Levelling+out+the+playing+field


 * Name:** Simon Ross
 * Student Number:** n8285306
 * Tutor/Time:** Katie Page, 9-10am Friday

** Running like a girl: How Equitable is the playing field when it comes to women in sport. **



This artefact was published on quickrelease.tv on the 10th of August 2008. The artefact shows a naked woman by the name of Victoria Pendleton riding a bicycle. Victoria was hoping for a gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and planned to do this by wearing no clothes as the Games were held in Beijing which has high temperatures. This artefact shows that women have to go to more effort to be even noticed as much in sport.
 * Artefact Analysis: **

The issues with the difference between men and women on the playing field, no matter what sport they play can have huge effects on their physical health //Female Participation in Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity in New South Wale 2002// report (NSW Sport and Recreation, 2002). The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows us that for both adults and children, the males are likely to participate in any sort of organized sport with only 24% of adult females // Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation 2010// report (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010) likely to participate in sport and about 60% of young adolescence females participating //Sports and Physical Recreation 2011// report (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). If women’s participation rate in sport or any physical activity remain so low and they do not get the required amount of physical activity daily, their health later in life may become even worse and when women see other women getting naked just to raise their profile in the sporting world and try to feed their families they may get turned off playing sport completely.
 * Analysis of Artefact: **

As can be seen from the artefact that has been chosen, the media in this day and age focus on the women’s body and what it looks like instead of on how good they are at their own sport. From the very early days when sport was first invented women were not allowed to play sport as they were seen to be the carer of the house and children. These traditions are still in today’s societies where we see sport as a show of masculinity and the dominance in the sport. This can have major repercussions on women who may want to participate in sport as they may not be able overcome the social stigma’s that say that sport is for men.
 * Literature Review: **

In a study done in 2009 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics it was found that only approximately of 51% of females aged between 5 and 8 participated in sport outside of school but then rose to 64% in the age range of 9 to 11 years // Sports and Physical Recreation 2011 // report (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). The study then found that as the girls hit adolescence the participation rate dropped down to 55%. This shows that primary schools are providing the ability for women to participate in sport and as they progress in primary school they are more likely to be involved in sport, but as they went into high school participation rates drop remarkably.

A study done in 2000 by the New South Wales government found that teenage girls who stopped playing sports cited that they felt a lack of energy, skills and preferences for other activities // Female Participation in Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity in New South Wale 2002 // report (NSW Sport and Recreation, 2002). The same sort of thing was found in South Australia where they found that girls were more likely to perceive barriers than boys were meaning that women are less likely to be playing sport because they think there are more barriers to them participating in sport //A Profile of Youth Sport in South Australia Behaviours and attitudes of primary and secondary students in South Australia 2007// report (Government of South Australia, 2007). The same study done by the South Australian government found that only 8% of secondary school women participated in physical activity daily while about 11% of primary school girls participated daily.

This is a huge difference when compared with about 23% of primary school aged boys participated in physical activity daily. This statistics shows that boys in this age range are more likely to spend their spare time participating in some sort of physical activity while women are very unlikely to be participating in physical activity in their spare time. During the study it was found that 63.8% of primary school girls participated in sport through the school. This shows that the primary schools are providing girls with the opportunity to play sport regularly and to try and get them involved.

Primary schools and the high schools in getting women involved in sport as these are the stages when people normally get really into their sport. The schools need to find ways to get women more involved in the sport and loving playing the sport so that they can continue this trend on of playing sport regularly. If they achieve this, women are going to be covered more in the media as there will be a larger group of them and a greater chance to develop their skills further and be considered in the same league as men instead of just being women with good body’s like the artefact suggests.

By not participating in any sort of physical activity, people become more susceptible to diseases such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases and obesity (WHO, 2011). Being disappointed with your own body image effects young girls as young six (Choate, 2005). If a young girl is unsatisfied with her own appearance, she is not very likely start playing sport especially with other people, as women play most sports with fewer clothes on than the boys do. This in turn starts its own cycle because if they do not do something about rectifying their body image like participating in physical activity, it will only get worse and therefore drive them further away from physical activity.

Current research that has been completed shows that there are also many benefits for women participating in sport other than just physically. Choate (2005) found that by attaining some levels of physical activity throughout the week, your physical and mental health can benefit. Some of the changes that were found in these subjects were improved self-esteem and positive outlook on their body image. With these positive changes, women may feel more inclined to participate in more sport and get their friends involved and increase levels of physical and mental health.

One of the ways of showing people what is happening in sport and how men and getting all the coverage and women only a small percentage can be explained by Marxist theory. Marxist theory shows us that as soon as one side has more power than the other, they will exploit their power to make themselves more powerful and their opponent weaker and underprivileged (Coakley, 2007).
 * Cultural and Social Analysis: **

Using this approach we can see how women are certainly underpaid, overworked and pushed further to even be considered as good as some men and this greatly benefits all the men in sports as they can take a greater share of the money that goes into the sport without having to worry about other things such as looking after a family or working another job, which is what some women have to do to support their playing careers. When one side is so unrecognised in something, it becomes very hard to be noticed at all and some women resort to posing naked in magazines to try and increase the profile in the sporting world.

Feminist sport academics have claimed that female athletes are constantly underappreciated and overworked. They have looked to change sports oppression of not just women, but also that of class, race and ethnicity. Feminists view sports as a way for the media to show a gender hierarchy where male athletes are portrayed as superior to female athletes in every way.

The issue of women not being portrayed by the media, or anyone in society, has become a huge problem. When a group of people become marginalised in such a way that they feel they are no longer welcome to participate in any sport at all, then the repercussions on our society could be enormous when we consider that we need to participate in physical activity to survive. Males and females in our society are certainly not affected equally by this issue as we can see that from an early age males are prompted to participate in multiple different sports.

To help change this issue of women not being exploited by the media and being treated fairly in whatever sport they play, experts need to focus on building places where women can learn to play there sports without having any outside pressure on them telling them that they should not be doing this. This way they can decide for themselves if they want to play or not. They also need to focus on making magazines for women that show them for their sporting ability, not for how good they look naked, as this will encourage more young women to get into the sport.

The artefact I chose for this piece represents how far women must go in our society to even be recognised, and even then people may not recognise them as a sporting star, only as someone who looks good naked. It is a perfect representation of how the media is hindering women from being treated fairly by everyone and being on the same equal playing field as men. It shows how the media is clearly trying to show men as the superior gender on the playing field as we hardly ever see a male sports star pose naked for a magazine. This final piece of assessment has showed me how women are so far behind in the sporting world and the males and media are only making it worse, instead of trying to rectify the problem and even out the playing field. Although males contribute to this quite highly, it is not all their fault, a lot of young women these days are choosing not to play sports as they feel they would rather be doing other things with their spare time. This has showed me that our primary and secondary schools need to become more involved in trying to get these young women to participate in more physical activity.
 * Analysis of the Artefact and Your Own Learning Reflections: **

Page: Gen Y gets lost in the realms of cyberspace Comment: Gen Y is getting caught up in the internet too much Hey, great work I think you are totally right with Gen Y becoming immersed in technology, and that it helps us connect but that it also helps bullies cyber-bully other people. A noticeable difference between Gen Y and the past generations is also that they would get out and interact with their peers more on the weekend instead of getting on the internet or calling them up I believe. But it was quite surprising to see how many young children are being cyber-bullied. Do you think the problem with cyber-bullying is due to Gen Y’s over exposure to internet and other means of interactions like phone calls or do you think that Gen Y has just changed and has become more aggressive than the other generations?
 * Learning Engagement and Reflection Task: **

Page: If you let me play sports, I’ll learn what it means to be strong Comment: Very interesting, great title Very strong opening comment really sums up what most people believe about women in sport. Also a really good artefact that really backed up what you were saying. Although I knew that most women do not get the recommended daily physical activity that they should, it is quite surprising to actually see the percentage and to think that only one in four of them is getting the right amount of exercise and to think what could happen to these other three out of four women. The media and everyone else who thinks that women should not be playing sport is really marginalizing them and preventing them from attaining the right levels of exercise.

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). //Sports and Physical Recreation.// Retrieved from []
 * References **

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). // Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation // //.// Retrieved from []

Coakley, J. (2007). //Sports In Society: Issues and Controversies// (9th ed.). McCraw and Hill: New York, America.

Choate, L. H. (2005). //Toward a Theoretical Model of Women’s Body Image Resilience.// Journal of Counselling and Development, 83 (3), 320 -330.

Government of South Australia. (2007). //A Profile of Youth Sport in South Australia Behaviours and attitudes of primary and secondary students in South Australia 2007.// Retrieved from South Australian Government website []

NSW Sport and Recreation. (2002). //Female Participation in Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity in New South Wale 2002.// Retrieved from NSW Government website []

World Health Organization. (2011). //Globabl Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health//. Retrieved from World Health Organization: []