Additional Academic Resource for Women On And Off The Field

As I have developed my research that will be featured in my research paper that covers women in sports, both on and off the field, the sections of my paper cover the different areas for women in the sports industry.  I begin to discuss the portrayal of female athletes and one resource of mine comes from Mean and Kassing as they discuss the issues that female athletes face with physical appearance. The moment a woman steps on the field in her sports uniform, she is expected to uphold feministic attributes of herself mentally and physically, but also to be respected as an athlete.  Many times this is not the case, in fact female athletes tend to perceive themselves as being different and obtaining the qualities male athletes have through the mindset of the game.  This is due to the pressure that the audience and sport industry itself put on women, therefore leaving them to develop that mindset that they have to be this way, rather then portraying feministic traits they grew up with.  What makes this academic resource featured in my paper so critical is the fact that women's mindsets are altered to think a certain way when entering athletics because we as spectators want to see that.  The athlete themselves are the actors and actresses, we are the audience and the critics.  It is quite eye-opening because our society is so consumed with this, it often times sends a negative message to young girls.  It is like saying, if you want to be more of a "manly" athlete but still a woman, you need to act like male athletes act.  Men and women are two separate human beings and deserve to be treated equally, however, that does not mean a male athlete acts like a woman on the field and a female athlete acts like a man on the field.  There's a balance between the two and needs to be discovered before the decline in female sports increases.