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Devyn & Leanne. WMST 200. We Support Women In Sports.

[contestedstrip]

“Teammates”

As seen on Skyd Magazine

[letablake]

I actually deleted the comments that said things like, “You dumb cunt. This is bullshit.” There were three comments like that altogether. Also from men who are apparently enraged by the idea of the NWHL or women getting paid to play or girls getting into professional sports. 

THIS IS WHY THIS DOCUMENTARY MATTERS.  This kind of reaction is exactly why we should be interested in a film that supports women athletes and women in general. There are only 9 days left to meet the goal of these filmmakers or they receive nothing. Please consider pitching in a few bucks. Hell, I’d pay $5 just as a big EFF YOU to some of these dudes who replied to my Facebook ad. 

Wouldn’t you? LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1803843886/nwhl-history-begins

[agent-sarahwalker]

@thrace-​ on twitter today making everyone wonder if we’re really in 2015

[thewmatters-blog]

[thewmatters-blog]

This picture illustrates the abstract on “Sex Sells Sex, Not Women’s Sports”. There is a clear difference between the two covers highlighting olympic skiers. A.J Kitts is in professional position and looks focused on his sport while Lindsay Vonn is bent in a position that highlights her body. Also, in the photo, she is not wearing a helmet, showing her makeup and hair to make sure she keeps the feminine look. 

[thewmatters-blog]

“A recent analysis of 11 years of SI covers shows that—if you take out the swimsuit issue—women appear just 4.9 percent of the time.” “Of the 35 covers including a female, only 18 (or 2.5 percent of all covers) featured a female as the primary or sole image.” information from (x)

[thewmatters-blog]

“Gender Verification’ in Sports” - Claudia Wiesemann - Abstract

‘Gender Verification’ in sports covers the controversial topic from “an ethical point of view” (Wiesemann, C. 2010). Gender verification is considered a medical process and it has played a large role in the past used to verify one’s sex, in this case, to ensure that the sporting competitions remain “fair”. This author of this scholarly paper, Caludia Wiesemann, argues that people have the right to not know their genetic makeup and issuing a medical examination to verify ones gender is an invasion of privacy. There are laws that are in place to protect people from being forced to get genetic testing done because some people would prefer not to know if something was wrong or questionable. Also, when it comes to biological sex, it is still not as black and white as it may seem. So even if genetic testing does come into play when it comes to sports, people who are intersex or transgender have a high potential to get discriminated against.

In the past, intersex women have been heavily discriminated against in sports but it has gotten a lot better. In the past, when questions would arise questioning the sex of people, specifically women, intersex women would often get disqualified. A Spanish hurdler named Maria Martinez-Patino was disqualified from the World University Games in Kobe, Japan due to being born intersex. Her sports scholarship was revoked, she was kicked out of her athletes’ housing, and all of her athletic records were erased (Wiesemann, C. 2010). More than what was physically taken away from her, she was publicly humiliated. Being an intersex person should be treated as any other genetic mutation would be treated when it comes to sports competition. People have a right to privacy and publicly displaying their genetics crosses the line.

Wiesemann, C. (2010). ‘Gender verification’ in sports. Retrieved from:

http://jme.bmj.com/content/37/4/216.full

[yolowoho]

I love Serena Williams 

[laurastaceys-deactivated2017070]

Elena Delle Donne reads Mean Tweets following Historic 45pt game

[topspecial]

Illustration from a 1921 women’s college yearbook.

[thewmatters-blog]

[clearlycorinna-blog]

Screen shot of the sports section of New York Times and Washington Post today. Only one mention of a women’s sport (collegiate basketball) and one article about an NFL player getting off easy after beating his wife. This should not be the only role of women in sports. 

[thewmatters-blog]

“Stepping Through the Looking Glass: The Future for Women in Sports” - Abstract

It seems like sexism and women in sports tend to go hand in hand. From a young age, both young boys and girls are exposed to phrases like “you throw like a girl” and “don’t be a girl,” which are linked to a negative connotation and used to frustrate and supposedly “encourage” children to perform better. Ruth Hall and Carole Oglesby in their journal, Stepping Through the Looking Glass: The Future for Women in Sports, focus on the harm of gender inequality in sports and want to dig deeper into the conversation of discussions of female athletes and bring to light new perspectives to uncover new and brighter direction for women in sports.

Both authors agree that we as a society must break free of the stereotype that their are typical men’s sports and typical women's sports, and that they cannot cross over. They also discuss the lack of acknowledgements of female athletes, such as the lack of sponsors for the members of the United States Women’s National soccer team after they won the 2015 World Cup, and the negative treatment Serena Williams receives because of her “stocky and manly” build. Female athletes, according to Hall and Oglesby, have decreased opportunities to play sports after graduating college, which leads to low representation in media (4% of coverage), and small numbers of role models. Another large example of gender inequality in sports is the disparity of wages between men and women athletes. All sports have a large wage gap between the reward men and women get in respect to their performance, except for the Grand Slam for tennis which pays both their male and female winners equally.

However, every day there is progress towards equality for men’s and women’s sports. Some examples Hall and Oglesby present are, Danica Patrick, who made a huge name for herself in motor racing, Natalie Nakase and Becky Hammon, two assistant NBA coaches, and in 2015 the Arizona Cardinals hired the first ever female coach in the NFL, Jen Welter.

Ultimately these two authors present four different areas of exploration to uncover new perspectives of female athletes and how to improve the gender inequality in sports. The first, is thinking anew about sex-segregated competition categories. An example is the NCAA, which has no segregated sex categories, and researchers have found no significant gender differences. Secondly, is the reformulation of thinking about gender stereotypes and feminist responses. Both authors believe that if professional training of physical education teachers and sports coaches occurred, there would be less gender stereotypes and discrimination in all levels of sports. The next area is re-evaluating existing barriers and discovery of new barriers. They discuss three majors themes in regards of female athletes in the U.S., inferiority, objectification, and restrictive gender roles. Lastly, Hall and Oglesby consider new directions of women in sports. If feminists, and sports psychologist could stress the importance of creating experiences within sports where both performance and character matters to sport coaches and administrators, we could see a major shift in towards gender equality in sports.

Hall, Ruth L., and Carole A. Oglesby. "Stepping Through the Looking Glass: The Future for Women in Sport." Sex Roles 74.7-8 (2016): 271-74. Web. Retrieved from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-015-0572-z 

[ws101sports-blog]

[ws101sports-blog]

No shape and size is unacceptable when it comes to women athletes. All are beautiful, strong, and talented.

[profeminist]

U.S. women’s team files wage-discrimination action vs. U.S. Soccer 

“Among the numbers cited in the EEOC filing: The women would earn $99,000 each if they won 20 friendlies, the minimum number they are required to play in a year. But the men would likely earn $263,320 each for the same feat, and would get $100,000 even if they lost all 20 games. Additionally, the women get paid nothing for playing more than 20 games, while the men get between $5,000 and $17,625 for each game played beyond 20.

“Every single day, we sacrifice just as much as the men. We work just as much,” Morgan told “Today.” “We endure just as much physically and emotionally. Our fans really do appreciate us every day for that. We saw that with the high of last summer. We’re really asking, and demanding now, that our federation, and our employer really, step up and appreciate us as well.”

The pay for playing in the World Cup is also greatly disparate, according to the figures. The U.S. women received a team total of $2 million when it won the World Cup last year in Canada. Yet when the U.S. men played in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the team earned a total of $9 million despite going just 1-2-1 and being knocked out in the round of 16.

“We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the [men] get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships,” Solo said.

In a conference call with reporters, Kessler said, “The reality is that this team is more valuable to the USSF than the men’s team has been. That’s what the facts show. And they would be justified in asking for more than the men are receiving. But the first step that they are seeking is equal treatment. That should be an easy step for the USSF to take.”

Read the full piece here

Graphic source

[thewmatters-blog]

These graphs and statistics were presented in the journal I read for my abstract, “Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlight Shows, 1989-2009,” by Michael Messner and Cheryl Cooky. Each show telling information from their study on the gender inequality female athletes face in sports media. 

Micheal A. Messner and Cheryl Cooky, “Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlights Shows, 1989-2009.” June 2010, Center for Feminist Research, University of Southern California, Pp. 1-35. Retrieved from: http://www.lafayetteschools.org/tfiles/folder1077/Messner.pdf