My autoethnography is going to cover the stereotypes of female student athletes and how they compare to male student athletes. Female athletes are expected to act and look a certain way and are normally broadcasted for their sexuality, unlike men who are shown for their talent. People assume that female student athletes choose to participate in sports because it is an extracurricular activity and that athletes are in general not as smart as normal students. My autoethnography is going to explain how all of these stereotypes are wrong and unfair.
There are tons of stereotypes that could relate to a female student athlete including being aggressive, muscular, busy, vicious, and intimidating. Not only are there many stereotypes of how female athletes look and act but there are also great expectations about how these athletes should look compared to what sport they are involved in. Athletes that play softball or hockey are expected to look masculine, while volleyball and track athletes are typically thin and feminine. (Swenson)
Female athletics have never been equal to male's. Female sports are less broadcasted on television and other media sources and have been considered less professional than male sports. Female athletes are hardly recognized in high school and even though college's advertise female games, a football game is completely different than a softball game. Women athletes are still being depicted as traditional figures like wives and mothers, while men are seen as heroic, masculine features that have honor, courage, strength, and endurance. (Hanson)
Studies show that athletes experience more stress than normal students, especially during their freshman year.(Wilson) This is one of many negative aspects that people predict about athletes. Others include that athletes are "dumb jocks" and all they care about is lifting weights and excelling in their particular sport. In college, these athletes are expected to care even less about academics and more about their ability to perform well because of all the pressure. These negative traits are persuading students to not participate in collegiate sports, but other studies prove that student athletes actually perform better academically than students who do not participate. A particular study showed that the average grade point of average of a student athlete is 3.56, while a normal students was a 3.40. (Derryberry) Another study proved that students who participated in high school sports, did much better in their science courses, than nonathletic students. (Hanson)
I am going to prove to you that not all female athletes are masculine, dumb, and malicious through my autoethnography. Also, I plan on proving that male and female athletes are equal and there should not be a difference between the two just because of gender.
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