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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at gender constructs in sport, with specific reference to masculinities and femininities in football cheerleading squads. Bibliography lists 1 source
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLcheer.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
sport. For instance, divisions according to gender date back to the time of the ancient Greeks, when the original Olympic Games were open only to men: the equivalent Games for
women were much smaller, and regarded as of less social and religious importance. Nowadays, with legislation designed to minimise sex discrimination and maximise equal opportunity in sport, such divisions are
more subtle, but still evident. Even though in theory, both men and women should be able to participate in all sports, there are very few
female boxers, very few male netball players, and so on. (Interestingly, whereas women tend to be excluded from some sports because they are not perceived as physically capable of participating,
men tend to exclude "themselves", usually on the grounds that the sport in question is "sissy". This in itself raises some pertinent issues about the way in which masculinities and
femininities are constructed.) We know that legislation alone cannot eliminate gender inequalities - not only are schools and colleges able to plead resource
constraints, timetabling issues, and so on, in order to maintain gender differences in sports, but individuals themselves are heavily influenced by social construction. Children tend to imitate parents; for adolescents,
peer pressure, societal norms, family expectations, all contribute towards "channelling" the individual into certain forms of identity, self-expression and behaviours. Consequently, we
have a culture in which activities connected with sport, both central and peripheral, are very much shaped and structured according to gender (and, to an equivalent degree, age). We expect
to see young men in the boxing ring, and young women carrying the round notification cards; young men on the football pitch, young women in the cheerleading squad. Despite the
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