Conclusion

This experience in blogging has been very interesting. I have enjoyed being able to reflect on the different readings and topics we discussed during class this way. It is something very different, and a great way to communicate my thoughts and feelings. I like how I am able to view other members of the classrooms blogs and see how they feel a well.

After taking this class, I have really learned a lot about sports and gender. I really never realized all of the different issues the two together were concerning. From the very beginning of this class, I knew it was going to be interesting. The controversy of Caster Semanya. This is the story of a runner who was competing with females. She had some of the characteristics of females, however she also had some of a male. She absolutely dominated in her running events, and that really brought the question to whether she was truly a woman up in the air.

This brought on the debate in the class of whether humans born with certain male/female organs should have to compete with their gender. However, there is so much more to such a simple question. There are males and females on this Earth and that's it...Right? Wrong. There are many different ways that certain individuals can be looked at. There can be females with Y Chromosomes, and males with two X's. It is a very different topic to debate, but what if a male used to be a female?

Where is a transgender supposed to compete? There is no category for transgenders, but it would be discriminating for them to not be allowed to compete. Then again, you can't have someone born as a male compete as a female...can you?

This is just one example of the many debates we had in class that I found very interesting. Another debate was whether or not Michael Jordan should have been a political influence while playing. My thought has always been no. Being politically neutral was the smartest thing for him to do. His response once was, "Republican's buy sneakers too" when asked to speak on behalf of the democratic party.

Michael Jordan was such a phenomenal athlete, but more importantly, he was a role model. Instead of preaching about politics and racism, he preached hardwork and practice. He talked to children about how working hard can get you anywhere. His story of getting cut from the high school basketball team his freshman year, and wanting to prove the coach wrong and working extra hard is one that all parents tell their children about.

Another topic which we spent lots of time discussing was disabled athletes. The stories that were brought up were inspirational. Especially the one about "the kid can do it all on one leg." This is the story of Adam Bender, a young child who had to lose his leg before he was one year old. But this never stopped him from anything he wanted to do. He wanted to play soccer, he played soccer, wrestling, he wrestled, and baseball, he was amazing at. During the video which was on his website, you got to watch him in action. He played catcher and threw out a runner, and when he was at bat, he got an infield single. Even though he does have a disability, he set that aside and just did what every kid wanted to do.

Overall, I do think that this help will help me for the rest of my life. It has taught me to have open views and respect other peoples opinions. I have always been a very strong opinionated person. I find myself often-times debating with others before I really give them a chance to give me their reasoning. With this class, I have had to listen to many views which I strongly disagreed with. But with this class, I was able to learn to listen more before I give my input. I have found that even people with different views from my own still can make good sense for the things that they believe in.

This class has been very beneficial and I am very glad I took it. I got to learn about many different topics such as gender issues, the way media portrays sports, racism, disabilities, and much more. Each topic had different articles that were all very interesting to read. I would never have known who Michael Messner was if you had asked me before this class. After this class, I know about this sociologist who's primary studies are sport and gender. He has come up with some incredible theories and has done lots of different research. All of his studies are very in depth and filled with great information. Overall, I highly reccomend this class to any future students and I promise you will learn a lot about numerous subjects.