ATHLETE STEREOTYPE AND GENDER, SEXUALITY

By Stella Ahn

Athlete represents masculinity. When you think about the popular sport games in America such as football, baseball and basketball, the male athletes will directly come to your mind. As a matter of fact, athlete characters in the films and TV shows are often depicted as jocks; male, strong, aggressive. For example, Noah Puckerman, one of the main characters in Glee, is a football player. He takes a role of typical jock in the show, being aggressive and bullying other students. By constantly showing this kind of athlete characters, media reinforce the stereotype of athletes. If these stereotypes are wrong as previous posts mentioned, are jocks the only victim of it?



Considering athlete as masculine excludes people who have different genders and sexualities. This essay will talk about athlete’s gender and sexuality that excluded from media, specifically women and homosexual.

Daniels posed a question (2008),“If athlete means masculine, where do femininity and females fit into the equation? ”(p.114). Since women have been allowed to participate in sports, they have always struggled with gender stereotyping. Because there is a huge gap between the femininity required as a woman and the masculinity required as an athlete. In case of Olympic games, although women have been participated in Olympics since 1900, only few events such as figure-skating, archery and lawn tennis were allowed for women in early Olympic history. Women’s sports were not considered equally as men’s event until 1924 (Hargreaves, 2012, p. 28) and, still now, women athletes have less events and competitors compare to men’s. However, sports films did not pay attention to it. They just portrayed women characters as a woman of men athlete or cheerleader. Women athletes were someone who could never be recognized as true athletes.

On the other hand, the ideal athletes in media also presents another part of athlete stereotype; Heterosexuality. When films or TV shows are dealing with athlete characters, homosexuality has normatively avoided. Even though there is no difference in physical capability between athlete who are homosexual and who are heterosexual. This fact implies that athlete stereotype excludes not only different genders but also different sexualities. It means that even jocks are not free from the possibility of exclusion. According to Briley (2008), “In the macho and male-dominated world of professional athletics, it is difficult for gay athletes to openly discuss their sexuality” (p.6). Does this athletic world made media to focus on heterosexuality or media framed heterosexuality of athletes? One thing is obvious that homosexual athletes are still in “the invisible years” (Russo, 1987).

Media have often emphasized masculinity and ignored different aspects including gender and sexuality of athlete. The image of athletes, that have represented over many years via films and TV shows, are based on rigid stereotype which connotes, beyond academic bias of jocks, the exclusion of various identities from athlete. Consequently, it had made stereotype pervasive. Whether to accept the stereotype which media gives us or not is our choice. But, we should aware of that, with this persistent stereotype, there is no winner in this game

References

Briley, R. (2008). All-stars & movie stars: Sports in film & history. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Kidd, D. (2014). Pop culture freaks: Identity, mass media, and society. Boulder: Westview Press.

O'Reilly, J. (2007). Woman and sports in the United States: A documentary reader. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Word Count: 506