Essay Sample on Masculinity and Femininity in Sports

Introduction

Involvement in physical exercises and activities holds a great significance in physical and mental development. Even though the schools, as well as the government, dedicate a lot of resources and efforts to enhance student's participation in physical activities through sports, there are numerous factors that affect the participation of students in sports. Gender stereotype has been identified as one of the key factors that predict and influence individual's behavioral intention and meaning to his or her perception regarding the social normative influence towards performing a given task. Sport is a male-dominated area that does not only promote male hegemony but also advances the traditional male roles. This essay compares and contrasts how sports are regarded in terms of masculinity and femininity in the current society.

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In the past recent decades, the female gender has tried to get more involved in sporting activities. However, gender stereotype in sports has been a great hindrance to their involvement. Gender stereotype has been a societal phenomenon for many years. Andrew Reiner compares the two genders while explaining that masculinity is characterized by the two major features such as homophobia and misogyny; for instance, straight, strong, bold, and domineering. Children grow with the stereotypical perception because that is how they have been brought up. Reiner explains a case of a toddler in a video during vaccination that is told not to cry because men do not cry (1).

The involvement of women in different activities has profoundly increased in America despite strong opposition from gender stereotypes. Reiner explains this with the underperformance of boys in school and an increased number of female student enrolments in schools. According to Reiner, "boys' underperformance in school has more to do with the society's norms about masculinity (4)." Boys have been made to believe that they are perfect than their female counterparts. As Reiner asserts, many men like to believe or pretend to be what they are not because of the society's norms regarding masculinity. Reiner states that more female students are getting enrolled in the American schools, which shows that the society is working towards eradicating gender stereotypes that confine a certain gender to a specific behavior. This trend can help understand why many women are involved in sports today. Most sporting activities today are involving both genders equally except football which is still a male-dominated area.

Masculinity is characterized by hypermasculine features such as domination and strength, while femininity is characterized by being emotional and weak. Even though this is starting to change in the American society with the increasing involvement of female gender in the things that were traditionally known to be male-dominated areas such as education, but there is a potential threat to this change. Reiner argues that experts relate some of the aggressive behaviors such as sexual assaults on campus and even mass murders to hypermasculine traits (19). However, such behaviors are known to develop from the early ages of childhood development. According to Reiner, by 6 months, boys are known to show "facial expressions of anger" to communicate what they want to like being picked up (15). Some sports like football are known to be aggressive and that explains why women have not found their way into such sporting activities. Such sports that are associated with violence teach violence as a way of maintaining male identifies in sporting activities. Physical aggression is associated with field success which enhances the athletes' status among their peers in the school. Peer influence plays a significant role among the school-goers. The perceived peer support is considered an important factor that determines an individual's commitment to sports participation. Fear of negative evaluation by peers can influence sports participation of both genders. Boys or girls who fear being negatively evaluated by their peers sometimes fail to participate in certain sporting activities because they consider it an inappropriate sport for them.

The gender stereotype features used in sports also contributes further to the difference between masculinity and femininity involvement in sporting activities. The presentation of women in the current or modern sporting activities tends to focus on demeaning aspects of femininity. The modern presentation of women in sports focuses on the beauty and grace of the female. In this case, they are not really athletes but instead, their androgynous bodies make them inappropriate to engage in aggressive sports like football. Reiner acknowledges this presentation and its effects on female involvement in sporting activities. According to Reiner, female athletes have a lot to do to prove their ability to participate in sports. To better earn oneself a place in sports that are male-dominated, a female has to constantly prove herself to herself and others that she is able to succeed as a girl (Reiner 9). Women's stand-in sports is still limited despite that many females have engaged in sporting activities in the past decades. The role of the female in sports is characterized by supportiveness, enthusiasm and sexual attractiveness. The role of women in sports today may have changed but it is still far from what defines masculinity in sports. Unlike masculinity that is associated with character and leadership building, femininity involvement in sports is associated with physical attractiveness and sex appeal. Such roles as cheerleading are associated with feminine performance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite that sports participation have been promoted worldwide, many young females do not take part in the activities due to constant gender stereotype and peer attitudes. This study has compared and contrasted the gender involvement in sporting activities. Gender stereotype and peer attitude have been highlighted as two major factors that determine female participation in sports in school. Therefore, students from both genders should be encouraged to participate in sports actively regardless of whether a sport is associated or perceived as masculine or feminine related.

Works Cited

Reiner, Andrew. Teaching Men to be Emotionally Honest. The New York Times, April 4, 2016. Accessed on July 13, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/education/edlife/teaching-men-to-be-emotionally-honest.html