Owners And Developers Of Professional Sports Leagues example essay topic

Images and beliefs concerning women are far more prominent in our society than those of men. Women are always the ones cooking, cleaning, doing household tasks or taking care of children. They are portrayed as being emotionally and physically inferior and submissive to men. Women are visualized as weak creatures.

They tend to be confined to a life dictated by family and personal relationships. Men almost always dominate television programs. Figures show that in television drama women are outnumbered by men 3: 1 or 4: 1; in cartoons women are outnumbered 10: 1; and in soap operas women are outnumbered 7: 3. (Ingham 1997) Women have shown an interest of their own when it comes to sports. They have demonstrated that they, too, want to be able to prove their physical ability and talent through competition in a variety of athletic activities. While most of these activities are adapted versions of the same sports that were originally played by the men, women have shown that they can play them just as hard and as dirty against each other as the men have been doing for as long as one can recall.

They have shown that they can be conditioned and up to the physical challenge that most sports demand, despite their being female and traditionally seen as delicate creatures by society. With few exceptions, women have proven that they really are no different than men when it comes to their abilities to participate in activities that used to be reserved for the masculine and the strong as opposed to the feminine and the weak. (McKay J. & Messner) Only recently have activities, such as football, begun to present themselves as attractive sports for young girls wishing to participate in something athletic. Previously, the participation of the weaker sex in such a harsh game has been discouraged for a variety of reasons. Some site the frailty of women as the exclusion factor, relying on the assumption that all members of the female sex possess this inhibiting characteristic. This idea can be proven wrong by any young girl who has had to grow up surrounded either by a group of rowdy, older brothers or has lived in a neighborhood consisting primarily of male companions.

In this environment, especially, she has been forced to identify with those around her by taking part in the same activities and play as roughly as any one of the guys do with each other. She has demonstrated that she does not let her sex dictate who she is or who she wants to be. It is in part for this reason, perhaps, that girls have started to come out of their traditional roles as demure females and desire to step onto the playing fields with those with whom they may have grown up. (Brosnan) Where teams do not exist specifically for women in some sports, some have taken it upon themselves to try and play with the guys. These girls tend to find opposition to this type of change within their schools and communities. Why should society tell her that she may not participate because it is not a sport designed for her?

Since all women do not possess this assumed quality of innate frailty any more than all men possess the ability to fix cars and belch, they should not be treated as if they do. Since professional sports teams were first developed years ago, women have not received their share of recognition for athletic ability by the establishment of leagues and teams within which they may play professionally. What makes a man playing a sport more interesting to watch than a woman playing the same game? Perhaps it is due to the fact that women's sports arent as popular at the high school and collegiate levels as the men's sports tend to be.

For this reason, the owners and developers of professional sports leagues may not feel that there is a need for these types of leagues.