Sports in society part 2 - Research Paper Example

For purposes of this brief expository essay, the author will focus on the most important negative aspects of sports and the means by which these are exhibited and can be improved within the future. As a function of such a level of analysis, the preceding essay will focus how race and gender continue to have a defining impact upon the way in which different kinds of sports are played and understood within the United States and the world. With regards to the first highly negative aspect of sports that is perennially represented within the society, the reader should understand that this necessarily relates to the level of racism that is exhibited both on and off the field of sports.

Although it may seem convenient to assume that the current era is devoid of any such level of discrimination, even a cursory review of the domestic and/or international sports reveals the fact that undercurrents of racism are present at nearly each and every single level. For instance, there hardly seems to be a week that goes by when European football is not in the news about the prevalence of Nazi salutes on the field or racist chants or epithets shouted from the stands. This, of course, represents a situation in which one negative aspect of sports impacts upon each and every single level of spectatorship.

As the fans are aware of the fact that permissible elements of racism are exhibited on the field, an increased level of brazenness is, in turn, exhibited among the spectators as they then begin using race as a means of differentiating between those elements of the opposition like their own team and the one which they most despise. Although it may seem strange for the reader to integrate with an understanding that perceived gender roles and that impact which they create continue to exist within sports, this is evidenced at a much more basic level of perception that those aspects which are currently been discussed.

For instance, once again reviewing the way in which societal perceptions of sportsmanship almost invariably lead the individual to assume that it is a male-dominated environment, females participate in sports to a distinct and measurable disadvantage. Ultimately, a common level of stereotyping and perception exists within many elements of the society that women who engage in sports are somehow less feminine and, therefore, more manly than those who do not (Coakley 11). Although sports by its very definition requires the individual to be in the athletic and extremely good shape, this cannot and should not be perceived as a means of discriminating against women based upon their sexual orientation or any other matter related to this.

All too often, however, the society has dubbed women participating in sports at nearly each and every level as bull-dykes, lesbians, or applied other inflammatory words to them that are used as a means of insulting the accomplishments that these women have do within the field of sports. Further evidence of gender discrimination concerns the way the Masters Tournament, a golf tournament, is played each and every year in April in Augusta, GA: it has recently publicly denied the entry of well-qualified female athletes into the competition.

Ultimately, the Masters committee is a privately owned and operated board that has the discretion of choosing whom to invite and whom not to.