1. Week 12: “Gender, representation and sport”
 Introduction
 Participation and equity issues
 Strategies for achieving equity and fairness: Title IX
Ideological and cultural issues
Conclusion

2. Introduction
Gender relations in sport focus on two interrelated areas, namely i) questions of fairness and equity and ii) those of ideology, representation and culture.
Questions of fairness and equity deal with:

3. Introduction
Issues relating to ideological, representation and cultural issues refer to:

4. Participation and equity issues
Reasons for the increased participation include:
new opportunities – prior to the mid-1970s many girls and women did not play sport for the simple reason that teams and programs did not exist.

5. Participation and equity issues
new opportunities – number of Olympic events open to men and women

6. Participation and equity issues
2. Government and equal rights legislation - policies to promote equal access have had major impact

7. Participation and equity issues
3. The global women’s rights movement – the global women’s rights movement over the past 30 years has emphasized that females are enhanced as human beings when they develop their intellectual and physical abilities.

8. Participation and equity issues
4. The health and fitness movement – people are more aware now of the health benefits of physical activities. Sport companies in particular have been keen to promote fitness and sports to women and the image of the “athletic female” as a way to increase sales
Now people know how important it is for your health to be active
Half of hip-hop artists are gay
What appears to be a straight masculine performance is homo-erotic (HIP-HOP: beyond beats and rhymes)
The men’s clothing is pulled down to sag so you can see their behinds so other men can see their backsides (this is similar to women clothing when their underwear is showing…it becomes highly sexualized for a woman but these hip hop men do it amongst other men and its cool)
This is originated in prison culture and it was a status symbol

9. Participation and equity issues
5. Increased media coverage of women in sports – increased coverage of women’s sports has helped to increase awareness and potentially participation on the part of girls. Despite some mixed messages the coverage of women in sports helps to promote the idea that sports are human activities rather than solely male activities
Sports aren’t just for men but for everyone

10. Participation and equity issues
Reasons to be cautious about future participatory trends
1. Budget cutbacks and the privatization of sport programs – sports programs for girls and women are more vulnerable to cuts because they are less well established, have less community support and often have less revenue generating potential – “it seems like the only time womens programs are treated equally is when cuts must be made”
Unless the women sports have a strong following, they will be cut in hard economic times

11. Participation and equity issues
2. Resistance to government regulations - those who benefit from the status quo often have a vested interest in preventing change.
Title 9 has been effective but there is a pushback against government intervention

12. Participation and equity issues
3. Backlash among those who resent changes favoring strong women – strong women challenge the prevailing gender ideology thus such women and the claims they make are seen as a threat to entrenched male interests. Many golf clubs for example have been slow to accept women golfers on an equal basis.
Soccer problem: the women assistant ref was attacked b/c the coach thought she didn’t give them a call
So then he goes off on a tirade saying women have no place and he stands behind his sexism
Golf clubs have excluded women from playing

13. Participation and equity issues
4. Under-representation of women in decision-making positions in sports – following Title IX there was an actual decline in the number and proportion of women head coaches and administrators (soccer being the sole exception).

14. Participation and equity issues
5. Continued emphasis on “cosmetic fitness” – confusing messages put off young girls concerned with trying to be firm but shapely, strong and feminine, sporty and sexy – “get strong but lose weight”
You can be athletic but you must still be womanly

15. Participation and equity issues
6. Trivialization of women’s sports – women’s sports, especially those that emphasize balance, grace and co-ordination are accorded a secondary status
Women sports are not taken seriously and of those that are, they are more graceful sports. This awards a second class status
7. Homophobia and the threat of being labeled “lesbian” – parents may discourage their daughters from certain sports for fear of them “becoming lesbian”
On bend it like beckham the mother is worried that the daughter is gay b/c she is so close with her teammates

16. Strategies for achieving equity and fairness: Title IX
Prevents gender discrimination in schools that receive funds from the federal government
1972 Nixon amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act in order to prevent gender discrimination in education - the Education Amendments was passed by Congress
In the mid 1980’s Reagan tried to prevent title 9 from applying to sports but was passed with the Civil Rights Restoration Act in 1987.
Schools that receive federal money must demonstrate that they are compliant with title 9 to keep getting money

17. Strategies for achieving equity and fairness: Title IX
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights developed a clarification of Title IX’s impact for sport. A school is in compliance if it meets any one of these tests:
Proportionality test: womens sports participation must be porportional to the number of full time female students
History of progress test: school must have a clear history and continuing practice of expanding its sports programs for female athletes
Accommodation of interest: school must demonstrate that its sports program fully accommodates the interests of female students
Between 1971 and 2002 the number of girls playing high school varsity sports increased from 295,000 to about 2.8 million; instead of 1 out of every 27 playing on teams it is now 1 in 3; the numbers of female intercollegiate teams has increased from 32,000 to about 160,000
You only need to be compliant with one of these three caveats to get by.
-either women sports must equal the proportion of females on campus
-there is progress towards accommodating/expanding women’s sports programs
-or they can show that women aren’t interested in sports

18. Ideological and cultural issues
Historical constructions of gender ideology: patriarchal views about women as the “weaker sex” were challenged by women’s engagement with sporting activities and leisure pursuits such as cycling.
Victorian moralists worried that female cyclists would make them unfeminine who lacked the physical abilities to ride bikes fast and that unchaperoned women would not be trusted around men.

19. Ideological and cultural issues
Historical constructions of gender ideology: Of course, the reality was that there was no scientific basis for such claims. Instead the views of scientists and moralists were actually concerns about the new found freedom that women were enjoying – the restrictions that men tried to impose stemmed from control issues in nature
As Holt notes “Personal transport meant private mobility and the prospect of freedom from surveillance, the right to go out and explore the world, to be in charge of one’s own destiny.” (Holt, 1990, p. 122, Sport and the British: A modern history)

20. Ideological and cultural issues
Contemporary constructions of gender ideology:
the ideological construction of the “fragile female” body discourse continues today.
female athletes are subject to a sexualized discourse whereby such athletes are required by sponsors and associations to look attractive, emphasize their (hetero)sexuality, and are often photographed in soft-core pornographic ways.
rather than seeing female athletes as active performers such representational techniques reduce women to submissive sex objects.
When you see pics of male athletes they are in action shots and dominant
Female pics show them submissive and sexual (women are reduced to their sexual appeal)

21. Ideological and cultural issues
Apart from marginalizing the sporting achievements of female athletes the results of these types of sexualized images and the emphasis on “cosmetic fitness” can have very damaging effects on girls’ and women’s self-perceptions.
Girls avoid sports until they can look “right” in the skimpy uniforms. To do so they resort to drastic measures…laxatives, induced vomiting, starvation, crash dieting

22. Ideological and cultural issues
Such messages can even have an effect on motor performance in sport
As Coakley (2007, p. 247) notes, even as infants, females are handled more gently than boys, boys are encouraged to be more physically active and to use their bodies whilst girls are more closely watched – this affects the motor development of boys and girls
Baby X studies: exactly the same baby was shown to people and told that it was either a female or male.
Female was described as ‘fragile, soft, and gentle’ and the male was given balls to play with and described as ‘masculine with a strong grip’
Parents condition and treat their children differently based on the sex of the child. This ends up affecting the development of motor skills

23. Ideological and cultural issues
When combined with how girls are conditioned to see their bodies though the eyes of others this can have material effects on sports performance
A recent study (Fredrickson and Harrison’s “Throwing like a Girl: Self-objectification predicts adolescent girls” motor performance’, in Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 2005) showed that adolescent girls tend to self -objectify at higher rates than boys – that is, having a third-person perspective on their own bodies
Through media exposure and everyday encounters, women begin to think about and value their own body from an outside perspective based on how they look

24. Ideological and cultural issues
Self-objectification has a number of consequences including an increased form of self-consciousness characterized by vigilant monitoring of the body’s outward appearance which can lead to eating disorders, anxiety, body shame and even depression
Fredrickson and Harrison’s (2005) study shows that there are also physical as well as emotional consequences of women’s self-objectification
Women restrooms have a wall size mirror; while the men have a very small mirror above the sink

25. Ideological and cultural issues
Fredrickson and Harrison (2005) conclude that “according to this analysis ‘throwing like a girl’ and otherwise failing to make use of one’s body’s spatiality and physical potential reflects girls’ and women’s deep internalization of objectifying cultural attitudes toward the female body”
When girls are hyperconcerned about the appearance of their body, there is a correlation of inferior motor performance

26. Ideological and cultural issues
Gay and lesbian sporting identities
Gender ideology is based on a binary classification system in which all people are classified as being either male or female (sex) and then expected to have either a masculine or feminine (gender) identity
This fixed binary system does not match the actual complex diversity of the human spectrum
Those who are born with physical traits that do not “fit” within this system are surgically “corrected” and we go to great lengths to artificially create and enhance “natural” gendered distinctions – plastic surgery is often about enhancing sexualized notions of gender difference

27. Ideological and cultural issues
Lesbian athletes often have to hide their identities
Paradoxically, the pressures on gay men are often greater
Women have less to lose and more to gain if they push boundaries; men have less social permission to express the feelings, attitudes, and actions associated with femininity
Goz can wear my football stuff and its sexy
But if I put on her clothes its not cool at all

28. Ideological and cultural issues
Latent homo-eroticism in men’s sports?
Men’s sports provide an arena for physical touching, caressing, hugs and kisses. Acts of homosocial intimacy that would normally be forbidden in most other heteronormative arenas – sports might be seen as a ritualistic space for the enactment of male-on-male desire

29. Celebrating and redefining masculinities
Sports are a domain for the exhibition of hegemonic masculinity
The masculinized culture of sport is often transposed into politics when politicians try to appear “tough”, “macho” and “hard” in order to dominate others and convince the electorate of their “strength”

30. Celebrating and redefining masculinities
The effects of this can often be damaging to men too – having to “take it like a man” and avoid being seen as “weak” prevents men from admitting to uncertainty.
When transposed to the political arena, this uncertainty can often prove disastrous when politicians refuse to reverse a policy for fear of being called “weak” or indecisive

31. Female body builders: challenging gender codes?
Many see female body builders as deviant and “unnatural” because they visibly transgress the socially acceptable lines of gender distinctions
Female body builders are no more or less “unnatural” than male bodybuilders – it is our reaction to such images that reveals a certain disdain for strong, powerful women
Female Bodybuilders must appear feminine with makeup and such

32. Conclusion
Gender ideology continues to influence sport in profound ways – how sports are structured; how we view sports, who gets selected to play and hired to coach, and how we understand gender relations more widely
Challenging gender ideology is difficult as i) it is an area where socially constructed differences are naturalized and appear uncontentious and ii) those who benefit from the current arrangements in sport may be unwillingly to give up their privileged position.

33. Conclusion
The trend towards greater opportunity in sport is not a natural process and is dependent upon continued pressure to make sport more equitable.
“opportunities for women on the professional level will continue to be limited until ideas and beliefs about femininity expand to embrace multiple notions of womanhood.