terms 2

Conditional self-worth- concept that people, especially atheletes, values themselves differently under a certain condition. For athlete this could be whether they played well or not in there last game
Messner: your only as good as your last game


Suppression of empathy- concept that highly affects men. Men are encouraged to suprssed any form of sympathy for others because it shows weakness and vulnerability- not commonly held masculine traits.
This is shown in football and the NFL


The pain principle- concept that it is engrained in men to tolerate as much pain as possible and fight through it in order to be masculine and “tough.” This was displayed when Messner talked about how NFL players become legendary for their toughness, and recognized for their tolerance of pain.

terms

Right to life v. pro choice- conflict in the stance of whether or not abortions should be legal or not. Pro life people advocate the person has rights to life when they are conceived whereas pro choice people see it that a woman should have power over her own body and that that a fetus only become a person after it is viable, and could survive with the mother’s body
Ex: This debate is very important in terms of poverty because impoverished women may have less children if abortion is known of and available.

Moral absolutism v. Moral Relativism- refers to the debate as to whether there are universal, natural principles with hold a common moral truth, or whether there are conditional moral truths relative to ones situation and influences.

Two Terms

Concerted Cultivation: the ideal physical manifestation of this concept are the cliche piano lessons almost every household in suburbia seems to partake in. As Annette Lareau describes the term, values, lessons, activities, and morales of the the upper middle class seem to be very important aspects of parenting. Parents seem to pride themselves on the lessons of self-motivation and knowledge to make their children more aware of the various social institutions. 

Opting Out: this word refers to the act of quitting work for household needs. This idea is especially seen in housewives and women who are forced to tend to their household's needs: a trend referred to as the "third shift" by Michael Messner. In most of the examples presented in the book, women are not doing the literal meaning of the term "opting out" but instead have no other choice because of financial circumstances.

Definitions

1) Strategic Friendliness- a study done by Jennifer Pierce which shows a strategy that lawyers use to get ahead in their field. By employing strategic friendliness they try to "win over or dominate" another person. Messner uses this term when defining the CEO coach's style of coaching. He argues that the CEO coach is no less competitive than the Drill Sergeant coach, but he uses strategic friendliness, or quick thinking and exceptional talking ability, to get ahead of his competition.


2) Pain Principle- the pain principle is a concept brought up by Don Sabo. In this principle Sabo is discussing how male athletes tend to want to fight through pains and injuries for in order to achieve the glory of winning. Men tend to thwart their bottled up feelings and emotions (of their struggles striving for success) towards their opponents in order to play at their highest level.

Terms blog

I thought that the most interesting terminology was involved with the coaching titles. That is, Teddy Bear, Crossing Guard, Drill Sergeant, CEO. The teddy bear is the coach for young individuals and they are very soft and caring. This is typically attributed to the "soft" coaches who are soft spoken and easy going. They understand the game of young children. They coach young children and they hardly ever get mad or yell at the kids. This is not common for women to have these coaching jobs although it is seen as less competitive and a less powerful position. The next coaching spot up is the Crossing Guard. This coach brings coaching to the next level. They get increasingly more competitive and louder. They yell more and use their power more often. They require respect from their team. They are much more demanding then the teddy bear coach. Then is the Drill Sergeant. This type of coach is much louder and is completely a one sided method. They do not listen to anyone else, but simply give orders and rules. They are extremely competitive and not sympathetic at all. They are much more harsh then the other two levels and are by far the loudest of the coaches. Then is the CEO. The CEO is almost always male, and is naturally respected. The kids never question them, and listen to them. The CEO does not have to be loud, they are simply respected. These different levels of coaching seem completely accurate to me which is fascinating. I have played three sports my entire life and these definitions were spot on. I began with the Teddy Bear, and then moved through the stages until the CEO. I never saw this as gender stereotype until I realized the only woman coach that I had that was female was the Teddy Bear. Then each coach who yelled was a male and I had an assistant coach that was female who acted as the Teddy Bear simply listening and helping us with our problems. Now that Messner pointed out the gender divisions of labor, I have realized how apparent it truly is in our society.

Term Definitions

Culture of Silence: The reluctance to speak up about a matter which is known to exist, but is not discussed or acknowledged due to communal, unspoken consensus. An example of this would be Our Guys, a book by Bernard Lefkowitz in which he describes a 1989 gang rape of a "slightly retarded" 17 year old girl by a group of high status athletes. There were 13 boys in total, 6 of them leave before the rape begins. These 6 boys KNOW what's about to happen, and know that it is wrong, but because they are all members of the same team, they don't say anything to an authority figure. Of the 7 who stay, only 2 actually commit assault, the other 5 serve as the audience members who facilitate the rape by cheering on the 2.

Dynamics of the Athletic Male Peer Group: Audience: These are the "wannabe boys and men who actively applaud and support the words and practices of the Leaders - High Status boys and men at the center of their group who perpetrate misogynist, homophobic, assault at the Target - vulnerable, feminized object of ridicule, degradation, sexual assault, and conquest. Also, the Marginals are the lower status group members who support leaders with their silent complicity. An example of this can be the rape described by Lefkowitz in his book Our Guys, where the 17 year old girl serves as the Target, 6 boys who first leave are the Marginals, the 2 who actually rape the target are the Leaders, and the 5 who cheer them on are the Audience. Although this is the rape of a female, a male often serves as the target. For instance in fraternities, sports teams, the military etc, where there are all males, and all have to have initiation rituals (hazing).

Defined terms

Agency: In Messner’s book “It’s all for the Kids” he seeks to prove that people are active participants in creating gender. He states that, “in the language of social theory, people exercise agency in the creation of everyday social life. Agency can be either reproductive: “When our actions are consistent with traditions and conventions of existing gender differences and hierarchies” or resistant: “when our actions contradict t or challenge existing gender differences or hierarchies.” Reproductive agency does just that—it reproduces and helps to perpetuate the existing norms in society, whereas resistant agency helps to change or challenge existing gender norms and relations. Messner asserts that reproductive and resistant agencies are often simultaneously evident in sports. For example (from the book): “when a heavily muscled woman bodybuilder gets breast implants in order to appear strong and conventionally hetero-sexy.” The body builder is a resistant agent in that she is heavily muscled, which is resistant to the feminine body norm and a reproductive agent in that she got breast implants to appear more feminine, reproducing the relation between feminine and large breasts.

Drill Sergeant Coach: male coaches who are involved in junior level youth sports around typically around the ages of 11-12 years old. This type of coach is more evident in this age group because this is the time when the sport tends to get more serious: the coaches and parents expect to win. This coach is very hyperkinetic and bossy, he makes no effort to restrain his thoughts and often displays his directions to his players on his team through hand signals from the side line in the coaches box. This coach doesn’t hold back when his team is doing bad, and has no problem expressing disappointment in his players, he is loud and commanding and will do whatever it takes to win, including making a strong attempt to control the game with the goal of winning. Often times “less intense” coaches have opted out by this age bracket, leaving the more “serious” coaches who often have a commanding leadership style. In the book, Messner uses Coach Gordon’s level of intensity in the playoffs as an example of a Drill Sergeant Coach. Coach Gordon rides one of the most talented players on the team the hardest in an effort to get the player to reach his full potential, which would be beneficial to the team and help the team to win. As Coach Gordon grows agitated with the players, it manifests into visible physical agitation and also into louder and more commanding vocal instructions to his players. When the coach’sa starting catcher isn’t doing well, he pulls him out of the game, publically scolds him and sits him down in the dugout. The Drill Sergeant coach will do whatever it takes to win.

Presentation- terminology

1)Concerted cultivation: Annette Lareau describes it as a form of upbringing of children that exists in middle to professional classes. Parents feel a sense of obligation to provide myriad of opportunities of extracurricular activities, tutors, lessons, and etc. to their children, and they also feel obliged to contribute volunteer time for their children’s youth sports as team parents, coaches, league officials, or referees. The parents strive to reward their children with self motivation through internalization of rules, sense of entitlement, class privilege, and knowledge that will facilitate the children’s ability to steer around their path in social institutions. i.e. all families mentioned in Messner’s book embody this term

2)Hegemonic masculinity: Within the context of soft essentialism, it is the predominant form of masculinity that is favored and honored by the society. Messner directly correlates the term to CEO coach in his book, by describing them as the emergent form of masculinity in sports who exercise controlled, competent, and effective style of coaching in South Pasadena, CA. The professional class based hegemonic masculinity of CEO coach is produced and affirmed only among a small group of men within the social context of youth sports, families, and professional-class workplaces.

term defination

The pain principle: Stifles our awarrness of our bodies and limit our emotional express; it also encourages us to false the feeling that boil up inside us; feelings of insecurity and stress from striving for success. Example: Brett Favre, he had a car crashed and supposed not allowed to play the sports for a year, and he played all season and also got MVP.

Vertical segragation vs horoizontal segregation: this idea is developed by sociologist Charles and Grusky in 2004, vertical segregation represents the cultural values, for example male dominated; and vertical segregation may change over time. Horizontal segregation represents the gender essentialism, the biological differences separate men and women in occupations; for example, men are physical labor, women and emotional labor. Horizontal segregation may not change over time.

Term Definitions

Gendered Language: the use of a certain words or phrases that fosters divisions in the roles of men and women. By attaching the modifiers male/female before a job occupation, this creates distinctions on what is a "normal" career path for each gender. An example can be taken from the riddle in It's All for the Kids: where a man hits a boy with his car, only to realize that the boy is his son; but when he takes the boy to the hospital, the doctor claims "Oh God! I can't do surgery on this boy! He's my son!" This example shows that the general assumption that doctors are men, where in the riddle, the doctor is actually the boy's mother.
Teddy Bear Coach: men who coach at the youngest level of youth sports. They tend to be men with the highest level of kids-knowledge relative to the other coaching types, who have higher technical-knowledge. Coaches at this level tend to squat down and mute the level of their voices in order to seem less threatening to the children. These coaches take on the role of nurturer in order to foster a positive environment for the children. However, some men choose not to coach the younger levels for these very reasons. An example of this would be Messner's use of Doug Berger, a coach who refrained from coaching younger levels because he was uncomfortable with the feminine context in which these coaches had to interact with children.

Presentation

Publicly visible family type is one composed of a male professional-class primary breadwinner and a college-education female who has opted out of a fulltime career to become a homemaker and who often is an active volunteer in community activities. Example, Barbara Jones who opt out her career and volunteered to be a team mom; her husband has a high-powered, high-paying career of his own.
Gendered organization of time it is when people talk how they negotiate the tensions between work, family, and community volunteering work. Example is how Carol Morris spoke of how men’s careers constrain their time, and of how family work constrains women’s time ( volunteering).

presentation

Soft essentialism: Soft essentialism is from the book Kids (chapter 5). This term defines as how adults’ beliefs about gender differences, along with the ways that they treat boys and girls in youth sports, creates a professional class based gender ideology. Unlike the “hard” categorical essentialism created by sport in the pre-Title IX era, soft essentialism sees sports as a viable choice for girls, whose participation teaches them competitive values and physical skills that counter the limitations of their supposed feminine nature. Boys are simply assumed to be competitive and aggressive, their natures consistent with the values of sport.

Second-Shift: Second-Shift is from the book Kids (Chapter 2). This term was made popular by sociologist Arlie Hochschild, whose study of two-career, heterosexual families showed that women were still doing the vast majority of the housework in these families.

Presentation

CEO coach: a kind of coaches who are in junior level youth sports. They are always quiet, restrained, and contemplative with strong controlling of what happens on the field. They are like CEOs of companies in which they expect kids have internalized rules and embodied basic skills. The CEO coach emerges over the years as the hegemoic form of musculinity in the South Pasadena youth sports context. Example: In professor Messner's book, he found that the CEO coach is the dominant coaching style in South Pasadena youth sports; after one loss which was observed by Messner, the coach of the team did not bark or shout at the sloppy plays of the kids,but he just concluded the reason, and the coach was considered as a "CEO".

Opting out: the word comes from the book Opting out: why women really quit career and head home? by Pamela Stone. Opting out means that women choose to quit work and be housewife completely, the trend which is called "the third shift" by prof. Messner. One example is that in the book Opting out, the author found out that most women did not "opt out", which was contrast to the public view. Women who did that spoke of inflexibility of work and of husbands, and some husbands had high incomes that can afford their families.

Hope it is useful!

violence in sports

I was looking through videos of violence in womens sports and the most common sport i found was actually ice hockey. This was most interesting to me simple because I wouldn't have been able to tell that these were women ice hockey players simply by watching the fight. Though I have seen fights in movies with all the slamming into glass and punching each other, something about these fights somehow seemed not as violent, as if they were staged for fun. Yet at the same time, I could tell that these women were really pissed, which made me think that maybe it was just the combination of ice, awkwardly sized uniforms, and skates and hockey sticks that made the fight that much slower. After scanning through the hundreds of connected links to other women's hockey fights, I read through the comments, which were rather depressing. Most of the people watching had commented on the fact that these women 'fought like girls', or 'couldnt throw a real punch if they tried'. It's kind of sad how all the emotion and energy that these women were putting into a sport (whether for a goal or to simply beat up on their opponents) was simply disregarded and commented on with sexist comments and comparisons to their much larger and stronger male counterparts. Much like Robin Hextrum's art on how rowers hurt their bodies in return for the emotional rush of working hard for the team and for the sake of the sport, these women were pushing themselves out of the norm that 'women can't play hockey' to prove themselves in a sport they loved.
The link that struck me the most was titled "why hockey is not for women". Though not a video of actual violence in sports, it implies the (negative) effects that participating in sports, especially violent ones, has on a woman and her appearance and chances of 'getting a guy', which is being emphasized more than her scoring a goal or putting up a good defense. Whether she is being violent or not, the idea of women in sports is still not being looked at fairly when she's not allowed to express the emotions that are always being used to label women in other aspects of life.

Female Violence in Sports - Emmanuel Casillas

The fight that broke out in Providence, Rhode Island between the two girls soccer teams was an intense fight where there were punches thrown. It is interesting to note how the media reacts over a girls' fight but simply glazes over fights in masculine sports. As in hockey, men fight each other and referees allow the fight to go on for a time. It is seen as an important part of the sport. And the fans, rather than showing distress that a player might receive an injury goad them to go at it harder. In the girls' fight people rushed onto the field to stop the fight. It may be that because women are classified as gentle and fragile creatures that this fight had such an impact. When men fight, even in soccer, the fights are not emphasized as much. To see women fight is a rarity because of how social structures stress that they are not as aggressive as men. But people forget that women are as human as men and that anger is common to both.

Female Violence in Sports

Violence in sports is not an uncommon thing. Many athletes, in the heat of the moment, loser their cool and get their frustration out on their competitors. It is something that is very common in male sports, especially that of Hockey. In fact, fights in professional hockey matches have become an integral part of the game. The referee's are often told to let the fighters handle their business and intervene at a safe time. However, women sports has just as much violence as male sports, it just isn't as publicized. For example, the huge fight that broke out in the Woman's hockey match along with the soccer game between BYU and New Mexico. Clearly in both instances, the violence got to levels of punching, kicking, cheap shots, and even hair pulling. With instances like this, the media seems to be more intrigued by female violence than clips of male violence because it is often believed that it is not in a girls nature to be that aggressive. These videos of female violence clearly prove that notion incorrect.

Violence in Female Athletics Response

I believe that the violence within female based athletics has been highlighted because these acts go against the societal expectations of women being naturally maternal and loving. I have to admit that I was completely shocked by the vicious girl in the soccer team video. It wasn't because of her gender, it had to do with her lack of respect toward the other players. When Zidane head butt another player during the world cup in 2006 I was just as shocked as I was watching the woman in the soccer video. I wouldn't contribute my disbelief toward these acts to one's gender, instead I would base it off of one's lack of moral character. I played AYSO soccer for about ten years and I never felt that violence on the field was condoned, but when it did happen it wasn't looked down upon based on our gender. It was looked down upon based on poor sportsmanship (in this case sportswomanship). I will say however that the referees are much more lenient with calling fowls and carding while witnessing male soccer teams playing. For example, I recently went to one of my brother's soccer games and I noticed that they are allowed much more physical contact with one another than women are without getting penalized for it. I feel that female soccer players are more prone to getting penalized for their physical contact than male soccer players. Obviously this is unfair and I don't feel that this aspect of sports is very well recognized within the athletic arena.

SWMS Presentation- Violence in Womens' Sports

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/new/local_wpri_providence_high_school_girls_soccer_brawl_20091109_BRT

The story is about a fight that took place on the field during a girls' high school soccer game in Providence, Rhode Island. While there was only a minute left in the game, one girl bumped into another, which in turn led to an all-out brawl breaking out- complete with punching, pushing and hair pulling. The story mentions that a similar incident occurred not long ago, which could have had an impact on this situation.

Women have traditionally been seen as less aggressive than their male counterparts, but sports have afforded women and girls an outlet to release their frustrations and strengths in a positive manner. Only recently have women been able to express themselves in such a physical way and still be accepted by society. Sports have traditionally been the domain of men in which they can express their aggression and masculinity freely- and now women have a place on the field as well. Personally, I believe that womens' participation in sports is a good thing that allows women to released their repressed aggression and frustrations. However, it's very important that this aggression is channeld into fair play and not into violence.

Incidents like the high school soccer fight are of course not unique to girls or to soccer- in such a competitive environment as the sports field, there are bound to be disagreements and fighting between teams. Therefore, both male and female players need to control themselves and transform their frustrations and anger into determination to win. It might be more shocking to see women enaging in such violent acts because of our preconceptions that they should be docile and understanding by nature, but it's also important to note that these girls are still sports players. They're playing very competitive games and their drive to win is the same as men, so we shouldn't be surprised if they occasionally get into fights.

Any increase we're seeing in violence in girls' sports is probably a byproduct of the fact that far fewer women have competed up to this point. They're really only leveling out with men and being human- competitive. In the end, sports can be a great outlet for both men and women, as long as the competition is kept to fair play and the players learn to control themselves.

Women in Sports- Rhode Island High School Soccer Fight

I was very surprised to see the television news clip of the Rhode Island high school soccer fight. I have played soccer all my life; beginning at AYSO to club to Olympic development, and even on the high school level. During the soccer matches, people become passionate about winning and frustrated when their team is consistently stopped, yet never have I seen it progress to a full team versus team fight.
Second, I was even more surprised that it was women who were fighting. Both of my younger sisters play soccer on a very competitive level, yet never would I have imagined that young women players such as the ones in the video would possess the aggressive impulses to turn a mere high school soccer match into a fight that most likely got them suspended or in deeper trouble. But as the video commented, most men view women in sports as fragile and innocent; even the news commentator said that it was "mostly hair pulling" when really it was a full-on serious brawl. This example shows that the public views the aggressive impulses of women incorrectly; in actuality they can be as aggressive as men and in sports they can act as passionately as men.
Overall I am both disgusted and surprised by the video. It has opened my eyes to realize that women, just like men, can be aggressive on the soccer pitch or even in any sport. Women, like men, become passionate and put all their energy into the matches, unfortunately sometimes it can end in violence just as this video has shown.