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What Is Masculinity In Football

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Gendered institutions are an integral part of everyone’s daily life. For myself, playing on a football team shaped me into the individual I have become. The greatest impact on me was during my junior year of high school, during the fall of 2012, when I was seventeen years old. Overall, football made my fellow teammates and myself as dominantly masculine as an individual could be due to the game of football and all of the things that surrounds your participation throughout the entire football season. Beginning with locker room talks before and after practices and also during football games, made me realize how gendered relations and masculinity is shaped by football. As Messner mentions, “gender identity [is] not a ‘thing’ that people ‘have’ …show more content…

When other teammates were not as crazy or prepared as we were perceived to be they would get called out as “not being ready,” told to “step their game up,” reminded “we have a game to play.” Jessica Valenti defines it well as she mentions, “The idea [is] that masculinity is strong, tough, and natural while femininity is weak and vulnerable. (Valenti 64)” Football forces you to interpret an image of masculinity, a dominant lesson in learning how expressing emotions is a sign of weakness, not being masculine, and most of all appearing feminine. The greater conflict is trying to adhere to societal expectations of masculinity. “This kind of experience teaches boys that it is not “just being out there with the guys – being friends” that ensures the kind of attention and connection that they crave: it is being better than the other guys – beating them – that is the key to acceptance. (Messner 128)” Various things are often done as a football player to fit in, get along with, and also helps you relate with one another about different situations you might be involved in because they also play football but the key to be accepted is being better than the …show more content…

You tend to catch yourself trying to be the manly one in conversation, and in everyday activities. It enforced you to look down on girls that were not as good looking as other girls. It made me more or less embarrassed to talk about a girl that might not have been as good looking compared to girl’s teammates hung out with. So you’ll often shy away from talking about those girls with friends and much rather talk about the good looking girls that we either saw or want to get to know, whether we talked to them or not. That forces an individual that is not as masculine to become more masculine knowing that good looking girls are hanging out with teammates compared to you. So everyone, especially on the football team is in a constant battle to get the best looking girl in

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Women who want to win in sports without losing male approval have to temper their victories with beauty, with softness, with smallness, and with smiles. Wearing makeup, jewelry, designer dresses, and having a soft demeanor will eventually help women win male

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Being a part of the football team undoubtedly has certain advantages, such as greater popularity and access to resources, but

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Support and encouragement by family members, especially by parents, are important in young athletes’ initial involvement in sport.” (Leff 187). Billingsley’s father, a former Panther State champion, is shown to be mentally abusive, running onto the field on the first day of practice to yell at his son for “not holding onto the football.” Winchell and his mother study football strategies at breakfast, all the while with her asking him if he’s going to get a scholarship. When a couple scouts come to speak to Winchell, his mother inserts an answer for him and when asked by one of the scouts if he thinks football is fun, Winchell is slightly hesitant to answer.

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Don Sabo’s “Pigskin, Patriarchy and Pain” and Sophia McDougal’s “I Hate Strong Female Characters” essentially analyze the role of patriarchy in society but through two very different and unique perspectives. Sabo’s piece “Pigskin, patriarchy and pain” is essentially a commentary on aggressive sports and how they reinforce a patriarchy that is violent, oppressive and damaging to both men and women. He also argues that sports culture reinforces the idea of male superiority and sexist and patriarchal ideals. Sabo argues that aggressive sports such as football have become this form of power and control that reinforces traditional gender roles and perpetuates inequality between men and women.

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This gender and diversity interview was conducted with Victoria Mealer-Flowers, the Student-Athlete Development Sr. Manager for Community Engagement and DEI Programs at Brown University Athletics. A range of topics were discussed pertaining to gender and diversity in sport, including racism, LGBTQ+ athletes, ableism, religion and privilege. Mealer-Flowers’s overarching stance on the state of diversity, equity and inclusion in sport is that the pertinent issues have evolved, rather than changed. Rather than having administrators trying to introduce and impose DEI topics and conversations with student-athletes and teams, it is the student-athletes who are taking charge and pursuing social activism of their own volition. Mealer-Flowers attributes

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History has repeatedly given men privilege due to their physical advantages; yet it is these same advantages that have developed into “rules” or expectations that all men should conform to in order to prove their manhood. Michael Kimmel’s essay, “‘Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” outlines the “rules” where men are expected to never show any emotions, be brave, act knowledgeable, be risk takers, be in control, act reliable, and be competitive, otherwise they would be showing weakness which is analogous to women. It is humiliating that men associate weakness with women; they should focus on the potential of the individual rather than their gender. Most insults toward men attack their masculinity because society finds it shameful for men to be

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Though women have come a long way, I do feel like social conditioning discourages young girls from learning to pitch or participate in any activity that would be deemed masculine. However, I do not feel it is always men that have the condescending tone. Twenty years ago around the time Fallows’ wrote this essay when my sister and I were very young everything we owned was pink, covered in lace and ballerina related, I accepted this in all it’s entirety my sister on the other hand wanted to play football. Our parents were relatively accepting of this; with my step-father rather ecstatic to have a kid wanting to play football, his mother, however, was exasperated. While our parents dropped use off for the weekend, she stated quite firmly overshadowing my parents’ laughter and joy “girls do not play football.”

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interactionist - seeks to discover how athletes and coaches make sense of their identidy exploring the key values associated with sports subcultures through the process of interaction. Feminist- explores the notion that sports may reproduce or contest gender stereotypes in society. Critical- Indicates that sports are socially constructed and can be understood by adopting a hisorical context. Highlights the importance that sports can reflect society but simultaneously challenge the way in which social life is organised.

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For example some athletes may prefer a coach who is an Autocratic Leader (a disciplinarian) where as some athletes may prefer a more easy going and motivating style. - Feminist Perspective The Feminist Perspective explores how sports can reinforce or contest gender stereotypes in society. A prime example of this

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There is a lot of pressure on men in society to be manly; however, what exactly does it mean to be manly? Though many people have different opinions, a lot of them conclude that a man has to be strong and somewhat emotionless to be considered a man. This assumption can lead to Toxic Masculinity, which is “A false idea that men are expected to be as manly as possible” (The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth About 'Toxic Masculinity, 2017). Men are forced to face these assumptions not only from those around him, but also from people he might see in Media. Media reinforces Toxic Masculinity which in turn causes men to belittle women.

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It’s pretty clear that in today’s society males are the dominate figure in sports. They receive a tremendous more amount of media attention than female athletes. Young boys grow up watching television bombarded with heroic images of male athletes. They have something to look up to, while young girls don’t receive the same images.

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We live in a society that teaches men that they must be very masculine, successful, powerful, inexpressive, and aggressive. They must live in this box of masculinity and can’t step out of it. If they do fall out of the norm then they are called names like sissy, queer, wuss, and others, as a way to feel degraded for not living up to the male standard. These men are taught from a young age to construct a highly masculine identity. This is especially seen in sports like football, hockey, wrestling, rugby, boxing, and the MMA.

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Soccer is a world phenomenon played and enjoyed by all levels of athletes. Soccer is defined as “a form of football played between two teams of 11 players, in which the ball may be advanced by kicking or by bouncing it off any part of the body but the arms and hands, except in the case of the goalkeepers, who may use their hands to catch, carry, throw, or stop the ball” (dictionary.com). This seeming-less simple game has greatly contributed to; the gender binary, gender performance and bodies, and intersectionality and gender inequality among our Men and Women’s US national teams. The US women’s soccer team made their first appearance in August of 1985 and the Men’s team in 1913.

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As an extension of that masculinity affects career paths. It makes certain career paths for men acceptable and other career options not necessarily acceptable. For instance you will not see many first grade male teachers as it is considered a relatively easier job not worth a man’s time and skill. Masculinity also impacts men and boys in terms of how we deal with our relationships, whether they are our friendships, or even our romantic relationships. Clearly there are certain expectations for men and boys grounded in masculine expectations that sort of dictate how we are supposed to act.

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