Concluding Sport and Society

I learned so much as a result of this class. Before, I had minimal interest in watching or talking about sports other than college football. Watching the Olympics were something that I never did on my own, but rather only when other people took interest in a particular sport. I now have a greater appreciation for all that goes in to making the Olympics; the coverage, the bids, the scrutiny on the success of each athlete. I had no idea how much research and thought went into making a bid for a city to host the Olympics.

I really enjoyed any of the readings that dealt with body image. Beyond the Perfect Body was by far my favorite article to read. I find it amazing how much the media affects the views of women and their body image. In no way am I free of this distorted view of bodies, but as Robinson (2002) said in his article entitled Starving for the Gold said about Claire Hall-Patch “she was at least able to analyze the situation.” I may not have the eating disorder she had, but like her, I am able to read about why people have these distorted views and look at my own life without thinking that nothing is wrong.

Reading about homosexuality in sports has greatly increased my interest in the subject matter. It fascinates me to see the media and society react to athletes who out themselves. For a country that is for the most part accepting of homosexuality, I find it hard to believe that it is still taboo for an athlete that is in a ‘manly’ sport to come out.

Writing the blogs has helped me think about each topic in a different perspective. The article by John Hoberman (2008) entitled The Olympics has shed a new light on the behind the scenes of the IOC. It has definitely put a damper on my views of the Olympics, but I do not think it will hinder me from watching them next summer.

Applying this class to a Kinesiology major is not as easy as it is for a Sport Administration major. I think the things that I will take from this class are the body distortion articles, including the Athletic Fatness article. It is important to understand why people think the way they do about their bodies and where they get the ideas from. Each article that talks about body image is a window into understanding and being able to help people that have these body image issues. I have always wanted to help people. Body image is just a small part of my interest and reason for pursuing a degree in Kinesiology.

Starving for the Gold

I first want to start off by saying that my brother has accused me of being anorexic. Of course this was not true, but I became very defensive against this accusation. I can see how those that do actually have that eating disorder would become so upset with those who are close to them confront them. Nobody likes to think they have a problem. When I was accused of being anorexic, I took a look at my daily food habits to see if I did have an issue, but the more I thought about it, I ate just fine, if not too much and never slipped away after meals to get rid of it.

I could not imagine depriving myself of food or vital nutrients to help me succeed in a sport that I enjoyed competing in. I love food way too much. Anorexia athletica is a horrifying term to me. Not only are these individuals anorexic, but also athletes! Being an athlete burns more calories, therefore more calories are needed to be consumed in order maintain muscle mass and performance. If you take away those calories, the body finds other ways to ‘feed’ itself, which happens to be muscle. Take away muscle, and you hinder performance. The body may be thin, but at what cost? Kidney failure, heart issues, loss of muscle coordination.

When will it be enough for society to change its mind about how a body is supposed to look and instead just accept the bodies they were given.