Over the course of this semester, i realized how wide and all-encompasing the topic of "Sport and Gender" really is. I came into class on the first day assuming this class would basically be a semester long study of Title IX, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
We dove into subjects of race, stereotypes, sexuality, competence, prejudice, discrimination, and countless other subtopics. Each one these topics really helped me understand some of the issues and problems that still exist in sports today. I was so happy that this class was structured as a discussion-based class, because it was very interesting to hear everyones unique opinions and views on certain subjects, especially those that are typically controversial. The discussion that was generated (although sometimes slow to start) was definitely the highlight of this class.
With the help of my classmates, the lectures, and the articles, I truly feel that I now have a more well-rounded perspective on the relationship between sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and sport. For instance, the exercise in class where we had to name latino athletes, and as a class we named countless men, but could only name a handful of women. Little things like this exercise really opened my eyes to the lack of publicity that women's sports receive, and how minorities are underrepresented in certain sports.
Overall I'm very thankful for this class and how it was structured. It was a very positive experience and facilitated a lot of great discussion. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the other classes I'm taking this semester that require my nose to be in a textbook all the time.
-Andrew Hayes
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