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Presentation
- 1. One of the Guys: Gender,Women and Sports (Media)
- 2. Outline 1) Gender, Sexand Biology versus Social Construction 2) Sports and Masculinity 3) Women in Sports Media 4) Discussion and Application
- 4. Nature vs Nurture JudithButler • Challenged the “expression model” of gender—ie, that gender simply expressed inherent differences of sex. • Gender is a performance, and also performative. • “Consider gender, for instance as a corporeal style, an act, as it were, which is both intentional and performative, where “performative” suggests a dramatic contingent construction of meaning” • Social Construction Theories
- 5. Gender Bias inMothers’Expectations about Infant Crawling “Although boys outshine girls in a range of motor skills, there are no reported gender differences in motor performance during infancy. This study examined gender bias in mothers’ expectations about their infants’ motor development. Mothers of 11-month-old infants estimated their babies’ crawling ability, crawling attempts, and motor decisions in a novel locomotor task— crawling down steep and shallow slopes. Mothers of girls underestimated their performance and mothers of boys overestimated their performance. Mothers’ gender bias had no basis in fact. When we tested the infants in the same slope task moments after mothers’ provided their ratings, girls and boys showed identical levels of motor performance.”
- 6. Nature vs Nurture •Biological difference theories • Suggest that men and women have inherent differences due to their genetics, and that this affects their capabilities • Men are have higher testosterone production, which builds muscles. • Testosterone production is currently used for testing the gender of athletes
- 7. Nature vs Nurture •There are broad differences between men and women. • Any one individual can easily fall outside of these broad divisions, and there is no clear line between men and women. • Some of these broad differences are probably due to biological differences. • Some of these broad differences are probably due to social construction. • The physical body is also susceptible to social construction, not just behaviour.
- 8. Hegemonic Masculinities “Refers tocommonly shared and socially valued understanding of what constitutes “being a man”’ Wamsley, 25 “Male interests predominate in most sports, and in many of them male hegemony has been more complete and more resistant to change than in other areas of culture. Nevertheless, male hegemony in sports has never been static and absolute, but is a constantly shifting process which incorporates both reactionary and liberating features of gender relations.” Hargreaves, 23
- 9. Hegemonic Masculinities •Bush vsGentry Masculinities •“For Military men, sport and exercise were considered appropriate vehicles for the development of ‘good character’” (Wamsley, 28). “Sport is heavily laden with values of maleness. Men who abstain from male sporting subcultures can be stereotyped as being effeminate in character, in a context where a feminine trait is viewed as a negative, less empowering attribute. Male sporting subcultures, therefore, operate twin dynamics of misogyny and homophobic behaviour” (Boyle and Haynes, 136)
- 10. (Toxic) Masculinity andSports •“Many sports are predicated on aggressive values, where competition demands violent physical contact and often the deliberate infliction of harm or injury. . .the legitimacy of violence in sport… balances upon the axis of power in the gender order, where physical combat, blood and bruises are considered natural for men and alien to women” (Boyle and Haynes, 138). •“Men are socialized to be aggressors, women to be victims. Historically, sport has come to be seen as a form of male entitlement, little boys continuing to play into adulthood” (Fuller, 6) •“The mentality of a professional hockey player is that you never admit that you’re human. You never admit pain, especially if it’s pain that no one can see.” (Dupius)
- 11. Disruptions •Gender Parody •Many feministshave suspected that women’s cultivation of aggressive personalities, especially when pleasurable, amounts to getting duped by male domination. Feminists have tried not to “play into the patriarchy” by playing men’s games and sharing “male” values. From this vantage point, women’s embrace of violence smacks of getting into the pigsty with the pigs. (McCaughey 14) •The accounts of adolescent hockey players presented here suggest a powerful challenge to the historically gendered practice of sport in which men were empowered and women largely excluded. This challenge lies in the possibilities that hockey and other sports offer for attaining alternative forms of embodiment that are grounded in the experience of strength, competency, and agency. (Theberge, 514)
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- 13. Representations of FemaleAthletes •Masculine Generics •Gender Marking (ie, WNBA, Ladies’ Final) •Descriptions based on Physical appearance •Sexuality •Infantilizing •Activity Levels (“Johnson drives to the net” versus “The ball goes in”) •Naming Conventions • Ladies/Girls/Chicks • First vs Last names
- 14. Time and Quality •Moreis written about men’s sport than women’s sport, and more often, in newspapers, magazines news, bulletin's, school newspapers, and websites (Segrave et al, 34-35) •Common Barriers to gender equity in media coverage include . . . • Devoting less broadcast time to women’s sporting events. Particularly women’s team sports • Using less sophisticated production techniques for women’s broadcasts (Hallmark, 161)
- 16. Case Study: ShannonSzabados •Woman playing on a Men’s professional team •First Woman to play in the Western Hockey League, played for the Tri City Americans in Exhibition Games •Played in Alberta Junior Hockey League, received AJHL's Top Goaltender after the 2006–07 season. •Ineligible for NCAA, due to playing in the WHL •Played for the Men’s Teams for Grant McEwan University and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology •Canadian Women’s Olympic Team 2 time gold Medalist
- 17. Discussion Questions What didyou notice about the way in which Szabados was presented in that video—how was her gender dealt with? How does this relate to, or echo, some of the things being said by the girls in Gilenstam et al‘s article?
- 18. Discussion Questions Do youthink that contact sports such as hockey are a potential place for feminist liberation? Or are they too tied up with values such as aggressiveness? What is the role of media and the symbolic order that Gilenstam et al talk about in the success or failure of this project?