BYU vs New Mexico

We had been discussing in class how women's sport does not receive a lot of publicity unless the athlete herself is a celebrity, sells sex appeal, or is a popular champion. Now, it has been discovered that women who are deliberately being violent during the game will gain the fame. I am referring to college women’s soccer particularly the match of BYU vs. New Mexico. There are video clips of the New Mexico team player, punching, tripping, and even pulling the hair of their opposing players. The video was funny to watch, but at the same time as a coach it was unpleasant. For the most part athletics hold a high standard of dignity, respect, and sportsmanship. And I made sure that these values were instilled in my lacrosse players. Violence may be entertaining, however, I feel as if it degrades what sport is all about. There is going to be harsh feelings, animosity, and grudges against other teams, that’s the nature of the competition, but to completely out lash the way the New Meixco team did was appalling. I was thinking to myself, where is the coach? It is easy to miss some conduct that is displayed on the field, however, I feel like New Mexico’s harsh play was hard to miss. There is a lot of pressure on the coach to control their players and control misconduct. The lines were never crossed with my girls because they knew of the high standards that the lacrosse association within Ohio expects of them, and across the board most of all lacrosse coaches enforce strict discipline for misconduct. I can only imagine how much heat that soccer coach is in for continually letting the game to be violent. UNM Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs commented about the game, “Liz’s conduct on the field against BYU was completely inappropriate. There is no way to defend her actions." And I myself think it would be hard to defend a player who did that. I’m surprised her punishment has not been discussed within the media, because I feel like it would be a bigger topic if this was to happen within a men’s team.

March Madness

We have discussed how bizarre it is that March Madness in men’s college basketball is so much more popular than the women’s tournament. Only a select few within the class have filled out a bracket and followed the women’s tournament while nearly everyone followed the men’s. I think that the following has the same correlation with men’s and women’s professional basketball. Actually, I could see the march madness for women’s basketball may get more spectators than an average professional women’s game. I think that its particularly due to interest, more people are willing to watch a men’s game than a womens because of gender perspectives that the men’s game is faster and fiercer, and has a more sense of excitement. But I also think that the publicity has a lot to do with it. I looked up both of the websites for the men’s and women’s Final Four championships. The men’s tournament was held in Detriot, while the women played in St Louis. I then found the schedules for the games and events, and there was a significant difference in public entertainment. Both tournaments had free basketball clinics, middle school madness programs, and a walk or run for their fans to participate in. However, the men’s tournament also included a college all star game, community initiatives, practice viewings, and block party, where musicians came to perform and the community could get together for fun activities. There is defiantly a lot more hype and buzz for the men’s tournament than women’s. So I have decided for the first time that I am going to make a bracket for the women’s march madness and see if I derive the same type of excitement that I get from following my men’s bracket. I think not only my own personal interest once games start will influence my excitement, I also feel like the people around me will also have a huge influence. Who knows I may find a big group of people who do follow the women’s march madness, or I may be flying solo.

"Wie Love Michelle"

Wie wins her first victory! November 15, 2009 Wie had her first LPGA championship victory beating Paula Creamer and Lorena Ochoa by two shots. The win was necessary for the success of her career and the desperate attempt to get the LPGA back into the spotlight. The tour has lost a lot of American spectators and public attention. There are no more American Sweetharts winning the championships as they are now being dominated by Asian players. Also, Carolyn Bivens, the old commissioner was asked to step down from her position for a number of reasons. She was not alleviating the financial pressures that the American tournaments experiencing during these economic times, in fact she was raising tournament fees to an inoperable rate, which in turn made several tournaments in the US drop from the tour this year ; raising sponsorship prices by as much as $200,000, declining the media attention of the tour, as well as supporting and raising more tournaments overseas to earn an extra penny. Since her leave the LPGA has a lot to clean up as well as gaining their respected fan base back in the US. Since Wie’s win the LPGA website has a viewing jump of 84%. This could be a beginning of a time that everyone was waiting for. If Wie continues to win tournaments, she will be bringing attention back to the LPGA like Tiger brought to the PGA. Wie had a long absence due to her ambition trying to compete in the PGA. It was not until this year that she became a full member the of the LPGA. Personally I have seen her play at the Jamie Farr, her game is amazing to watch, but she beats herself. Her game diminishes as she gets discouraged and it’s very easy to pick up that emotion. I think with this win it will encourage her to try harder and to practice harder, she is finally coming around and meeting the expectations that everyone was waiting for since she was 14. That is a lot to carry on ones shoulders at such a young age, so I can understand her since of displacement with not reaching the goals society had placed for her. But now she has evidence of her achievements that are supposedly, “long overdue”, and I think if she continues to win, the LPGA will bounce back very quickly due to her fame, likeability, and sponsorship deals. America will have their sweetheart back.

The Jordan Empire

Michael Jordan is probably one of the most well known human beings on this planet. We discussed in class all of the memories we had of Jordan that we had when we were younger. All of the sponsorships like his Nike shoes and Gatorade. Also the publicity, memorabilia, and staring in movies, it’s hard to forget the face and the name. He is like a demigod, people to this day idolize him. My most fond childhood memory of him was the Space Jam movie he was in. I never watched basketball, but I loved that movie and I knew of him, and I think that because I had a lot of friends who loved him, it made the movie for favorable for me. It’s funny ever since we discussed his fame and his impact on sport, its like I see Jordan everywhere. It’s probably because I am more aware of him from the class discussion. I now notice his Hayne’s commercials which probably play just as much in the past as I notice them now. I also see clips of him when he attends basketball games. Last week When the Cav’s played the Miami Heat Jordan was in attendance and it seemed about every five minutes the camera would flash back to show viewers his reaction. Lastly, I ran across a fairly new documentary about Michael Jordan. I can not recall the specific station but it was not aired on a sport channel. In the documentary they discussed a lot of the topics that we had in class; his fame, worth, impact on economics and sport, endorsements, experiments with golf and baseball, and the scandal associated with his father’s death. I found my attention to his publicity today amusing. Although he has been out of sport for some time, he still has a huge impact within our culture and media today. It’s strange that I have never notice the media attention that he still gets until recently but I really enjoy it because I cant help but relate it to class discussions.

Female Sport and Sexuality

Last week in class we discussed whether or not it was ok for women athletes to pose for magazines baring a little more skin that is commonly acceptable and if their photos were really promoting their sports. I think that there are a couple underlying reasons why women expressing their sexuality is a controversial topic. The first one is that women’s sport is not nearly as popular and does not generate as much money as men’s sport. Some women have posed for photos in promotion of their sport and promotion of their athleticism. But what about the female athletes that pose more provocatively? Is it ok for them to sell sex in order to create more attention for their sport? My question is why has sport made it acceptable for women to bare all? You do not see female lawyers posing in bikini’s to promote their firms. I think that part of the reason why is that it generates money and media attention, and the media attention in most cases is positive or creates a buzz. I think that most people can agree that in world of fitness and health athletes have gorgeous bodies. Maybe promoting their bodies is a way to create fans, people who strive to achieve the fitness that the athletes have, and if you can look good while working out all the better. I still do not know if it is good for essentially promoting the sport. There is a difference in showing that your fit and a difference in sex appeal. Take David Beckham for example, he is famous for Soccer, his looks, and being married to Victoria so when I see him in underwear ads I do not think of him of promoting soccer, however, soccer does cross my mind because he has such a big face in US soccer. So in conclusion even though he is not directly promoting soccer, soccer is in association with him, and his name. Is it ok for him to pose provocatively when he represents a family sport entertainment? Yet, you do not hear about him being criticized for being in underwear ads, is it because soccer is really popular and his actions do not affect the representation of soccer as much? Or is the general public more strict with women? Does the public criticize women for going against lady like behavior, whether its for promoting their sport or not eyebrows will be raised. What I think it comes down to for most cases is that this is really some of the only media exposure that particular women sports get, some use it to increase their celebrity, however, this will be a circulating issue because I do not see a decrease in a correlation of female athletes and sex appeal in the near future.

Male Athletes and Homosexuality

Today in class we discussed about the perplexities about male athletes coming out to their professional teams when they are homosexual. In recent history most males have only come out after their professional careers were over to avoid being ostracized with their fans and even within their own team. Even with the strides we have made in recent years for gay rights and the acceptance of gays within the community, male athletes who are gay may have it a little harder than the majority. Their profession revolves around masculinity, and it doesn’t help their case that there is a connotation that gay men tend to be more feminine. I think because of the nature of their job and the negative reputation of the homosexuality, the atmosphere of and a gay male athlete and his counterparts are intensified. If a professional athlete were to come out that he was gay, I think he will have a support system, however, I also think that he will have a hard time maintaining expectance from the rest of his teams and his fans. I totally understand that for wanting to wait to come out until their career is over. Until there has been a substantial number of athletes that come out later in life, people will finally start to break down their pre conceptions and expectations of athletes and heterosexuality. And until that happens I think it will be unlikely that we will hear about gay male athletes that come out while in the duration of their career.

Women with MUSCLE

In class we got into a discussion on how much muscle is too much muscle that is acceptable for a woman. I found this interesting, because I myself have my preferences about how much muscle I like on a man or how much muscle I think is attractive on a woman, however, I never considered an amount of muscle mass being inappropriate or not right. Working within the fitness culture I have found that those who work to compete in fitness and body building competitions are apart of this close knit subculture. Even, a lot of muscle on a man in class was considered to be unattractive, however, I do not think men will ever be ostracized by society such as some women may be who are apart of the body building subculture. To those who compete in body building view large muscles as beautiful and a healthy way of living, and I do not think that they should be judged on their appearance for that. It is not as if they are making their appearance offensive to others or that their looks would be deemed inappropriate in certain social settings such as a conservative atmosphere. I just feel that its sexist that women who have taken apart of the body building lifestyle are deemed inappropriate as apposed to men who, were not thought of as inappropriate, just not attractive to those who do not like the body building type. It just may take time before women may reach the same type of criticisms as men, however, you can not deny that there are different standards and expectations for men and women and that maybe women are criticized more for joining the body building world because it has never been accepted that women posses a masculine trait. However, I do believe that times are changing and people are being more open because we already see more women playing football, but who knows if women will ever truly be equal to men in terms of masculinity.

Indian Wells and the William Sisters

I never really understood the Indian Wells incident until we discussed it in class, and I completely side with the Williams sisters with their decision in not returning to play in future tournaments. I understand that it is not so much the crowds reaction and their inappropriate display of resentment towards the Williams family, its the fact that the tournament staff did not do anything to fix their mistakes and prevent future outrage with the fans. First of all, I agree that Indian Wells should have confessed to their ticket holders that they were late in informing them that Serena could not participate in her match. Because they did not do that one simple action it was the cause of a whole set of events that are much harder to control, such as a mass crowed of angry tennis fans. I do believe that they could have done other actions to protect their players, such as security warning their rude and intolerable fans to watch their language and if they didn't they would be escorted out of the venue and be given a refund. Or even the tournament director making an announcement to kindly ask people to keep their etiquette during the match or even confessing their mistake. The tournament director has control to do what he wants, it is his tournament, it would not be hard to get a microphone and address the crowd. There were many opportunities to help resolve the problem or even to cut some of the tension. However, because they did not, they disrespected the Williams family and let the situation get so out of control that they had a upset stadium that would be nearly impossible to settle down. Since this is the one tournament that a lot of the Williams family and friends could easily attend, I highly doubt that racial slurs would prevent them from returning. Again, it was how the was run, who would want to play in a tournament that doesn't take care of their athletes and does not have control of their own operations. Maybe one day when there is a new director and the tournament is under different management the sisters will return to play.