I find Steven Cummins' comments to be of interest for what they leave out.
> Some may find this of interest. Lacrosse (a traditionally
> elitist sport) is perpetuating it's elitism by the use of spatial
> demographic information (see below). Having an attractive zip-code
> now improves your chances of particpation in certain sports (as well as
> lowering insurance premiums, getting bank loans, improving health status etc etc)
>
> Do list members have examples of other sports where this is the
> case?
Of course most sports actually perpetuate exclusionary policies.
Mostly they are aimed at excluding women from sport. You only
have to look at the sports reviewed after the evening news to see
the value which is placed on 'male' sports and which is not
accorded to women doing sport.
The tragedy of this situation is that there are fewer girls than boys
who feel that sport is something they can aspire to. Combined with
incipient racism, the sexual aparteid of sports (like football) is
shocking in my opinion . Lack of role models and value for girls in
sport has implications for the long term health of women in general.
Normal responses that I get to this observation are that 1) women
are no good at sport and no one would want to watch them on TV.
and 2) there are women's football/cricket etc teams so what am I
complaining about?
My response to point 1) is that this is clearly ludicrous. There are
some really excellent women athletes who could teach a thing or to
to your average non-professional (male) football player.
My response to point 2) people don't want to watch women playing
sport on TV because they are not accustomed to having the choice
to do so, and because they are culturally conditioned to regard it as
an inferior option. What ever the reason, it doesn't change the need
to pro-actively encourage girls and women into greater
participation in sporting activities generally. Rendering women
doing sports invisible is clearly not the way to achieve this.
I do feel that the burning issue is not the class afflilations of
particular sports so much as the genered conventions and
practices which exclude women and girls from participation in sport.
Sarah Batterbury
> To someone who is involved in trying to widen lacrosse participation
> this is extremely short-sighted (and fustrating).
>
> Steve Cummins
> MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit
>
> ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
> Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 15:48:12 -0400
> Reply-to: Lacrosse Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
> From: "Bouchard, Marc" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Sports Illustrated
> X-To: US Lacrosse <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> George Baldassare, a member of the US Lacrosse Publications Committee
> and the traffic manager for Sports Illustrated, has informed me that
> coverage of the Men's Division I championship will appear in 1.2 million
> of 3.15 million issues of Sports Illustrated this week. The coverage
> will be included in issues going to zip codes with the attractive
> demographics, and will not appear in newsstand issues.
>
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