Ever since I can remember I have been playing sports. If someone asked me to describe myself the first that comes to mind is that I am an athlete. I can identify most with being an athlete; it’s just what makes sense to me. Some people love school and others love to draw, but me I love to compete.
Sports are a great hobby and also an excellent way to stay in shape. But I honestly believe that sports are so much more than just a hobby that they are a way of life.
Sports are a great hobby and an excellent way to stay in shape. But are they not so much more than that? They are unique in that they are the one thing that we may all have in common. Rich, poor, ugly, beautiful, fat, skinny, or what have you; we all love to play and watch sports. The great thing about sports is that we can all play and there are so many opportunities whether it be in a recreational, college, or professional league. Sports have come a long way and have given great opportunities to many, especially to women. The role of the female athlete is quite different from that of a male athlete. Being a female is complicated enough, then add all the trials, tribulations, and success, it is definitely no easy role.
The reason why I felt compelled to write about such topic as this was simply because I myself can relate a great deal to the complicated workings behind the female athlete. Also I believe that people often do not understand the great deal of effort that we girls put into being the best that we can be in a male dominated industry and that we do this for pure joy and love for the game. Because honestly unless we want to eat ramen noodles for the rest of our lives, we really can not make playing the sport we love into a career. That is not to say that this can never happen, but i believe that making it is really a one in a million kind of thing.
Frequent injuries, risk factors for eating disorders, hard grueling workouts, horrible tan lines (outside sports only...hopefully) etc.
It sounds so unappealing, so why do so many females choose to participate in sports (there has to be some reason, or maybe we really are all just crazy)? As hard as it may be at times, there is definitely something about competition that keeps us engaged. Also I would like to discuss the different benefits and experiences that can be gained for females who participate in sports.
The truth is that we are not physically equal to men. The majority of men are faster, stronger, and more skilled than us woman, we can’t help it that is just the way God made us. We take competition just as serious and we are athletes just as they are. In the Sports Media Watch blog the author describes a recent Nike commercial:
Consider the Nike ad campaign. The ads feature several star female athletes and
a megaphone. The athletes, including the aforementioned Taurasi and Picabo
Street, talk about how they would like to be viewed as athletes, without the
'female' qualifier. The fact that there even needs to be an ad campaign where
these athletes plead for the same respect given to their male counterparts is
telling.
It is really sad that female athletes have to proclaim their status as an athlete. If we compete, practice, and play then there should be no doubt as to whether females are considered athletes. But even when some may consider athletes it is rare that female athletes are respected as legitimate athletes regardless of their talent or achievements. According to the author of sports media watch women will never be taken seriously on the court, field, or in any athletic competition:
And no matter how well they play, no matter how exciting the games, the WNBA
will always be looked at as illegitimate -- for no other reason than the fact
that the players are women, and that obviously means they have no idea how to
play. One need only peruse sport-related message boards to see comments like this:
constantly
playing these WNBA dykes is truly uncalled for man.. and I am fking paying for
this sht??? they are all butt ugly and prison girls are probably hotter.... and
they cant play or jump worth sht man..... all of this talk about below the rim
play that they do, well yeah there has to be compensation, because they cant
jump, but who gives a sht man -- they cant play worth sht below the rim
also............
Sports are brutal and there is little long term promise of a career for 99% of us women who play. That is what separates us from our male counterpart, some might say that we have little to play for, but truthfully what we play for in priceless. There certainly exist no equality among male and female athletes but we can only hope that with time we can bridge the gap.
Profile of a Fellow Blogger:
For my second post I am going to profile a blog which I find similar to my own. While searching through different blogs I found it rather difficult to find another blogger who wrote about the same things as myself. I did not think it would be such a challenge to find a blog about female athletes but to my surprise it was like the good ol’ needle in the hay stack.
There was one blog which touched upon some things which I hope to mention in a future post. The blog is titled Female Athletes Dis-Ease and it is written by Sara Jane. SarraJane who is a student, and her ultimate dream is to become a Sports Massages therapist and work the New York Yankees. She does not post often, in fact she has not posted in over a year, and to top that off all of her seven posts were in the month of April. Although her sight is not the most popular I found her postings rather interesting I think health issues of female athletes are often under the radar and I believe that many are unaware of just how common eating disorders are among female athletes. She is really effect in making the connecction between eating disorders and female athletes, in her blog Eating Disorder http://sarrajane-dis-ease.blogspot.com/2007/04/first-factor-of-female-triad-is-having.html
I think that this blog relates fairly well to my work in that I am here to talk about the life of a female athlete which includes health issues that we may face. I think that this is a major problem among female athletes and I think that it is a common misconception to think that female athletes do not really have eating disorders. I think that this is academic she writes this blog for a course that she is taking in neurophysiology. I think the audience for thing blog is individuals who are female athletes, those who may know females athletes, and those who are just curious for whatever reason. She touches on a lot of good points and issues relating to the female athlete triad such as letting the reader know things such as:
Most girls have concerns about the size and shape of their bodies, but girls whoI want to talk about the lives of female athletes and just really examine the life of the female athletes: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I really want to touch upon it all and I think touching upon issues such as the female triad is incredibly important and therefore I feel that a blog such as this can undoubtedly be useful for information regarding certain health issues that women who play sports face. In this blog the author also touches on why these girls may fall victim to the female athlete triad:
develop female athlete triad have certain risk factors that set them apart.
Being a highly competitive athlete and participating in a sport that requires
you to train extra hard is a risk factor.
Most girls with female athlete triad try to lose weight primarily to improveMy cite will differ a great deal from SarraJanes. Female Athlete disease, in that I do not wish to only touch upon diseases or health issues that female athletes face. In this blog she most describes this problem as a solution to enhance athletic performance but I also think that female athletes desire to be thin in order to make themselves more attractive. As sad as this may be, I think that attractiveness and success of a female athlete go hand in hand. When was the last time you saw the top women’s heavy weight lifter in a Nike commercial?
their athletic performance. The disordered eating that accompanies female
athlete triad can range from avoiding certain types of food the athlete thinks
are "bad" (such as foods containing fat) to serious eating disorders like
anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Body image has become an obsession in
society.
On Voice...
I decided to examine the voice of a fellow blogger, the name of her blog Happiness Bus. I really enjoyed reading her blog, while reading you truly get feel for who she is through her words. The girl obviously has some talent and knows how to use her words; I mean she is only a sports info director at the
In keeping with the procrastination central that I seem to have built this blog into, let’s take another walk down memory lane, shall we??
She turns this into a question by including the phrase "shall we", not only does the question grab attention but it allows the reader to feel included into the story the she is about to tell, as if she is directing the her words toward the reader. This is important because it makes the reader give a greater attention to what she has to say.
I feel that the most important thing when writing is being able to grab the readers attention and keep. Her use of (…)
