Homophobia: The Problem in Recruiting

When I read the Title IX blog, ESPN Magazine Profiles Homophobia and Recruiting, there was one quote that stood out from all the others. “More optimistically, it suggests that the changing cultural attitudes about lesbians will eventually catch up to athletics and render the lesbian stigma meaningless there too.” This quote stood out for me because it shows that judging athletes based on their sexuality will one day disappear out of sports, just like in the past when women weren’t allowed to play sports and now they have their own professional leagues. It shows that even though women are treated differently in sports that will all change in the future.

I then made a connection to the article we read, "Ideological Control of Women in Sport" by Susan Birrell and Nancy Theberge. Although the Title IX blog suggests that lesbianism will one day disappear, for now women athletes have to hide their sexuality. Birrell and Theberge stated that women athletes who are presented in the media are often sexualized or, more specifically, heterosexualized. This quote shows us that homosexual athletes have to hide their identity and “become” heterosexual so they are not judged and aren’t seen differently than heterosexual athletes. The problem with women athletes hiding their sexual identity is that people still may judge them based on their body. If a woman plays sports and is muscular, people could get the idea that she is a lesbian, because she is built like a man. Just as the Birrell and Theberge state in their article that if a woman can play football and press 300 pounds then what does it mean to be a man. This means that if a woman can do what a man can do, she must be just like a man.

As the Title IX blog shows, certain coaches, like the Iowa State coach, want to hide the homophobia by emphasizing that their program has a “family-oriented environment” and want their players to spread the word. I can understand that certain players, who are homophobic, would not want to play for a lesbian coach because they are scared of the power she has over them. However, what I cannot understand is that homophobic coaches wouldn’t allow homosexual players on their team, even if they are great. One example of this would be former Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland. Portland told players, while she was recruiting, that she would not accept lesbians on her team. I believe that if a player is good enough to play on a college team, sexuality should not be a factor. However some athletes can’t stand the pressure of hiding their sexuality. An example of this would be Emily Nkosi, who said that she left the Baylor basketball team because her internalized homophobia made her believe she would get killed. This kind of pressure should not be put on the players because a sports team is like a family. The coach and the players should accept their fellow athletes for what kind of person they are and not their sexuality.

Sport is a "Mirror of Cultural Norms"

Hardin’s Evaluation of the lack of coverage for the Connecticut Women’s Basketball team is a rather interesting view of Women’s vs. Men’s Sports. She brings up the fact that many people blame the media for causing our country to favor men’s sports over women’s sports. However, she disagrees with this assessment. She believes that society as a whole is to blame for this disparity. She believes that our society has certain gender “norms” and those are reflected in the differences between men and women’s sports. I happen to agree with Hardin. I fell as though our society is extremely nurturing of gender roles. Men are expected to work and make money for the family while women are expected to work less important jobs and cook and clean. This is reflected in our sports. Women’s sports are not anywhere near as popular as men’s sports in our society. I don’t entirely understand why this is true, but I believe that men professional athletes tend to be more athletic than women. I know many women would disagree with me but it is painfully obvious to me that this is true. If you look at the NBA, I would estimate that at least 90% of the players in the league can dunk a basketball. In the WNBA only one player can dunk a basketball. I think the difference in physical ability ties back into the gender norms. In my experience, women and men are expected to have certain body images. Women are supposed to be skinny while men are supposed to be ripped. I know many girls that are afraid of lifting weights because they do not want to become too buff in fear of being made fun of. Cultural norms are the biggest reason why men’s sports are more popular than women’s sports. The phenomenon ties into the concept that Sport is a “Mirror of Society.”

UConn winning streak coverage: Whose to blame?

I tend to somewhat agree with Hardin’s point in that the underlying assumption about the lack of women’s sports coverage starts with the spectators themselves. The media itself takes fault in the men versus women sports debate, but in fact they are essentially giving the audience what they want. This kind of coincides with the article “NCAA March Madness :An Investigation of Gender Coverage in USA Today During the NCAA Basketball tournaments” by Cooper. In this article she points out that coverage, based on attendance, participation, and revenue, men were only underrepresented in the attendance category, showing that men’s basketball supersedes women’s from an audience’s standpoint. The UConn women’s basketball streak was a huge story that gained national attention. They created a large debate how they had beaten the men’s streak but I believe they made an even bigger deal about when they lost. This reminded me of Birell’s “Ideoloical Control of Women in Sport” where she talks about representing women’s sport in the media as tragic. Instead of focusing along on the positive and their win streak, they made an enormous ordeal about their one loss and not the fact that they are still a top notch program. The only time that I ever usually see any talk of women’s basketball in general in a positive light is with the UConn or Baylor program just because they have 2 very poignant stars on the floor. Other than that, there is barely a snip it on ESPN or any major sports outlet about women’s basketball. Even Gino Auriemma chimes in and comments that" If we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go, 'Aren't those girls nice, let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let's send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.'"(http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=5937356) This somewhat coincides with the idea of power and the dominant ideology that women’s sports are watered down, not as action packed, and essentially more a hobby compared to male sports. I believe her statement how performance of gender has something to do with this, but her example of women wearing skirts and men not I think doesn’t fit here. I think a more appropriate analogy would be something like men are usually the victors and women are the ones that need help in situations of distress. This is definitely a norm embedded into are gender societal roles. I think a thing that starts out these gender norms are when we are little as indicated in Mark Messner’s “Playing Center: The Triad of Violence in Men’s Sports”. He talks of how even at small ages, boys and girls are somewhat conditioned in ways that coincide “correct” team names and colors that are appropriate for each gender. The ways in which we are conditioned as young children and the ways we view our own gender and the other really take a toll on us in the rest of our lives. It essentially nurtures us into creating our own ideologies of what is the “right” or “wrong” way to explore our gender. Hopefully as parents, we are able to display equity across genders and show that both have an equal opportunity and should have the same rights to play no matter what. However in the end, sporting journalism will always make women’s sporting news take a backseat to men’s, even in times of great triumph.

the idea of "family/family-oriented" and negative recruiting

Upon reading the Title IX blog posted on Thursday over the effects of negative recruiting and homophobia in women’s basketball, a few ideas and questions crossed my mind. The blog gave credit to ESPN The Magazine for publishing a profile on the role of homophobia in recruiting. Upon reading a young players recount of her recruiting experience at Iowa State and how the term “family-oriented” was used as a punch line in the process of homophobic recruiting, I was first unable to make the connection. Many coaches and players feel the need to stress their team as something much more than a team, but rather a family. Being a former and current athlete, I find this integral in team sports. The meaning behind family for me and many others is one of many deeply rooted emotions. For instance, in High School football, our team slogan was a simple acronym. TLCBF stood for Trust, Love, Commitment, Belief, and Faith. This was centered on the idea of all members of the team having all of these emotions or respects for the players and coaches around you, and relying on them in times of struggle both on and off the field. I thought to myself, “How in anyone’s right mind would they see the idea of a family as something with a negative connotation? “ It was after re-reading the article and blog post that I realized the differentiating viewpoints of myself being a male athlete and a college women’s basketball recruit. The idea that the lesbian variety of negative recruiting is unique to women’s basketball becomes a focal point in this discussion. When combining this with the idea of family, the question became clear; “What would the idea of a culturally stereotypical family look like in the eyes of someone of the LGBT community?” Obviously when dissecting the idea of exactly what a family atmosphere consists of, people’s views will be different. It’s simple enough for me to assume that my rash disagreement with this article stemmed from my small town, very conservative middle class upbringing. Going back to thinking about what exactly a coach is suggesting in his recruiting pitch, the term “family-oriented” can most definitely be seen as portraying the team in question as one that supports the hetero-normative or stereotypical idea of family in today’s society. Because of this, it’s easy to see exactly why a lesbian player would easily be turned away indirectly. I’d also like to point out that I still believe family is an integral part of team sports, but there is a difference on how you sell being a family to your players. As a coach, it’s your responsibility to make unbiased and fair decisions regarding all aspects of your team and for a coach like Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly to insist “family-oriented” as a staple of their program not only turns away possible LGBT recruits, but also suppresses current team members. Regardless if this is intentional or not, it’s not how you mean to portray it, its how others perceive it.

Media and the UConn win streak

I am sure at some point all or some of us have seen media coverage about the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, as they made their run to the equal the NCAA 88 game all time win streak (first held by the UCLA dominance during the 1970s) and eventually surpassing it one game cementing the team into NCAA basketball history.
But the underlying question of all of this is; how much media coverage was there highlighting the Lady Huskies run at the monumental feat that may not ever happen again, at least for another few years? From my own experience, there was more coverage of the university of Kentucky men's basketball team and John Wall while he played there for his lone season before going pro. Seriously the only player i know by name is Maya Moore for UConn.
As stated by in the NCAA march madness investigative jounral written by Coyte Cooper et. al. "More attention is given to march madness for the men's tournament than that of the women's tournament". Realistically it would not be any different during the regular season, in fact coverage more than likely would be much less.
Susan Birrell and Nancy Theberge discuss sports as a male preserve in the article Ideological Control of Women in sport. The male preserve aids sport in the construction of gender relations in our past, present and future society. The male preserve as stated by Birrell and Theberge promote masculinity and power by males. There is an underlying fear, however, which is the inclusion of women in the sporting realm where men have dominated for so long, and with that, their "power base and space would be compromised"
Though Title IX has been institutionalized for so many years now, there is still disparity between men's and women's sports from amateur to pros, i.e. Media coverage, prize money, sponsorships, etc.
The UConn women and all female athletes deserve all the positive accolades that is set upon them. They are athletes just as men are, and they work just as hard, maybe more but who really knows with the coverage?

Problems of Homophobia in the Recruiting Process

While there are many ways for coaches to negatively recruit players. The ESPN article talks specifically about the role homophobia plays in the recruiting process. I can understand that some homophobic players would not want to play for a coach who is gay and vice versa. However, I feel that sexual orientation should not play into factor. To someone like me who has never had to deal with multiple sexual preferences on a team, it seem that it should be as easy as saying; if you're gay your gay; if your straight, you're straight. However for others it's not that easy. The quote by University of Baylor player Emily Niemann, stating; "my internalized homophobia made me believe that if people found out I was gay, they would kill me" struck me as something that should be of big concern to the league. No players should have to fear for their life being threatened based on their sexuality. However, I think this issue is something that is going to continue to grow. While homophobic coaches may not want gay players on their team, players may not want a gay coach. Therefore; if a coach is a single woman, some players may be skeptical to starting mentor-type relationships with the coach or may not look into playing for the team all together. I feel like this problem is becoming bigger than the game itself. In my opinion players and coaches should be more concerned with how the team is preforming while going through the recruiting process than sexual orientations. Overall this is a major problem not only with dealing with negative recruiting but also with the way the women's basketball league will be continue to grow in the future.

Breaking the "Control"

After reading several posts from Pat Griffin’s LGBT Sport Blog, I found one post very interesting, “When Coaches Bully.” First off, this story is extremely sad. The fact that people in our world can be that mean to another human being makes me very upset. Also, these were not just any people; they were this “S.W.’s” coaches! I am not sure how often this happens, (in a near perfect world this would have been the first time) but occasions like this could be one reason why female athletes who are lesbian do not come out and say it. This, women athletes not coming out in public, has been a huge issue in sports over the years. In one of our readings, "Ideological Control of Women in Sport," homophobia and the problems it causes are brought up. The article talks about how men have been “holding down” women throughout sport, a sort of “control.” One of the ways that men have this “control” is through homophobia, and more directly, the problems homophobia causes concerning lesbian athletes. Birrell and Theberge talk about how lesbian women NEED to admit to the public their sexuality. They say that when women remain silent, “it undermines the sense of pride that precedes unity and action.” I believe that this is very true because when women say they are lesbian in public it shows men that women will “protest their (men’s) oppressive treatment.”

Overall, I believe that it would benefit women if lesbian women were able to feel comfortable and confident telling the public about their sexuality. However, people like the coaches mentioned by Pat Griffin keep “controlling” women and, in some cases, not letting them be who they truly are. I think that what is happening in Texas with “S.W.” is very important for the future of women escaping this “control.” If people like the coaches know that what they are doing is completely wrong and illegal, then this discrimination and the threats will slowly go away. When all of this happens it will allow women athletes to talk about their sexuality without fearing punishment in their respective sport.