Masculinity In Sports Essay

1059 Words5 Pages
When people think of athletes, most who come to mind are heterosexual males and lesbian women. Even more so, in sports such as basketball and football males are thought to be racial minorities while athletes who play golf or hockey are usually white. Race, gender, and sexual orientation all come together through a little something called intersectionality, which is the interconnected nature of race, class, gender and other social categories and how they pertain to an individual or group. Sexual orientation is probably the biggest one talked about negatively the most in sports. More so, female sexual orientation is more stigmatized than males. This is probably due to the fact that some people still think women can’t do what a male can do.…show more content…
According to the same study mentioned before, fourth and fifth grade students overall ranked getting good grades important and sixth and seventh grade students ranked being attractive most important to them. At the same time, white students said being good at sports and attractive is most important while African American’s said wealth and good grades is most important to them (Chase & Machida, 2011). These are not supported by evidence, but it can be assumed that blacks place more importance on wealth and good grades because they are often penalized and held back on opportunities because of their race and want to succeed to the top of the totem pole in the workforce and in the social hierarchy. In contrast, it be assumed that whites place more importance on excelling in sports and attractiveness because they are already high in the social hierarchy that they have higher paying jobs and don’t need to work as hard as non-whites. This could also lead to the assumption of blacks being more often seen in some sports such as basketball or football because they depend on a scholarship to go to college; they spend more time practicing in particular sports rather than working on their
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