Women beating men in sports definitely helped women sports
gain national attention. Seemingly from reading this article, this all started
off with Billie Jean King.
King was one of the best tennis players in the world. A man
by the name of Bobby Riggs challenged King to a national televised tennis match
known as “Battle of the Sexes”. King defeated Riggs in the match.
There was an immense amount of pressure put on King to win
the match. In fact, if she had lost the match, it would have been a set back
for all women’s sports. (Tucker, 2008)
But, King wasn’t the only woman to step up and defend women’s
sports. Danica Patrick and Candace Parker have also paved the way for women
sports respectively. It takes a whole village of women to continue to break
barriers for women sports.
For example, many people males and females take the WNBA as
a joke. I myself have even heard rumors about the NBA helping to fund the WNBA.
As Candace Parker pointed out in an interview, the WNBA is still a very young
organization. When the NBA first started out nobody really cared to watch. It
wasn’t until players such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan;
along with other came and broke barriers.
I feel like people need to give women’s sports a chance to
prove that they can be athletes and deserve to be on TV just like men.
Kia,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the WNBA, I noticed an interesting bit of information as it scrolled across ESPN during PTI today. It said that Diana Taurasi was going to skip the upcoming WNBA season where she would have been paid the max salary of $107,000 and will play in Russia instead for $1.5 million. In fact, they are paying her to not play in the WNBA. Here is the link to an article that tells about this: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/a-russian-women-s-team-is-paying-diana-taurasi-not-to-play-in-the-wnba-this-year-235042194.html
Dr. Spencer
In my opinion, I pretty much agree with what Kia said in her blog, but I have more understanding from the social perspective. From the biological standpoint, males and females’ bodies' structures are totally different so that it leads to the different level of intensity of competition. As we know, men's sports play more physically than the women's sports, and male players can perform more difficult acrobatic plays than female players because their bodies are different. In addition to that, difficult acrobatic plays draw more attention to the fans than regular plays, such as Michael Jordan’s free throw dunk and Vince Carter’s 360 windmill dunk. Such moves and plays are hardly seen in women’s sports, therefore, they draw less attention. In order to be successful, women’s sports need to market a different way than the men’s sport.
ReplyDelete-Haoyan Gu
I agree that people need to give women’s sports a chance to prove themselves just as worthy as men’s sports. Sure, there are many differences in men’s and women’s sports but that does not necessarily mean that one is better than the other. For instance, the WNBA comparison to the NBA, both organizations had to start somewhere and eventually grow into something worth watching. I’m sure the NBA wasn’t introduced right away with as many viewers as it has today. However, I think the NBA could definitely help with the growth of the WNBA, not by funding it but by showing association and perhaps partnership between the organizations. One way that this has already occurred is in the NBA All-Star festivities. The NBA has incorporated some of the WNBA athletes into the team shooting contest, which I think brings some light to the fact that these WNBA athletes can compete alongside the men in some respects. I think forms of unity like this between the organizations could really help the WNBA, or women’s sports in general, grow to be much more popular than it currently is.
ReplyDeleteKaleb Kuzma
I agree that we as a society should give women's sports a chance. I grew up playing alongside girls in most of my rec league sports. Clearly if women can play with us at a young age, that should not change over the course of there life. What Billie Jean King did is phenomenal on every account. She opened doors for every woman playing sports today. Like stated above Danica and Candace have made strides for there respective sports. Another one to add to this list would Monee Davis. This little girl put every critic to rest with her performance in the little league world series. The strides that women are making in sports has only just begun. I believe that just like you said, the NBA didn't just get introduced right away with the amount of viewers it has today. I feel that with the increased movement's women in sports are making, eventually the recognition will come and open up a whole new way of looking at sports for the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say about women’s sports not being taken seriously. As I stated in the other blog comments I think in years to come we will be talking about other female athletes such as Ronda Rousey, Danica Patrick, and Brittany Griner, the same way we talk about Billie Jean. We will talk about them because they changed the way not only men, but women also look at sports and what women can do. I know form a personal experience I never thought I would want to watch women’s basketball but after hearing about Brittany Griner I started watching games and I noticed ESPN would broadcast more women’s games when she played. I also have been a fan of UFC for many years and if you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I would pay to see Ronda Rousey fight I would not have believed you. But now that I have seen her fight and her matches are just as entertaining if not more entertaining as the males. The fact is that males just have this doubt about women wired in them and until they see them achieve something they don’t believe it.
ReplyDeleteBeating Men Opened Doors for Athletes really proved how women can only get accepted in athletics by proving themselves. While males can get recognition by just watching their skills such as watching them slam dunk or handle the ball well. I do not believe that women can get recognition the same way. Women can have the same skills handling the ball and a better shooting average than a male but the male athlete will still get more recognition. I honestly think that one of the only ways for a female athlete to get some attention is to have them compete against males directly and succeed in in that competition. This is the only way to leave most people without words to defend the male athletes. This was shown in the example in the article through the match between King and Riggs.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post and raised good points about women in athletics. With the world we live in, the average sports fan does not care, nor does these sports fans look at female sports as highly respected sports. Just by naming a sport, or naming athletes, chances are people think about male athletes or the make version on that sport. This blog post wants to help acknowledge these female athletes and bring awareness to all that they are capable of. Some of the female athletes are just as talented, if not more talented than their fellow male athletes, but no one would assume that because they cant get past the fact that they are females. I also like on how you touched on the fact that the NBA started off how it did until key players came in and changed the game. Maybe the WNBA is just preparing to evolve.
ReplyDeleteAvery Turner