http://youtu.be/f1ighxU1vYw
I’m not a particularly athletic person and I didn’t follow sports much growing up, but I’ve got to say, when this commercial first aired before the beginning of the Olympics, I felt pretty inspired. I think I might have even yelled “Yeah, girl power!” after watching it.
In our last topic on sex and gender we differentiated between the two as biological markers and socially constructed ideals of femininity and masculinity, respectively. In Judith Lorber’s piece, “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, she writes that people rarely think about gender because it is so closely tied to sex; at birth, most children are marked as either male or female, and from there once they have been identified as such, people begin to treat them differently. We don’t think about it because our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned at a very early age and are enforced by those around us.
Now that I think back to my childhood, I wonder why I didn’t engage in sports more, and I’m realizing it all comes from social norms and wanting to be accepted. I didn’t avoid sports because I was uncoordinated and awkward (my mom played basketball, and my dad did martial arts, so some of those genes have to be passed on to me, right?), but more so because none of the other girls in my class showed much enthusiasm for it either. I didn’t want to be the only girl. The teachers also furthered the ideal that boys are more attuned to the rough-and-tough games in P.E. while my coordination skills were more directed to dance, in particular, ballet.
What’s Wrong with Media Coverage of Women Olympians? [Sarah J. Jackson]
Which brings me to the next, but related topic. – Women have made strides in sports in that they now can compete publicly (yay for women’s boxing in the Olympics for the first time!), but they still face a lot of sexism. People accept that women can play just as hard as men in sports, but their bodies are still being objectified and their worth is still very much dependent on their looks. In this article by Sarah Jackson, she criticizes how the media plays a role in perpetuating sexism in sports — it’s obvious through outfits/uniforms that women wear compared to men as well as how quick people are to criticize an accomplished woman athlete’s make-up or hairstyle.
Women have got their foot in the door in sports, but society still has a long way to go in rewiring ideals about gender.
Over the past hundredth of years the ideal of a woman has changed so much, we came pretty much from being objects to being equal with man. Women in sports are widely accepted now and we have opportunistic that we did not have before. I’m happy that we live in this time and not 100 years ago because that must have been hard on these women. The commercial you chose shows just how much we got ahead as woman and I hope that this continues as the ideal of gender changes for the better. It is inspiring and actually would make me want to participate in some kind of sport if I was any younger. I just wish the best to the younger generation to make the best out of their youth and do something because as you’ve said women are now free to do what they please.
I hope that the next 100 of years is going to be just as positive for us as the last 100 of years. I hope we can finally reach that equality where woman and men will have the same benefits, earn the same salary and have the same opportunities as men. By watching this video I see that we are on the right track and that if we keep going at the pace that we have been going this day might be sooner than we expected. The sex discrimination is pointless because we are just as able as men and should be rewarded equally.
I can say that after watching footage from the past Olympic games and of the one conducted this year that women are now completely accepted as athletes. Watching the Olympics this year made me realize that even though women have physiological disadvantages compared to men, they can still be as, or even more skilled than male athletes. I am happy to see that there are a lot of women who participate in events that are considered more masculine like, shot-put and hammer throw. This really shows that boundaries between genders are being broken and we are moving towards true equality.
I remember growing up that I did not know any girls that played sports since the norm was that they should be doing other activities that are considered more feminine. In the Philippines there were very clear gaps between genders. In my Elementary School, we had an event called sports day where all the different classes competed against each other in multiple different sports. But the only students that were allowed to participate in the sports were boys and the girls were either cheerleaders or just the audience. After watching this very inspirational video, comparing discriminatory society was in the past and how it is now, I am very pleased of how much we have progessed
The structure of our society is patriarchal: leadership positions, highly paid and highly estimated work occupied mostly by men. Even if the women do the same work as men they earn less. Moreover, in addition to the work a woman should take care of the household and her family. While this provision is clearly unfair the society (mostly men) doesn’t want to change anything.
Sexism is so usual in our society and in our minds, than it is often not notice. Most of us brought up in the spirit of sexism from early childhood. If the parents didn’t brought up their child this way, then at least, environment, society and traditions teach boys to play with toy cars, and girls with dolls. Further, young men should be strong and courageous and girls are required to be beautiful and feminine; and, finally, men need to support the family economically, and women to keep order in the house. However, in reality a woman not only has to take care of her children, the family and the house, but she has to work as well.
The sexism (as a racism) implies the superiority of physical and intellectual manifestations, although not provided convincing arguments in favor of the fact that men are better than women or vice versa. Traditional arguments – such as the indication of the limitations of women in terms of creativity or links to the notorious women’s logic or psychological instability still exist in the public consciousness. These prejudices have not been proved by the science; it is just stereotypes imposed to us by the society from ancient times.
Women’s right have improved significantlly over the past 50 years. unfortunately we lived in a society that has been formed to be patriarchal. Even though women and men are supposed to have the same rights in thw work place, when it comes to reality they end up earning less. On the other hand in sports, I think women have demonstrated that they’re capable of playing in almost every discipline and that was clearly seen in the last olympics where the most amount of gold medals by the USA were obtain by women. These clearly shows that our society is changing in a way that lets women participate in every national and international competition there is. But there’s one think i also acknowledge is that there are certatin sports that are meant for men due to their aggressiveness, i’m not saying women can’t perform them but men are phisically different and can perform certain sports better. Every society is different, there’s still places where women’s right to participate in sports are being unheard. It’s really our task as a society to help them get their voice heard and let women all over the world participate in sports.