Kia Tyus: Transsexuals in Sports

When it comes to transsexuals playing in sports I disagree with it. For the simple fact, it won’t be fair to competitors all the way around. Renee Richards changed into a girl and continued to still play tennis. Many on her competitors would forfeit competition because they were either uncomfortable with it or they felt like it was an unfair advantage. 

When it is a male changing to a female they would already have the muscle power and speed to be an immediate game changer. So, from that stand point, females who have been training their whole life will be at an unfair advantage even if someone such as Richards waited two years to compete. Now, granted Richards did lose competitions late in her career, but I feel as though that is mostly because of old age more than it being an even level playing field.

When it is a female changing to a male, I feel they wouldn’t have a disadvantage to the competitors and wouldn’t help their team as much. As a student previously said in class, men have been training their whole life building muscle and speed, plus they naturally grow into stronger individuals. I feel the female changing into a male and playing on a male team would more gain media attention for the wrong reasons, than for what the team is trying to accomplish in their respected sports.

Overall, I don’t see how a transsexual playing on a sport team would end up being a fair to the team or individual.

What Gay Men Are Really Thinking in the Locker Room: Ellen Chlumecky

This article discusses the myth that people may believe that gay athletes are more or less prone to check out other athletes in the locker room. The author made a point of mentioning how all men check each other out no matter their sexual orientation. It is a natural action that all men do no matter the situation. Males compare themselves to others and how they compare to others. All men are all competitive, masculine drive, and are visual in nature.

            The author made a point to say that homosexual men’s libidos are no more aroused than heterosexual. Anyone who thinks differently is ignorant and insecure. Men who are secure in themselves take it as a compliment when a gay man hits on him. The author discusses the reason men believe that gay men are ready to hit on them are the differences in sexual orientations comes down to values, beliefs, and maturity. The author gave some introspection on how certain males react. The males the author interviewed seemed to be secure in themselves and don’t seem to assume that just because a male is gay that he wants to hit on him.

            I really loved this article. I have always believed that men who believe that just because a male is gay that he’s automatically checking out every single male straight or gay. It’s completely ignorant. Men who think that all gay men automatically just check them out are too into themselves for their own good. I love this article because it put people who are ignorant into their place.

What Gay Men are Really Thinking in the Locker Room: Kia Tyus

I do believe that men are not as creeped out by having a gay man in the locker room, as people would like to believe. I feel like while in the locker room if your not physically in a stall, you will probably get looked at by whoever is in the aisle with you.

It takes a certain level of maturity and self-security to realize that just because a gay man looks at you doesn’t mean that they are “looking at you” in that way.

Around the locker room, many men are okay with a gay man being around especially men that are married to females. I think that men are still afraid of how the media and other teams will portray them if they publicly accept the fact that they are okay with having a gay man in the locker room.

What happens in the locker room can also transfer to the field or court. The last thing a straight man wants is to have everyone thinking they are gay. In sports trash talking sadly plays a role. Straight men will probably get sick and tired of what is getting said to them on the court or field. That may cause anger towards a gay man in the locker room.

Overall, I agree with the article, if a straight man is so uncomfortable with one or two openly gay men being in the locker room, then it shows a lack of maturity and shows insecurity on the straight mans part.

Female Star Comes Out as Gay, and Sports World Shrugs

By Ellen Chlumecky

This article stresses on the lack of attention that Brittney Griner received when she came out as gay during an interview. There was little to no media attention shown on social media, message boards, and almost zero analysis on what the announcement meant for the tolerance of gay people in our society today. This athlete was the number one pick in the W.N.B.A. and there was zero reaction, it didn’t quite add up. One of the best players in the world came out as a lesbian, and no one seemed to blink an eye.

While Brittney seemed to have no hesitation, it was spoken about as if she had already talked about it before openly. The article discusses what kind of impact on society it would be if a male athlete had come out as gay. They also mentioned how there was word that an NFL player might come out to be gay and it got 10 times the traffic that Brittney’s interview did. The executive director of GO! Athletics spoke out about how sexism plays a huge role in the L.B.G.T. community and how it creates a problem for women looking for role models in women’s athletics. It just shows that stereotypes about women in athletics are still a problem today.

While some people may add that it’s a positive that no one said anything, it is an issue. While it’s great that there weren’t heinous comments or statements of “we already knew,” there was also no comment of support. It shows that the world of sports is far from close to ending sexism and stereotyping. The reason female athletes fear speaking for gay athletes is the same reason that certain males fear it, they spend their whole lives convincing people that they are not gay just because they’re females in sports. It discourages me to live in a world that fears gay individuals and discourages gay athletes for wanting to show who they truly are. 

Jeremy Lin, Race, and Lessons Learned Kia Tyus

When Jeremy Lin exploded unto the scene with his stellar two weeks in New York, he instantly started the Linsanity craze. Lin brought excitement to New York that hadn’t been there in a long time. Sadly, people didn’t know how to respond to Lin when addressing what he was doing.

Many things were done and said that may have caused insult to Lin. Such as the Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit and the ESPN analysis making rude remarks. In class, we watched a skit on how they pretty much made fun of Lin and it was okay but when a black joke was made it wasn’t. Now, we all know that SNL is known to do over the top skits. It is all suppose to be fun and games. A question was raised being did SNL take the skit to far?

Personally, I feel like it was just an ignorant joke. But, to Asian fans, they found the skit to be very offensive; along with other things that have been said.

Another problem that read was the fact that there was really nobody to compare Lin to. Many may compare him to Yao Ming, but to me that’s different because Ming was born out of the country and could barely speak English.

It is obviously wrong to stereotype players by how they looked. I personally think that NBA players and coaches did not take Lin seriously at first. Instead, they allowed him to gain a rhythm and confidence. I also feel like Lin may have played with a little anger because of some of the comments that were said about him.

Overall, I feel like as nation, we disrespected Lin and acted as though we had no home training. I feel like it made the whole nation look bad when few people made in sensitive remarks towards Lin. Instead of focusing on the great thing that he accomplished, sadly, a lot of negativity took the spotlight away.   

I hope that the next time someone spectacular comes out of the blue and catches our attention, people will learn from Lin and handle the excitement better. 

“Jeremy Lin, Race and Lessons Learned”

By Ellen Chlumecky

In this article, the author talks about Jeremy Lin’s influence on the NBA, how people perceive Asian American basketball players, and how Asian stereotypes are amplified in today’s society. Lin stormed onto the basketball scene abruptly. People didn’t know how to talk about him and his success. Their first instinct was to resort to Asian stereotypes. The NBA is used to being the starting point for racial discussions. However, Asian fans are trying to set their own rules.

What most people don’t understand is that even though one might view a stereotype as positive, might not be positive to that race. Lin is making advances in his field but he is still a novelty. While he is working hard to achieve his dream, there will always be people who are making insensitive comments because they are insecure with themselves. That shouldn’t reflect Jeremy Lin’s ability though.

While Jeremy Lin’s skill has been compared to Allen Iverson, it is still difficult to compare Lin to others because of the irregularity of the situation. It’s also hard to use certain phrases one would use to describe any other player. The reason for this might be because it may be interpreted in a racially insensitive way, for instance a comment about one player may be interpreted differently if said about another.

 While I wish we lived in a world that didn’t judge anyone by the color of their skin, I know that that’s not the world we live in right now. I believe that people’s talent should speak for themselves. Jeremy Lin worked hard to get where he is today and I don’t believe it’s fair that he was plagued by these insensitive comments and doubts about his skill. I don’t think athletes should always have to be compared to those that came before them. They should be able to succeed on their own accord without comparisons to other athletes.

Tierica Williams Jeremy Lin: "Linsanity"

Jeremy Lin certainly made history with being one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history. He is the first American of Chinese descent to play in the league. I still member back from 2012 when he was the talk of NBA. It’s like he came right out of the woodwork. I had no idea who this guy was. Going into high school (about 5 years ago) I have always tuned in and watched the NBA draft, and when Jeremy Lin was the talk of NBA I still had no idea who he was because I did not remember him getting draft until I later discovered he was undrafted and wasn’t picked by a NBA team in the 2010 NBA draft. 

  I did not pay too much attention to him until I no longer was unable to ignore the “Jeremy Lin” buzz and how good of a player he was when he played for the New York Knicks. He was all over twitter, Facebook, ESPN and was all the boys in high school talked about. There was absolutely no way you could ignore it. I guess this is when “Linsanity” came into effect.

When Jeremy Lin played for the New York Knicks, I always tuned into his interviews and post-game interviews and it appeared that he didn’t like all of the fame and attention he was receiving. Even when he went to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, he wanted the whole “Linsanity” thing to be put behind him. The day of his contract signing to Los Angeles during his press conference he quoted “I’ve been over Linsanity. I’m ready for the upcoming season. For me, Linsanity’s more like a one-off thing. It’s a short duration of time. I’m really looking to build a legacy, a long-term thing in terms of who I am as a person, who I am as a player. It’s kind of irritating to always be referred to as something of the past or some short time of the past or something like that. I think I want to just continue to build who I am as a player”-Jeremy Lin; (Howard-Cooper, 2014, para. 7). (http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/10/02/trying-to-put-linsanity-in-the-past/)

I guess the media hyped his name up so much and set so many high standards for him that he know he’s not able to live up to just yet which is why he wants to put the whole “Linsanity” thing to rest. He knows career wise he has a lot more work to do. I say this because while playing with the New York Knicks he was averaging 20-30 points. Now he’s averaging only 11 points a game with the Lakers, and was only averaging about 12 points with the Houston Rockets.

The success he experienced with the New York Knicks was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. He’s a good player, but he still has a long way to go from being one of the “greatest”.