The International Women s Media Foundation - 1500 Words

COPING SKILLS Due to the interest participants had in participating in sports, they found a way of coping with stereotypes. An example is given by Adams and Pamela (2003) who have postulated that cheerleading gives an opportunity for participants to reconstruct femininity in a way not to challenge the dominant ideas of the roles and expectations. This they did, by adjusting themselves to suit the evolving ideas of what it means to be a woman in the societal or cultural context. Also, there has been an improvement over time with the level of acceptance of gay athletes. For example, unlike in 2002, gay athletes in 2010 had better experiences because youth in their society accepted of their forms of masculinity (Anderson 2011; Adams and†¦show more content†¦In analysing the sports media, feminist have maintained that there is a disproportionate media coverage in the male dominated and controlled media space (Scranton and Flintoff 2002:40) resulting in a negligible amount of air time alloca ted to women sports (Duncan and Cynthia 2002:83). For example, men’s sports received 92% of the air time, women’s sports 5%, and gender neutral topics 3% of media coverage (Duncan 2005). Further, gender was used for both graphic and visual marking of women by the media, attaching women to a team and not doing same for men. For example Women’s Basketball and Basketball Association (WNBA) representing the women’s team and (NBA) Basketball and Basketball Association representing the men’s team (Duncan 2005). GENDER DIFFERNCES AND ITS IMPACT IN SPORTS CHALLENGES Sports policy like other social policies, is a site that on regular bases struggles over resources, status and identity, issues. Policy makers are challenged with how to properly distribute and allocate resources (both physical and granting legitimacy and status), and how to justify to participants interested in the resources that the decisions taken in relation to them are the best ones (Piggin 2013). In terms of emancipation, women’s rights have been viewed from the perspective of equality and also from the viewpoint of differences which often overlap and interact (Bock and James 1992:52).