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.​