Davis Haug Prompt #3

In this blog post I have chosen to analyze gender and sexuality in sports. Whenever you choose to play a sport, whether you’re young or old, there is always a reason for why you chose to play. That reason may deal with many things. It may deal with you being good at the sport, your parents may have wanted you to try out the sport, or you wanted to try out the sport yourself. However, when you first try out that sport, you are playing with your same sex, such as all males or all females. As time goes on, you may be excelling in the sport, and as a female, think that you are able to play with the males. When you decide to play that sport with the males, there will inevitably be benefits and costs. The benefits may consist of being able to become a better player, especially when you go back to playing with the females. Nevertheless, the costs may be that you are not one of the better players anymore and may not play as much.

As well, because sports themselves are divided along gender and race lines, one would expect that individuals who intend to play a sport deemed by culture and society are bound to be criticized and alienated because of their choices. Also, because sports are affected just as much by funding as they are by diversity and accessibility, not everyone is able to play the same sport. This is shown by the different types of racial groups involved in different sports. When you look at hockey players, the majority of them are white; however, there tend to be a few African Americans here and there. The opposite goes for basketball and football. African Americans are over represented in these sports. This leads me back to the fact that if an individual plays a sport outside of their culture and society, then there must be benefits for that player; however, there will be costs as well.

This represents how the sports world involuntarily creates division between men and women, and among races and ethnicities. I believe that they need to try to do something to have the minority in each sport be able to try that sport if they want to, even if they don’t have the funds to do so. This can be done by providing fundraising, charities, and organizations for the individuals and cities. It would definitely benefit the sports world altogether.