Comparison of Barbara Ehrenreich"Bright-Sided" and " Mariah Burton Nelson, " I Won. I'm sorry." - Essay Example

It does this by looking at how these articles are in a dialogue about identified aspects of popular US culture discussed by these scholars. In I Won. Im sorry, Nelson presents a candid and insightful discussion on the gender stereotyping in athletics as one of the popular cultures in USA. As a former basketball player, Nelson alludes to her own experiences because she happened to have actively engaged in her favorite game at a time when US culture was quite skeptical ob the involvement of women in certain sporting activities.

With her first-hand experiences, Nelson acknowledges that indeed, gender inequality is quite evident in athletics in the country. Due to the patriarchal nature of the society, men have been brought up to believe that there are certain games that should not only be reserved for them. To them, the womenfolk should only concentrate on skating, gymnastics and tennis. The other prominent feature that appears in Nelson’s discussion is the issue of feminism. Even if the society is slowly transforming and giving room to the women to be active in athletics, a lot of concern is raised about how their involvement in athletics can make them to behave.

Unlike their male counterparts, women are supposed to be careful not to be viewed as masculine. She says ‘Women want to be tall enough to feel elegant and attractive, like models. They want to feel respected and looked up to. But they don’t want to be so tall that their height threatens men. They want to win — to achieve, to reach new heights — but without exceeding male heights’ (P 570). Meaning, they are still viewed as a weaker sex who should apologize for appearing masculine and at times have to feature in nude adverts so as to prove to the society that they are still elegant and have the beauty that qualified them as feminine creatures who must be dominated by the male