The Inescapable Reality Of Gender Ideology: Being A Woman In Sport
Julia Wang 10148983 Tutorial 003 - Friday 12:30 T.A.: Marty Clark
The Inescapable Reality of Gender Ideology: Being a Woman in Sport Today’s society believes that gender equity has been achieved in sport, yet the socially constructed normality of gender stereotypes is still prevalent even in today’s society. As a woman in sport, society has created the belief that women’s capabilities are lesser than those of males. In this essay, I will argue how gender stereotypes of women and society’s expectations of me as a female have negatively affected my enjoyment of badminton. Society’s deeply rooted social image of women is that we are weak and unable to produce results which are similar to men; this opinion has made …show more content…
The idea that “females do sports, but not the same way as men so therefore, by logic, they do not do them well enough to receive equal support” is still prevalent in today’s day and age (Coakley & Donnelly, 2009). Prior to the early 1970s, most people did not question the male dominated/identified/centred organization of sports as they believed that females were naturally frail and unsuited for most sport participation (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). Over the past fifty years, female athletes have demonstrated clearly that notions of female frailty were grounded in ideology, rather than nature (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). And yet, I was still subjected to the notion of frailty as it was as a shock to others that I was capable of smashing as a woman in badminton. Through the social organization of sport, male identified-orientations and actions are used as standards for defining what is right and normal (Millington, 2015). Because I could perform actions that mirrored men, I caused surprise and disbelief in those boys. It is clear that without continued efforts to achieve gender equity, there is a tendency in cultures to give priority to men’s sports and male athletes (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). Although this situation has improved since the 1970s, we are still being affected. Gender ideology continues to influence how we think and relate to others (Millington, 2015), and if we do not persist in the pursuit of gender equity, more and more females will avoid
The Inescapable Reality of Gender Ideology: Being a Woman in Sport Today’s society believes that gender equity has been achieved in sport, yet the socially constructed normality of gender stereotypes is still prevalent even in today’s society. As a woman in sport, society has created the belief that women’s capabilities are lesser than those of males. In this essay, I will argue how gender stereotypes of women and society’s expectations of me as a female have negatively affected my enjoyment of badminton. Society’s deeply rooted social image of women is that we are weak and unable to produce results which are similar to men; this opinion has made …show more content…
The idea that “females do sports, but not the same way as men so therefore, by logic, they do not do them well enough to receive equal support” is still prevalent in today’s day and age (Coakley & Donnelly, 2009). Prior to the early 1970s, most people did not question the male dominated/identified/centred organization of sports as they believed that females were naturally frail and unsuited for most sport participation (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). Over the past fifty years, female athletes have demonstrated clearly that notions of female frailty were grounded in ideology, rather than nature (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). And yet, I was still subjected to the notion of frailty as it was as a shock to others that I was capable of smashing as a woman in badminton. Through the social organization of sport, male identified-orientations and actions are used as standards for defining what is right and normal (Millington, 2015). Because I could perform actions that mirrored men, I caused surprise and disbelief in those boys. It is clear that without continued efforts to achieve gender equity, there is a tendency in cultures to give priority to men’s sports and male athletes (Coackley & Donnelly, 2009). Although this situation has improved since the 1970s, we are still being affected. Gender ideology continues to influence how we think and relate to others (Millington, 2015), and if we do not persist in the pursuit of gender equity, more and more females will avoid