c.c 3.2

In an article entitled "gender discrimination in sports"  posted at livestrong.com, K.J Castle, a writer for LiveStrong, claims that "Gender discrimination in the athletics industry has long been a controversial topic."


According to Castle, the founder of modern Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin says,  “No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.” gender equality has come a long way since 1896 no doubt, but it wasn't until 1972 that Title IX was created that equality in sports really took hold. Title IX banned gender discrimination in all schools, including athletics making it possible for girls to have their own sports. If boys had baseball then girls had softball and so on.

In a recent study, statistics have shown that female sports do not carry the same weight as male sports. Men get $179 million more in athletic scholarships than females do.Additionally, collegiate institutions spend just 24 percent of their athletic operating budgets on female sports, as well as just 16 percent of recruiting budgets and 33 percent of scholarship budgets on female athletes. Although Title IX abolished gender bias in sports this still happens, I believe it should be if not cut in half, at least be close.

Castle concludes by telling us how women's sports is valued less than mens sports, meaning that women wages and television coverage is less than what men's sports is. I think that this is a result of women's sports are not as fierce as men's sports. You don't see women hitting 400 foot homeruns in front of 45,000 fans, and you don't see women hitting 300 yard drives in golf.

so let me ask you this, What if women's sports were covered as much as men's? would they feel more adrenaline and perform at a higher level? they just might but unless some one comes along to break the gender barrier in sports just like Jackie Robinson did with race, we may never know.


Work Cited

Cassel, J.. N.p.. Web. 10 Feb 2014. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/247625-gender-     discrimination-in-sports/>.

c.c 3.1

In a recent article by Dina Gachman,contributor for forbes.com, entitled "ESPN's 'The Price Of Gold' Takes A Closer Look At Tonya Harding," Gachman informs th
e reader of the Kerrigan-Harding scandal, the effects it had on TV ratings during that Olympics and why bias toward women are the reasons the ratings changed so much from the scandal.

According to Gachman "Kerrigan was attacked and clubbed in the knee and the crime was traced back to a group of men, including Harding's then-husband Jeff Gillooly. Harding denied that she knew about the attack and she eventually won the gold medal in figure skating in the 1994 Olympics, Kerrigan placed second. After Harding returned to the U.S she was found guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution in the attack on Kerrigan.

                                                                                                                    Harding (middle) Kerrigan (right)
Recently, the major sports network ESPN made a documentary of the tragedy and attack on Nancy Kerrigan and Harding decided to do an interview for the film entitled "The Price Of Gold" "The interview lasted eight hours, Harding is often emotional in the film, and her jealousy of Kerrigan and bitterness  about the accusations aren't hard to detect" said Burstein of ESPN. Harding shows how publicly being jealous of someone can be a bad omen to put on yourself. Harding was already better than Kerrigan,so why would you do something to manipulate the results.

"because of the Harding-Kerrigan rivalry, that year's Olympic event saw record-breaking rating that still hold today." this shows how women's athletics aren't what make ratings on major television thrive. It takes a tragedy or an interesting story to make someone want to watch women athletics, Showing how bias the world is toward women.

"The film touches on themes of gender bias, class, and the media's tabloidization of what could have easily been a tragedy." says Gachman. that's just it. the media doesn't know what was going on in Hardings' head when all of this was happening in 1994.maybe she didn't know? maybe she did, she is the only one that knows the answer to that question.

work cited
Gachman, Dina. "ESPN's 'The Price Of Gold' Takes A Closer Look At Tonya Harding." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.