Gay Athletes

Tuesday's class consisted of a discussion on gay athletes. A lot of good points were brought up whether it would hurt an athletes career to come out during their career or not. As sad as it may sound, I feel that an athletes career would be destroyed. This may be horrible to say, but in my mind it is how our society is. What makes it so hard for any ordinary person to come out and say they are gay? Plus, any ordinary person that comes out doesn't have to deal with the media who crave for things like this to happen.

It is hard to think of a single gay, lesbian, or bisexual athlete that has recently come out. Immediately Kordell Stewart and Mike Piazza come to my mind, however, those happened to just be rumors. In fact, coming out was such a big thing to Mike Piazza that he held a press conference just to tell the media and fans that he wasn't in fact gay. This just proves my point that an athletes career would be altered if fans and the media knew they happened to be gay. This obviously isn't right, but its how the media is today.

After trying to think of gay athletes, I found a wikipedia page that was made and titled, "List of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Sportspeople." After reviewing the list, it amazed me how I really haven't heard of many of the athletes. This also made me think that coming out really hurts your career. Besides Dennis Rodman and Sheryl Swoopes, many of the people on the list were a bunch of no named athletes.

Sexy Sports

Today, we discussed the difference in appearance between men and women in sport. We had a lot of good points brought up discussing this difference, but only one thing came to my mind.

We watched a youtube video showing how women athletes were portrayed in the 90s. For example, Anna Kournakova, Lisa Leslie, and the U.S. Swim Team all talked about how they were shown sexually. The U.S. Swim Team was shown naked behind an American flag and they revealed quite a bit. However, my only argument was that these women weren't photographed sexually by the paparazzi on there own. They had to agree to do the photo shoot and they posed on there own will to do so. And I'm sure an exchange of money was involved in this. Which makes me believe that the media along with many other people discuss this issue and make a big deal over something that these women have chosen to do.

Another point that wasn't brought up was the ESPN "The Body Issue" Magazine. Someone mentioned the difference between Serena Williams on the cover and Dwight Howard on the cover and how Dwight Howard's body is cut off at his waist. This could be a topic of discussion, but if you look throughout the magazine, there are more naked men shown in their sport then naked women. For example, the D.C. United MLS team and three players from the Edmonton Oilers. This makes me wonder why people make a big deal about Serena on the cover but don't look inside to see what the magazine is about. This just goes to show that you, "can't judge a book by its cover."

Asianization of America

In class, we discussed the impact of of the "Ming Dynasty" and how Yao Ming made an impression on Asians in American sports. We talked about two pitchers in the MLB, Hideo Nomo (the Tornado) from the Las Angeles Dodgers and Hideki Irabu from the New York Yankees. These two players entered the MLB before many other bigger named minorities. For example, Ichiro Sazuki has been an American League All-Star every year since his move to the States. Another well known Asian in baseball is Hideki Matsui who was just named the World Series Most Valuable Player. However, Matsui brings up an issue to some people.

As discussed in class, the LPGA made a requirement to know the English language before joining the tour. This made some classmates comment on the requirement, which I don't have an answer, is it right or wrong? However, going back to Hideki Matsui, after receiving his MVP trophy, he had a man on his side that helped with his interview as his translator. Hideki Matsui joined the New York Yankees in 2003. After being in the MLB for six years, some would think he should know the English language by now. Which makes me think of Yao Ming who has been in the NBA with the Houston Rockets since the 2002-2003 season and learned the English language fairly quickly. Each and every year, professional sports in the United States are becoming more global and popular and athletes from all over the globe are coming here to show off their skills. However, should the LPGA have gone so far as to say you must be able to speak English?

Another interesting topic from this class session was the fact of the number of Korean women in the LPGA. This number really stood out and shocked me as I wasn't aware how globalized the LPGA has become and they still insist on the English speaking rule. This raises another question, has the rule of being able to speak English shyed away women athletes from the LPGA? If so, is that right or fair to them? The LPGA is a golf association not a communication association where their ability to play golf should be the main focus and not the language they speak. As previously stated, I don't have the answers the these questions, they are just something to think about.