“Ladies and Gentlemen Please Rise. Men please remove your caps for the singing of the national anthem.” Common in arenas and stadiums nationwide, this request is heard before every collegiate game, match or race. However, not many stop to think why they don’t ask women to do the same and in many ways, this request disregards the vast number of women that do wear caps. While the effects of this cultural concept or expectation are miniscule, it represents one of many man-made expectations of gender in our society today. While we all can agree that there are biologically physical differences between men and women, the expectations that society gives toward the behavior of females have been growing wildly based on values that society ignorantly places on the female sex.
Moments after the national anthem will be sung in the in Waco, TX this upcoming October 30th, one woman will walk on the hardwood floor of the Ferrell Center for the Baylor Women’s Basketball Team expected to run, jump and shoot like a woman. However, if the previous seasons have been any indication, people will judge her because the tenacity and skill with which she plays resembles that of a man: faster, stronger and more impressive than any woman. While it is undeniable the biological difference between her and that of a man, society finds itself in awe of the fact that she belies the cultural concept that we have invented for “a woman playing basketball” and therefore judges her feminine biological concept, ignorantly reasoning that she must be a man. Brittney Griner the women’s basketball phenom spoken of, is one of many females playing collegiate basketball but the “many” constitutes a percentage so trivial, many girls neglect the idea of collegiate basketball as an option, instead reverting to Barbie dolls, yet another culturally constructed concept.
Shockingly, five-to-ten percent of all babies born in this Barbie-doll society are medically deemed “intersexed” but are raised as one of the sexes or receive sexual reassignment surgeries. This begs the comparison that just as basketball fouls are called offensive or defensive by the referee’s discretion, these sexual reassignment surgeries are called to obtain male or female organs by the doctor or parent’s discretion. So what if? If a woman like Griner who defied the roughly less than one-percent odds to become a collegiate basketball player, who is to say that she couldn’t have been in the comparably “easier” odds of five-to-ten percent that are intersexed. If this were true and “the call” was reversed toward male surgery then Griner would be available for the NBA instead of the WNBA, yet another man-made cultural concept. While the odds of this being true in Griner’s case are even more miniscule, it confirms that society judges women’s abilities based on them being a women.
Society has a set of expectations for women’s basketball players based on the cultural concept of a female playing basketball. But shouldn’t we have expectations for people, male or female, playing basketball in order to place them in different leagues. Maybe Griner would appreciate less humiliation and perhaps the bigger salary that comes with an NBA contract over a WNBA one.
Works Cited:1) http://collegepark.patch.com/articles/i-wish-i-liked-womens-basketball
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXor2Hu7TQ
3) https://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/the-misgendering-of-brittney-griner/
4) Lavaque-Manty, Mika. University of Michigan. PolySci 101 Lectures, 2012.
Your post was very interesting. I would definitely agree that women are expected by society to perform less efficiently in athletic settings. I wonder how much of this difference in expectation is societal compared to biological. Although the average woman is just as capable of performing an athletic function as well as a man, biologically, we do have differences. Men typically can run faster and jump higher even though a woman has the possibility of running as fast or jumping as high. I wonder if these biological differences create a societal standard that widens the gap more than what the biological differences actually are. Maybe women and men are actually quite similar in ability to physically perform, but because society has taught women that they're weaker than men, women believe that they're incapable of performing as well, giving them a lack of confidence. This lack of confidence could cause a decrease in self-esteem, and maybe this lack of self-esteem is the true root of what's causing why people believe that women perform less than men.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, if we lived in a society that appreciated and valued women as equal in value to men, women themselves would actually become as strong as men. If women were encouraged to work harder to be equal to men in physical capabilities, maybe the sex as a whole would rise to the challenge and come out as a group that's physically equal to men. Maybe instead of having the NBA and WNBA, we could just have the HBA: The Human Basketball Association.
I think Britteny Griner's success stems from the fact that she is simply a female athletic anomaly. Her success and dominance has never been seen before in the NCAA for Women. Yet, the Biological differences between males and females creates the anomaly. No girl has ever been like Britteny before. She exceeds in every category beyond anything that's been seen before. She has lead Baylor to back-to-back championships, consecutive undefeated seasons. There's no question she's something women's basketball has never seen before. Yet, the awe she derives is from her biologial differences. Many ask 'how is she capable of doing what she is doing, shes a woman?' The answer is, 'of course she is a women, but she possesses a skill set that no women has ever possessed before.' Yes, she has biological differences, but for her gender she is a superstar.
ReplyDeleteSo Brennan I will agree with you. We should judge based off skill rather than gender. No guy, in theory, likes being outplayed by a girl. But look at Danica Patrick. There are numerous examples of females who outperform males in certain athletic arenas, yet we have never seen a Britteny Griner before. Her Future is limitless, but I hope, and you share the aspiration as I, that we can step out of the societal expectations and appreciate Griner's skills.
After reading your post, Brennan, I took to youtube to re-watch some Brittany Griner highlights. The girl can play; there is no doubt about it. The women's game has never seen such a dominant presence on the court, and it is possible that it never will see such a thing again. Many, including the University of Notre Dame head coach, have described her play as "like a man."
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said that basketball players shouldn't be necessarily placed into a league because of their gender. However, there are no written restrictions limiting woman from playing in the NBA. In fact, in 1979 the Indiana Pacers signed Ann Myers to a $50,000 contract. Although she did not make the final roster, Meyers collected her pay. But Meyers wasn't Griner. Meyers was a measly 5'9 to Griner's 6'8.
In the last 40 years the women's game has advanced significantly. So Brennan, I agree with what you said. Griner shouldn't be limited to a WNBA salary if her talent is NBA salary worth. The facts are that that no NBA general managers have deemed any woman talented enough to play in their league since Meyers, but if anyone can do it, Griner is the one to go against the grain. Gender shouldn't transcend talent and I, for one, would love to see Griner in the post battling the likes of NBA greats such as Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum.