Gender and the Body - Week 7

This week's lecture was by far my favorite. The main reason being that we were able to see how gender is viewed in sport by taking a class poll. We discussed the muscle problem among women's bodies by asking what is and is not acceptable in today's society. Modern media continues to play a role in criticizing strength in women. Over time, myths began to stir regarding women and strength. Some of these include: that women are physiologically different and inferior; that women should do different types of exercises than men do; and finally, that strength is both "unfeminine" and symbolic of "lower class" women.

It is amazing to me how athletes care so much about their performance that they will do anything it takes, even if this means distorting their body to become the best. In my opinion, I wouldn't want to live my life looking like this, no matter how much money I made doing it:

I'd prefer something like this:

By taking a quick survey, we were able to reason through these myths. We were shown pictures of four different women. This first, Lenda Murray, was a professional body builder. The second, Brandi Chastain, is a professional soccer player. The third, Serena Williams, is a professional tennis player. And the fourth, Katie Stam, is the current Ms. America. After polling the class, there were some similarities and differences. As a gender, the males collectively agreed that Katie Stam had the most attractive body out of the group of four women. The females on the other hand found Brandi Chastain to have the most attractive body. As for the least attractive, both men and women agreed that Lenda Murray was the least feminine. Words such as manly and masculine were used to describe her, whereas Katie Stam had adjectives like beautiful and perfect.