Generally, when a member from the opposite gender participates in a “gender-specific sport”, it is considered deviant or unusual, such as is the case for female football players, female wrestlers, male cheerleaders, and male ballet performers. In the latter two cases, Meredith Worthen and Danielle Dirks explain in the text “Gender and Deviance” that these male athletes “destigmatize” their involvement in what are considered feminine sports by engaging in what are defined by Worthen and Dirks as “stigma management techniques” to effectively communicate their masculinity and gender in moments that stray from heteronormativity. When males willfully participate in a sport that does not have the same socially negotiated connotations as “male” sports,
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According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s published and publicly available Gender-Equity Report, female athletes are at a disadvantage to male athletes just by the numbers and expenses. In the 2004-2010 NCAA Gender-Equity Report, the median overall total expenses for men’s Division I sports was higher across the board for every athletic season from 2004 to 2010. In the 2009-2010 athletic year, the median overall total generated revenues for men’s Division I sports was $2,186,700, while women’s sports generated only 14.5 percent of that amount at $317,900. In every year from 2004 to 2010, more money in scholarships were rewarded in men’s Division I sports than women’s sports. The report goes on to present charts and tables in head coaching salaries, assistant coaching salaries, athletics participation, recruiting expenses, and other areas but the general trends still remain. Even in the instances where the numbers show a decrease in the expense and participation gaps, that decrease is slight at most, with men’s sports still receiving significant more funding and attention. These general trends are both disturbing and revealing: they shed light on the unfair disadvantages that women face in the institution of sport and leave little room for optimism if the same conditions and attitudes continue to exist in the coming
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s published and publicly available Gender-Equity Report, female athletes are at a disadvantage to male athletes just by the numbers and expenses. In the 2004-2010 NCAA Gender-Equity Report, the median overall total expenses for men’s Division I sports was higher across the board for every athletic season from 2004 to 2010. In the 2009-2010 athletic year, the median overall total generated revenues for men’s Division I sports was $2,186,700, while women’s sports generated only 14.5 percent of that amount at $317,900. In every year from 2004 to 2010, more money in scholarships were rewarded in men’s Division I sports than women’s sports. The report goes on to present charts and tables in head coaching salaries, assistant coaching salaries, athletics participation, recruiting expenses, and other areas but the general trends still remain. Even in the instances where the numbers show a decrease in the expense and participation gaps, that decrease is slight at most, with men’s sports still receiving significant more funding and attention. These general trends are both disturbing and revealing: they shed light on the unfair disadvantages that women face in the institution of sport and leave little room for optimism if the same conditions and attitudes continue to exist in the coming