Sports, Entertainment and Media after the 2nd World War - Essay Example

 Sports, Entertainment and Media after the 2nd World War Throughout Europe during the past three decades, there has been an increase in the participation of women in recreational and top level sports. It is not only a way of staying healthy and strong but is also a great form of entertainment. After the 2nd World War, there was only a small female minority of under 10% in sport organizations, but today; females are active participants in a range of sporting activities and in most European countries, the members of organized sports are females between 30% and 40%. Still there are many sports which are labeled as fit only for men or women on the basis of physicality. As most discussions within the sociology of sports literature have focused on male physicality, therefore, the term “physicality” has taken on a masculine connotation and appears to be linked with the male power which is symbolized in the masculinity of the male body and is considered to be a key indicator of masculinity. By associating physicality with masculinity, certain sports/activities are labeled as either being masculine or feminine, depending upon the physical nature of the activity. Sports in which the use of body is forceful, dominating or aggressive, are considered fit for males because they are indicators of male power and thus, a definitive expression of physicality. But according to Lisa McDermott, physicality is suggested to be the complex interplay of the body perception, the agency and self-perception and is related to the qualitative understanding the lived-body as experienced and understood by the women when they are involved in sports or physical activities. To explore the meaning and significance the women derive from experiencing their bodies/themselves through these activities and the effects of these experiences greatly helps in shaping their understanding of their physicality beyond that of appearance in particular. By doing so she tries to help us understand the physical and social effect these experiences have on women in identifying themselves. In reference to the research carried out by Lisa McDermott; “Towards Understanding of Physicality, Within the Context of Women’s Physically Active and Sporting Lives,” this paper will examine female physicality in relation to sports and my chosen game; “Netball.” It will discuss how society and media projects and labels certain sports only for males and how the females are subjected to unequal status as being physically weak. The paper will also look into the gender relations based on social and cultural norms. The last part will assess, to which extent; taking part in physical sport has changed the concept of female physicality, subjectivity and gender relations in relation to the existing social norms. Sports and gender Sports in the minds of many, is considered a “gendered” activity which reinforces male power. The stereotyping of the so called “biological difference” between males and females in the past was used as the basis of exclusion of females from sport. Within the literature of sport sociology, we often find physicality linked with power related to physical power and masculinity. Even though the postmodern society holds out the likelihood of a post-gender society, gender as a system signifying differential values still exists (Firat, 1994) with sport such as rugby, football, ice hockey or boxing, and women still looked at as wives and mothers. An example in this respect is golf, where mothers on golf courses are more likely to be labeled deviant and asked to account for the care of their families than fathers on golf courses (West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman, 1987). Although there are other sports which reflect physical strength and women are actively participate in them, but I’ll discuss netball here in relation to physicality. Netball as a sport, which was earlier cited as only for females, entered a new era after the 70s when it began to be restructured into a professionally administrated sporting organization and better funding. The administrators of the netball began to promote the sport’s image and profile to a broader section of the community. To get better funding, each sport had to demonstrate that it had both national appeal and the potential to grow. But due to greater media exposure, male-dominated sports appeared better positioned to capitalize funding opportunities as compared to netball, which did not enjoy the same coverage given to male sports. Studies show that there is little difference between sporting activity between boys and girls up to the age of twelve years. Sargent, Zillman, and Weaver (1998) found that boys and men show greater interest in football, ice hockey, basketball, soccer and baseball, which are typically characterized as aggressive and competitive. Boys entering manhood have ample chances to involve in sport while girls entering womanhood may find rather limited opportunities to enter sports. Jennifer Hargreaves (1994) has suggested that the impact of feminist intervention is sport sociology has been to “uncover ways in which men’s power over women has been institutionalized.” (p. 26) Physicality in relation to netball Netball despite being a vigorous game not only provides exercise but the sport also conforms to dominant understanding of femininity and physicality of females. Physicality in relation to sports is termed as the masculinity of the male body whereas, the physically active experiences or sports like netball or aerobics requiring physical skill, the use of excessive strength and great physical exertion, are merely defined as a residual to the experiences of men. This form of interpretation to physicality poses significant problems by verifying masculinity or physical power as the embodiment of aggression and physical domination. Netball as a sport is defined to be reliant on rapid acceleration, to break free of an opponent with sudden and rapid changes in direction; and in combination with leaps to receive a pass. The players intercept a ball or rebound after attempting to goal and all these moves require great physical strength and agility. Taking all these characteristics into consideration, the degree of physical ability required along with the great deal of aggressive body usage, confrontation and body contact, it is a clear that this game requires and shows physicality and body power which the females exhibit while playing this game. Although netball as a team based sport is predominantly played by females of all ages and skill levels, but it is becoming increasingly popular as a male sport as well and mixed competitions are also becoming popular. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data for the year 1998 indicates that for young girls aged 5-14 years, Netball and Swimming were the most popular sports or physical activities, in which the rate of participation was 20.5 % and 15% respectively. Physicality is also associated with masculinity through labeling certain sport activities as being either “masculine or feminine” depending upon the physical nature of the activity. Sport in which confrontation and physical contact are implicit, are often viewed as definitive expressions of physicality. Women by playing physically and mentally demanding sport like netball, are being strong, getting muddy and dirty and having physical sporting contact. By doing so they are demonstrating a shift in what is deemed acceptable female behavior and have proven that, “Women who engage in physical activity report increase psychological well-being and self esteem compared to those who do not……suggests that a desire to uphold the view of women as the physically inferior sex is more prevalent than objective, unequivocal scientific truth.”(Precilla Y. L Choi. P.16). By engaging themselves in robust physical activity like netball, women were able to respond to the old view that strenuous exercises could prove harmful to health and reproductive capabilities. With the progression of the rules and its popularity, netball changed into a sport combining strength, determination and competitiveness with grace, physicality, cooperation and femininity. Female subjectivity In order to understand women’s sporting physicality in terms of subjectivity, is to understand female bodies as physical entities rather than accepting the existing cultural belief; that legitimizes hegemonic masculinity as physicality. Netball requires physical skill, the use of excessive strength and great physical exertion and women’s overwhelming participation in the sport over decades, is a clear proof that females too have the ability to take part in physical games. The concept of women being fit for light exercise is also central in oppressing women within the context of sports and physical activities, having taken on a gender disposition, considered only to be associated with men. This interpretation has led to the analysis of the relationship between sexuality and physicality. It is believed that by linking sexuality and physicality, the males try to prevent women from participating in physical and sport activities, and in doing so they are probably fearful of declining male power rather than oppressing women. To understand the meaning of subjective experiences of embodied consciousness, one needs to focus on women’s experiences of their bodily practices and physicality. The term physicality simply means how one experiences oneself physically, therefore, one can clearly reject the idea that sporting physicality only relates to particular kind of male power or masculinity or to specific skills or sports. It is equally inappropriate to look at the experiences of women that have potentially derived its meaning from the experiences of men. What is necessary is to establish parameters; to clarify both the diversities and commonalities of women’s physically active bodily experiences. Female subjectivity in relation to sports is how the body accesses and experiences the world; which helps in self-discovery. Bodily experience is something that only the individual lives through, therefore, information about it is only directly available to that person. It is through the body, the physical agency; that the individual learns to resist, accommodate or dominate the physically active bodily experiences. To assess the concept of physicality within sports in general and netball in particular, is to embrace and articulate the lived bodily experiences of women. Netball as a sport served as a mechanism to break away from the social control which symbolized a subordinate role for women as weak and delicate in comparison to men. Although sport physicality has been primarily used in relation to men’s experiences, its inherent gender neutrality is what ultimately permits its application to the bodily experiences of both men and women. Female athletes symbolically threaten male hegemony and women engaged in sports requiring physical strength like netball and canoeing etc, often have their sexuality called into question and are treated as sporting sex symbols when photographed for magazines and newspapers. Even the successful female athletes are often positioned in sexually suggestive poses, as inactive and glamorous, while totally ignoring their athletic skills and performance and making them more of an object of desire for the male gaze. On the other hand, the male athletes are photographed as strong macho men. In a study on golf magazine representations, Mass and Hasbrook (2001) found that golf magazines do little to hegemonic masculinity. Media coverage Different forms of sport are a great source of entertainment for people of all groups and ages and the best source for this entertainment is the media. But despite the continuing increase in interest and participation of women in the sport arena, the media coverage has been unequal which affects not only the female participation, but also their body image along with the professional opportunities available to them. Due to less media representation, netball was unfairly losing out to the dominant male sports, which was evident not only in quantity but quality as well. In terms of quantity, majority of coverage has been devoted to male athletes as compared to the time and space devoted to female athletes by the same media. But determined to get a fair share in media projection, netball won a new place not only in Australia but as a world sport when the Australian Netball team was consistently in the top three countries in world championships, and had an extraordinary large player base. Inadequate media coverage was not only limited to netball but also to women’s sports in general. However, the media coverage for netball came of age in 1991, when Australia won the World Netball Championships over New Zealand before a Sydney crowd of 12,000. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) began regular match coverage with the Mobil Super League, finally giving netball; sustained media coverage. In a study carried out by Messner Duncan and Cooky (2003) related to the media broadcast sports coverage, the three major network newscast in Los Angeles were found not only to cover women less, but gave them virtually no airtime on weekdays. The bulk of women’s coverage was saved by them just for the weekends. They also found that despite the lack of women’s coverage on networks, the ESPN Sport Center aired an even a smaller proportion of women sport coverage. The media portrayal of netball players also perpetuates the notion of emotional women and rational men and viewers and readers often uncritically analyze and accept these stereotyping, trivializing, devaluing or ambivalent messages and notions as true. Such media coverage present sexist ideology and takes away their potential power in sports. Women are also more likely to be depicted as sobbing or being consoled by their coaches or other players after a defeat, while male athletes being encouraged to ignore and deny injuries because admitting injury is equivalent to admitting weakness, which is considered feminine. And in a hyper-masculine world of sport, this would be a highly stigmatizing thing for any athlete to do. But we now see evidence of women appearing less submissive in athletic company advertisements. When analyzing females in such advertisements, they appear less concerned as to how men view and perceive them, and appear instead as they see themselves. Gender relations The women’s restricted experiences of their physicality have served to promote the belief that males are physically superior to women. This has resulted in a gender hierarchy not only in the field of sports, but also in the wider social context of male social superiority. For sport feminists, the issues related to physical activity and female body, offer an innovative approach to gender relations and presents a new perspective to the existing gender dynamic between the two sexes. They argue that to achieve equality, the socially constructed gender differences need to be eliminated, to treat everyone the same and accord the same rights. But the problem with this logic is that female bodily existence is learned when a female comes to understand that she is a female and from an early age, learns to experience and understand her body as physically passive, weak, lacking spirit and is alienated from her body. . Netball created an acceptable avenue for women to strive for physical excellence and an articulation of independence and thus challenged the normative model of sport. This game provided a platform to feel comfortable about expressing their abilities not just as players, but also coaches, umpires and administrators. Participating in sports and other physical activities has helped women come out of the bounds of passivity and live an active life. And by challenging to be physically passive the women have resisted to experience their bodies as subject and object within the patriarchal culture. The women by becoming physically active are able to resist oppression due to social and political factors. Physical activity in their lives has greatly helped them to eradicate the belief that physical power and strenuous activities are synonymous; only to males and masculinity. However individual sports like mountain biking and snowboarding etc. allow masculine and feminine representation to occur simultaneously. Wheaton (2000) claims that the new sports allow men to access something that has been conventionally defined as feminine and women to engage in something that has been conventionally defined as masculine. Conclusion Although netball provided an avenue for women to break through and set new standards for sport participation but it did not bring about radical changes in gender stereotyping and neither did it foster any significant re-conceptualization of gender issue in world of sport or the society. And though the postmodern era of freedom tries to invigorate and empower women; but takes them a step back in postmodern freedom by reinforcing images of heterosexuality, portraying players as wives and mothers (McDonald, 2000). However, the images of femininity are changing as women are gaining access to traditionally male-defined sports but how far females are beginning to transgress the boundaries of acceptable femininity; is unclear. Netball as a physically active and a rugged game has provided women with competition, leadership and identity and whether this tradition continues within the shifting parameters of social values and expectations about women and sport; is debatable. Bibliography All Australia Netball Association Minutes. Australian Bureau of Statistics. “Involvement in Sport, Australia 1997-1998.” Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1998. Choi, Y. L. Percilla. Femininity and the Physically Active Women. Routeledge (UK). 2000. Fasting, Kari. et.al. Summary of “The Experience and Meaning of Sport and Exercise in the Lives of Women In Some European Countries.” n.p: Prepared for and with the financial assistance of the International Olympic Committee. Firat, A. 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