Black Female Student Athlete Essay

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

Shaun Powell's book, “Souled Out? How Blacks Are Winning and Losing in Sports” scrutinizes the paradoxes of African-American success in sports. Perturbed predominantly with the erroneous perceived accomplishment of equality through sports across the world, Powell offers his work as a portrayal of the evolution of African-american athletes over time and compares past struggles with modern day issues. Powell discusses how African American’s are both winning and losing in sports, but ultimately emphasizes the negative aspects of the on-going crisis. Powell, a well-known journalist, reviews and discusses how education, professional activism, media, and community relate and affect African-Americans in sports, therefore persuasively conveying his argument.

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

Men and women who chose to engage in sports from which they would traditionally be discouraged because of their gender, particularly as professionals, redefine the sport. The social and cultural "costs" are not the result of the individual's participation, but rather the way in which sports have been socially, politically, and economically constructed. Gender is only one of the few ways in which people are categorized according to their proficiency for some athletic activities. Race and class are also factors which may prevent individuals from engaging in sports that have been traditionally excluded to them. Socially constructed notions of race, class, and sexuality compound the way in

Black student-athletes are taught to value sports over academics at a young age because it is seen as the “only way out”. Black student-athletes are heralded for their athletic prowess from middle school up, so they begin to focus less on their education and more on their sport. Unfortunately, so do the teachers. Black student-athletes are more often than not just given passes, as schools value what their athletic abilities could do for them over the academic success of the athlete. Even normal black students can be seen the same way just because of the perception that they might be an athlete. The sad truth is that the athletes that don’t make it to the professional level are left without the education needed to be successful.

In the collegiate world of sports, basketball has become an increasingly recognized sport among African Americans, predominantly males. The hope of any young basketball player is that one day a scout will come and recruit them into stardom The question that presents itself as a problem to the lucky few who are chosen to go professional, is whether or not an education is more important than a million dollar shoe deal, “The NCAA's (1998) annual six-year study reported that only 33% of Black male basketball players graduated, (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999). Individually, basketball reported the lowest graduation rate in all divisions,” (Robinson, 2004:1). Basketball players have become so idolized in the eyes of young

Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous,

The topic of race in sport, particularly African Americans in sport, has long been a controversial yet, widely discussed matter. Human and social issues are never easy subjects to discuss or debate, and racial differences tend to provoke very strong reactions. To begin, we will explore those whom claim that black athletes excel in sports as a result of their biological make up. Of all players in the NBA, more than 75% of them are black; of all players in the WNBA, more than 70% of them are black; of all players in the NFL, more than 65% of them are black (Hoenig, 2014). Evidently, black athletes make up a vast majority of these sports in the United States. Athletes must be of elite caliber to have the ability to play at this level, so this

The bad image of black athlete is one of the most important problems today. African American athletes are not that different from white athletes; however, media portrays a bad image of them for some unknown reasons. Our world is full of the great African-Americans who showed incredible results in professional sports. On one side, a lot of African-American athletes in the limelight right now come from nothing to somewhat. On the other side, there is a negative connotation that all African Americans have is sports because they are not educated, all they have is natural talent, and all they want is to make the money and not do anything to get there. Television today is often concentrated in stereotype – filled African Americans sitcoms, television news is often shown in negative or crime based stories about black athletes, music & music videos - profanity, misogyny, hard, thugged out. The image is terrible and the reason for that is that media in general just looks at the negative too much.

Sports culture in the United States is a double-edged sword for minorities. It can promote a positive and progressive image of race dynamics but can also recreate racial issues in a large scope with more media attention. This is no different for Asian American women. Typically overlooked in research and mainstream media, a new intersectional feminist movement has finally sought to include Asian American women in research and look at their impact on sports culture in their own communities as well as the nation. While representing a small portion of American athletes, only 1.8% of all scholarship athletes, they have made substantial contributions to feminism and family dynamics within their own communities. In popular thought Asian American

Basketball, football, and hockey are considered the most popular sports in America as of today. However, sports in the early 1950s were not as popular as they are now. According to “An Exercise in Subtleties and the Transmission of Racism: An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Covers” by Eric Primm, Summer DuBois, and Robert M. Regoli, they stated that American love their sport and that “each year they would spend billions of dollars on sports-related items and activities.” The media help promote the popularity of the sports in America. Consequently, sports media “plays a key role in perpetuating the types of racial stereotypes about minority athletes in sports” (Ismond, 115). The thesis of this writing project is with some racial stereotype reinforcement

It is the year 2016, the United States has had its first African American president, gay marriage is legalized, and women and men are supposedly seen as equals in the workplace and educational institutions. It is important to note that while steps to equality have been made through the Equal Pay Act and Title IX, gender discrimination is still prevalent in society. The NCAA reported since 1988, in the 2007-2008 academic year, institutions yielded a net gain of 2, 342 women’s teams added to varsity rosters (Pickett, Dawkins, Braddock, 2012). There are now more than 174,000 female collegiate athletes thanks to Title IX (Koller, 2010). Though there has been a substantial increase in female athletic participation, this number is still nowhere near the participation of male athletes. Many women still do not participate in sports due to discrimination and the concept of equality in Title IX could potentially affect women’s interest in athletic participation.

Strong support with the black community might have been affected by the connotation between African American women athletes and “mannish” lesbianism. Factually, European American ethnic thought categorized African American women as violent, rough, zealous, and physical which are the same qualities assigned to masculinity and sport. The image of the manly lesbian athlete had an unswerving effect on women competitors, strategies of athletic organizations, and the overall fame of women’s sport.

Race, gender, history and sexual orientation play major roles in women's participation in sport. Through out the history of women in sport, opportunity has increased. Many athletes and coaches are presented with the issue of sexual orientation throughout their sporting career. Regardless of sexual orientation, all female athletes are affected by heterosexism. One's racial or ethnicity background greatly shapes the experience they may have in sport. This essay explores the many issues women in sport face today.

In the last one hundred years women have made tremendous inroads in many facets of life. Of that there can be little doubt. Women may now hold jobs, own property and participate in professional sports. Today women can compete in sports, once a vestige of male domination; there is now room for women in that arena. But even today women in sports are not portrayed in the same light as their male counterparts. To a large degree this is because of today's cultural ideal of women.