Group Presentation

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IdUKbLSg)

This video clip is from the FINA Women's World Championship Water Polo, Gold Medal Match in Rome, Italy (USA vs. Canada). Things get rough when American Elsie Windes hits the goal for the lead, 5-4, then hits Alogbo in the face. (Universal Sports, UniversalSports.com) 


It is especially surprising when female athletes engage in violence during their sport because it is rarely seen since people do not usually associate violence with female athletes but rather with male athletes. Although scholars have argued that female youth sports produce only positive effects in girl's behavior, it is clearly not the case in this situation. Windes may have possibly lost her temper as the commentator mentioned or it could have just been an extra swing of the arm. However, if Windes position and action is carefully analyzed, most people would agree that the blow was intentional. This media clip contradicts the argument that sports elicit positive behavior, but viewers also have to consider the heat of the moment in the sport and the competitive feeling during the match.

The connection between violence and youth sports for both genders is important because in general, female sports and athletes are less publicized in the media than male sports and athletes. The lack of coverage of female sports do not stir up problems up until the point when female sports are suddenly covered more when an act or acts of violence occur. Furthermore, female sports and athletes are rarely seen or noticed in the media unless violence happens. This speaks to the fact that there are indeed less incidents where female athletes are violent compared to male athletes. This increase in coverage may be because the public and the media find violent female athletes shocking or unacceptable and thus, they have to be pointed out. Lastly, as Professor Messner mentioned, men are more likely to be violent because they feel they have to "prove" their masculinity as "stooping down" a level to becoming a little less masculine and little more feminine (being a sissy) is unacceptable and looked down upon. Also in a way to prove their sexual orientation, men tend to be rough with other men to disprove any notion where there may be feelings of interest or care between them.

In the end, the positive impacts of youth sports do outweigh the negative because if all aspects are considered, athletes learn many positive things but few negative things. For instance, athletes learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, friendly competition, knowledge of their sport, and strategy (strategic thinking and thinking ahead) . Conversely, the only negative aspects they take from sports may be violence/aggressiveness and unfriendly competition. And evenso, the negative behavior is not taken up by all athletes that play sports.

Violence in Female Sports (Presentation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAs-dhXdqU

Even after the passing of Title IX in 1972, many people were still hesitant to let females play sports with males: “In 1974, two years after the passage of Title IX…Little League Baseball was forced to open its game to girl participants…The creation of Littlle league softball is consequential in terms of the gender regime of the organization” (Messner, 15). Instead of “opening the game” up to girls, they created a whole new game for females—softball. Even today, female and male sports are thought of as categorically different and perceived in different ways. Male sports and athletes get the majority of the coverage in the media, whereas when female athletes are shown, there is less focus on their sport and more on their sexuality. Moreover, it is almost expected—and widely accepted—for males to be violent while playing their sport, whereas violence in female sports is looked down upon and down played in the media.

Scholars have argued that female youth sports produce only positive effects in girls’ behaviors. However, the media clip provided above is contradictory to this assumption because sports—regardless if it’s played by females or males—are usually very intense and elicit high levels of aggression from males and females alike, which ultimately leads to some violence in sports. However, one thing to notice about the violent behavior of the female soccer player in the clip is that her aggression and violence is much more subtle than the violent behaviors seen in male sports.

How females and males express aggression and violence differently in sports is important to think about because it reflects societal gender expectations. In lecture, Professor Messner discussed a variety of reasons as to why males are violent: homophobia & misogyny, competitive career hierarchies, suppression of self-empathy, etc. Thus, due to the fact that society expects males to be strong and dominant, openly violent behavior seen in male sports are more acceptable than they are in female sports. Since females are not expected to behave in the same ways as males, the violent behaviors in female sports are much subtle and hidden. However, although violence in all youth sports is important to consider, this one negative aspect is outweighed by all of the positive aspects of youth sports, such as getting exercise, making friends, and keeping kids off the streets.

Richmond High Rape Response

In response to the Richmond High School rape article, I found it to be shocking that people would actually just stand around a situation like that and not try to do anything to help. Sure, it might be unsafe to try to intervene physically, but more people could have at least shown her the respect not to gawk at the horrible scene that was occuring. As stated in the article, I believe that a lot of this lack of emotion or caring about women stems from the way that women are portrayed in the media today. If all we see are images of women wearing revealing clothes and engaging in promiscuous behavior, it becomes hard to separate fiction from reality. Soem people might even come to believe that real-life girls and women actually enjoy being raped and abused. However, this indoctrination still doesn't give the onlookers any excuse for allowing such a callous rape to continue. In this case, when you really think about it, the bystanders are almost as much to blame for the rape as the rapists themselves. By not doing anything to stop it and even taking part in filming it and egging it on, they ended up encouraging it to continue.

On a larger scale, if we all just sit back and allow things like this to go on, it just continues to foster a culture in which rape and abuse become normalized and seen as "okay". In general, I believe that we don't neccessarily have to totally change or sanitize the images of women in the media- there's nothing essentially wrong with images of beautiful or sexy women. Even displaying images of promiscuity or sexual invitation is okay. They'r all realities of life. However, these images need to be diluted by more images of normal, everyday women so that people can better recognize the line between fiction and reality.

Response to rape cases

In response to the Kobe Bryant case I agree that both are to blame, Kobe for being a married man and still being willing to engage in such a relationship, and Katelyn for not having stopped Kobe when things went too far. But I disagree with the fact that as an all star athlete he would use this situation to brag to his teammates. Being one of the best, if not the best, player in the NBA is enough proof of masculinity in society today therefore there is no need to push the point any further. And, having a family, doing such a thing would not bring as much respect from his teammates, as say a single all-star athlete would get. If anything he would be looked down upon for cheating on his wife. Also, many have agreed that Kobe's wife is good looking and that she is a catch. Why then would he need to further his masculinity by getting other women. I feel that it was simply a moment of passion which he could not help but get overcome by. This also applies to Katelyn.
The Polanski case where Polanski was accused of raping a thirteen year old girl whom he took pictures of. In this case no matter what Roman Polanski pleads he took advantage of a minor. So no matter if she for some reason consented it is still considered rape. And the fact that he could escape to France without punishment is confusing. The confusing part of it is why France would not extradite him back to the U.S.
In the Greg Haidl case where a 17 year old girl was raped by two 17 year old boys it was argued that the father, Greg, was to blame because he allowed drinking in his house by minors. Although he did although drinking it was the boys who committed the crime. It may seem cruel to say that the girl also shares in part some of the blame because she choose to drink that night. Also, the event seems to not have affected her as deeply if she was willing to go out and have sex not long after the crime. All in all the blame cannot be placed fully on one party, the boys, the father, or the girl. All are accountable for having engaged in either having alcohol in their place or in their bodies. But the boys do deserve punishment for their crime.

2 of the Rape Cases

With respect to the Richmond case, there is no way to avoid the fact that a crime was committed. However, with respects to where the blame should be placed, it is absolutely absurd that people would even begin to think to blame the girl that was the victim due to the fact that she had been consuming alcohol. Yes, this is illegal and yes, her consuming alcohol would grant her some sort of punishment with authorities. But there is no way one can deem it fair that she got what she deserved and the situation was her fault simply due to her consumption of alcohol. I find it twisted that people would even attempt to use facts in order to reassign the blame of a situation. In the Greg Haidl case, even though I personally feel that this case could be looked at in two ways. Even though the girl had consented to sex prior with these boys, that does not mean that the rape was justified. WHen it comes to cases of rape, people must be very objective and examine the facts as cases such as these where the rapist is a previous sexual partner can get very messy and obscure. We must know where to draw the line so rapes don't become casual and things that are not rape start to be considered rape.

A very common theme for all of the rape cases is that the woman is at fault when clearly, the men were the ones committing the crime. Sure, the women could've been more careful by not getting themselves drunk to the point where they can't think as clearly, but in the end, it's the men who choose to have sexual intercourse when they surely know that the women aren't in a normal state of mind to make the decision to oppose. We also talked about rape in writing 140 on college campuses and how a large number of college boys wouldn't stop sexual intercourse if girls asked them to. Even if the girls aren't in the right state of mind because of drinking, it's the mens' faults for committing the act.

Richmond High Rape Case

To me the most shocking and disturbing part of this case is that people watched. In other gang rape cases there have been audience members, like the one Messner talked about in lecture but they were more involved in the rape. In this case there were other students watching and standing by and not doing anything about the situation. They were even recording parts of it on their phones. It is mind blowing to me that anyone could sit by and watch this happen and not do anything about it! I just don't understand, in particular how any female could stand by and watch a fellow female be raped by a group of men. Were they entertained? scared? I have no idea. I can't comprehend it. I live up in the bay area so I know the stereotypes about Richmond and how scary, dangerous, and impoverished it is. I went home this weekend and my mom brought up the case. She got together a bunch of cards, signed by students in her high school classes in San Jose and sent them to her along with a flowers from my mother. I found this so intersting since we had just talked about it in class a few days before. We also discussed how there must "always be someone to blame" and this is not always the perpetrator. In this case I think society as a whole is blaming the society and culture of Richmond. One of the issues was lack of security cameras etc. These things aren't always present in a school in an area like Richmond. I think that in the area of Richmond criminal behavior has become a normal thing and so overwhelming that all crimes cannot be prosecuted. This fosters an environment where people, these boys in particular, think it's acceptable to commit crime like this because they think they won't get caught.