Finals Prep Flashcards
Why study gender and sport?
Fairness and equity issues
- Sports participation patterns (girls and women)
- Inequities: participation opportunites, coaching/admin jobs, financial support for athletes
Gender ideology in sports…
- is produced and reproduced
- can constrain people’s lives
- can undermine equity
What are the two types of gender barriers in sports?
- ideological: the webs of ideas and beliefs appropriate behaviour for specific genders
- structural: the organization and distribution of opportunites, the resources to be able to use an opportunity
What is sex?
- Biological differences between males and females
- Maleness and femaleness: but there is also a spectrum/range (intersex people)
What is gender?
- People identify with their biological sex, or have a different self-conception
- An idea that has been developped and modified over time in order to classify certain types of behaviours
- Socail definition of masculinity and femininity
- Express expectations for proper sports participation
Why do sociologist say that traits and behaviours are scocially construced?
Due to socialization, some traits are considered innately male or innately female
What is the diagram of Social Construction of the Gendered Individual?
Experiences, identities and bodies are at the centre of and influenced by…
- Ideological formations (values, beliefs, ideas)
- Institutional structures (rules, codes, organization)
- Cultural practices (acts, performances, routines, sports!)
- Cultursl texts (media forms, content)
What is gender order?
- Social system characterized by unequal power relations
- Struggle between different masculinities (specifically, certain expressions of masculinity) and femininities
- Options for participation: who gets to play? how do they get to play? under what conditions can they play?
What is an example of socially condition behaviour in sports?
beliefs that girls are meant for more aesthetic sports, and boys are hardwired for aggressive sports
What are the traditionally considered more masculine sports?
First: football
Second: Hockey, baseball, boxing/MMA, basketball
What are the consequences of increasing participation of women in sports like rugby, ice hockey and boxing?
- Challenges stereotypes about women’s sports abilities and capabilities, and about idealized feminine forms of sporting activity
- Can cause us to question our assumptions about gender norms outside of sports
What was happening in the late 1980s surrounding gay athletes?
An author could not find one athlete that was out to their teammates
What does hazing have to do with masculinity?
Hazing has historically been understood to be sexist and homophobic
What are the purposes of hazing?
How a person becomes part of the team: something to prove yourself, rite of passage or demonstrate obedience
What is homohysteria?
Heterosexual men’s fears of being publicly homosexualized by violating rigid boundries of heteromasculinity
What happened in the early years of a hazing study (2003)?
Same-sex sexual activities prevalent in hazing in men’s rugby and hockey teams
What does the term gay chicken mean?
Prove allegiance to team and development of a homophobic team culture (reinforcement og hegemonic masculine norms)
What happened in the later years of a hazing study (2009) and why?
By years 6 and 7, same-sex sexual acts were no longer im use.
Why? No longer had the desired effect, no longer degrading/humiliating
When was homophobia rapidly decreasing?
End of the 2010s (2008-2010)
What did the rapid decrease in homophobia allow men to do?
Heterosexual men feel freer to act in feminine ways, and as the homophobia diminishes more male athletes will come out
Who is Michael Sam?
- 1st openly gay player drafted into the NFL
- Career was under a magnifying glass by reporters
- Never made it from the practice squad to roster and was eventually let go
What are the odds of a closted player on an NFL team?
~10% of the population
Who is Ryan Russell?
One bisexual player in the NFL (formerly of Tampa and Dallas)
He could pass as heterosexual with the connection to females
What is the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy?
From the miltary, we won’t ask about your sexuality, but don’t be open about it
What were the shifts in sports culture over the years?
- Support from straight players has increased
- Reduction in the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy”
- changes in attitudes within wider sports industry
What are the comparisons between research from 2017 and 1996 on young elite athletes and attitudes towards homosexuality?
2017: Broadly supported gay rights (same sex marriage) and homosexuality in sports
1996: The opposite, not supported
Who is Brock McGillis?
- One of the first elite male athletes to come out as gay in hockey
- Had to supress his identity to fit in
- Hockey fostered a very negative environment towards homosexuality
What are the stages of the movement toward “inclusive masculinity”?
Homoerasure (1900s-1980s): extermely homophobic culture, fails to recognize that gay people exsist
Homohysteria (1980s): Cultural panic around homosexuality
Inclusivity (last 20 years): Minimal stigma around homosexuality, less rigidity around masculine gener norms
What happens with more inclusive masculinity?
- Men can be more emotionally open
- Freer with affection towards other men (bromance?)
- Pushing the boundries of tradition masculinity
- Less rigidity surrounding what men wear and how they present themselves
What are politics?
“Any activity related to influencing, making, and implementing decisions that affect collections of groups of people, from small groups to societies.”
Broader sense - politics are about power, who or what group has authority to enact their preferred ideologies, structures, and meanings in a society
What is Canada’s sport policy framework?
Canadian Sport Policy 2012
Government funded (taxpayer money)
What policies are included in Canada’s sport policy framework?
- Doping
- Participation in sports for women and girls
- Sports for persons with disabilites
What are thorny policy issues and what is an example of one?
Controversial or challenging policies, where people have competing priorities
i.e. concussion
What is the Canadian federal sport system?
Canadian Heratige feeds into… Sport Canada
Sport Canada feeds into… National Multisport Service
Organizations (MSOs), National Sport Organizations (NSOs), and Olmpic and Paralympic Sport Centres and Institutes
National Multisport Service Organizations (MSOs) include… Own the Podium (OTP), Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), Commonwealth Games Canada and Right to Play
What is B2ten?
Privately funded sports training for elite athletes
What is civil society?
Groups and organizations working in the interest of citzens, but not officially as a part of the government or for-profit sector (Non-Goverment Organizations [NGO])
What are important sport programs in civil society?
MSOs (National Multisport Services Organizations) and NSOs (National Sports Organizations)
What is soft power?
“Forms of power that seek to influence outcomes through non-coercive means” politics or persuation, winning hearts and minds
What happened during the cold war (1947-1991)?
- Played out via proxy wars in remote parts of the world (instead of direct armed conflict)
- Also via social and cultural confrontations (like sport) that were meant to demonstrate the superiority of their way of life and economic system
- Both highly invested in high performace sport
What was the role of protests and boycotts during the cold war?
Each country refused to participate in events hosted by the other as a form of protest against what each called “objectable” action
What games did the United States of America boycott along with 64 other countries becasue of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan?
1980 Moscow Summer Olympics
What was the USSR’s retalitory measure to the boycotting of the 1980 games?
They boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games
What was the famous hockey game between the U.S and the Soviet Union called?
“Miracle on ice”
How was the 1972 Canada-Russia “summit series” seen?
Formally biller (by diplomats) as a venue for building bridges between the two countries
Not only about hockey, but about the type of society and what socioeconomical society was better
What do the less politically powerful and poorer countries do when it comes to sports?
International sports competitions provide an uncommon platform for these countries
Cricket in India and west indies
What are FIFA and the IOC?
FIFA = Federation Internationale de Football Association
The IOC = International Olympic Committee
-> Power monopolies, little oversight, their “brands” are highly desirable
What are the 3 factors for urban policy and sports mega-events in the global south?
- Commercail and political implications
- Profitability for IOC and FIFA must be assured (plus ensure spectators comfort and safety)
- Enhance national profile (shake of the stigma of underdevelopment)
What are other goals of hosting mega-events?
- Economic growth and legitimizing urban redevelopment
- National belonging
- No long term development or poverty alleviation, just covered up by protection screens, settlement demolition and forced eviction
What are the three strategies used to improve favelas that present an “image issue”?
- Invisibilization
- Pacification
- Beautification
What is invisibilization?
- Erecting walls for visual barriers
- Strategic media represention that visually erase communities
What is pacification?
- Improve the security situation as well as to create preconditions for future projects and infrastructure development
- Massive deployment of special operations police force to kill, arrest or expel members of drug gangs
Who are the “pacifying police units” for?
Potentially a positive impact for the community, but more to protect the internatioal visitors and keep them safe
What is beautification?
Some communities were made to look better by way of painting, but other communities were demolished to keep the sightline clear of any poverty at these sporting events
