from: Stephanie
Sports are a main contributor of the socialization of gender in children. Over decades of playing sports, there has become this sort of norm we follow when it comes to the gender of children and the sports they play. Football and cheerleading in our country go hand and hand. Every time I attend a football game I always see all of the boys out on the field in all of there gear running and tackling the other football players, while the girls are in cute little uniforms cheering and yelling from the sidelines for the boys on the field to win. Boys have been taught to be aggressive, play the rough and dangerous sports to prove that they are a man. Many times when I see a young boy get hurt on the field the coaches will always say "suck it up and be a man." This is teaching our children that boys should not get hurt, they should not cry and they should not show any pain. They need to work hard and play even harder. On the contrary, the cheerleaders I see on the sidelines are taught to cheer for the boys; they need to cheer them on so the football team can win the game. But what is this really teaching our girls? To bow down to the boy's feet and praise everything they do? Is this really what we want to teach our children? Also, is it fair to the genders that they can only be a football player if they are a boy and only be a cheerleader if they are a girl? When a girl wants to be a football player, she is discouraged to follow that route because football is a boys sport and a girl will get hurt if she plays. If a boy wants to be a cheerleader, most of the time he is discouraged because it is seen as being "gay"for a boy to be a cheerleader. Sports have a huge roll in the socialization of our children. In this case, football and cheerleading are two sports that a child can't pick between, boys play football and girls cheerlead.
3 comments:
This picture hits so close to home for me. Sadly, the way that Stephanie has stated this form of gender socialization is how most Americans view sports for children. Fortunately for me, when I was on the football team not too many people had a problem with it. Initially there were a few raised eyebrows .My parents were very supportive and the other guys on the team for the most part were as well. I suppose the people that I grew up with were different, more liberal, than a lot of organizations are today. I am glad that this photo raises awareness of how a little girls dream might be to play football and a little boy might love to cheerlead. I think that parents should be more accepting of the roles that children choose to fill because it will lead to a better sense of equality.
This picture really does capture the reality of gender biasing when it comes to sports. Not a single cheerleader is a boy and as far as you can see, theres not a girl football player out there. It's sad to notice that even as professional football games are aired on TV there is not a single male cheerleader out there, or a single female football player. And cheer leading and football are not the only sports....What is this teaching to our kids? That there is a right and wrong in what sports they want to participate in?
maybe in our society, having girls be cheerleaders teaches them to be more supportive of their men...At least maybe thats what there purpose was back then. i dont know. To be honest, I think that cheerleaders nowadays are not looked at positively but rather negatively. To have cheerleader qualities implies a lot of things. I think it is weird to see guy cheerleaders, but thats because i am conditioned to think so. However having guys on your squad can improve your act dramatically and from what i understand, being a male cheerleader has a lot of benefits... But what happens if guys take over cheerleading, who will be our leaders of cheer? but society is ever changing, and the fact that guys are cheerleaders now, gives the woman the boost to say, well, if guys can cheer, why cant you play football? And to my understanding... a couple of colleges have female kickers on their team, which is a huge deal. I dont know....times are a changin.
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