In class on Thursday, we talked for a while about the differences in "athleticism" between male and female sports players. While much of the class agreed that men could be considered more "athletic" than female players, they mostly said so because men are naturally larger, faster and stronger than women. They can jump high enough to perform slam dunks, which many women cannot. However, Mr. Bolos brought up a great point that perhaps our own views on athleticism are contrived due to the male-driven foundation of most popular sports. Basketball, for example, was created by a group of men; obviously their version of athleticism is what will be rewarded.
However, during class I couldn't help but think about the kinds of sports that are associated with women: dancing, for example. A dancer's graceful and emotional yet disciplined movement is something that comes far more naturally to a woman than to a big burly man. If that was our definition of athleticism, women would surely be considered higher-level athletes.
All of this seemed very clear to me up until I came home last night to my mom watching the Olympic men's figure skating finals. After seeing the performances of Johnny Weir, Evgeni Plushenko, and Evan Lysacek (the gold medalist who is from Chicago and adorable, by the way), the one thing I couldn't help but notice was how flamboyant and feminine the sport was. My younger brother even commented a couple of times on how "gay" it all looked. Remembering our class discussion, I immediately thought to myself, 'Oh! It must be because figure skating was started by women and is a primarily women's sport; no wonder the standards are held to a higher feminine skill level!'
So, I decided to research it. What I found shocked me, though. Apparently, figure skating was actually founded by men in the 1700's, and men's figure skating existed in the 1908 Olympics before women's skating was. A sport founded by men and yet praising the qualities of a woman's grace; why?
I guess it's because figure skating is considered more of an art form than a sport, even though it exists in the Olympics. Despite all of the stigma that may come with the femininity of their sport, I consider the men who placed in the figure skating finals incredibly devoted and athletic competitors. Hopefully someday enough Americans will look past the stigma associated with men in tight, shiny jumpsuits and realize that they're just as much athletes as Shaun White, Shani Davis, and the other male representatives of our country that we all idolize and support so greatly.
2 comments:
I think that the connection you drew with researching between basketball and figure skating is really cool.
"A dancer's graceful and emotional yet disciplined movement is something that comes far more naturally to a woman than to a big burly man. If that was our definition of athleticism, women would surely be considered higher-level athletes."
That's a great point. What strikes me the fact that, watching figure male figure skating, we'd often see it as flamboyant. In all honesty, if I were watching men's figure skating, I wouldn't verbalize it, but at times the back of my mind would probably be whispering "Gayyyy..." even though that's, frankly, terrible.
It's amazing how strong our associations with different physical traits can be for gender, either in basketball or figure skating. For example, I recall one person saying that a female athlete was "a man" because she was 6'8" and extremely buff, and while I can't say the comment was completely inaccurate, in that a woman with such attributes would certainly fit our definition of "masculine," I thought it was rather jarring. The athlete is as much a woman as any other woman, but the vagueness of gender vs. biological sex is brought to light.
I agree with Michelle that your research is fascinating. Next time, tho, provide a link for us!
Fantastic connection to class discussion, but I wish you ended with some kind of prompt for the reader.
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