Paper Summary:

This paper explains how female athletes face tremendous obstacles and prejudice because by definition they are in opposition to the twin pillars of our patriarchal society: the gender binary system, and compulsory heterosexuality. The paper shows that many athletes and athletic organizations spend a great deal of energy on countering suspicions that women athletes are not "natural," "real," heterosexual, feminine women. The writer suggests that women stop wasting their energy on counteracting societal prejudices, and concentrate on being the best athletes they can be. The paper concludes that society has to change, and acknowledge and affirm the new ways in which 21st century women are choosing to express themselves. The writer believes that in this way, women's sports will some day command the same respect and money as men's sports do.

From the Paper:

"Our society is rigidly structured on the basis of a gender binary system, which stipulates and prescribes that there must be two - and only two -genders, and moreover that these two genders are the opposites of one another. This system commonly posits the male as the norm, and the female as merely the "other," or simply the opposite of the norm. Within this system, certain attributes are regarded as quintessentially masculine, and others as feminine. Deviation from this is not well tolerated by mainstream society, possibly because it threatens the patriarchal status quo."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Banet-Weiser, Sarah. (1999). Hoop dreams: professional basketball and the politics of race and gender. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 23 (4): 403-20.
• Butler, Judith. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge
• Cahn, Susan K. (1993). From the "muscle moll" to the "butch" ballplayer: Mannishness, lesbianism, and homophobia in U.S. women's sport. Feminist Studies, 19(2): 343-368.
• Caudwell, J. (1999). Women's football in the United Kingdom: Theorizing gender and unpacking the butch lesbian image. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 23 (4): 390-402.
• Fausto-Sterling, Ann. (2000). Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.

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