Final Reflections

Before i took this class, I knew the basics of US sport but I did not know in depth the issues and controversies around US sport. This class had made me look at sports in a completely different way. I was an athlete most of my life until I got to college and I constantly think about my experience as an athlete and I can relate on so many levels with the material we talked about in class. This class makes me feel bad for many collegiate and professional athletes that their only way to make it to the top and out of the hood is to do sports that will only take them so far and when the sport is done with them they throw them out like left over food and keep moving. This leaves many athletes broke and left with nothing. The only thing many athletes know is sports and the fact there are little to no help in the transition from sports to the normal world is messed on. Now when I watch sports my family and friends hate watching sports with me because I am constantly critiquing sports and trying to get them to think critically about what they are watching. i also use some of this material to talk in other classes about the relationship between society and sports. This stirs up a huge debate and many people get mad about what I have to say. I will definitely recommend this class to my friends especially those who have a first hand experience with sports and those who watch sports just for the entertainment purpose of it. 

Sexual Bodies III

As time goes on yes, sports are becoming a safe place for some LGBT communities. If you are a woman it is more common fro you to come out that you are a Lesbian or Bi-sexual and get no slack for it, but if you are a man it is much harder to come out. As we seen in training rules and even with Brittney Greinger, both these women went to schools that required them to keep their sexuality on the down low in order to stay on the team. So often do men and women get discriminated upon. Even when we have this talk in class I can feel the discomfort from my fellow classmates and how uncomfortable this topic makes them. Sport can be welcoming depending on location and the people but in some places like a religious based school or an older school that still has not come up to date with the changes that are happening, these can be very difficult and scary places.

One way that many people need to change is the way they think. Many people think someone who is actively and openly gay or lesbian is going to hit on them or look at them with sexual thoughts, but they have preferences just like anyone else. We do not say anything about a heterosexual man or woman looking at us so why is it so different when someone of the same sex does it? We are taught this is wrong but in all reality who is to say the way someone wants to live their life is wrong or right? We all lives our lives differently and to some our ways are wrong but their is not a big deal made of it. We can allow for men and women to cheat on their husbands and athletes to be promiscuous but they are not allowed to be open about their sexuality? The way things work and the way people think need to be tweaked a little so we can understand the ways of modern times. Times are charging which means the way of our thinking needs to change as well.