Discuss and analyze a media representation of gender and identity in sports in Australia or another country. How do you account for the ways different sports are gendered?
Sports have become an integral part of our society in modern times. Physical activities have defined structures, norms and ideals of the society. They have mirrored each society’s gender order and hierarchy. Many countries in the world and in history women have played a specific but often subdued role in traditional games and sports . Since the late 19th century, the issue of Genderalistion in sports has been quite evident in the society. The main question is, is there genderalisation in sports? Genderalisation is the process of making sex-based generalizations. In sports, genderalisation has always tried to imply that certain sexes cannot do certain games. This has always led to marginalization of certain sexes in sports at certain levels but this might not be true. This essay will explore the issue of gender discourses in sports. Do they exist or it’s just a Marxist agenda to try and portray the good work of sports.
The Olympics is one of the oldest sports in the history of the world. The ancient Olympic Games barred women from participating in the competition. The modern Olympics changed the trend and their main aim is to foster international goodwill, peace and equality in the whole world through fair competition. However, this is not the reality. Some critics have argued that instead, the Olympics do promote these same inequalities that it claims to be fighting. Through out the history of modern Olympics, member countries have indexed and marginalized women .Some member countries of the international Olympic committee do not allow women on their Olympic teams. These include countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia . This has reinforced the marginalization of women and other minorities on the national context. However their has been an increase in the number of women participants in the Olympics in the recent editions which has been due to the increased pressure to reduce genderalisation.
The Japanese in the Nagano interpretive program always have categorized ethnicity and gender in the Japanese self conceptions. Women and men featured in the sumo wrestling but under different roles. Women did participate as entertainers and fighters because the game was centered to be masculine, physically strong and with virtuosity associated with men and only men could wrestle. Such gendered discourses have shown the disadvantage of women to men in Japanese society at home, school and work and even in sports .
The most recent case of genderalisation in sports is when in 2009. Caster Semenya, a South African woman was accused by the international athletics association federation for having hormones that do not make her a woman, but more of a man. The truth of Caster Semenya gender has never been known and the threat of stripping her medal from the world champion is a reverse on the general spirit of the sports. By stripping her medals, these will mean that people with transgender, don’t have space in the world of sports . The gender order is legitimized and symbolically conveyed by the duality of gender, which makes us think in a binary pattern of man and woman as the exclusive category. It states that a person can only be one gender. That is male or female and cannot be the other or both. However this is not correct and unless this is changed, then the people of the so said transgender will continue being marginalized.
However it will be also wise to recognize and argue that sports to a very big extent have played a big role in promoting gender equities. In modern times, more and more women are being admitted to sports which were once perceived to be male in nature. Soccer, ice hockey, weightlifting, rugby and many other said sports have been taken by women . These advances in sports have shown that women can also play major roles in sports and not just submissive roles to men. Yelena Isinbeyeva from Yugoslavia is perhaps one of the greatest athletes of the past decade. She broke the pole vault record more times than any other athlete in the history, man or woman. Her example is the example of what women can do given the chance in sports.
Women sports athletes have used their position to raise awareness about certain inequalities in their regions. Cathy Freeman, an Australian athlete of aboriginal birth, refused to carry the Australian flag and decided to carry the Aboriginal flag during the 2004 commonwealth games in Melbourne, Australia. She used her position to raise the ethnicized position of the aborigines in Australia.
From this, it is quite obvious that gender discourses still exist in sports and they have to be done away. The International Olympic committee should encourage and even punish member countries that do not allow women to participate in the biggest sporting event. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait do practice what the international Olympic committee tries to stop. However, sports should be credited with having added more space for women and the ethnic minority in international affairs. This is a positive thing that modern sports have done.
Work cited
Hogan, J. Staging the nation: gendered and ethnicized discourses of national identity in Olympic opening ceremonies. Journal of sports and social issues. 2003.
Hartmann-Tews, I., and G. Pfister. Sport and women: social issues in international perspective. London: Routledge. 2003.
Gender issues in sports. 2009. New Zealand Conservative http://nzconservative.blogspot.com/2009/08/gender-issues-in-sport.html (Accessed January 3rd, 2011)
Chrisler, J. and D. R. McCreary. Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology. Springer.2010.
