Not All Stereotypes in Sport Are Bad - Essay Example

Not all stereotypes in sport are bad” Institution: Instructor: Course: “Not all stereotypes in sport are bad” Introduction Stereotypes are people assumptions concerning the attributes of all group members, based on an imagination regarding how the group members look like[Ste92]; according to Steinberg (1992), Americans are kind, benevolent, and indulgent but also arrogant, restless and bullying, on the other hand, Steinberg (1992) notes that Asians are alert and wise, but conservatives. In this regard, Steinberg (1992) generalise all Americans and Asians; this assumption is stereotype since not all Americans are indulgent while not all Asians are conservative. Desmarais and Bruce (2010) defines stereotype as an act of grouping individuals and races together and judging them in terms of sexual, racial and gender comment. According to Kauer and Krane (2006), stereotypes are common and of concern in conflicts, whereby groups define themselves depending on who they are and whom they are not by viewing their enemies from a negative perspective. In this regard, the enemy is anticipated to be hostile, selfish and deceptive; for instance, if a certain group is observed positively and something awful take place, the enemy is the one who is always blamed, with the problem contributor ignored[Eag11]. In sports ethical and racial stereotyping has dominated the sports platform for years, playing a vital role in how athletes are discerned; for instance, white people believe that black men cannot play hockey and also the movie starred by Wiley Snipes and woody Harrelson ‘white men cannot jump’. Despite its negative implications, “Not all stereotypes in sport are bad”, based on its generalisation stereotypes enables people to interact effectively, establish people behaviours and understand high context cultures of diverse groups. “Not all stereotypes in sport are bad” According to Ojwang (2005), society anticipates the males and females to have faith in, adapt, and gratify definite gender function and stereotypes that has already been set up. In the western countries, males are observed as self-reliant, resolute and athletic, whereas women are observed as loyal, and charming. With its constant presence, the traditional gender stereotypes in the past centuries, has been challenged by diverse feminist and women ; in this regard, stereotypes in sports has been the main part, in which the traditional gender stereotypes has been examined and judged based on the previous centuries and the present 21st century[Kau06]. In the study conducted by Kauer and Krane (2006), it was observed that the female athletes had begun to establish their selves in the sports platform, with their capacity to challenge limiting opinions and sexist obstacles pertaining to women physical outlook, involvement in sports and athletic ability heightening daily. Traditionally, individuals were shelled with gender stereotypes from the day they set foot on earth to the day they kiss the earth goodbye[Des10]. For instance, when a kid was born the first thing was to revel the kid’s sex; afterwards, they were flourished with presents where boys were dressed in blue and given presents such as soldiers and trucks this was meant to demonstrate that male are strong and alert[Sar06]. On the other hand, the girl child was dressed in pink and offered presents such as dolls and animals; Kauer and Krane (2006) posits that this was meant to demonstrate that female are soft and delicate. In addition, in the traditional stereotypes the female were held responsible for being feminine while the male were anticipated to exhibit definite attributes and traits that were masculine. Kauer and Krane (2006) claims that traditionally sports was limited to women and related with masculinity; however, in the 21st century this has changed since sports has evolved and more and more women are engaging themselves in the sports platform. The stereotypical perspective that sports is a masculine domain has been deemed suitably, thus favouring the interested female athletes to engage more in sports than the previous years. For instance, sports evolution led to the establishment of cheerleaders involved in cheering diverse sports across the sports fraternity especially US[Sar06]. The modern cheerleader’s image often appeals explicit connotations; wherein it contains young females who are physically fascinating, influential and socially favourable are considered as enthusiastic and outgoing good girls. These qualities, according to Kauer and Krane (2006) reflect the cultural definitions of suitable female’s roles. In addition, women are cherished for beauty and youth, which delivers status, and for the social role, they are emotional support providers and behavioural butlers. These characteristics are valued across the social-economical and racial groups. According to Desmarais and Bruce (2010), girl cheerleader’s present cherished elite to other students, while to adults their image defines the youthful prosperity and appeal. In essence, being a cheerleader is often observed as a positive achievement portrayed from a family perspective. According to Desmarais and Bruce (2010), cheerleaders act as student role models with their image equating automatically with the social prosperity. For instance, in 1993, at Hempstead high School in Texas, four members of the cheerleader’s squad became pregnant; they were offered with two choices to either abort and get back to the squad or remain pregnant and lose their position in the squad. In this regard, one girl aborted and was permitted back to the squad the other three were suspended from cheering squad due to medical liability. However, the footballers who impregnated the cheerleaders were dismissed completely from the school team[Kau06]. This proves that the cheerleaders are important despite the sexual stereotypes they face as many people observe them as dumb, feminine, ditsy and snob characters. Desmarais and Bruce, (2010) posited that socialisation has educated individuals to comprehend how to group sports into masculine, feminine or neutral, especially when the gender stereotypes are established from childhood. In recent research conducted by Sartore (2006), it was observed that young students are influenced by socialisation ideas in identifying functions entailing speed, power and strength, whereby football and rugby was observed as men sporting activities because it requires a lot of strength, while volleyball and tennis was observed as female sporting activities as it required less strength and energy. Consequently, in another research it was observed that sex stereotypes in specific sports affected people choice of participating based on how others observers them[Eag11]. Eagleman (2011) believes that, gender stereotypes developed through the process of socialisation, led to grouping of various sports in terms of masculine and feminine, whereby sports that required less masculine was categorized as feminine and those that require a lot of energy as masculine. Nevertheless, a research conducted amid 2009 and 2010 by the Australian bureau of statistics (ABS) found out that the rate of sport involvement of males and females in terms of physical activities was at 65% and 63% respectively. In the another research conducted by ABS in 2005-06, it was observed that out of ten physical recreation and sporting activities participated by men two were participated by women[Eag11]. In this regard, Eagleman (2011) indicated that the statistics proved that men and women are uniformly motivated to involve in physical recreation and sport activities. In addition, the women participation in sports was boosted by the third goal of United Nations millennium development, whose main aim was to promote women empowerment and gender equality in the sports platform by introducing inclusive sport setting education that encourages acceptance, positive communication and friendship[Sar06]. Sartore (2006) asserted that, psychologists are shifting away sex and individual differences approaches to stress the role of gender as a social category. Kauer and Krane (2006) indicated that, the gender belief system varies the gender attitudes and stereotypes based on suitable attributes, behaviours, and roles. In the gender schema theory postulated by Bem, it was observed that high masculine and feminine males and females are gender schematic while low masculine and feminine males and women’s are gender a-schematic. Kauer and Krane (2006) illustrate Bem theory by stating that the gender schematic persons observe situations from a gender perspective by stereotyping others and limiting their personal activities to fit to gender stereotypes. Various authors have pursued this ideology of Bem, and noted that sex-typed individuals are more likely to participate in sports as compared to non-sex type individuals[Ojw05]. From this perspective, many teachers and coaches encouragers young people with talents in sporting activities to engage in sporting activities; however, Kauer and Krane (2006) notes that when women involve in sports they are considered competitive, aggressive, self-reliant and lesbian. This type of gender stereotypes has influenced a wide range of behaviours and attitudes, with the egalitarian attitudes shifting in the society as a whole. In this regard, Eagleman (2010) observed that male and females in the society possess resembling attitudes with their parents being positive towards sports involvement. According to Eagleman (2011), these perceptions led to actualisation of the fact that there are sporting activities that are socially admissible for women such as swimming, gymnastics and tennis. The sport evolution led to the disappearance of the traditional feminine, and presently more women are involving themselves direct competitions and team sports. From the physiological perspective on women in sports, Kauer and Krane (2006) indicates that it is not appropriate for women to participate in the contest in which opponent resistance surpassing the bodily contact, since heavy object resistance is high than the bodily force. However, Eagleman (2011) indicated that it is justified for a woman to involve in sports that the force postulated by the moderate weight object is surpassed by the direct force application. In addition, it is vital to adopt a social physiological perspective on sports research, since various components of social context fluctuates tremendously with their norms and beliefs varying over time. In this regard, training of women athletes for competitive sports has tremendously expanded; this has led to development of training programs suitable for women training. As a result, this has enabled girls and women to tackle the negative restrictions ideas and concepts that they cannot participate in sports and begun to gain physical strength and athletic bravery, as opposed to definition of femininity[Ste92]. Generally, for both males and females, stereotypes is abound and many individuals play within them; these stereotypes can improve or restrict people perception of others capabilities. In addition, Eagleman (2011) observes that, stereotypes affect the anticipation placed on people, with the view that biological factors do not coerce people from specific races to prosper in certain sports, but culture does. For instance, Kenyans and Ethiopians are excellent marathoners because long distance running is part of their culture, and china contains quality ping-pong players since ping-pong is part of their culture. In addition, Jamaican and US black American are well known for sprinting because field and the track is part of their national identity and culture[Eag11]. Moreover, baseball has become a great part of Latin America culture, with top baseball player originating from Latin America. On the other hand, basketball ball is a great part of black Americans culture with great NBA players being black Americans. Eagleman (2011) claims that sport stereotypes have encourage quality completion across various race in the global platform; for instance, various boxers from different ethical backgrounds and races around the world presently dominate boxing sport that was once dominated by the black Americans such as Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson. In addition, athletic footballers once dominated by Brazil currently is dominated by Spain, England, Italy and Germany and with diverse players popping up all over the world from various countries to play different premier leagues across the world[Kau06]. Conclusion In conclusion, stereotypes based on ethnicity, sexual orientation and culture still play a vital role in most sports across the globe, whereby they convey over the contrast of people. In addition, the media has played a vital role in stereotyping with negatively reflecting the women attitude within the society by failing to cover women sports, thus creating a negative perception aganist the female athletes. Moreover, the continued racial abuses against black athletes have continued dominating the sports platform with England having high reports of racial abuses compared to other countries. Nevertheless, despite its negative implication stereotypes has a positive side; it has increased the number of women participating in the sports, black Americans dominating various sports such as basketball and establishment of a unique cheering squad called cheerleaders. Therefore, it is worth claiming, “Not all stereotypes in sport are bad.” References Ste92: , (Steinberg, 1992), Eag11: , (Eagleman, 2011), Kau06: , (Kauer & Krane, 2006), Des10: , (Desmarais & Bruce, 2010), Sar06: , (Sartore, 2006), Ojw05: , (Ojwang, 2005), Read More