Thursday September 17th, 2009

In class, we discussed the recent events at the US Open that have shaken up the sports world recently. The athletes that have caused the discussion were Serena Williams and Roger Federer.



Serena Williams' issue took place during the women's final event at the US Open. She was called for a foot fault and the penalty was to take a point away, luckily for her opponent Kim Clijsters it was on match point. When the call was made, Serena furiously walked towards the line judge (with raquet and ball in hand) and continued to threaten her. I can't say that I agree with her actions, but I think calling a foot fault in that situation is a little ridiculous. Not that I would make that call but if I was the line judge that did, I'd probably need a clean pair of underwear after the match. Serena is that intimidating, she's like the Brian Urlacher of women's tennis. Serena's not known for being aggressive towards calls or the type of player to cause an outburst the way she did at Flushing Meadows; this might be the reason for why she has seen so much backlash following the incident. Many people in the class agreed that if she was the type of player to do something like this, she wouldn't be in as much trouble as she is now. I thought Serena's outburst was a little excessive but her anger was warranted. She had the right to be mad but she took her anger out in the worst way possible. I could even understand it if she apologized following the match in the press conference, but that didn't happen. She didn't say she was sorry until the next day through her public relations firm and I thought it felt unsympathetic and forced. I'm sure this will all blow over soon but it would've been out of the news a lot faster if she came out right after and admitted she was wrong.



Roger Federer found himself in trouble during the men's final at the US Open against Juan Martin del Potro for arguing a call with the chair umpire. del Potro called for a review of a shot that Federer thought was over. Player's are usually only given a couple seconds to decide they want a shot reviewed; in this case, del Potro took five to 10 seconds to call it. Some believe that del Potro was given insight to make the call by his coach or another acquaintance. Federer then went to the umpire and let him know he was unhappy with the call. While making his point, Federer used profanity. His language wasn't directed at the umpire or used in a threatening way and wasn't yelled so I see this outburst as not as serious as Serena's. With that being said, both tennis players are being used as examples so this trend doesn't continue. In my opinion, Roger should be fined for breaking his racquet (as should Serena) but I don't think he should be fined for arguing the call. He had a valid point and wasn't threatening toward the umpire. He did use profanity but he was frustrated, that happens. Any athlete can think of a situation where they have been frustrated and used some words that they wouldn't use in front of their grandmother. If his words were directed at the umpire it would be different; he was sitting down, looking the other direction and speaking to the umpire about the call.

Those were the events that have caused some debate over the week and have occupied a majority of our class discussions in Sport and Gender.

Take care!

Tuesday, September 8th

In class this week we continued our discussion on gender. The reading to go along with our discussion was Guns and Dolls. When speaking about gender, Prof. Spencer brought up the point that awareness of gender begins at birth. When a baby is born, the first thing people ask are "is it a boy, or a girl?" Also, there are colors associated with new babies. It is customary for a boy to be associated with the color blue, and girls with pink. These ideas remain constant as the child grows. Boys play with guns (and other toys that are more aggressive), and girls play with dolls. When asked what toys we had it became apparent that most students (including myself) had similar experiences. Some examples of toys that males had were nerf guns, wrestling action figures, and sports equipment. Some of my favorites were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures (for obvious reasons...they are awesome) and of course wrestling action figures (because who wants to be the only kid at the playground without a Stone Cold Steve Austin figurine?) The girls who shared examples of their childhood toys mostly stayed true to the traditional model. There were a couple exceptions where girls played with more masculine toys.
A question was brought up, what if your child played with toys that weren't gender appropriate, how would you feel? I agree with the class consensus. I think it's more acceptable for a girl to play with more masculine toys than it is for a boy to play with dolls or a more feminine toy. We discussed that our society set the bar for what females should look like, and that is the unrealistic, perfect figure of the Barbie doll. We also watched a short clip titled Tough Guise, I feel that as a male I can relate to this more so I will discuss this rather than the Barbie doll idea. I thought it was completely accurate. Men feel that they have to conform to the masculine ideal set up in our society. As a male, I have felt this pressure, as I feel most other men have as well. My favorite athlete, Michael Jordan is a perfect example of this. He represents what society says a male should be like. Highly competetive, tough, successful, athletic, and so on. I feel that no one should be forced into acting or looking like someone else. Everyone is different, not every male is highly masculine (aka Chuck Norris), and not every female is extremely feminine. There are shades of grey, hopefully our society will recognize this and not continue to force people into roles they don't necessarily fit in to. That's all I have to say about that.

Have a good weekend!

Runner Caster Semenya has heard the gender comments all her life

During class last week we discussed how gender affects sports. The recent case, and reading, that directly pertains to this subject deals with Caster Semenya. The article is "Runner Caster Semenya has heard the gender comments all her life" was written by Robyn Dixon and was published in the August 21st, 2009 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Semenya is an 18-year-old female runner from South Africa.

Recently, controversy has surrounded Semenya and her success because she "looks like a boy." In my opinion, if she wouldn't have won at the World Championships in Berlin this wouldn't be an issue. But she did win; not only did she win, she completely destroyed the competition. In the 800-meter race, her closest rival finished 2.45 seconds behind her. Semenya will be put through a rigorous gender test to prove that she in fact, is a woman. The article goes on to tell the story of how these 'gender comments' are nothing new to Semenya, she has always been teased about looking like a boy and not the stereotypical girl. Semenya's mother, Dorcas, stated her disapproval of these claims, "She's a girl. I'm the mother of that girl. I'm the one that knows about Caster. If they want to know about Caster, tell them to come to me."

The claims are not completely unjustified. Semenya does resemble a male in many aspects. First of all, her appearance and muscle definition stand out the most. Compared to other competitors, she does resemble a man, in my opinion. Now, I believe if Semenya has been teased and ridiculed about looking like a male her entire life, this claim should be nothing new. If she truly is female, and argues this fact, a gender test should be no problem. Although it is a very personal thing to go through, she is a professional athlete and put herself up to this criticism in joining the South African team.