Unit One: Introduction to Course Driving Questions

PART ONE:

Make a list of the 10 Biggest Ideas that emerge from the presentation.  Finally, write one sentence that expresses the theme of this unit.

·      What sport and sport culture means and what it teaches to others.

·      Creates social groups- what’s acceptable/ Teaches moral values and character

·      Social identifications/ rivalries

·      Sports fandom- Seen as a model for good citizenship

·      Risks- physical and psychological

·      We can achieve levels of success that others cannot

·      Heroes In the game? Have higher expectations when in the public sphere

·      Gender, race, identity

·      Men and women stereotyped into feminine and masculine sports (Men- aggressive, women- emotional)

·      Males remain the dominant figures in sports

*Sports and sports culture teaches us what it means to be an athlete depending on your gender, race, and identity, and the stereotypes that come with it. *

PART TWO:

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

Instructions: While reading the assigned text, answer the questions below in the space provided. 

Please use direct excerpts from the text whenever possible in your responses.

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

·      The interviews with both male and female cheerleaders

·      The many references used throughout the writing

·      Including history within the writing

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

The main argument statement throughout the text is the controversy of whether cheerleading should be considered a sport, and all of the aspects that come with it. 

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

·      Sideline activity         

·      Pyramid building

·      Squad

·      Toss-lib

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

I found only to pick five was challenging!!

1) “Sport and competition are gendered for out participants was revealed in the comparisons they made between cheerleading and “core” sports like football, as well as in the distinctions they imposed between the “sport-like” features of cheerleading and those linked to supportiveness or performativity.”(504)

2) “We work hard, it’s very dangerous, and we deserve that title. Sometimes we heard that cheerleading was more demanding athletically than other sports,”(506).  

3) “By focusing on the competitive nature of cheerleading, and, related to this, by emphasizing the skill or athleticism of cheerleading,”(506).

4) “Participants routinely characterized competitive cheerleaders as “phenomenal athletes” and emphasized the hard work, dedication, and training required,”(506)

5) “Anyone can be a football player, anyone can run with a ball or throw a ball. Not everyone can do a toss-lib,”(506).

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

The values or views that were represented included gender stereotyping, what is defined as feminine and masculine, and what it takes for society to accept cheerleading as a sport and not just a “performance”. The physical training that cheerleaders go through are just as extreme, or even more in some cases, as other sports, yet they do not get the credit in which they deserve. Cheerleaders deserve to be named athletes, and not just an “activity” focused on entertainment and bodily display, as mentioned in the reading.

 

Learning Module- UNIT ONE:

1.     Step one: in which you define what sports are and how gender informs our contemporary understanding of sports.  I define sports as an organized activity that requires practice, physical and mental strength, and athleticism. While watching the cheerleading video, it is clear that it took many practices and hard work/teamwork to complete the routines so perfectly.  Gender informs our contemporary understanding of sports because of how society perceives what is feminine and masculine. Who gets to decide what is feminine and masculine?. I wanted to add a quote from, cheerleading and the gendered politics of sport which states, “if you gotta wear the short skirts to make people look at you, then I guess that’s what you gotta do,”(509). Cheerleading has been coded as feminine, partly because of the attire that comes with the SPORT. What about those skimpy outfits worn in tennis or gymnastics? Why does cheerleading get such a bad representation?

2.     Step two-  

Sexuality, attraction, and orientation differentiate in one-way or another, as described in the video. For example, it is possible to have female genitalia, identify as a man, and have feminine behavior. Gender roles and gender identity is in no way the same thing. You’re biological sex, may or may not be what you identify with. You may be born female, but feel you are really male, and just trapped in a female body with female parts. It’s your brain that determines what your gender is.  

3.     Step three-

The commercial, converse “Grandmama” shows that shoes can make a woman have an ability to play a sport better than a man. Without the shoes, it would not be possible. In Peyton Manning’s commercial, when a woman drops the tray of food, Peyton says that was a good carry and you’re still the man. When the man gets steam in the face from a latte machine, Peyton tells him to rub some dirt on it. This is pretty much him telling him to man up! For the ESPN “Don’t Walk” Promo Music Video doesn’t reference any woman breaking the “no step” rule. In the Nike commercial, it neglects any other demographic except male basketball players. In the Gatorade commercial, the girls and boys are idolizing Michael Jordan. There is no woman’s spokesperson. Little girls wanting to grow up to be this male athlete, but you do not see little boys growing up wanting to be a female athlete. In the Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird Converse commercial, it shows that basketball shoes are just named after men and not women.

4.     I agree with DeFord’s argument that woman have been forced to take a backseat role with male dominated sports.  It is astonishing to see the huge controversy that is started when women take a leading role within the organizations. “The stories got attention only because they were cases of women being associated with men's sports — or "invading" men's sports”.  This kind of inequality should not still exist in the civilized western world, but does, and finds a home in male dominated sports.  The only roles that women seem to be allowed to fill without controversy are the unimportant sidekick, interviewer and cheerleader.

5. Sports Autobiography

As a child, and throughout my teenage years I was active in many different sports and activities. I was always tall, and sports came easy to me. Since leaving college, I strayed away from playing sports, and have just stuck to yoga. There is a great yoga place, the laughing elephant, which I just started going too, which is right down the street from where I live. Living by the ocean, meant daily trips to our town beach, and this is how I grew up loving to swim. I even had a pool at my house, which meant day and night swimming. My parents, sister, and other family and friends loved to swim, and there were pool parties at my house frequently during the summertime when I was younger.  Besides swimming for fun, sports that I joined a team for included soccer, tennis, softball, and volleyball. I feel that playing all these sports today would be a completely different experience. When I was younger, I feel that the main goal was to have fun, rather than just worrying about winning and not losing. I always would get a trophy, no matter how good or bad the teams that I was on ranked. Today, sports seem to be extremely competitive, and if you do not win, it can feel like a disappointment. I wonder if they still give out trophies to all teams, or just the winning team. If you have any information on this, please let me know!

I started off talking about swimming, which was just for fun and a leisure activity done with family and friends. Swimming did stick with me until around high school, and I even had the pleasure of going to school with the Olympian Elizabeth Beisel, which was pretty cool. I was able to watch her at meets, and it made me realize that dreams really can happen, when you practice hard. If I could go back in time, I would have liked to get more serious in swimming, and play for a team. Soccer was one of the first sports I started to play as a team sport, and in a more competitive setting. I played for Ocean State Soccer in North Kingstown, when I was in kindergarten, and it was always co-ed. Boys usually always outnumbered the girls on the teams, and this was present throughout my soccer years at Ocean State Soccer.

 It may be because we were at such innocent young ages, but there really was no backlash for being one of the only girls on the team. Today, as an assistant teacher, I see a division of gender that the kids incorporate in daily activities, and they are just in pre-school. This scares me for the future may hold with sports and other activities in the public. This division of labor that I see with the kids is most common during recess, when the boys want to just play with the boys, and girls just want to play with the girls. The boys will play monsters while the girls play princesses. I wonder why this idea has even emerged for these young kids. It may be due to the media, and how these children are raised. If a girl strays away from princesses, and wants to play monsters, she gets backlash from the other girls. I’ve heard, “monsters and trucks are for boys.” I have to remind the children that they get to play with whomever they want, and it does not matter if you are a boy or a girl.

It was not until I became older, when I started to see a more competitive vibe from the boys at soccer practices. I would notice more rough behavior, and it was honestly scary at the time, although I towered over all the boys. Sometimes, I even began to want to play with the boys because I wanted to be more competitive, and associated competitiveness with males. Another common phrase I heard while getting older at soccer practices was, “you are playing like a girl”. This phrase is still present in today’s society, and is pretty much saying that you are not being masculine. It is as if being a girl is something to be ashamed of. Femininity relates to girls, and masculinity relates to boys. I wish this idea did not exist, and if I knew what I knew today, I would have yelled at all those boys, and say how it is actually a compliment to say that. There is nothing wrong with “throwing or playing like a girl”. Today, I could use my knowledge of women athletes that I was unaware of as a young girl. 

 

The first sports that I played on as a school team, were volleyball and tennis. These two sports were divided by gender. We had a girls and boys team for everything at my high school, although we did not in middle school. Sometimes I wonder why there even were teams separated by gender. In physical education classes, we were never divided by gender and always played co-ed throughout my school years. Why do we need a divide when it comes to competition? How do you all feel about the divide? How was it like at your schools?  Sport heroes that affected my decision to play tennis were sisters, Venus and Serena Williams. My sister and I were big fans, and even dressed up as them one year for Halloween too! The William’s sisters were coached at young ages by their parents, just as my dad taught me how to play sports. They have both won a numerous amount of competitions and prizes, as a team and as individuals. They are such an inspiration not only for being women, but being black women. They have had to fight through a lot in the media and public, and have overcome it all.

I am happy that I was able to play sports as a child. I grew up with the love of sports, and always having supportive parents, saying, “you can do this”. I was able to make new friends that I am still close with today, and have interests that will last a lifetime. I am excited to have children, and have them find their own interests and choices in what they want to play. Although I do not play sports competitively anymore, it is still fun to watch on television and look at pictures of me playing as a child and teenager. The memories will last a lifetime. As mentioned in the PowerPoint, I was able to learn respect for opponents, teammates, and officials. I gained self-confidence, self-discipline, sportsmanship, teamwork, mental toughness, how to win and lose with class, learn life skills and life lessons.

6. I found this interview to be great, and eye opening. Something that really caught my attention was when talking about college athletes. Dave Zirin mentioned an athlete that said, “we’re not student-athletes, we’re athlete-students, because the second we get on campus it’s made clear to us what our priority should be.” I’m graduating in the spring, and these past four years have been anything but easy. I cannot imagine having to do all my schoolwork, and put an abundance amount of energy into a sport. This is one of the reasons I chose not to do a sport, because I feel that I would not be able to give my all in classes. Zirin notes that these athletes are pretty much just campus workers who do no get paid. Do any of you play sports at RIC? How do you feel about this? The last subject I wanted to mention from this interview was the topic of steroid use. Zirin states, “You’ve never seen an owner asked, what did you know and when did you know it?” This is referring to the use of steroids by many famous athletes. He also stated, “A player once said to me, when it comes to steroids, punishment is an individual issue, but distribution is a team issue.” He was trying to make the point that when they crack down they always go after the individual, rather than the team. 

6. I found this interview to be great, and eye opening. Something that really caught my attention was when talking about college athletes. Dave Zirin mentioned an athlete that said, “we’re not student-athletes, we’re athlete-students, because the second we get on campus it’s made clear to us what our priority should be.” I’m graduating in the spring, and these past four years have been anything but easy. I cannot imagine having to do all my schoolwork, and put an abundance amount of energy into a sport. This is one of the reasons I chose not to do a sport, because I feel that I would not be able to give my all in classes. Zirin notes that these athletes are pretty much just campus workers who do no get paid. Do any of you play sports at RIC? How do you feel about this? The last subject I wanted to mention from this interview was the topic of steroid use. Zirin states, “You’ve never seen an owner asked, what did you know and when did you know it?” This is referring to the use of steroids by many famous athletes. He also stated, “A player once said to me, when it comes to steroids, punishment is an individual issue, but distribution is a team issue.” He was trying to make the point that when they crack down they always go after the individual, rather than the team.

6. I found this interview to be great, and eye opening. Something that really caught my attention was when talking about college athletes. Dave Zirin mentioned an athlete that said, “we’re not student-athletes, we’re athlete-students, because the second we get on campus it’s made clear to us what our priority should be.” I’m graduating in the spring, and these past 
 four years have been anything but easy. I cannot imagine having to do all my schoolwork, and put an abundance amount of energy into a sport. This is one of the reasons I chose not to do a sport, because I feel that I would not be able to give my all in classes. Zirin notes that these athletes are pretty much just campus workers who do no get paid. Do any of you play sports at RIC? How do you feel about this? The last subject I wanted to mention from this interview was the topic of steroid use. Zirin states, “You’ve never seen an owner asked, what did you know and when did you know it?” This is referring to the use of steroids by many famous athletes. He also stated, “A player once said to me, when it comes to steroids, punishment is an individual issue, but distribution is a team issue.” He was trying to make the point that when they crack down they always go after the individual, rather than the team.