| Sexism and Culture |
| Females Should Receive the Same Opportunity as Males in Sports |
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There has been much controversy over whether females should be given the same opportunity as males in sports. Many years ago it was considered fair to support female sports in schools for those who just wanted to participate, but now it is required that this should be extended even further to proportional participation. This means that the number of male sport participants should equal the number of female sport participants. Proponents of gender equity in sports demand equal amounts of dollars spent between male and female athletic programs, equal size facilities, equal equipment, and equal quality coaching and practice. Many people believe that this is going way too far, for females are not interested in sports as in males. However, some people believe that the lack of opportunity, the lack of encouragement, and the lack of peer support have caused this lack of interest in females. Gender equity should be further enforced so female athletics will achieve the recognition that can be seen in male sports.
One of the major revolutions that increased gender equity was the 1972 Education Amendments Act, which is popularly known as Title IX. Title IX prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender at all educational institutions using federal funds. Because of this new law, women could be admitted to medical school or law school. This was a significant step in gender equity that has caused major ripples that can be seen today. Title IX, however, has been recently extended to include equal oppportunity in atheltics at colleges, high schools, and middle schools. Many schools had to rebudget and reorganize their atheletics program to include more female participants. This created many conflicts because some of the male athletics programs had to be cut, and more dollars had to be spent to equalize male and female sports. Economic reasons, however, should not be used to justity sex discrimination. Parallelly, one cannot deny a scholarship to a person just because he or she is an African-American, for it is racially discriminatory. Male sports may profit a lot more from ticket sales and merchandising, but that does not mean that females should not play. If females were given more opportunites, then perhaps female sports will achieve the same recognition as male sports. Females have already proven that they can succeed intellectually while given the opportunity. Now it is time to equalize males and females athletically. Many people may say that females are just not interested in sports, and that men are much stronger and therefore should be given more opportunities. However, females can become interested, but the problem is that they quickly lose interest because of certain cultural factors when they are young. For example, there are no female role models for them to look up to, they have no peer support to cheer them on, they get little encouragement while playing sports, and they are unfortunately portrayed as the weaker sex. But it is true that men are stronger than women are overall. Men produce certain hormones to produce strength. But just because women do not produce the hormone "androgen" or the hormone "testosterone" does not mean that they cannot play sports. Differences in power and strength between men and women do not matter because men play against men and females play against females. This catagorization of sex may seem a bit discriminatory. However, it is common in men's sports to accomodate size differences such as in wrestling and boxing. A boxer who wins a lightweight division is just as honorable as a winner in a heavyweight division. Without this categorization, only the strongest males would be able to play. There should be gender equity in sports. Females should receive the same opportunity as men, and the way to do that is to equalize participation. This may upset people, as with any major change, but the end result will produce a nation with little or no sex discrimination. Changing athletics program throughout the schools of the nation will redefine our culture itself, and maybe someday males and females will be considered equivalent not only in intelligence but also in athletic ability. Sexism, Culture, and Television |
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