Boys basketball is highly recognized. Have you ever been to a girls game? In high school, the bleachers are filled with screaming fans during boys' games, yet scattered with a few supportive parents during girls' games. Everyone must pay a few dollars to be admitted to boys' games, and everyone does, but many people won't attend a girls' game unless it is free, which most are at the high school level, because they have few fans that girls' basketball manages to salvage. Even in the professional leagues, the NBA is massively more popular, while the WNBA grasps mild success with the tips of their fingers. In fact, many of the fans at WNBA games are simply NBA players who wish to sit back and relax during their off season. In one of my classes we talked about girls' versus boys' basketball, and the popularity of each. My class came to the conclusion that if a man had the oppritunity of tickets to the worst NBA team in the league or WNBA championship tickets, they would most likely pick the NBA game for the sole fact that guys are playing. It is safe to say that the most popular women's basketball is that of the collegiate level, although still nowhere near as widely publicized as men's.
Do you watch basketball? Have you ever watched a male play and question their physical abilities? Probably not, because you can most likely see that their coach helps them with strength training when their muscles pop out with every step that they take. But if you see the same physical characteristics in a female player, it is an oddity. A friend of mine who plays high school basketball becomes agitated at these differences. Her coach periodically tests the team members to see if they can do 10 pushups, something that half of the team cannot accomplish. As someone who is physically capable of more than 10 times this feat, she feels insulted at the expectations of her coaches. If a boy can't do 10 pushups, he is probably 6 years old. All in all, girls should be given the same amount of respect as boys are given from their coaches. Yes, boys are physically bigger, faster, and stronger, but if they can run, we can run, and our coaches should recognize this.
Notoriously, girls are stereotyped as caddy individuals. This comes to mind in basketball, when a teammate is trapped and nobody runs to an open area to help. Often times, girls fight with each other at practice for such reasons as "I'm having a bad day," "she pushed me really hard," or "I have my period." Besides the fact that boys don't have periods, they simply play the game. If they get pushed, they get pushed and if they are having a bad day, they do what they have to do and hope that tomorrow is better. When their teammate is trapped, they think, "Hey! That's my boy. I gotta go help him!" and run to an area where his teammate will be able to pass him the ball.
To have any type of equality between male and female sports, or anything close to equality, people need to start respecting females' athletic ability, drive, and talent as much as they do males'. However, to accomplish this, female athletes need to start respecting themselves as players and as people. If we work hard, our coaches will realize that we are physically capable of competing with boys, and even if we lose, we can say that we tried out hardest, and hopefully, someday, fans will respect us also.
Maybe I grew up in a high school where things were different from everywhere else, but I can’t seem to agree with you on this one. Yes when I first started high school, the boys basketball games were always more packed then our girls basketball games, and yes the fans of the girls were only the parents. Why was this? It very well could have been because of the lack of respect, as you say, between girls and boys sports, but I have a different theory. When I first started high school, the guys team was so good that they always went to the state championship. Every year our team produced all stars, and every year people came to watch, even if they weren’t in our town! However, it was just the opposite for the girls. The girl’s team consisted of our soccer team. The same people that played soccer played on the basketball team, with the exception of one of two other players. (The girl’s soccer team by the way was more popular in our school than our guys). Our team, for a lack of better words, sucked. We would try our hardest, but no one could ever land their shots and we would walk away with a 42-10 loss. Because of this, no one was is in the bleachers except for our parents.
ReplyDeleteAs our team progressed and worked together through the next 4 years, we worked on our skills, and added more players who were more experienced in basketball than the soccer players. Slowly, our game got better and we actually equaled out our competition. Throughout my senior year of high school we won a little less than half of our games, but the fan size grew because our scores were always so close with our competition that it was exciting to watch and no one knew the outcome. In my school it was all about skill level and how competitive the games were that kept the fans coming. As a I had said with my soccer team too, for example, was more popular than the guys soccer team because we were better, more competitive, and went farther in the league every year.
Now, I have to agree with you on the collegiate and professional level. Men’s basketball is always what the fans are excited about and would rather go to. But is it JUST the controversy you proclaim as respect? Or do you think that the media has somewhat of an influence on this as well? When you turn on the news or espn, what gender to you hear about? Men’s. Men’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s whatever. When you turn on the tv and see a game playing, who do you see? Men’s sports. Women’s sports take a backseat to the men’s games when it comes to public tv. In a way though this may be a chicken and the egg type of question; are men’s games shown on tv more because of the lack of respect of women’s sports, or is lack of respect for women’s sports shown because of the lack of viewing time on tv. Unless you are already a fan of a specific women’s team (like you own school’s), how are you supposed to become a fan if you can’t watch it?
I agree with you that female sports, specifically basketball, just don't get the same respect from coaches or spectators. I think the agruement can go both ways. One is if females want to be on the same level then they have to play with the same tools. For example, back in the 90's they were pushing the smaller b-ball for female athletes. I don't know what size the regulation ball is for the WNBA but it shouldn't be any different than the males. We all know the average male is taller than the female. Does that mean we should begin lowering the hoop? I hope not!
ReplyDeleteNow don't get me wrong, I love basketball. I remember watching Cheryl Miller when she played for UCLA. She put her heart and soul into every game. As a matter of fact, I saw an interview with Reggie and he admitted she pulled some smooth moves on him when they were growing up. I can't explain why people don't appreciate good athletes of all genders. I'd like to think we, as a country, are moving towards equality in this area as well.