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Social politics have hugely affected women’s sporting performance over the last century but what if sports could affect change in social politics?
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All-male sports teams exist largely within a system run by men who went through the system themselves — men who end up as coaches, officials, and members of boards.
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It’s a system that teaches men that a version of masculinity, that is both toxic and hierarchical, is among the most important traits to have.
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Eric Anderson, professor of sports, masculinities, and sexualities at the University of Winchester, defines this as “orthodox masculinity” in a 2008 study. He argues that it’s responsible for men’s team sports cultivating a culture of misogynistic and homophobic attitudes.
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“It is a resilient system that reproduces a more conservative form of gender expression among men, helping make sport a more powerful gender regime,” he explains.
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Ultimately, an athlete’s own choices matter less and less, as they’re encouraged to see everyone else through the lens of orthodox masculinity.
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More often than not,men who play to a high level in an all-male sports team also socialize mainly with their teammates, meaning that the bonds they form with people outside of that sporting universe & especially women are colored by the masculinity they have to live everyday.
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This means there is a higher chance of men having negative attitudes about women objectifying them, for example.
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Anderson explains: “Male athletes (in general) and team sport athletes (in particular) have been shown to objectify women often viewing them as sexual objects to be conquered.”
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The statistics on campus rape in America are pretty terrifying; a three-year study by researchers Jeff Benedict and Todd Crosset in the mid-1990s showed that while male student-athletes comprise 3.3 percent of student populations in the United States., ...
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they made up 19 percent of sexual assault perpetrators and 35 percent of domestic violence perpetrators. Integrating team sports could do a significant amount to change this.
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In his study, Anderson followed heterosexual male university cheerleaders, who had all previously played high school football. Before they started cheerleading almost all of them reported that they....
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viewed the world through the prism of orthodox masculinity — they held misogynistic views, both about women as athletes, and also in a more general sense.
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Overwhelmingly,the men who participated in sports with women had their minds changed.They perceived women as good athletes;one participant in Anderson’s study,said “I used to think women were weak, but now I know that’s not true. I never thought women were so athletic before.
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Another said I hated women’s sports. But these women are athletes. They do stuff I’d never be able to do and I bet there are a lot of sports women can do better in.”
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It didn’t stop there. “All but a handful reported that they had learned to see women as more than sex objects,” Anderson explains. “All the athletes reported having learned to respect and value women as friends, teammates, and competent leaders.
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Thus in the sex-integrated sport of collegiate cheerleading, once sexist & misogynistic men were able to witness the athleticism of women, befriend them in ways that they were previously unable to, & to learn of their gendered narratives, it humanized them in the process.”
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Segregation in sports, it turns out, is harmful to gender relations and society. We worry that women might twist an ankle or break a leg if they were to play mixed sports, when in fact, the consequences of segregation are much, much more costly to women.
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I hope that one day we see a Marta & a Messi who play on the same team and gender segregation in team sports will end, and humanity will be better for it.
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