Sociology of Sport Midterm

Gladwell "The Matthew Effect"

Key Premise: Age cutoffs and the months the Canadian hockey players are born have an effect on their future success. Argument: There is something wrong with the way that we make sense of success. We always think that successful people are successful because of their own characteristics/what they are like, but we ignore the sociological contexts behind their success (age cutoffs, extraordinary opportunities, hidden advantages) Self Fulfilling Prophecy: When a false definition in the beginning (deciding who is the "best" out of these 9-10 year olds) evokes a new behavior (the way they treat these "all-stars") ends up making the original false judgement look correct. Matthew Effect: Those deemed "successful" are more likely to be given special opportunities for more success. Accumulative Advantage: These youth may start out a little better, but that little difference leads to opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge turns into another opportunity (until the hockey player is a genuine outlier - but it didn't start that way).

Kian, Bernstein, and McGuire, "A Major Boost for Gender Equality or More of the Same?"

London 2012 olympics are "year of woman" bc so many people went But the coverage is still bad Being called girls Called out for their body types Using male descriptors Known as mother before anything

Sage and Eitzen, "Is Sport a Mobility Escalator"

Look at notes

Gottzén and Kremer-Sadik, "Fatherhood and Youth Sports: A balancing Act between care and expectations"

Participation in youth sports is central to men's parenting in 3 ways: 1. Allows men to spend time with their children, and get involved in their lives. Youth sports are viewed as a fatherly duty. 2. youth sports are a means for men to develop close relationships with their children. 3. Fathering through sports allows men opportunities to teach their children skills and values. Allows men to do "public" parenting, while distancing themselves from feminine styles of caring (domestic work). To be a good father, the men must find a balance between orthodox and inclusive masculinity

Camporesi, "Who Is a Sportswoman?"

Reject testosterone as measure for femaleness Very disappointed We should just realize that sports are not a level playing field in general - sex testing for everyone

Gender (and its levels)

Social construct involving expectations that society has determined for women/girls, and men/boys Individual Level: - gender identity - gender as a role Social categorization: - we use gender to organize social relations. - sex categorization primes gender stereotypes and makes them available to Shape behavior and judgements. Performance: - Gender as something we do not something we are Institutional: - institutions create gendered norms and are a major factor in gender inequality

Hegemony

Social domination that extends beyond contests of brute power into the organization of private life and cultural processes

George, "Making Sense of Muscle: The Body Experiences of Collegiate Women Athletes."

Struggle with body New classic body - skinny athletic New demands of body Women turn the male gaze inward and begin to monitor themselves Teammates Coaches Parents Peers - males

Hegemonic masculinity

constructed in relation to various subordinated masculinities as well as in relation to women. The cultural ideals of masculinity need not correspond with the actual personalities of the majority of men. The model of hegemonic masculinity is a fantasy figure. Present U.S. components: aggression, dominance over women, strength, self-reliance, economic power, heterosexuality, white.

Fagan, "Allison Stokke Doesn't Want to Be Your Sex Symbol."

"Let's not kid ourselves: very few people ogling the photo saw Stokke through the athlete prism. They saw sex." "It's not an overblown reaction if Stokke builds an invisible wall when someone unexpectedly leans into her space. A lot of people have leaned into her space." "Once a female athlete is publicly labeled 'beautiful,' we offer her the world. But here's the trick: once she accepts it, we tear her apart, say she's exploiting and sexualizing herself. Oh, and we also say that she's not even that good, anyway." - not the same for male athletes "She wanted to be known for her ability to pole vault. That's what she wanted." Image went viral People see sex in picture not pole vaulting but they would rather see her athleticism When females take the opportunity to be a model and use their looks they are chastised for it, the innocence about the looks is important

Kane, "Title IX at 40: Examining Mysteries, Myths, and Misinformation Surrounding the Historic Federal Law"

"No person in the United State, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance" - Athletics weren't even the main consideration when the law was written. But the easiest of the OCR three prong test of compliance that says that schools must "provide participation opportunities proportionally to the ratio of females to males" so when schools cut a mens program because of the lack of funding in trying to add a female program they blame Title IX. Title IX is a scape goat. - To be in compliance schools have 3 options: 1. to add a women's sport -- significant financial investment 2. drop a mens non revenue spore and save money 3. cut spending on football - would face major backlash from fans, alumni, football community. So it's easier to blame Title IX and cut a mens sport than to take on the wrath of football. Common Arguments against Title IX: 1. Women sports don't make a profit - most boys sports, school clubs etc don't make a profit but we don't consider cutting them 2. Title IX forces schools to drop mens sports - Really if they cut back on football they'd have enough money to add a girls sport with out dropping a male sport. 3. Football makes enough profit to support all the teams. - if anything football is sucking the money away .4 You have to invest to make money - What would a CEO say if he had double the amount of employees that he needed and was paying them all, or justify unnecessary expenditures? Unexpected consequences of Title IX - intended to increase the leadership opportunities in women's sports but even less women have leadership opportunities than before title ix and now men just have more opportunities for leadership in both men and women's sports.

Friedman "Tiger Girls on the Soccer Field"

- Aggressive femininity: girls are taught to be both physically and competitively forceful and actively limiting their femininity - Upper/middle class parents think being a "girly girl" makes their daughters less valuable for occupants. Want them to display aggressive femininity - competition is still seen as a masculine attribute. Boys are trained from a early age to be competitive, and girls are less comfortable being competitive than boys because they are socialized to mask competitiveness and aggressiveness - female athletes struggle with their athleticism and traditional standards of hegemonic femininity that emphasize maintaining a slim body, and being beautiful. Whereas men are praised for their aggression and strength.

McDonagh and Pappano, "What's the Problem?"

- Argue that success in athletics defines what it means to be male in America - Key elements of our society as gendered (winning, power, money, physical dominance = male) - not a static system that just reflects gender realities, it also constructs them (history of larger social forces/dynamics that separate women from men in sports) - The three I's 1. inferior: women can't compete with men so they should be separated so women can compete and have more successes. 2. injury: women are too fragile, easily injured, playing with men is risky/rougher 3. immorality: fear that men and women will act inappropriately , locker rooms, male coaches acting inappropriate with female athletes. - drilled into our heads that female athletes aren't as good as males, aren't as interesting, less worthy of promoting or public interest. If we assume physical/natural differences across sports does this then create differences? Assume women are weak/inferior do we then create that? Sex segregated sports construct and preserve images of male superiority and sex-segregation contributes to devaluing of women athletes.

Brooks, "Fighting like a Ballplayer"

- Basketball is used as an organization to combat social disorganization in low income inner city areas (way to keep black males off the corner) - Not just a "hoop dream" -- Basketball is an institution and way of life that may enable young men to cope in their current context and can reduce the social psychological impact of institutionalized oppression/marginalization. - Basketball is their "master status" (reps their masculinity, the peak of their social career) - Sammy Hall League: created to give kids (especially young black males) a place to go/escape the draw of the street corners/activities. Presents basketball as a means of social mobility (escaping poverty, getting educated, and becoming better people) Provides network of men and coaches who can serve as recourses. SHORT TERM BENEFITS OF SAMMY HALL LEAGUE: 1. escape street activity 2. positive individual and group identity 3. becoming a ballplayer is a metaphor for becoming a man 4. requires goal setting, discipline, and commitment 5. increased self-esteem 6. increased social pressure to live up to idealized expectations 7. vehicle for gaining respect that is not based on fear/intimidation Pauls Story: Sammy Hall gives players recourses and a social network that gives him social capital - how to dress for court, how to behave etc.

Messner: "Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters"

- Looks at how children construct gender in social contexts - Boys learning at a young age to construct masculinity in opposition to femininity (yelling no barbie!) -- in line with hegemonic masculinity - Barbie girls -- example of emphasized femininity - girls learn to adapt to masculinized structure and expectations - The scene shows children performing gender as two separate, opposed groups (boys vs girls) and parents performing gender in ways that give the stamp of approval to the children's performances of difference, while constructing their own ideological narrative that naturalizes this categorical difference. - Parents do not see this as a social construction of gender, they interpret it as the natural unfolding of the internal differences between boys and girls. - division of labor for the adults - "team mom" - provides snacks - coach sand commissioner of the organization are male. TEAM NAMES - girls teams were given pink uniforms and chose names that were gentle, sweet, and vulnerable - boys teams were never given pink and chose powerful strong names like shark attack or sea monsters.

Gibbs, "Media Coverage of Female Athletes Is Getting More Sexist."

- Media coverage is sexist towards female athletes - Micro-aggressions against female athletes in the media have increased over time - coverage of women playing sports that we consider more masculine (basketball, boxing) were filled with micro-aggressions - Policing behaviors acceptable for the female gender and whether or not women were adhering to these expectations - Women are second class citizens in comparison to men - Women are known for their looks, not athletic ability, or who they are married to. "The wife of a Bear's lineman"

Kane, "Sex sells, not women's sports"

- Media demonstrate sportswomen in ways that emphasize their femininity and heterosexuality rather than their athletic abilities.

Coakley, "What counts as 'Positive Development?'"

- Most believe that there is a link betweens sports contribute to development. Assumption that sports have a positive and pure essence that positively develops those that consume sports. - IMPLICATIONS: 1. allocate recourses to sports 2. pushes youth top lay - SPORTS EVANGELISTS: View sports as essential and assume that it inevitably leads to multiple forms of positive development. (helps with personal character development, rids "at-risk" people of their defects and makes them more acceptable to mainstream society, and gives them social capital/experiences that will lead to future occupational success/civic engagement). - sport plus vs plus sport. - Programs are designed to help individual kids get out of bad areas, but not fixing the neighborhood that they come from. Just helping the kids that play the sport. So if they get out that attribute that to sport. - Bad behavior because of sports: 1. Act like they are above the law and free to do unacceptable things. 2. Violence is a norm/ is praised in sports and could spill over into nonathletic settings. 3. Positive deviance: you are over-conforming to an extreme - focusing on performance above all else.

Ring, "America's Baseball Underground"

- Spalding wanted to separate baseball from the similar English game that girls played so he had to prove it was American and manly (didn't want it connected to a game women were playing) - There were many changes with the women's rights movement --> changing gender roles caused anxiety for all. - One way to reassert male physical superiority was to promote sports for boys and men and to inhibit the participation of girls and women. - the institutionalization of sports were used to "produce" men by making participation mandatory for all "normal" boys which taught and promoted a set of values and behaviors that appeared "natural" - defining athletes as unfeminine assured that the girls and women were discouraged from all but the mildest exercise, which kept them physically weaker than men. - Was a sport that guaranteed race, class, and gender hierarchies (kept white men in power). - Created softball to keep women separate. Slower ball, short shorts (makes it painful to slide so they are less likely to do it)

Eitzen, "Ethical Dilemmas in American Sport: The Dark Side of Competition"

- The sports world is morally distorted: Winning supersedes all other considerations (winning at any price) 1. SUCCESS: WINNING IS EVERYTHING - American values - glorify winners, forget losers - Sports demand winners: some will do whatever it takes to win (Drugs, cheat etc.) 2. ETHICAL DILEMMAS - Normative cheating (winning is more important than being fair) - Normative violence (encourage/reward player aggression) - Player behavior (acts of intimidation, use of drugs to enhance performance, illegal equipment, unethical tactics - flopping) - Coach behavior (coaches are rewarded ridiculously if their teams win so they may push their players too hard, encourage them to take drugs, take them out of the classroom, physically/verbally abuse them). - Spectator behavior (violent, mean, aggressive, trying to distract players) - Athletic director behaviors (give less to girls sports than boys, schedule games against weaker schools to build record, firing coaches based on records not on how they improved the program) - Parent behavior (push too hard to fast, encourage drug use, too critical of student play) 3. CONSEQUENCES OF UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN SPORT - Sports don't actually enhance positive character traits like we think they do - Encourages selfishness, envy, conceit, hostility, bad temper in the sport and outside the sport. - Athletes show lower moral development, and a decline in moral reasoning compared to non-athlete counterparts. - The longer an athlete plays the sport, the less able they are to reason morally.

Gregory, "How Kids' Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry." and Flanagan "What's lost when only rich kids play sports"

- The sports youth economy is increasingly looking like the pros, at increasingly earlier ages. - Privatization: Sports are no longer available to the public. Those with the means can access it - and advance in the sport. - Specialization: Players are focusing on one sport, but leads to overuse, injury, burn-out, too much pressure. - Class based exclusivity: The money for travel teams, tryouts, equipment, belonging to a facility, training etc. - Problem: Youth sports are becoming highly stratified. Missing out on the talent at the bottom of the socioeconomic class - they don't have the means to participate. - Kids who don't have the means to play are missing out on all the benefits of sports (health, life lessons, mental health). Lack of diversity on teams too - something that is lost.

Bissinger, "Bench the Parents"

- Thinks he's going to take a inclusive approach - be fair, fun, value good sportsmanship over winning, bu tends up taking a orthodox approach. - Stakes of youth sports are too high: increased surgery rates, players are being pushed too hard in one area, pushes to have instant replay in youth sports. - Parents and coaches are out of control - they're supposed to be teaching sportsmanship and are doing the opposite. - Coaches care more about winning than the kids that they expect to win for them.

Messner, "The Meaning of Success: the athletic experience and the development of male identity"

- Young males are set up for disappointment by the gap between the definition of success in the sports world and the reality that very few ever actually reach the top. The athlete's sense of identity established through sports is therefore insecure and problematic. - The end of a sports career represents the termination of a central part of the males life and can result in an identity crisis. - Detribalization: the success that a man has achieved begins to appear hollow and meaningless and leads to a process of mourning and crisis. - There is a sense of failure and inadequacy felt by American males as a result of unrealistic and unachievable social definitions of masculinity and success.

Cooky, Dycus, and Dworkin, "'What Makes a Woman a Woman?' Versus 'Our First Lady of Sport': A Comparative Analysis of the United States and the South African Media Coverage of Caster Semenya."

American news stories vs south africa news stories South africa = results and performance America = medical

Kian, Vincent, and Mondello, "Masculine Hegemonic Hoops: An Analysis of Media Coverage of March Madness."

BIG 3 run shit Football, basketball, baseball Hardly any coverage of women's march madness Coverage of woman's sports is lower than ever

Sex

Biological distinction between females and males (reproductive organs, genitals, chromosome, hormones)

Coakley, "Play Group versus Organized Competitive Team: A Comparison."

Four Differences: What is learned: INFORMAL: Sense of community, teaches them how to make a game, develop and practice norms, decision making, problem solving. FORMAL: Learn structure, discipline, following rules. 1. Rewards: INFORMAL: rewards are primarily intrinsic and are a function fo the experience and the interpersonal skills of the group members FORMAL: Extrinsic, and a function of the combined technical skills of group members. 2. Norms INFORMAL: norms are emergent and interpretation is variable FORMAL: Norms are highly formalized and specific, variability is a result from official judgements 3. Social Control INFORMAL: internally generated among members and is dependent on commitment FORMAL: administered by external agent and is dependent on obedience. 4. Level of Freedom INFORMAL: high freedom based on status structure. FORMAL: Individual freedom is limited to flexibility tolerated within role expectations.

Kelley and Carchia. "Hey, Data---Swing!"

HIGHLY STRATIFIED BY CLASS: More likely to be playing, start playing earlier, play more sports if you have the means. GENDER DIFFERENCES: Boys are more likely to play/start earlier. Feel like sports are a big part of their identity. RACE: Probably tied to class - whites are participating more highly than blacks. GEOGRAPHY: Suburban areas are bigger for sports than city areas. People in suburbs are more likely to play more than one sport.

emphasized femininity

defined around compliance with subordination, oriented to accommodating the interests and desires of men U.S. components: compliance, sociability rather than technical competence, fragility, ego-stroking, nurturance, empathy, concern with appearance - organized around sexual receptivity for younger women and motherhood for older women.

Sport Plus (Coakley)

emphasizes traditional sport development objectives (increasing participation/building sport knowledge/skills) but adds activities so that young participants learn info and strategies for dealing with challenges they will face in everyday life. E.g. Soccer program including info and activities that teach young people about safe sex.

Inclusive versus Orthodox Masculinity (Gottzén and Kremer-Sadik)

Inclusive: - Caring - Promotes the nurturing of one's children - Softer more emotional - Values giving security and support to children, positive reinforcement, encourage them to keep playing even if the results aren't favorable. Orthodox: - Performance oriented - Historically associated with sports - Values competitiveness, physical ability, homophobia - Demands excellence in athletic skills, toughness, discipline, teamwork, and sportsmanship. - Ex. Complaining about coddling kids.

Plus sport (Coakley)

used by non-sport orgs that offer sport participation as a means of recruiting, retaining, and motivating young people. E.g. church may create and maintain a sport program to attract young people.