The “Dumb jock” a stereotype is widely known throughout our society. You may have seen this stereotype on a show, read it in a book, or watched it in a movie. The “dumb jock” stereotype is portrayed on many platforms of media. A great example is a show Blue Mountain State or BMS. BMS glamorizes the lives of players on a fictional Division 1 football program. The players are portrayed to be unintelligent party animals and jocks. One of the main characters is Thad Castle, the superstar linebacker of the team, who loves women, mojitos, and cocaine. Thad has inferior, smart students do his schoolwork for him and do not go to class.
This video will give you a better understanding of Thad Castle and the dumb jock stereotype.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FrRJ3T8DNw
Often times, football players are portrayed as bullies in certain shows. For example, in the show Glee, the football players throw red slushies on the nerds and “losers” of the school. This negative image of athletes is not entirely true and more often than not athletes do better in the classroom and are more likely to be leaders in their school.
It is easy to think that non-athletes would have better grades and perform better in the classroom than athletes because it gives students more time to focus on your studies. Right? Well, think again! Athletes have very scheduled lives from school to practice, then to homework then, sleep. Athletes do not have the luxury of wasting time or they will fail in the classroom and on the field. Also, athletes must hold a certain GPA to be eligible to play in their sport. “Using both qualitative interviews (n=20) and quantitative secondary data analysis, the findings suggest that despite heavy sporting commitments and necessarily demanding training timetables, the sampled elite athletes performed at levels equal to, or superior to, their peers” (Georgakis,2014). In short, this quote backs my argument that “jocks” do well in the classroom as well. Athletes not only have the brawn, they have the brain. Recent developments in neuroscience have suggested that physical activity greatly enhances cognitive function (Georgakis,2014). Traits and characteristics developed on the field can be translated into the classroom. Athletes are well versed in meeting deadlines and managing their time, they can perform in high-stress situations. Athletes face adversity every competition they participate in, they develop skills that can only be attained through sport. “They identified time management skills, goal-setting techniques, coping strategies, ability to focus and being highly motivated and committed to achieving, as personal attributes that are used to enhance academic ambitions” (Georgakis,2014). Athletes hold themselves to a higher standard in everything they do.
Now going back to the example of Thad Castle, he encompasses the worst qualities of an athletic, self-absorbed, dumb, bully. This is how the media portrays athletes and Thad is one of many examples. But we must understand that these portrayals of athletes are false and used for entertainment purposes. Though the dumb jock stereotype has the potential to be funny, it displays the bigger problem in our society. Athletes, especially professionals, are not taken seriously off the playing field. For example, Lebron James calling out Trump on Twitter and Trump then attacking back insulting Lebron’s intelligence. Or Trump saying that players should not be able to voice their political opinions during sporting events by taking a knee. We need to fix problems like this and the first step is debunking the dumb jock stereotype.
References
Georgakis, S., Wilson, R., & Ferguson, J. (2014). The Academic Achievement of Elite Athletes at an Australian University: Debunking the Dumb Jock Syndrome. International Journal of Higher Education, 3(2). doi:10.5430/ijhe.v3n2p120
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Joe, this is a great first post.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a solid voice in your writing, keep letting it shine through in these posts. You've incorporated your source and the final product is a solid effort at dismantling a long held belief about jocks - one perpetuated by shows like Blue Mountain State. Also, excellent work at tying in your analysis with our current political climate; it's a resonant final paragraph.
Just a few points for next time before I go. Firstly, ensure your title is capitalized and your name is separate from the body of your post. Additionally, can actually embed video within the text itself, rather than just providing the reader with a link (stop my office hours and I'll walk you through it, if need be).
Good work,
DP
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI concur with David's assessment. There's much to recommend for this first essay. And with some attention to the formatting issues raised in the previous comment, you are making the most of this assignment.
Moving forward, I suggest you consider the following.
1. Some of this comes off as editorializing rather than analysis. And while I appreciate your personal interest in this topic, best to avoid overt opinion and focus on how and why these stereotypes exist and persist.
2. The final paragraph misses an important dimension of the "outspoken" athlete: race. That is, the back and forth between Trump and James is inflected with racial bias. So you want to add that to the mix.
3. Finally, the "we need to do something about this" conclusion weakens this piece. Rather, tie your discussion of jocks back to our core reading material. How does this stereotype fit into our discussion of gender and race in media and popular culture?
25/30 pts.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your decision to focus on one specific representation of athletes: the dumb jock. Being narrow in your scope strengthened your argument, because you were able to dig deeper into the topic.
The BMS example was a fitting choice to illustrate the portrayal of athletes as brainless. Your other example about the bullies in Glee seemed somewhat unrelated and distracted from your argument. I think next time you would be more successful to stick to using a single example and analyzing it more completely.
The sources you found were excellent, and the fact that you cited neuroscience literature was a powerful challenge to media representation of athletes.
Overall, this post was both easy to digest and informative. Great work!