liked to play football. However as i got into high school I saw how some people may be effected by gender. The men's sports teams got much much more attention and hype in my high school. Our football team got much better uniforms and gear than any of the womens teams. We had breakfasts on game days and always had multiple buses to away games so we didn't have to be packed in and uncomfortable. However the womens lacrosse team or soccer team, who were also pretty good did not always enjoy these luxuries. I always believed that they were okay with this because most of the school would travel to away games not matter how far away and truly enjoyed doing so.

Also we always had gym classes of some sort, whether it be football class, basketball class, or weight training, there was always a "male section" and a female section. They never scheduled the classes to be co-ed. Looking back on this was it because they didn't want the girls to get injuried or was there another reason. I do believe however that the males in the classes i took would not be comfortable playing as hard if females were in the game because they would be afraid to hurt one of them.

After having the lecture on gender in class I started to think about this, maybe they enjoyed the experience and didn't mind the differences in the little things because society and the education system has told them that it is how things are suppose to be, maybe it just happened that the times didn't work out for classes, or was it something else.

I attended a public high school in Columbia, Maryland. Almost all of the high schools in the county were pretty new, and it is a fairly wealthy county so there wasn't that big of a problem with unequal opportunites and bias between the genders in sports. There were two instances that I came up with though. First was that almost every year all of the mens sports teams recieved new uniforms while the girls teams had to wait a few years. This didn't really make that big of a difference though, because it seemed like the mens sports who recieved the new jerseys really needed them because of wear and tear from the sports. Football and mens lacrosse always needed new uniforms while the girls teams like field hockey and womens lacrosse were able to reuse theirs for a few seasons. The other instance was the condition of the football field versus the condition of the field hockey field. The football field at our school was always in great shape and was constantly being taken care of. However, the field hockey field, which probably required more nurturing for the sport, was not in bad condition but recieved nowhere near the attention that the football field had. The football field though was used for multiple sports such as football, lacrosse, soccer, and track and field, while the field hockey field was only used for field hockey.

In my sporting career there wasn’t a big difference between who got more attention at different games. This may sound funny but at my school it was whoever was winning got the attention because most other teams were lucky to get a win for the entire season. I know for my lacrosse team my first year my coach said it had been a good year because we actually scored more than 10 goals in a season. You know that is a joke at almost any other school but it wasn’t at mine. The girls soccer and track team were huge at my school because they actually won. But at the same time people still went to the football and basketball games because of how popular they are and they always got new uniforms and stuff like that. In Donna Lopiano’s article the author states that “A university spent 300,000 on lights for a practice football field that was never used for football practice.” At my high school we never had to deal with stuff like that but at the same time can you imagine if that had happened for a women’s softball team, there would be a huge uproar about a waste of money.

I have to agree with Matt said. We played the same sports and the attendance of guys vs girls games as a joke. There are actually more female athletes across the United States that participate in high school then males, but the opportunities to succeed in them are miniscal. Even though this is the case, companies like Under Armour were very smart to realize how many female athletes there are, and they marketted for them because they knew they already had the male athletes by their jocks.

I couldn't agree more that sport today is very biased based on gender. The fact of the matter is that America just doesn't care about professional female sports. You look at the ratings and success of such leagues as the professional women's soccer league which folded, the WNBA which will fold in my opinion, softball, etc. I know in my experience, especially in high school, there was barely any focus on the womens sports. Yeah when a team would make it to the state championship, people would show up and cheer, but nowhere near the level of the mens sports. I played soccer, baseball and basketball, which women play just as much as men, but all of the focus was on us. I guess this goes back to traditional life norms that are expected of women. Women are expected to raise families, stay at home and teach children. It is socially ok for men to be masculine and show physicality, but if a woman does that she could be considered a lesbian. Like we discussed in class and some of the girls talked about being in gym class and trying, there were stereotypes that people were given. This really is not fair, and I know my gender did not affect me in terms of sport. If anything, being a male means you are supposed to or HAVE to play sports. If you don't, your looked at differently and that's the way society as become. I'm happy for women in the regards of them dominating figure skating and gymnastics and the American public does value that, hence the ratings during the Olympics. I just wish this could expand out to other sports so these women can have further opportunities. It has to be mentioned that women are looked at as objects in professional sports, like Anna Kournakova and other pretty athletes. She could be the most famous women athlete besides Mia Hamm or Lisa Leslie, just because she is attractive!

matt12449 brings up another good point as far as attendance for women's sporting events. In high school it was the same for me. Guys teams usually drew much more of a crowd than girls'. People almost always felt that the girls' sports were not as exciting, so not many people would attend. Just as matt said, usually the guys teams would come support the girls, along with parents and any boyfriends that were not on a sports team as well. It is sad because basketball is basketball for example, and even though the scores might not be as high, the principles and fundamentals are still the same, but people are far more quick to disregard the women's event than the men's.

My gender has definitely played a role in my sporting career. The main two sports I played growing up were football and lacrosse. Clearly, football in the U.S. is a male sport. Lacrosse, however is a male and female sport. With football, we were encouraged to play hard and physical and if you got hurt, you played through it unless you physically could not move because of the injury. Basically it was the same with lacrosse. Yes, there is a bit more finesse involved with lacrosse and it is not quite as physical as football, but players still needed to dig in and hit somebody when you could. My high school had a powder puff football game during homecoming week where the girls played each other in football. No physical contact was aloud, even though many of the girls wanted to to be able to hit each other and in a way, the game was perceived to be more overall entertainment than two teams competing. Also, in womens lacrosse, they are not aloud to have any contact and there are rules for shooting the ball to keep players safe. Also, when a player is injured, it seemed there was a lot less pressure on the girl to play through it and it was more important for her to heal the injury. Subconsciously, it made the player seem less feminine to play through an injury. I do not agree with this in any way, because an athletes job is to perform and if one person is deemed a better athlete for playing through injury, I do not think it should matter whether they are male or female.

Listening to and watching all the news reports about Misty May made me really look at how media covers different genders in sports. Being a volleyball player myself, the first thing that came across my mind when I read the first report about Misty May was “OH NO!!! BEACH VOLLEYBALL!!!” I read a couple different articles covering the story and as we said in class they mostly cover how she was going to have more time now for her family life. Some articles touched on her career, but not as much as her precious home life. This bothered me because being a Patriots fan as well I thought, “Hell, Brady is hurt, why aren’t they talking about his personal life now that he is injured.” Of course they wouldn’t be though, because he has a huge NFL season to worry about which he wont even see this year. I couldn’t believe the double standards being held.

Being a female athlete since I was in middle school, I believe that gender has somewhat affected my role in sports but not as much as people always believe. There are women out there, like myself, whom are very big tom-boys who love going out and being one of the guys and playing “guy” sports. Granted there are most likely more of the “girly girl” that society says women should be, out in the world, but the handful of us who aren’t don’t appreciate being treated differently due just to our gender. First off, saying that these are “guy” sports (football, hockey, wrestling, etc) goes to show how society has molded women’s minds and men’s minds to think that men should be the only ones playing these sports. I grew up with brothers who treated me no differently than their guy friends and always had me join in all their sports they played.
If you ran across me in the grocery store, you would probably think I’m just like any other girl; however, challenge me to a sport and I will get my butt out there and throw punches and hits as hard as or harder than some guys. My mom taught me growing up that just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own. The only time I ran across a double standard in high school was when my girl friend and I wanted to play for our football team. They wouldn’t let us because they didn’t believe we could handle the hits from the guys. I kind of laughed at this when I was told and just walked away from the situation. The thing that topped it all off was that the entire football team wanted me and this girl to join because they KNEW we could hang with them and they wanted us playing with them.

Kasi Harris

I agree with ncampi1 when he says that boys are expected to play certain "manly" sports. When my brother was little, he wanted to be a dance, because I was a dancer. My dad would not even let him think about that. My parents put him on almost every sport team growing up but, he would still dance around the house to my tapes of spice girls. Eventually as he grew up he was pushed into liking baseball and soccer.
erin ragan

I agree with kris when he says that in our society gender will always have an impact on sports. Its all we know how to do. More co-ed teams are starting to form but at the same time they are only while the child is young. You never see co-ed highschool basketball, baseball, lacrosee etc. And never will you see it profesionally or collegiately. And because we admire the higher level of play, we also accept that it is not going to change.

My sporting career was affected by my gender. Growing up i never wanted to play soccer because i thought of it as a girls sport. The reason i probably thought this way was because there were both girls and co-ed soccer teams that my friends played on. I decided that i wanted to play baseball. No girls played baseball, they played softball. I got board with baseball and moved on to lacrosse. This was a more physically intense game. But then again there is womens lacrosse, which isnt anywhere close to as physical, and there are a lot more rules. The reason for this is so that the girls wont get hurt. A sport is a sport and i think gender bias is shown clearly if a games rules and equipment is different for different genders. Why dont girls have helmets and pads. Why cant they body check and poke with the stick. Most girls who play lacrosse wish they could be more aggressive and have the same rules as guys lacrosse. Society forms these norms at an early age through gender biases starting from the beginning of the childs involvement.

in response to spslugger88, i totally agree, there aren't alot of sports teams for girls at a young age, i also think that sports is not always encouraged by society and parents. and that can contribute to the small amount of girls trying for these sports

i think i play a sport where the gender difference is important but the opportunities are almost the same. to me women's basketball is popular , maybe not as popular as men's but it is still a widely recognized and played sport. being a woman makes the game play slightly different because of our physical attributes but the essence of the game is present. so i don't really feel much of a bias except if you were talking in terms of sexuality. i think a lot of people assume since women who play basketball are all gay, when this is not always the case. i think its might be the only way to justify women playing a sport very much like men play the same sport. its like because of women's performaces people automatically have to associate some type of masculinity to the players.i was always taught that women 's basketball will never reach the paid grade such as Professionals in the NBA but women's basketball is improving and who knows maybe one day it will be on that level

Throughout the history of sport men and women have been treated different. Women have always been portrayed as a beautiful and elegant body not as tremendous athletes. The most popular women athletes are usually the prettier ones. The history of basketball was partly based on a game played by only women. These women were fully clothed in long skirts and a turtleneck. They were not allowed to run therefore they were not allowed to sweat. As young boys grow up, the main tease or insult for a boy playing sports is “you play like a girl.” This takes away any credibility for women playing sports at the youngest of ages. I grew up in a house were the athletic dominance was from a female influence. One of the only times that the female gender effected me in sports, besides my mom, is when in high school a girl was a wide receiver on the junior varsity football team and she quit halfway through the season. The rumor around the school was that she got hit in a game and just could not take the physicality of football. I know her pretty well and she didn’t quit because of a hit it was the all the criticism and shunning that she got from people in and around the team. Movies and televised women sports have tried to change the perception of women in sport but a bit unsuccessful because they get more air time yet are still considered more of “pretty girls” than athletic women. “A league of the Own,” showed how hard the women have been fighting the stereotypical female in sports since as early as the 1940’s.

In response to spslugger88, I completely agree with you in terms of people not showing up to girls sporting events, even if they are good. The same exact thing happened to our field hockey team, though nowhere near as many times as yours, our field hockey team won 2 in 3 years, which just did not happen for our school. Even though they won two in three years, and even went to another one our senior year and lost, no one showed up to the games. It didn’t matter that they were good and top of the state, no one would show. On the other hand, Friday nights under the lights on the football field, the entire stands would be filled, no matter what our record was or who we played.

Gender has never really affected my sporting career. As a young child I played soccer, basketball, and baseball in which all three teams had females on it. I can’t really remember how much they played, but I know they were out there and there were many girls that would challenge the boys for starting jobs, or even best player. Of course as we all got older the females were separated from the males in each sport. I did notice that everyone in high school was more interested in attending the males sporting events, rather than the females. We would always try to watch the female’s games to show support, but there would be no one there besides the guys team and the girl’s parents. I would have to agree with many in saying that sometimes the women’s games were not as high scoring or eventful, but I do not take anything away from each individual athlete. There are many incredible female athletes in the sporting world that should be recognized more.

im responding to slickwilly686's comment, and im not that surprised at your coaches. yeah you were in the 6th grade and football is suppsoe to be fun, but some parents live through their kids and want to win. many people dont think women will ever be as good as men in sports and unfortunately thats a barrier i dont ever really see being broken down, at least not in the near future.

In my personal opinion when it comes to girls in life period there’s always a double standard or a stigma so to speak. In our society people treat women as though we’re doll babies like we can’t roll with the punches like men do, when in reality we could probably take the punches a lot better then they could. For me my gender really did not affect the sports I was playing. I ran track from the age of 11-17 and not once was I treated differently from the young men on my team. As a matter of fact In high school my coach made us do something called running the latter, and being a sprinter I had to run against the boys because it would make me push myself harder then I would have done if I was running with girls. Females are built extremely different from males which hinder some of the sports we can play but to a certain extent. Like football, many females don’t like a contact sports as much as male do but for what ever weird reason males love it do death. Males in my opinion are more likely to play rougher contact sports than females. Don’t get me wrong now some females can also compete with males in sports like football, basketball, rugby an others. At the end of the day it comes down to how much heart and love you have for that sport, gender will not hinder you from participating in male dominated sports its all about the passion you have for that sport.

-Kadie Bangura

One sport that i have been into since i was about five is Karate. In Karate, individual performance is the basis for advancement, so no one has anyone to blame but themselves if they do not advance. There are both men and women in my association, and i grew up learning from one of the top females in the organization. I had always seen some females who took to it well and some who were just not suited for the type of activity they were getting into. in this particular sport, where strength goes hand in hand with flexibility, there is no way to say that anyone has a leg up. Thats what i like about karate as opposed to a team sport. Not only are the males and females learnign together but no one holds anyone back becuase of their gender. Everyone realizes that in order to be good at karate, one must put togther the attributes that are primarily male and the ones that are female and have them work together.

I don't really see how gender has affected my sporting career. Throughout my childhood I played various sports including soccer, basketball, and baseball. In my soccer recreational and little leagues I was on mostly co-ed teams. There seem to be a good mix of female and male participants but obviously the dominant were the males. I guess the one case I could make for gender effecting sport in society is the fact that the females on my soccer team were mostly delegated to playing defensive roles. I don't know whether it was due to their lack of skill level or for the fact that maybe my coach was caught up in the stereotypes that women aren't as aggressive as men and therefore can't be wingers that caused them to be in more of a defensive role. "Those who study adolescence, however, argue that social expectations even more than physical changes, shape gender roles (Boy's R Us p.186)." With any sport the object is to win, even as a kid that was my motivation to win. For some reason my coaches had less social expectations for the girls then they did for the boys. Now that I think about it I don't think most of the girls who were on the team were even that into playing soccer. I believe most of the girls were forced there by their parents because they just seemed so disinterested in playing. In fact, my sister was on one of my teams and I don't recall her enjoying the experience at all.

To respond to slickwilly686’s comments I was shocked to hear that your coaches actually told you to make that girl quit. I commend her for just shaking everything off and I commend you for realizing the misjudgment you made.

I personally never really saw an affect sporting career. I played baseball and basketball my entire life and was given the opportunity to play during every season. I think the gender bias came oblivious when I got to high school. During try outs for basketball the men’s try outs had all the freshmen and sophomore who weren’t on the team the year before working out together. There were approximately 50 kids for maybe 10 spots. Then when the women’s team came in for their court time there were 30 players trying out for both varsity and junior varsity a total of about 24 spots. I had asked one of my friends on the women’s team why there wasn’t many women trying out and she explained that there aren’t many teams for girls growing up. The youth leagues in the area had about 14 teams in every age group for boys from the age 8-18. But for girls there were only about 5 teams in their age groups that only went till middle school.
I also saw how women’s sports got overlooked during my time in high school. Our field hockey team had won 17 state championships and 4 of the last 6. But yet the team and the sport were never taken seriously by the rest of the school and athletes. We as a whole cared more about our .500 football team and our sub .500 basketball team.

I hate to admit it but for once Tiger Frank was right. TItleist is the preferred brand on the Towson Golf team and for the most part around the world. I happen to argue that they are the best clubs made. But if you were to look into the bag of anyone on our womens team you might find a Titleist putter or two and maybe a wedge. Not a single driver or iron made by titleist. They just dont need branch out they dominate the mens golf or in their mind the whole golfing industry. But in reply to titleist not making a golf swing. There are several women that swing harder than phatrick hinch and yet they use the same ball. So the ball problem isnt as big as you would think. Plus they make Womens Clubs with low kick points for aiding the ball flight of those that are challenged with getting it up. Enough said i am out

i feel that my sporting career was dictated by my gender and by my relationship with my dad. If you havent realized by now i am a golfer and every response on fanzak will be dealing with golf, so here we go again. Golf is and has for a long time been known as Wealthy/middleclass Male in his 30 to 40s find of game. Tiger Woods is doing what he can to change the predomancy(i just made that word up, mean that tiger woods is trying to change golf being viewed as a white sport to just a sport). So it makes sense when i was growing up and a young golfer the first question i always was asked was, does your dad play? did your dad teach you? And in every instance i replied yes he is the one who got me into golf and so on and so forth. If i lived and only had a relationship with my mom i might never had gotten into golf. I was actually the one that got her into golf. Especially in the early 90's womens clubs hardly existed and many women just didnt have an interest in the sport. The LPGA didnt get big(i say big like its even big now, but it is quite a bit larger than it was back then) until the turn of the century and Annika and MIchelle Wie were on the forefront. So that is one way gender had an impact on my athletic career. Another way golf had an impact is my junior golfing. I played in the WMGA( Washington Metropolitan Golf Assosciation), the MAPGA(middle atlantic professional Golf Association) AJGA( American Junior Golf Association) and MSGA( Maryland State). Together i was offered TONS of opportunities to play and get my name out there for college coaches. If i was a woman only the AJGA had a full schedule and it was far and away the most expensive, with some tournaments costing a thousand dollars to play in. The WMGA, didnt even host a single womens event with the other two hosting a few. So in that aspect being a male had a huge impact on my athletic career and why i am a golfer. If i was a female that wanted competitiona and a strong field of tournaments, growing up golf just wasnt the game for me. Maybe i would be Nastia Luikin right now or even better Shawn Johnson. Hah Josh Jenkins

I agree with Scott how he said that with different rules and standards in regards to sports men and women wll never be looked at on the same level. In order for that to happen there needs to be equality everywhere. This goes back to the male based society. Nor do I think that the sports should be co-ed because physically there are extreme differences between males and females. Ability is important but when someone is twice your size, there are many disadvantages.

I would say that gender has influenced my sporting experience. I was never a tom boy and preferred playing inside with air conditioning and TV. After my parents tried putting me in almost every sport they decided to let me do what I wanted to do, which was to dress up and wear makeup. Thats when I started to dance. I danced for nine years until I grew out of it in a sense and began cheerleading. My mom really enjoyed doing my hair and makeup from a young age, like a little show girl, so it rubbed off. This is also probley why I never liked gym class or running around and sweating. Don't get me wrong dancing and competitive cheerleading isnt easy but it is very different from running up and down a muddy field covered in sweat, smelling like a boys locker room. Although while I was dancing, my parents still pushed sports and made me try them but none of them ever stuck. Finally they gave up and let me do stay in the niche I preferred. I think part of the reason that Misty May received so much press is because biologically speaking, she cannot be pregnant and continue her career. Where a man can have a pregnant wife and continue playing sports and running around. I do not see anyting wrong with that. I mean look at our own parents, majority of mothers have longer leaves when a baby is born than a father. I think part of that is obviously due to the biology of our bodies.

In response to your blog, I no that for the most part men’s injuries are looked at differently but in some cases they can be looked at the same. Take for example Tiger Woods’ latest injury. He tore ACL and was forced to miss more than half of this season. Maybe it was just because the golf channel focuses on just one sport and they have very little to talk about, but more than once I heard them talk about Tiger’s family. They did an entire segment about how Tiger now can spend more time with his family and he can now watch his little kids grow up. I know they very rarely do this but I am trying to make the point that they actually do talk about these things with guys too

My sporting career was effected by my gender for a couple reasons. One was that it effected what sports I played. If I was a girl I would not be playing baseball. Baseball is just not offered to youth girls and if I was a girl I could not play that sport. Another way that it effected my sports when I grew up was when trying to play golf. Golf is played by both genders but certain parts of golf are different for women than men. For one thing it is harder to find equipment, both clubs and golf balls, for woman. Titleist, the best company for golf balls, doesn’t even make a women’s golf ball. Therefore women are forced to learn how to play with the men’s ball as opposed to just using a ball that is fit for them. When it comes to clubs, not very many top notch companies make women’s clubs. Again Titleist does not make women’s clubs. There are top companies, like Taylor Made, Cobra, and Callaway, which do make women’s clubs. The only problem with this is that they do not have a very good selection of clubs. For the most part these companies only make one type of driver or iron set for women, when they come out with new men’s clubs they make multiple types of each driver or iron. For the most part gender does not effect the sport that I play but it does have some privileges to being a man. Frank Olszewski

My gender has effected my sporting career a great deal, for one example my dad would never have allowed me to be a cheer leader or play field hockey, any “female” sports such as those. I played baseball and football, “manly” sports. Through out high school and even in college female sports have taken a back seat to the male sports. In high school our female lax team was always better than our male lax team but they always were put on the back page, with only a paragraph written about them. While the front page of our school’s news paper was about the male lax team getting defeated 8-0. I remember in high school hearing about all the guys getting scholarships and going to these big schools to play sports. I never heard about our female athletes getting scholarships to division 1 schools in their respective sports. While I attended West Virginia University I cant even remember seeing a female sport in the college newspaper. I never really noticed how much female sports do take a backseat to their male counterparts. I cant honestly think of one person I know who has actually watched a full game of the WNBA. While the NBA is the second most watched sport in our country.

In high school, my gender definitely effected my role in sport and in the high school. I totally agree females are treated completely different because of their gender as opposed to their male counter partners. A good example was the huge gap at my school between baseballl and softball. I understand they may not be the same sport, however, they are very similiar. Both of our teams were very competitive in our high school conferences and in past years before I got their, the softball team was more successful in the playoffs. The baseballl team always got more press coverage for the local papers and in the school. When I transferred to the school, there was a pitcher for the softball team that had not allowed an earned run in almost two years however we got more hype because of all the transfer players that came into the school. I know I was happy with the press coverage and hype we got, however, it is definitely unfair to the women in sports who try just as hard, sometimes harder, to get the attention they deserve as excellent athletes. I think as players, men acknowledge the efforts women put into sports if the general public might not because we go through the same workouts and training to prepare for games. The public may not understand and feel the women do not deserve the same attention as dominant men's sports but that is completely wrong. Women are great athletes too and should be recognized for it.

Sport is highly influenced by gender in our society. When I was little, I played on a coed soccer team. This was because there wasn't enough girls in my area that wanted to play soccer so they just stuck the few girls who wanted to play soccer on the boys soccer team. We didn't realize that all the other teams were separated, mostly because at that age girls are about the same size as the boys if not bigger. As the level of soccer got harder the girls were separated into an all girls soccer team. I never realized when I was younger that men and womens sports had alot of different rules. Like in laccrosse how men wear helmets with face masks, and women don't wear anything on their head. This is because "men are more agressive" and their rules and regulations are different. In softball, women use a bigger ball than men do in baseball, and many of their rules are different. Why is this? I don't think that mens and womens sports will ever be coed. Most mens sports are big spectacle sports, but why are they more fun to watch? Because they are more aggressive than women? We have always thought of mens and womens sports to be completely separate. Mens laccrosse and womens laccrosse are practically two different sports as far as most members in society see it.
As we grow up, we come to learn through society that the sporting world is a dominantly male entity.

Women will always have a stigma. Even me, although I do not play any sports, I want to be a sports agent and people always tell me that it is going to be tough for me to get a job in the male dominanted sports industry. Gender affects sports in all kinds. Certain rules will be different for an all women team. The field will be smaller. The 3 point line will not be as far away as the the NBA. People automatically assume that women will be weaker at the sports than the male. With in some parts is kind of true but not entirely. I know some girls that can give a boy a run for their money. Women will always have the stigma of being much more gentle than a man so their equipment will not be as heavy or big. Women have the pressure of maintaining that cosmetic body even though they are an athlete. When women become "better" than a man at a sport she is looked on as taking part of the hegemonic masculinity that does not fit her character.
My gender has affected my sporting career because I have all brothers and were always told I would not be as good as them at a sport because I am a female. Because of my brothers I know alot about football and basketball but I am looked down upon by other females because I am not exercising my emphasized feminity. I saw how during gym they would separate the girls from the guys and teach the girls different kinds of sports then the guys and still teach the girls to be feminine. I agree with Scott sports will never become co-ed.

Kierra Palmer

I never thought my gender played that big of a role in my sporting career but now looking back on it I see that it had a lot more to do with it than I thought.When I was about eleven or twelve years old a girl moved a few doors down from us. She was a year older and went to the same school as us. We were very surprised to find out that she was just as interested in basketball as we were. She started playing with us soon after. We were a bit skeptical at first because we were unsure why a girl would want to play with us but we still gave her a chance. She was really good. She played as well as the rest of us. Having her there really changed our perspective on female participation in sports. Up until then we figured sports were more for males than females because of the fact that they never played with us and preferred to do other things but after playing with her we realized that females have as much right to sport as us and she proved that to us on the basketball court.
It’s true that female athletes are more associated with starting families and having kids than male athletes. This is because unfortunately we haven’t reached that level yet where female athletes are all looked at as athletes and not mothers and housewives. But in the case of Misty May-Treanor there was good reason to say that now she can focus on starting a family. The idea didn’t come out just because she’s female but because she mentioned it herself at the Olympics. After she and Kerri Walsh won the gold metal in volleyball at the summer Olympics they were interviewed and asked what was next for them after a total of two Olympic gold metals and they both replied that they wanted to take a break and focus on starting families. That’s what everyone thought they would do. No one expected to see Misty May-Treanor on Dancing with the Stars. So when she got injured that’s why the focus was put back on her starting a family.

Jared Edmonds

I agree with Jay11, females will be looked at a different way regardless of the sport they play. Only because of society view men as strong and women as submissive. Which is not true in all cases, but that is how our world operates.

I go to this gym where there are a lot of pick up basketballs games to play. I can remember one speicific time when we were playing and this girl came in and said "I got next". I just looked at her like she was crazy. I was thinking to my self she has no chance of scoring. It wasnt like the she was the size of Candace Parker she was short like 5'5. So anyway after my team won the game she began to pick up the people that lost the game we played before. As the game started i could'nt stop laughing inside. I mean I know that there are a lot of professional women WNBA athletes out there but honesty I dont think that they could ever beat a professional NBA Player. You could take the Lebron James(Could be arugued as the best player in the NBA) against Candace Parker and there really would not be chance of her winning. But to get back to my story when the game started everyone, stood next to the people that they would gaurd doing the game. Of course I was left guarding her. Doing the game I didnt know how to gaurd her, I didnt want to be rough but at the same time I didnt want my team to lose. She did play a decent game, but i refused to let her score on me. She was mainly giving out assist. Gender has had a effect on my sporting career. I rarely doubt that women will be treated equal in the same sports as men play. You can just compare the NBA to the WNBA. NBA is way more exciting. For me this was the first year I watched the WNBA and that was only because of Candace Parker(she attractive and has some game). In our society gender will always have an effect on sports. Kris Boyd

I agree with jay11 in the respect that women sports will always be looked at differently than men's. Its just part of our society to know that women arent as fast, strong, or as big as men and that it deteriorates from some peoples perspective on the entertainment aspect of it. In addition, the fact that the many women versions of men's sports like softball, basketball and lacrosse especially are played with different rules, ball sizes, protective gear, and the size of the playing field doesn't help their argument about equal intensity in both genders and will always give the male gender the upper hand when it comes to sport acceptance.

For me, there have not been that many gender related experiences in my sporting career. However, when I played little league baseball, there was girl on my team for just a year. Her older brother was a year older than me, and at the time, was decent ball player himself so, this helped his sister out when she was around the other guys on the team. As might be expected by some, she did not perform as well as most of the good players in the league, but she was in no way the worst. She actually hit the ball hard sometimes, and drove in some runs for us. The down side for her was that there was a softball league for girls where we played so whenever she did not perform well, almost all the parents said that she should not be playing baseball with the boys. Many also felt that she would probably do quite well playing softball with the other girls and not feel so out of place at times. The most recent gender related sport experience for me was on my high school golf team. This was the more controversial of my two experiences because the only girl on our team was actually pretty good. My senior year the bottom two guys on our team were not very good and the girl was also a senior and had more experience and was just undeniably better. One of the bottom guys on our team was a year behind me and had not been playing very well, and when he did not play a match, controversy broke lose about what everyone had been thinking, but noone said anything. The coach asked me to make a decision since I was captain, and I made the right one-her. I wanted to win and so did the coach. I was not going to let gender get in the way of who was going to play- I wanted to keep our repeat state championship goal alive even if a "girl" played over a boy.

Sometimes a girl is just better than a guy, and one just has to swallow their pride and admit that they are not the better player because in the end that's what is respected.

As a youth and even in high school, my gender has affected my sports career. My youth teams did not have any boys on them, and especially in high school they did not either. I do remember a girl I knew tried out for the football team in high school her senior year; she was very petite, and she was trying out for kicker. She lasted about a week when she had to stop playing because she had two hernias. I only played field hockey and lacrosse in high school, but I played basketball for eight years before that. Whenever we played the game of “knock-out” in physical education class (aka gym class), I always won, even against the boys. In my school, however, everyone respected everyone with whatever sport they played. I do not play a collegiate sport anymore, but I do weight-lift immensely and have specific workouts for it. Whenever I go to the fitness center at Burdick Hall to lift, the weight room is always filled with men. I rarely see any girls lifting; most of the time they are on a cardio machine. When I go to pick up a dumbbell, I feel as though I have committed a sin because I receive strange stares from everyone like I do not belong in the weight room. Now, I understand men can lift more than females; it is just genetics. But men have their ego get in the way and tend to take over, and they probably do not even realize it. I am very efficient and like to move through my workout but I cannot do that when some guy is sitting on the bench staring at himself in the mirror. And I know if I say something, I’ll get even more strange looks.
Misty-May Treanor is adored by many people including men. I see no problem with the hosts of “Dancing with the Stars” talking about how it would be a great opportunity for her and her husband to start a family. She even mentioned in the “YouTube” clip that she was going to take a break from volleyball anyway. Also I do not think it is fair to compare her with Tom Brady. Misty at the time of her injury was competing in a dance competition. Brady on the other hand was playing a football game, and already has a child with his ex-girlfriend.
All-in-all, females and males participating in sports will always be looked upon differently no matter what sport they compete in.

When I look back I do realize that gender did play a role in my sports experience. In high school and youth sports I mainly played football and baseball. Football is a major testosterone filled sports where women play little to no role. During my 6th grade year of youth league football we had a girl try out for the team. My friend and I were team captains so the coaches went to us often to keep the team in check when they went there. Before the first practice, I was told by my coach that a girl would be trying out and that I was to do everything in my power to make her quit. I was kind of surprised by the comment at first but I wanted to stay as a captain so I said ok. During hitting drills I made sure that her and I would face off each time up. I would knock her onto the ground each time but she would shake it off and get right back up. I tried to make her quit but it wasn't working. Afterwards I realized that she actually was a good player and that we shouldn't make her quit. Although, the first game of the year she broke her collarbone which ended her season and eventually convinced her parents to keep her out of football. Its unfortunate to think that an adult was telling me to make a girl, who just thought football would be fun to play, to quit. In many people's minds gender plays a major role in sports because they think that there is sports specifically for men and women. It will be interesting to see if the gender line will ever really be crossed in the sport of football.

Bill Reem

I would say that my gender has affected my sporting career in many different ways. Throughout my youth, I have played many sports, with the main ones being baseball and basketball. Starting with baseball, you can see how it is obviously effected by gender. The sport is totally different for guys and girls. Softball includes a larger ball as well as a fast underhanded pitch. As opposed to baseball, where the ball is a lot smaller and the pitches are overhand, and they are a lot faster. Also, the pitchers in softball stand a lot closer to the plate then baseball pitchers. There has never been any kind of co-ed baseball teams, so girls have never played on my team. This directly shows how gender can affect the sport and how it relates to the actual game. Another example in which gender has affected sport is basketball. Even in the recreation leagues that I have played in, there were never girls on my team. There was always a separate league for girls. They played their games, and we played ours. On a larger scale, there is an entirely separate league for women’s basketball, otherwise known as the WNBA. They teach us to separate sports by gender even at a young age. Ever since I could remember, even when I played soccer as an infant, there were only guys on my team. When you come to college, you will never see a co-ed sports team. The rules are even different. In guys and girls lacrosse, the attire and protective gear are different, as well as some of the rules. The field size is smaller for girls, as well as the checking and shooting rules. Some may like the different rules, and some may not. But to be honest, I don’t see any high school, recreation, or even college sports becoming co-ed anytime soon.

Scott Rappaport.