Anything+you+can+do,+I+can+do+BETTER!

Nicole Johnson __n8298190__  Teacher - Michelle __Running like a Girl:__ How Equitable Is The Playing Field When It Comes to __Women__ In __Sport__?  // "Everyone deserves the opportunity to participate and be visible in sport. Involvement in sport should be as empowering for women as it is for men." // **//Elizabeth Broderick - Australian Human Rights Commission// **

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__Artefact Analysis__ This short video added on YouTube in 2009, depicts the social issues revolving around women in sport and it's lack of media focus by using various clips from live games, interviews, advertisements, news casts and television programs with the aim of forming an artist view on the controversy surrounding the issue of gender equality in the sporting arena. The creators used examples of bad criticism and poor quality sexist jokes in an effort to describe the thoughts of men in this regard, and then challenged these assumptions by using high profile women to emphasize the need for equal opportunities and fairness for women in sport.

__Public Health Issue__   Historically, it has been understood that the "natural order of the universe" consisted of man hunts for dinner, woman at home with her family, woman the mistress of domesticity, man the master of all else, man the rational thinker, woman the guardian of morals, man dominant, and woman subordinate. This backward way of thinking is why women are still seen to be the weaker gender.  <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">We all know that sport holds a significant place in our society. It affects how we think, shapes ideas, affects emotions and creates heroes. The media reflects this and communicates sport’s importance in our lives. But just as sport is crucial to the media, the media is critically important to sport. Women's sport receives little attention from the public and therefore has barely any ability to impact people's (children's) lives. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Consistent media coverage seems to be the key in providing sport with positive role models, increased spectator appeal and lucrative sponsorship opportunities therefore improving opportunities for young girls and women with regards to sporting careers, self empowerment and achieving their dreams.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 250%; text-align: center;">__Literature Review__ <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sporting and active recreation activities can be the glue that holds communities together. Sport builds social capital by providing a sense of unity. It is a social leveller, fostering a sense of trust amongst participants and members and contributing to greater social cohesion. Sport and shared recreation activities offers people the opportunity to be involved, which provides them with a positive sense of self worth.- (WWDA, 2006). Unfortunately due to persistent gender inequalities, women and young girls are usually unaware or unable to share in these potential benefits. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">There is a growing understanding that sport positively benefits women and girls, contributing to their social and economic development. Physical activity and sport can be beneficial to the health of women and girls by reducing the childhood diseases that could affect them in life. (Mayanja. R, 2010) The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that physical activity is not only crucial to avoiding weight gain but is also an important factor in improving adolescents’ control over anxiety and depression. Physically active adolescents more readily adopt other healthy behaviours including avoiding tobacco, alcohol and drug use and show higher academic performance at school. However, data from 36 low and middle income countries indicate that 86 per cent of girls do not meet recommended levels of physical activity.(R. Bailey, I. Wellard and H. Dismore, 2004) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The individual, community and societal benefits of regular participation in sport and physical activity are well documented but health issues are not the only concern for adolescents (WWDA, 2006). There is current shortage of female sporting role models. If you go to your local library and look at the sports books, they will almost certainly be predominantly about men. If you go to a university library, the bulk of the writing in sports history and sociology assumes male standards. Switch on your television to look at sports programs and it’s the same story (Hargreaves, 1994). In spite of the fact that more women are participating in more sports than ever before, and in spite of a significant number of feminist interventions into sports theory, much more attention is still given to the role of sports in the lives of men than to the importance of sports to women. (Hargreaves, 1994) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Given that parental support is an important element in determining a young girls' involvement in sports and a healthy lifestyle, it is important that parents perceive that their daughters' athleticism will be valued. This is particularly prominent in a sedentary culture that is gripped by an epidemic of obese children and where young girls are inundated with unrealistic, idealized, and sexualized images of the female body, which can result in body image issues (Vincent, 2005). This is why It is important that young school girls are able to identify with sporting role models who are determined, powerful, independent, and strong female athletes who are valued by society without having to deal with a host of socially constructed stereotypes, based on rigidly defined gender roles. (Vincent, 2005) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">An illusory image, A report on the media coverage and portrayal of women’s sport in Australia in 1996, showed television coverage of women’s sport was just 2 per cent of total sports broadcasting. Radio showed a total of 1.4 per cent, while sports magazines registered 6.8 per cent. Newspaper reportage of women’s sport showed only 10.7 per cent compared with the men’s 79.1 per cent.(ASC, 1996) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Commercial television stations argue that they only reflect the community's wishes. But if sports coverage is technologically second rate, as such is the case with women's sport, then it's not surprising that low ratings will result. This is then used by stations as their justification for not covering women's sport (Woolage, 1994). When female athletes receive coverage it is frequently engrained with socially constructed sex role stereotypes and references to their heterosexual familial roles as wives, mothers, girlfriends, and daughters (Vincent, 2005). Reports of female athletic talent and achievement are almost always framed with culturally stereotyped commentary about their physical appearance and feminine heterosexual attractiveness rather than their athletic accomplishments and skills (Vincent, 2005). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Perhaps the most obvious precursor of gender inequality is that women athletes earn far less than men when playing in a national league (WWDA, 2006). Professional netballers such as Sharelle McMahon receive as little as $20,000 a year and must work part time to pay for her commutes interstate, in addition to training and competing(Melbourne Vixens, 2011). Compare that to AFL players who's job is to train and show up on game day and they receive upwards of $500,000 a year. Men's sport make millions from television rights, massive crowds and sponsorship, but netball still relies on fees paid by its players to help fund its teams (Gooch, 2005). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is reality for many female athletes. As a nation we are lagging far behind trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand, and many European and Asian countries, not to mention the United States and as a result, many of Australia’s stars are traveling offshore, in the search of more lucrative contracts. (Steel, 2007) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 250%; text-align: center;">__Cultural & Social Analysis__ <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a particular society believes are appropriate for men and women. The assignment of these roles and adoption of these traits can create gender inequities, differences between men and women that systematically favour one group to the detriment of the other (Right to Play). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Throughout history males have dominated the sporting arena and ideas about sexual indifference. It is difficult to leave behind the notion that differences between the sexes are biological rather than cultural. And that feminine and masculine appropriate sports and the male sporting superiority are is the 'natural' order of things. The assumption that human behavior is parallel in many ways to that of animals underpins the argument that differing cultural behavior between men and women is rooted in biology (Hargreaves,1994). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">A dominant belief in the 1800s was that each human had a fixed amount of energy. If this energy were used for physical and intellectual tasks at the same time, it could be hazardous. Such physical activity for a woman was thought to be especially hazardous because during menstruation she was "periodically weakened" (Bell, 2007). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Analyzing sport is an inherently controversial affair and the sociology of sports incorporates different and conflicting theory's of society - those which in general support conventional ideas about sport, about the nature of society, and about masculine and feminine identities; and those which question them (Hargreaves, 1994). Sports are increasingly implicated in the social construction of womanhood, but the meanings attached to them vary tremendously according to the persons individual biography. Most people only know about exceptional sports women. However those who have broken world records have been labelled 'unfeminine' or as behaving 'bizarrely' (Hargreaves,1994) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Through structured sport programs, girls and women can become more physically active, benefiting their physical and mental health, including the reduced risk they will suffer from chronic diseases as well as depressing and anxiety. Sport is also seen to enhance health and well-being, foster self esteem and empowerment and provide opportunities for leadership and achievement (right to play) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Government funded bodies should focus on the effects of young women and girls. They are our future, and enhancing their chances of getting involved by providing better media coverage of women's sport and better access to programs that aim at developing their skills, not only increases the chances of them playing sport continuously but ensures good health and lowers their risk of developing mental illness. All these issues are current and on a steady rise in Australia, and this may just be what we need. It would also ensure that women's sport is more readily accepted in our community which would enhance the possibility of better media coverage.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 250%; text-align: center;">__Analysis of Artefact & Own learning Reflections__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">'Sport and Gender' is a youtube video that expresses the typical criticisms that women's sport deals with in our society. It outlines the ongoing exclusion they face with regards to biological strength and emotional weakness, and men's beliefs that they are the more powerful sex. The films aim is to promote equality within the genders by bringing about the awareness that women athletes are as equally capable and accomplished as men. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sport seems to be the only area of unfinished business with regards to gender equality in Australia. The accomplishments of female athletes are extraordinary but remain unrecognized due to the social and cultural barriers that exist within our society. After compiling research on the constraints that women face in the sporting world, I have learnt that society places too much emphasis on cultural ideologies and that girls and women that excel in sport are threats to the 'gender system' that insists on unequal social constructions of womanhood and manhood. The pressures from society to fit the mould are hard to over come, but for those woman who have and continue to do so, will be able to look back at what they have accomplished and what they have left behind for many other generations to follow. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">"While believing is half the battle won, women will continue to be second rate to their male sporting counterparts unless people take the next step and make a change and only then will Australia uphold its sporting nation title. (Steel, 2007) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;"> __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 250%;">References __  Australian Sports Commission Website (1996) //Media,// Canberra. Retrieved 10th October from:  __ [] __

Bell. R C, Ed.D., J.D (2007) //A History of Women in Sport prior to IX,// The Sports Journal, United States Sports Academy - ISSN: 1543-9518. Retrieved 2nd November from: __ [] __

Costa. D M, Guthrie. S R (1994) //Sport And Women: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,// Human Kinetics, South Australia. Environment, Communications, Information Technology, and the Arts References Committee. //About Time! Women In Sport And//

//Recreation In Australia,// Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), September 2006, Canberra Flanagan. K (2008) //Gender Barriers in Sport,// Serendip, United States of America. Retrieved 29th October from: __ [] __

Gooch. L (2005) //Netballs common cry - Like Ja, Aussie netballers cry for greater recognition.// The Age Newspaper, The Age Company Melbourne. Retrieved 17th October []

Hargreaves. J (1994) //Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sports//, Routledge Publications, London

Mayanja. R, 5th IWG World Conference on Women and Sport: //Women and girls//// ’ // //access to and participation in sport: a human rights issue// Sydney, Australia, 20 – 22 May 2010. Retrieved 28th October from: __ [] __

Melbourne Vixens website - //Netballs common cry - Like Ja, Aussie netballers cry for greater recognition,// January 2011,. Retrieved 2nd November from: __ [] __

R. Bailey, I. Wellard and H. Dismore (2004) //Girls Participation In Physical Activities And Sports: Benefits, Patterns, Influences And Ways Forward.// Canterbury Christ Church University College, UK. Retrieved 16th October from: __ [] __

Righttoplay Website //Sport and Gender - Empowering Women and Girls// - hasn't been working lately, could not get reference details! Steel. T, //Is Australian Really __The__ Sporting Nation,// (2007) Special Sport Studies, Feature Article. Retrieved 29th October from: __ [] __

Turner, J. (2003). //The Structure of Sociological Theory// (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson/Wadsworth.

United Nations, //Women 2000 and Beyond//, December 2007, The Division for Advancement of Women of the United Nations Publications, New York. Retrieved 28th October from: -__ [] __

Vincent. J, //"Equitable Media Coverage of Female and Male Athletes: Is there a solution?",// April 2005, Sports Media, The University of Alabama - College of Education - Department of Kinesiology __ [] __

Woolage. D (1994) //Women, Media and Sport,// GreenLeft website, GLW issue 152. Retrieved 3rd November from: __ [] __

YouTube Video - //Sport & Gender,// March 2009 uploaded by Diijondacosta. __ [|www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXbZJ3ZVdF8] __

"SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, GEN Y AND BINGE DRINKING" =<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 1.9em;">Really Great Read :) = <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Excellent work... really enjoyable read. Alcohol abuse is young Australians is a major issue in todays society and you have made some really terrific points. It does depend on their up bringing and the social and cultural factors that surround them. I don't believe the kids are at fault. I think that with every issue that arises socially, there is always that small group that brings trouble with it, whether that be willingly or unwillingly. This is where these kids get the wrong ideas. ||
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"AUSTRALIAN MEN AND THEIR HEIGHTENED RISK OF SUICIDE" <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Great Stuff! <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">I found your artefact really interesting. After reading your analysis of it, it really began to make sense. Really artistic and meaningful representation of it... well done :) The evidence in scary just how many men feel they would rather take their own life then risk their masculinity by speaking out about their feelings of depression. Emotion in a male shouldn't be seen as weak, but empowering and indirectly... beautiful. Unfortunately i believe this will continue to be a major concern within Australian society until the realisation that masculinity should only be seen, if at all, on the outside (body), not on the inside. Good Work. ||
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