Women Athletics Losing the War to Society
Jonathon Stone
Issue date: 3/21/07 Section: Perspectives
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Society has put so much pressure on women to conform to an ideal look that weight cannot be posted for collegian female athletes. In effect, the competitive nature of sports is being compromised.
In the last issue of The Quadrangle, an article was printed on female athletes not having their weights posted on their corresponding schools website, while male athletes do have their weights posted. The NCAA believes that females should not be weighted because it can add stress and anxiety to their lives because it would force them to try and maintain a certain weight. However, female athletes should be treated as equals to male athletes for the sake of saving competition.
The NCAA's position shows how superficial society has become. It is common sense that athletes would weigh more than the average person because they have more muscle mass. In men's athleticcs, players bulk up, such as a power hitter in baseball, or just gain weight, such as a lineman in football, or lose weight, such as a runner, in order to become a better athlete. The fact that weight, an arbitrary number, is dictating whether a female is socially acceptable is taking away from the competitive nature of sports.
Women should have the same rights and opportunities to gain or lose weight in order to become better athletes without society criticizing them. Female athletes who try to gain weight are criticized for not wanting a girlish figure, and girls who lose weight are accused of having a disorder, or trying to lose weight just so they could fit in.
Athletes are role models to those who follow them or support the team they play for. They would not be true to the fans if they did not do all they could to be in the best physical condition to help the team win because they were too worried that society was going to label them as an outcast because of their weight.
The world in general needs to realize that people come in many different body types. People can be short, tall, skinny, fat, round, or muscular. Judging people socially may be a completely different topic, but in competition the one thing that matters is talent. Society might look at a 5'6 110 pound girl and praise her for her ability to conform to the garbage Cosmo is feeding her. However, the girls who are 5'6, 155 pounds should be praised just as much for their ability to play a given sport.
Above all, the best reason females should have their weights posted is to inspire younger girls. Teenage girls who are looking to become collegian athletes should have role models to look up to. If all the college websites do not post weight, prospective athletes may lose confidence in being heavier than what society wants them to be, causing them to care more about being superficial than about working with the talent they were given.
Now that society's superficiality has begun to conquer sports and slowly start to kill competitive nature, where will it attack next? Something needs to be done now before all natural human tendencies are destroyed completely, just because Glamour said so.
In the last issue of The Quadrangle, an article was printed on female athletes not having their weights posted on their corresponding schools website, while male athletes do have their weights posted. The NCAA believes that females should not be weighted because it can add stress and anxiety to their lives because it would force them to try and maintain a certain weight. However, female athletes should be treated as equals to male athletes for the sake of saving competition.
The NCAA's position shows how superficial society has become. It is common sense that athletes would weigh more than the average person because they have more muscle mass. In men's athleticcs, players bulk up, such as a power hitter in baseball, or just gain weight, such as a lineman in football, or lose weight, such as a runner, in order to become a better athlete. The fact that weight, an arbitrary number, is dictating whether a female is socially acceptable is taking away from the competitive nature of sports.
Women should have the same rights and opportunities to gain or lose weight in order to become better athletes without society criticizing them. Female athletes who try to gain weight are criticized for not wanting a girlish figure, and girls who lose weight are accused of having a disorder, or trying to lose weight just so they could fit in.
Athletes are role models to those who follow them or support the team they play for. They would not be true to the fans if they did not do all they could to be in the best physical condition to help the team win because they were too worried that society was going to label them as an outcast because of their weight.
The world in general needs to realize that people come in many different body types. People can be short, tall, skinny, fat, round, or muscular. Judging people socially may be a completely different topic, but in competition the one thing that matters is talent. Society might look at a 5'6 110 pound girl and praise her for her ability to conform to the garbage Cosmo is feeding her. However, the girls who are 5'6, 155 pounds should be praised just as much for their ability to play a given sport.
Above all, the best reason females should have their weights posted is to inspire younger girls. Teenage girls who are looking to become collegian athletes should have role models to look up to. If all the college websites do not post weight, prospective athletes may lose confidence in being heavier than what society wants them to be, causing them to care more about being superficial than about working with the talent they were given.
Now that society's superficiality has begun to conquer sports and slowly start to kill competitive nature, where will it attack next? Something needs to be done now before all natural human tendencies are destroyed completely, just because Glamour said so.