Conclusion

I liked blogging in this class, although it was a lot of work. The best part about blogging is that you can just be honest and tell your view on things. Charles Barkley is my favorite sports analyst, because he is funny and so honest. I enjoyed the topics we talked about in class this semester. The issues were new and relevant like Caster Semenya and the gender testing or Serena Williams outburst at the U.S. open. Also the class just made me look at things differently. I never thought about masculinity, femininity, and gender roles that much before. I felt like the last month of class the topics were very serious like racism, homophobia, Aids, and sexuality. I think that you have to be careful anytime you discuss those topics not to get anyone angry. I have to say this class and my practicum are the classes I liked most this semester. I loved the class discussions and wrote most of my blogs around them. I felt like there were a lot of articles to read though. Some of them were interesting, but others were tough for me to understand. The topics were things that everyone could relate to. Also in some classes the professor just lectures the whole time and there is no feedback, but in this class it was nice that feedback was encouraged.

Yao Ming

Yao Ming came over to the United States as a 7'6" twenty one year old center from Asia in 2001. He was the number one pick and a lot was expected of him. So far I think that he has done a great job. He has lived up to the expectations, although he has been injured a lot and only taken Houston past the first round of the playoffs once. He is helping the NBA become a more global game. Every year more and more international players are coming to the NBA. When foreign players come then people from Asia and other places cheer for their player from their home country. In class we were dicussing the Asianization of America in golf on the female women's tour and Yao Ming. The female golf players from Korea are dominating the women's tour. It was unfortunate some of the comments that Jan Stephenson made about Asian players. She was saying that they have taken over the tour. I feel that diversification is a good thing.

Elizabeth Lambert

This is kind of an old story, but the female soccer player Elizabeth Lambert was suspended, because of her actions against BYU soccer players. She hit players in the back, kicked a girl in the face, and even yanked a girl by her ponytail to the ground. Elizabeth has apologized since, but it doesn't seem sincere since she had so many altercations in the game. In class we were arguing if a male did this would people act like this and I say yes. Soccer is a contact sport, but the things Elizabeth did weren't part of the game of soccer. Also a girl in class pointed out that this is the only way that female college soccer can get coverage on ESPN and sadly I agree with her. The only women's soccer coverage that I have ever seen on ESPN was the 1999 U.S. women's team.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods is the most marketed athlete in sports. He has contracts with all different types of companies and an excellent image. It was recently found out that Tiger Woods cheated on his wife. I am curious to see how his endorsements and popularity will be affected because of this. I think cheating on your wife is one of the worst things that a person can do. A lot of the women that he slept with probably were only there because of his money and fame. I hope that he deosn't lose too much money and his image remains the same. He made a mistake, but no one is perfect. In twelve years I have never seen Tiger Woods get negative coverage about his personal life until this point.

Aids

I liked our discussion the last class about Magic Johnson and Aids. I am a huge fan of basketball. I didn't start watching basketball until the mid 90's so I didn't ever really see Magic Johnson except for that season he came back in 97 when he was way past his prime. A lot of the things that Mrs. Spencer and the people on the video were saying about Magic being exciting and electrifying were the same things my older brother told me about him. I read Magic Johnson's autobiography and in it he said he slept with many women. He brought awareness about the HIV virus. He encouraged protected sex. The Aids virus had a gay stigma attached before Magic explained that heterosexuals can also get it. I think there is a double standard when it comes to many sexual partners. Men are praised and women are looked down upon. It is amazing that Magic has done so well when people thought that when he contracted the disease it was a death sentence.

Fast Times in the WNBA

I just read the "Fast times in the WNBA" article. The WNBA player salaries are a lot lower than NBA salaries. So are the ratings, attendance, and almost eveything else. I am not a huge WNBA fan, but I watch it sometimes. The WNBA game is like men's college basketball. They play extremely hard. You see people setting screens, ball movement, defense, and a lot of effort. The NBA is a lot different. In the NBA the offense revolves around two or three people and the players don't play as hard, because they are so athletic and the game comes easy to them. I love college basketball especially march madness, because kids play for the love of the game. They aren't playing for money or fame. I feel the same way with the WNBA game. A girl who is in the WNBA went to the same high school as me and she only makes 30,000 dollars a year in the league compared to the NBA which players make at least 385,000. I can't really say it's unfair because the NBA is just more popular. It is built more on indivuals on less on a team concept. Players typically go to wherever the most money is offered to them. The WNBA can't really have higher player salaries, because they don't make the type of revenue that the NBA players make.

Homosexuality

The last class was about homosexuality in sports. Personally I believe in the bible so i think that being gay is wrong, but I don't think that they should be discriminated against or treated differently. Many athletes are scared to admit that they are gay with the result being no professional athlete coming out publicly. A few have came out after retiring like former NBA player John Amaechi. I am strongly opposed to same sex couple adoptions. I think that God made it so a man and woman would be together and have a family. Only men and women can make children. Two men or two females adopting would have a negative impact on the child in my opinion. We learned earlier in the semester how much parents can influence gender. A male child might be messed up from being around two lesbians his whole childhood and think it's right. Even though I disagree with homosexuality and the same sex adopting it still is wrong to discriminate. The only thing that i think people should be judged by is their character. If I had a gay teammate I would accept him as a person.