Male Patriarchy Exemplified by Media Subliminally

After reading many of the blogs about the retaliation of the media and others from the blog last week about the Male high school wrestler forfeiting to a women competitor based on religion and proper etiquette, I found the most recent post on the Title IX topic very interesting. I not only was taken aback by the title of a major blog post, but the correction is what bothered me even more. Regardless of your thoughts on the issue, simply enough titling a blog “The unforeseen consequences of Title IX” was a legitimate form of reinforcing patriarchy. Not only does the title correction validate the point that the author was incorrect, but it also shows that his first notion was to assert that the reason behind this was because of Title IX. Patriarchy can be defined as “A structured an ideological system of relationships that legitimate male power over women and the labor they provide” as learned from our reading and notes. Patriarchy also relates “Directly to ideologies of superiority like sexism, heterosexism, and racism. “ When you combine the ideology of superiority of sexism in conjunction with the simple action a blogger took in titling his blog, it’s easy enough to make the correlation of subliminal patriarchy in the media. Even if this author didn’t intend to, he reinforced this social idea.

The author of the Title IX blog had a line that stuck out more than the rest: “no one seems to be writing pieces titled The Unforeseen Consequences of Equal Protection.” Not only is this author unintentionally supporting the symbolic annihilation and trivialization of women in sport, (as described by Dr. Birrell and in our texts) but these secondary source accounts like blogs skew our culture’s thoughts of women in sport: not only did he choose not to compete ‘because of title IX’, but he ‘must’ be inherently weak as a male athlete. In my mind, as far as we’ve come from patriarchy being pulled from the public eye via media, it’s still completely prevalent and the most viewable in sport.

Last week there was a lot of talk about the two females that made it to the state wrestling meet for the first time in the 91 years it has been held. Personally, I think this is awesome, I love that females are going out there and doing whatever sport they want to, even if it is looked at as a predominantly male sport like wrestling. Obviously these females have wrestled plently of men to get to where they are because there is no girls wrestling in high schools so they have to be on the boys team. These girls are also obviously very good to make it to the state wresting meetso I think they should have some respect for beating all those men to get there. But when it comes to one of the girls, she took one step closer to the finals just because one boy didn't want to wrestle her, it was against his religion. This is understandable in a way, it is hard to make someone do something if he or she says it is against their religion. But the young man said that it was against his religion because wrestling isn't something a female should do and it isn't how you treat a lady. Yeah, you don't treat a lady like that and you know, slamming her to the ground and laying on her, but if this is what she wants to do and is putting herself out there, I think it's a little disrespectful. Also, hearing that him and his family don't believe that women should participate in contact sports and it's not "lady-like," is a little hard to hear for a girl that is a fighter. I can only imagine what that family would think of me and other women like myself. Of course, there are other women in taekwondo and I only fight them at tournaments, but I train with men and fight them all the time and they have no problem with it.

I know that this issue has caused a ruckus of sort, but I love that it happened. Title IX has worked hard to get equal rights for everyone and that involves females being able to play sports. I think it is a huge step for us to have females in the state wrestling meet and hopefully there will be more to come.

Female Wrestling

For the first time in history last week at Iowa's state wrestling meet, two girls qualified for the tournament. In the 91 years that the Iowa has had its state meet, this is the first time that any female has been eligible to compete on the mats. But when Cassy Herkelman was matched up against Joel Northrup, he refused to wrestle her and forfeited his match. One would ask why would one of the best wrestlers of his weight class refuse to wrestle just because his opponent was a girl? Northrup felt that wrestling Herkelman was against his religion, thus forfeiting the match was his best option. Herkelman worked her way up to the state wrestling meet just like any other boy with a record of 20 wins and 13 losses, but according to the views of the Northrup family, women should not be participating in a combat sport like wrestling, and used this as a support system for why the 16 year old would not be wrestling his opponent. Even in different era's of sport as we talked in class, there are some activities that women were not allowed to participate in do the type of activity or combat that the sport entailed, wrestling for instance would never be permitted. But what Northrup pleads goes against everything that Title IX stands for or has been working to achieve. Many different posts dealt with this topic and whether or not Title IX is to blame, and after reading the "Title IX Media Helper" it made it a little more clear on whether or not this issue was classified under the issue of sex discrimination that Title IX strives so hard to prevent. I think that it was honestly the concept that in his religion women should be treated with respect and in a sport like wrestling, that would not happen, but I feel Northrup took it to the extremes and needs to realize and see that this is a sport and there is no women's wrestling team at any school, so they should be freely allowed to participate without any sexual discrimination bestowed upon them. But according to him, being a female and in a sport such as wrestling is seen as not acceptable, which I find completely unfair. Luckily though Title IX has made it possible so that Herkelman was even able to compete in the state tournament, as she may not have been able to when Title IX first began. Al lot of progress has been made, but there are still things that need to be resolved in some areas as we have experienced at the 2011 Iowa state wrestling meet.

Women in Mens Sports

Recently in the news a Male high school wrestler forfeited to a Female wrestler at the state wrestling tournament in Iowa, because it was against his religion. The male was set to make a run at the Championship, but that wouldn't happen after he forfeited his first round match. The young male should have never been put in this situation in the first place, it is a masculine sport and no place for girls to be unless they have all girls. Males are superior in strength and speed, and that's the reason that men aren't allowed to join the women's volleyball team or softball teams in certain high school. Women have got there way when it come to sports and Title IX. If they want more sports they can go argue about it more and and have them put a female wrestling team in place, but they have no business in Male sports. Sports are all about competition and when a Male is matched against a Female it is a lose-lose situation. Wrestling is a very grueling sport and body parts are grabbed and grouped, and for a guy to get interact with a female like that puts him in an uncomfortable position. What happens if the Male hurts the female? Then he is looked at as a bully. Then there is if he loses and I've been around wrestling a lot and seen plenty of women try to wrestle with the guys, and it doesn't happen hardly ever, but if it does the embarrassment it brings to the Male from the harassment he receives from his friends. My point is this young Male wrestler should have never had to forfeit to this Female in the first place and give up his chances for gold. The Athletic Associations need to make changes to this rule.

Title IX an Issue at State Wrestling?

Joel Northrup was one of the top wrestlers at this years the Iowa High School State Wrestling meet this year until he defaulted and lost to an opponent. Why would a top ranked wrestler do such a thing when he is in the mix to win it all? Well his opponent he was supposed to face was a woman. Cassy Hekelman wrestled her way up to face Joel and deserved the right to wrestle him. Joel then stated why he defaulted and didnt wrestle Cassy, and he blamed it on religion, the violence and gender roles of women. Joel's father is a priest and he is very religious and made a clear statement that he didnt think that girls deserved to be thrown around and wrestled with. I think that this goes against everything that Title IX is trying to prove. That no person on the basis of sex should be discriminated against or denied access to an activity that is recieving Federal funds. You can clearly see that Joel is discriminating against wrestling a women based on the mere fact that she is one and has strong religious beliefs about the woman gender roles. An interesting fact is that Joel or anyone never mentions Title IX in any of their observations of the State Wrestling controversies when a clear example of what it is trying to stand for is being put into play. This act of discrimination also made be think about what we talked about in class with what Elenor Matheny says about women and what is appropriate and what is not. Elenor explains that it is not appropriate for any woman to engage in any activity that involves the overcoming of an opponent using bodily force. So to go along with Joel's statement with gender roles, Elenor does not think that women should be using bodily force to overcome an opponent, a good example would be wrestling. The thing that I find funny is that a lot of reporters and people covering the event never really go over to Cassy and get her take on what happened that day and how she felt about getting discriminated against just for being a women. I mean she was just as involved in the controversy as much as Joel was and all we are hearing about in the blogs and papers is what Joel thought and why he didn't wrestle. In my opinion, I take what Joel did that day as an act of fear and selfishness. I mean she earned her way to that match and she deserved every bit to go against a top ranked wrestler and prove she deserved to be there and instead she was shot down and it almost seemed like she didnt earn a thing because she won by default. I think Joel took a lot of pride out of her journey at the meet and she deserved the match just as equally as any man there.

Is Title IX to Blame?

Title IX, in the United States, primarily forbids any sex discrimination in activities and educational programs that are given federal funds. After hearing about the male wrestler, Joel Northrup, from Iowa who forfeited his match at state wrestling against his female opponent, Cassy Hekelman, I didn’t know what to think. I wondered if I should feel outraged being in the female view of this situation or if I should understand where the boy was coming from. But, after reading the Title IX blog it made me think about a lot of things relating to this issue that I hadn’t thought about before. It discusses Kirk Mango’s article in the Chicago Tribune titled, “The Unforeseen Consequences of Title IX”. Clearly the writer of this blog is in total disagreement with the idea that title IX is the issue here, and it made me question this as well. It made me ask myself, is title IX to blame for this event occurring in the first place, or is the event of male wrestlers sometimes forfeiting, in the event of wrestling a female, a result of issues outside of this? Throughout reading the whole blog several times I realized that I was in agreement with the author. It made me realize how often title IX is misunderstood and used in the wrong context. In the article “Title IX Media Helper” in the book “Women and Sports in the United States”, it states that title IX requires that the athletic programs meet the interests and abilities of each gender. Title IX was fulfilling it’s purpose by allowing the girl to wrestle at state with the same abilities given to the male wrestlers. In no way does was the act of title IX forcing the male wrestler to compete against the female therefore, I see it irrelevant in this situation. This blog made me understand more than ever the misconceptions that come along with acts such as title IX. I feel that before people, such as Mango, go about blaming these situations as a result of title IX or any other act, that they should have a full understanding of what the act entails and what their purposes are.

What is to blame?

After all the media attention last week pertaining to the female athletes that had made it to the state-wrestling tournament in Des Moines, I felt proud to be from Iowa. A female athlete in a male dominant sport hadn’t made it to the state tournament in years. I was disappointed to hear and also read about all the attention that was being focused on the controversial topic of Joel Northrup defaulting to Cassy Hekelman in the beginning rounds of the tournament. Reading over the post “Default was not “consequence” of Title IX”, I was with out words. The post discusses how Kirk Mango blames Title IX for Joel Northrup defaulting to Cassy Hekelman. Title IX is quite a controversial subject, and I myself am not exactly clear on what it fully entails. But after reading over “Title IX Media Helper”, I feel I have the basis understanding that, Title IX is to “prohibit any sex discrimination in any sort of educational program and activity at any educational institution,”(WSUS 327). On that note I don’t see how Kirk Mango can justify the fact that Title IX, in any shape was the reason for Joel to default his match. Title IX is to promote gender equality to any person in the US and shouldn’t be excluded based on sex. Joel didn’t default his match due to Title IX, but to religious morals and values. In his eyes being involved in a contact sport with a female isn’t seen acceptable. Growing up in a community where wrestling is considerable to Friday night football, it is still questioned when a female athlete is seen wrestling on the mat. The development of Title IX has allowed female athletes to not be discriminated in any educational surroundings due to sex. Thought Title IX has developed so much in the last 30 years it still has some tuning to be done, especially with women in the collegiate and professional field. The progress of Title IX has allowed Cassy to compete in a male dominant sport, for instance 30 years ago, she might haven’t been able to do so. I hope to see in future come that eventually there will be more equality for women in collegiate and professional sport.

Out of the Locker Room Closet

High School wrestler Jamie Loo is a native of Panama who came to San Francisco to compete for the Mission School District. Loo came to California knowing that he was gay, but not knowing what to do about it. He wasn't sure if he should tell someone or come out to his teammates in fear of being made fun of and cast aside for his sexual preference. Sports teams can have such a huge impact on an athletes life because of the strong family connection between the teammates. Having a good, strong team connection can make or break your experience as an athlete. I know that for me personally, my teammates have always been the best aspect of my sports experience and one of the main reasons as to why I love it so much. It is hard enough to fit in as a "normal' person, but to be different and have a different sexual orientation than all your other teammates could make it a lot harder to fit in and be accepted.

In the article about Jamie Loo, it talks about how most kids stories go untold or are very short when they are homosexual. Jamie was scared that he would be hated for who he was and he would lose everyone that was close to him. Jamie talked about being afraid to fit into the stereotype so he played along with his friends, pretending he was straight. This is where the problem really lies. So many times, society makes up these stereotypes about certain kinds of people and because of those negative connotations, people try their best to stay away from them. Even if they aren't true. It's horrible when people don't think that they can be themselves because they are too afraid of how they will be treated because of it. That's why after reading Jamie's story, I was really impressed with how he reacted to the situation and stayed true to himself and who he was. It's stories like that that you hear that really help other people and give them hope to come out themselves and not have to put up an act. He made a commitment to himself and to others and he knew that quitting was the easy way out, so he stuck with it and ended up on top.

The Ongoing Backlash From Title IX

When I heard about the news coming out of the Iowa state wrestling meet I found it very interesting. If you have not heard the news, a male wrestler refused to face a female wrestler in the state wrestling meet on the basis of his faith. As interesting and as sensitive as the topics that this story has the potential to bring up, I never thought that anyone would try to blame the event on Title IX. It is true that Title IX has not been recieved very favorable since its inception in 1972. People have blamed Title IX for the unnecesary cutting of male athletic programs while, at the same time, it has created numerous, some would say undeserving, womens athletic programs but to say that Title IX is somehow a cause of the events that transpired at the state wrestling meet is absolutly ludacris. Title IX's main goal is to promote gender equality in the realm of sports. Title IX does not require the same sports for both men and women and does not even require the integration in terms of contact sports. The women wrestler was allowed to participate in wrestling not because of Title IX but, more than likely, because she was allowed to play by her school's higherups. I know that Title IX is still not viewed in a very favorable light and will, more than likely, continue to be blamed for things that it has no control over but one day I would hope that the majority of people involved in sport are knowledgable to know what Title IX can and can not due.

Glenn Burke and Homophobia

Few may be familiar with the name Glenn Burke, but his story is one of extreme tragedy due to one small problem. Glenn Burke was a Black, gay man, playing professional baseball in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Not only did Burke face racial tension, but the homophobia surrounding sports in our society led to the demise of his career and life.

Burke was a highly touted star in the Dodger’s minor league to and was considered to be the next Willie Mays. This hype eventually led to his opportunity to play in the MLB for the Dodgers. His time in LA was filled with difficult times though. Burke wrote that his General Manager at the time, Al Campanis, offered to pay for his honeymoon trip if Burke agreed to get married to a woman, after learning Burke was a homosexual. Not only did Burke refuse, rather, he befriended team manager Tommy Lasorda’s gay son. The unhappy Lasorda had Burke eventually traded to the Oakland Athletics. Here, Burke faced a homophobic manager, Billy Martin, who was quoted as calling him a “faggot” in front of the entire team. In addition to a knee injury before the season, the Athletics released Burke in 1979. Stating “Prejudice drove me out of baseball sooner than I should have, but I wasn’t changing, prejudice won out,” Burke left professional sports for good at the age of 27.

After retiring, Burke still remained active, competing in the 1982 and 1986 Gay Games, where he won medals in the 100 and 220 meter sprints in 1982. Unfortunately, Burke turned to drugs, particularly cocaine, and became a heavy addict. Combined with fighting AIDS, Glenn Burke died at the age of 42 in 1995.

I think it Glenn Burke’s story is truly something sad. Unlike other athletes who play out their whole careers loved by the fans and coaching staff, Burke never had that opportunity. Despite his incredible skill, the homophobia surrounding professional sports eventually pushed Burke completely out of the picture, ending his career extremely short. It’s sad that such individuals can let such unimportant things, such as sexual orientation, ruin a career especially in a situation in which it shouldn’t make a difference. Overall, I think that without such prejudice in our sporting culture, Glenn Burke could have been a major superstar and potentially changed the dynamic of baseball how we know it. The only question I have is how many more great athletes have we missed out of due to homophobia in today’s professional sports?

Standing up against discrimination

Apparently there has been a movement that I was unaware of until now. Heterosexual athletes are now joining in the fight against anti-gay discrimination in sports, and some athletes namely Sean Avery of the New York Rangers hockey team is going as far as offering personal support and visitation to any young athlete (fly out to their homes) who are thinking about or wanting to exposing their sexual orientation to their teammates.

Sean Avery joins a growing list of current and former athletes and sports administrators who make their voices heard and opinions known about the atrocities of discrimination. Such sports personalities include Charles Barkley, Steve Nash, Ohio State Football coach Jim Tressel, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke and son Patrick, just to name a few.

Though these actions are very admirable and they deserve all the praise that comes forth to them, Pat Griffin makes a good point; all the names mentioned above are of male personalities. Where are the women athletes, coaches and administrators who could stand up publicly as their male counterparts are doing?

My questions are as follows:
1) Are women sorority more afraid to join in the public discourse of anti-gay discrimination?
2) Is there more a serious backlash for women if they joined such a movement?
3) Will society revert to the old way of thinking that female athletes themselves were either masculine or gay resulting from sports participation?

In response to questions 2 and 3; at the very least women have at their disposal the feminine apologetic, where their femininity can be emphasized with makeup etc. Men do not have that luxury of having a masculine apologetic or something to that nature to dispel homosexuality.

I totally agree that people who stand up sends a clear message that there are things that need to change for the better, so allowing inclusion in sports rather than exclusion.

Now I know everyone has their very own opinions on gay, lesbian, LGBT etc, we live in a free country after all. But seriously, who are we to judge and discriminate against anyone?

The homosexual athelete in a male-dominated institution

Reading this story on the LGBT blog was very inspiring to me personally. Coming from a sporting background and having played sports all my life, the pressure around sport to succeed and fit the’ ideal male athlete role’ is extremely prevalent and easily viewable. Sport as a male preserve definitely comes into play here. The male athlete is seen as extremely heterosexual; not feeling pain, not complaining, and not being a ‘sissy’ or acting like a ‘girl’. I think there’s definitely a negative stereotype when it comes to gay men as well. The cultural assumption is that these men are very ‘hyper-feminine’ and being able to associate with the female gender better than the male gender. This blog is a great view into sport of how an athlete overcame cultural and sport boundaries. "Before I came out, I feared that I would be hated for who I am – all friendships would be gone, family would no longer love me, and all the stereotypes would come true," Jaime said. "I basically played along with my friends, pretending that I was straight." When he decided to come out, the responses from his teammates were what really surprised me. “You? Really” one athlete stated, which makes me realize even more that sport as a male preserve isn’t always the case. A sport like wrestling is even more masculine in my opinion, solely based upon the fact that the grappling and moves associated with the sport could be grounds for heterosexual athletes being uncomfortable with competing with a homosexual opponent. This also leads me to touch on the matrix of domination. Jaime didn’t have any control over how others viewed him, which made it difficult at first for him to come out. His story is unique though, because instead of seeing sport as a hyper-masculine dominated institution, he used it as his stepping stone to come out. At first he told a few players and coaches, then with their encouragement he became more confident and was able have the courage to tell others outside the team. His coach (who wrote this article) became his role model and mentor, encouraging and pushing him to be himself. It just goes to show that regardless of your sexual orientation, there are people breaking the traditional ideas of men in sport.

Learning to Change

While reading the post 'Changing the Title IX narrative: A prescription for change' on the Sports, Media, & Society blog, it surprisingly got me thinking about the reading this week by Frances E. Willard, 'How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle'. While these to readings initially seemed unrelated, as I read the blog post I began to understand more how they are actually quite similar. The blog post discusses how women's sports activists are gathering to recognize National Girls and Women in Sports day and to encourage people to keep pushing for the benefits of Title IX. Something very important that the blog pointed out was that the majority of institutions that fall within the guidelines of the law laid by Title IX do so merely out of compliance. While this is still a good thing, simply doing the bare minimum will not help advance women's rights and equality in sport. As the blog said, we need to find ways to adopt new ways to frame sports in order to de-masculinize the entire concept of athletics. It was at this point in the reading that I thought back to the Willard article that I had read. In the article Willard wrote of learning to ride a bicycle at the age of 53. It was an extremely challenging adventure and many people thought that this was an almost impossible task for a woman of her age to undertake. But Frances Willard pushed through and in about three months she was riding. I think this anecdote by Willard describes exactly how things will be for our society in regards to pushing for women's equality in sport. Things will have to change, and therefore be different from before, and this scares many people. But we must push on anyhow, even though it will be a change from the 'old' ways. Many people think that our media coverage and the way we view female athletes is ok, merely because we are used to it. But just as Willard learned to ride a bike, the second time was easier than the first, the third time was easier than the second, and so on until it is done without any conscious effort, so must be our efforts to challenge existing cultural meanings and ideas attached to women in sport

Who will stand up?

Earlier this week, I was follwing Pat Griffin's blog in where she states that heterosexual women and men need to stand up against anti-gay discrimination. For example, Sean Avery, a member of the NHL New York Rangers, told a newspaper that he "will support any young hockey player who wants to come out". After reading this quote from this athlete, several things began to run through my mind. I find it an interesting concept that Griffin presents, although certain athletes and prominent figures do not neccessarily have a problem with ones sexual orientation, but speaking out to others, shows that they don't have a problem with it, but want to make others aware of their stance towards the issue, so ultimately everyone will become more accepting in the sport world.

In the US today, there is still a presence of inequality in sport. Not just in relation to ones sexual choice but also in the continuous struggle for women as well to gain the proper recognition that they deserve after all these years. In our reading(s) this week, as early as the Olympics, sports were dominated by males and females experienced subordination (Hargreaves 3). Although not everyone believes that sports are just male-dominated, many believe that sports are not appropriate for women, specifically in relation of their body figure. Many claim that the sports women participate in will negatively affect their female figure. To answer this, a possible tweak of women's sports, many find, will solve this problem and therefore women will not have to experience this change to their reproductive bodies. I completely disagree with this, and it is very frustrating that many think altering these sports will in turn help the female, where I find that this will do more harm than hurt. The image above is of champion diver Matthew Mitcham and basketball player, Liz Cambage. I found this image relevant simply because of the sport each one of them decided to pursue. One may think that the male would be a basketball player, and the female the diver; but we can see that females and males are filling sports roles that would fall under a certain category of "more masculine, or more feminine". In this article it also speaks of women and their need for acceptance and recognition for what they do in sport, considering it is parallel at times to males. In the article, they speak of former triple world champion boxer, Jeff Fenech and how he is throwing his support behind women. Jeff doesn't necessarily not like the position of women in sport, but by him standing up and speaking out to the public, the issue of women in sport will gain more attention, which is ultimately what it needs. When Fenech steps out, especially when he is a prominent and successful athlete, people listen, and hopefully people that had a different perspective on women, so by listening to Fenech, slowly but surely, women will begin to gain the repsect they deserve (website). The article relates back to Pat Griffin's blog, just like heterosexual athletes should stand up for against anti-gay discrimination, males athletes should speak in favor of women athletes. It is extremely powerful when a figure like an athlete speaks to the public because they have status and the public may be more familiar with this person. In general, for change in sport to occur, and become more equal, individuals need to speak in favor of these others so others will also become more accepting and it will begin to become the norm. How can we expect change if no one will make a statment saying that change needs to be made? Jeff Fenech states, "they do everything that we do and they deserve as much as us males" (http://www.smh.com.au/sport/fenech-hits-out-for-more-recognition-for-women-20110119-19woa.html).

Speaking up

When I first started reading Pat Griffin’s post, A Call for Heterosexual Women and Men in Women’s Sport to Stand Up to Anti-Gay Discrimination on her LGBT blog, I was happy to see another profession male athlete had publically spoke out in support for homosexual hockey players. I think that anti-gay discrimination in sport is an important issue that needs to be addressed more frequently. I personally find it sad that the topic of sexuality has become what is has in the context of sport; the sexuality of an athlete has nothing to do with their performance on the field.

In the post Pat Griffin specifically calls out female heterosexual athletes for their lack of involvement against the anti-gay discrimination, which I have some issues with. I do think that anti-gay discrimination is an extremely important issue that should be addressed by both female and male athletes alike but I think it is wrong to call out heterosexual female athletes specifically. I don’t think that heterosexual female athletes should be held responsible for speaking out any more than homosexual female athletes should and vise versa. Does it matter if the person speaking out is straight or gay? I don't think it should, I think it is more pertinent that the topic is being addressed, than who it is being addressed by. I understand the difficulty associated with a homosexual speaking out against the anti-gay discrimination but I think both homosexuals and heterosexuals alike should take a stand. I think that Pat Griffin's argument in her post took away from the real issue at hand, the homophobia and anti-gay discrimination that exist in sport.​