FOOTBALL AND LINGERIE: What more could a man want?

When speaking about gender roles and how we display our gender, sports sometimes present a conflict. For example, in the NFL, there are no women on any team. I went on various question sites to try to find out why people thought this was so and they all seemed to present the same answer; women are generally weaker than the men on professional football teams, therefore, having both men and women on the same team could result in the women being seriously injured. Valid point. So then what does this have to do with women being actually interested in the sport? A stereotype that is very widespread about football and many other sports is that women are not, or should not be interested in sports. It isn’t considered the “norm”. For a woman to be a die hard football fan, some people would assume she was gay, that she was raised in a family with all men, or that she was trying to fit in with the guys. It seems that some sort of excuse has to be made for a woman who doesn’t fit into the mold a man puts her in. I don’t mean to insinuate that all men are this way, but in my experience, many men react in a similar fashion. Many men seems surprised when a woman knows a good amount about sports, but heaven forbid a woman actually try to play the sport… unless of course she’s half naked.

This then brings to me to my next point. Men are expected to be the villains and the heroes in movies, do the handy work and play sports. These are roles woman are not expected to do and they aren't handled very well until they have on little to no clothing. Then it becomes more acceptable. Why it is so difficult to tolerate a woman doing a man's job until she wears something "sexy"? Its such a double standard. A woman should be able to stand next to a man, do the same things he does, and not have to subject herself to being seen as a sexual object. Man have to stop doing it and women have to stop letting it happen.

Ashley Rivera