Yao Ming

As we discussed in class, Yao Ming changed the face of the NBA when he made his debut in 2000. Before he entered the league, many saw the post-Jordan era as a less professional, and more “gangster” league. Most people viewed NBA players – specifically Allen Iverson, but also included others – as thugs, criminals, or gangsters (which is not an off-the-wall argument looking at the actions of many players in the league.)

The hip-hop fashions and bad attitudes of many players in the late 90’s – which can still be seen even in today’s game on occasion – helped spark the debate that the NBA was full of these so-called thugs and low-lives. Yao Ming brought in a wave of international talent. It seemed after he entered that it became acceptable for more international players to join the league as well including players such as: Andrew Bogut, Yi Jianlian, and Andrea Bargnani for example.

Shaq was the first to call out Yao shortly after his arrival saying “Tell Yao, Ching-chong, yang, wah-ah-so.” This sparked a lot of controversy, and rightly so. It can be argued that this was just “Shaq being Shaq” and that it was a big joke but I think that if this was the other way around and Yao called him out with a derogatory statement towards blacks, it would be a much bigger deal. In the end, it seems to me that Shaq felt threatened by Yao’s arrival to the NBA and has too much of an ego to not say something.

Yao Ming was the first well-known Asian to enter the NBA. This is mostly due to his lanky 7’5” frame and natural talent. Much hype followed Yao into the league but behind the hype was doubt. Despite his talent, many challenged this and saw him as a “soft” player. Essentially, being soft means that he wasn’t tough or strong enough to be a force in the NBA. Yao has proved the doubters wrong and showed that he can be a dominant player in the NBA as he has shown over the past few seasons – when he’s not injured – that he is a force to be reckoned with.

Since entering the league, Yao has become China’s biggest hero. Every game, millions of viewers in China tune in to watch the Houston Rockets, the team that Yao plays for. His celebrity was really shown at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he was (besides Kobe Bryant) the games’ biggest star.

Michelle Wie

In class, we discussed Michelle Wie and her controversial golf career. Wie has been receiving praise since a very young age; she was discovered at the age of 10. She has been called the female Tiger Woods by some, although she hasn’t won any major tournaments. At 20 years of age now, she is still very young and has a lot of time to grow into the player many think she will become; I think she still needs time to develop.

Wie hopes to become the first female to play in the Masters and compete with men. Before this is even a possibility, she needs to prove herself as a dominant force in the LPGA. Wie recently got her first career win at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico. Before Annika Sorenstam tried her hand at playing in a PGA major, she completely ran the tables in the LPGA winning a majority of the tournaments and made the most money.

Many people get swallowed up in the hype surrounding Wie and automatically argue that she should be able to play in a men’s major. Although she did just recently win, I believe that this praise hasn’t meant much so far because she hasn’t proven herself. It is still too early to call her a flop because she is still very young and has plenty of time to grow as a golfer but so far she hasn’t lived up to her hype.

Boys participating in girl's sports

Recently in class, we discussed whether or not boys should participate in females' sports teams. A lot of times, some high schools have eliminated sports because of Title IX (or simply do not offer the sports to boys) so many boys have turned to competing with girls on their teams.


In class, we watched a video that showed a boy competing on a girl's field hockey team. The boy was a hockey player looking for a sport to work on his skills in the off-season; field hockey seemed to be the perfect choice for him. Too bad field hockey is only offered to females in the United States. Despite this fact, he still joined the team and was one of the star players. Most of his female teammate's parents were extremely upset about this. Some of the arguments against him joining the team were that he would easily injure the girls but at that point of the season, there was not one incident. Many were also upset because he was taking playing time away from their daughters that were now sitting on the bench because he was a starter. Although this may be true, he was good enough to play over them; the coach of the team was quoted saying that she would give her team the best shot to win playing the best players, even if they were a boy.

I agree that boys should be able to compete with girls in high school, as I also agree girls should be able to compete with boys. This should only be if the sport, or equivalent to that sport, is offered at their high school. Therefore, boys should not be able to compete in girl's basketball if boy's basketball is offered. If there Isn't a volleyball team offered for boys but there is a girls team, males interested in the sport should be able to play. It's the only fair way. People argue for girls to compete on boy's teams, why shouldn't boys be able to do the same if they are not offered the sport?

Females playing "rough" sports

In class last week we discussed whether females should play in rougher, contact sports that are usually only played by boys. Some of these sports include football and wrestling. I'm going to be honest, before class I thought that girls should not be allowed to compete against boys in most of these sports. The two girls discussed were: Holley Mangold who plays lineman for Keetering Alter High School in Ohio and a girl wrestler (not sure of her name) who made it to states in her weight class. Both of these girls were very good at their respective sports and could compete. They didn't want to be treated any differently than their teammates because they were girls.

The wrestler was a dominant force in her weight class. Holley Mangold, sister of New York Jets and former Ohio State Buckeye, Nick Mangold, loved hitting and could hold her own on the field.
Although these girls may be different than most female athletes, I think that if a girl wants to play a "rougher" sport, she should be able to. One thing is that they should not be treated differently than the rest of the boys. If they are aware of the consequences in the sport (being tackled and pushed around in football) and the pain that comes with contact sports, they shouldn't be able to receive special attention because of their gender.

These two females are just a couple examples of many girls who can compete and want to play contact sports with boys. Both opened my eyes to girls that can compete with boys in sports. Again, I think if the girls can compete, really want to try to play, are aware of the risks in the sport and won't receive special attention, they should be able to do whatever they want to do.

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.