Constructing Diverse Opportunities for People With Disabilities

“…sports opportunities for people with disabilities should focus on how to construct opportunities that emphasize the sports ability of participants rather than their disability” (Nixon, p. 417).

This statement really hits home for me. As most of you should already know by now, I do not relate well to topics about sports nor do I watch them. So leave it to me to take a paper that is sports related and twist it so that it is not…

Anyways, this quote hits home because I have two relatives who have a disability; a cousin and an uncle. As my dad would say, “when I was a young lad” I did not notice being different from them until I got older. By then I had become so accustomed to who they were and how they reacted in different situations. At family gatherings, my cousin would always want to lead the prayer before eating and then would serenade us with a strange rendition of Phantom of the Opera. My uncle is very much into reading and would ask us if we remembered the story of the “Battle of Little Big Horn” or “Tecumseh”. Of course I am not a history buff either, but he would then go on to tell us parts that he read from a book, even if it was over a year ago.

Now when it comes to constructing opportunities to emphasize their ability, I have several examples. My cousin, who lives with my aunt, is very good at hearing a song once, and being able to repeat the words. Now see that I said repeat the words and not sing the song. My aunt loves going to plays and musicals, so she takes any chance she gets to take my cousin with her. My uncle lives with my grandmother. My uncle loves to read and learn about history; my grandmother loves to travel, so she takes him to various places with a rich history so he can actually see the places he reads about.

Dubai Olympic Bid: Sexual Orientation

I have had a very hard time looking for scholarly articles that talk about the view of Dubai and sexual orientation, let alone anything with that country and the specific topic. It has mostly been newspaper articles from other countries about the hate crimes that go on when situations of sexual orientation arise. When I read that the United Arab Emirates government stones those that were involved in a gay marriage, it is hard to find the good in the country for accepting others. I did find that there are few in the country that are somewhat proud of who they are and participate in the Gay Games, which is an Olympic event for those who may be LBGT. It was refreshing to read that there were a few participants from the UAE, however, the articles did state that some of the participants from other countries took on an alias name during the event as to not be persecuted once they returned home. I would assume that those who participated from the UAE had an alias name, but none of the articles stated the exact countries.

When looking at the marriage rules, Dubai is very strict with who you can marry. First off, the Dubai Government Website clearly states that marriage is between a woman and a man. Second, the site gives different scenarios of a marriage arrangement such as a Muslim man marrying a Christian woman are very much different than a Muslim woman marrying a Christian man.

I hope to find more encouraging articles than these for the country I am trying to win an Olympic bid for…

The Roots of the Modern Olympic Games

How is it that we have strayed so far from the original Olympics? Starting originally with eight games involving less than 200 participants with one overall winner, has now increased to almost 300 games and thousands of participants with individual game winners. There are two things that come to mind when I think about how much the Olympic Games have changed.

1: I know that as the times change and the technology increases, how is it that we have deviated so much from the original games? History is such an important part for the future, why wouldn’t we want to preserve it in some way?

2: It is better that we have more than one medalist for each of the 300 events instead of one overall winner. I fear that if we had one overall winner, this might cause a war between countries (as if we don’t have enough with the threat of power, weapons, and diversity issues).

I think it would be kind of cool for Egypt to host an old fashioned Olympic meet with the original eight events, a small number of participants, and one overall winner. I think it would help people understand better how the Modern Olympic Games came about. This of course would not be during an Olympic year, nor would it involve any of the normal Olympic athletes. I suppose if an athlete would like to participate, event managers would not be able to deny them participation. Each country would have only one representative. Of course not all of the countries would have to participate either.

This is just me rambling, and perhaps they have already done an event such as this, or maybe it is an idea that is in the works, but I really think it would be interesting to watch an all-around world champion in something other than professional weight lifting…

Changing the Way Sport Reporters Examine Gay Athletes

This article proves to be very controversial, even two years later after it was written. Not just of sexual orientation in sports, mainly masculine sports, but in the general public. I think about the small population here at BGSU. There are hordes of people vying for LGTB rights, recognition, and appreciation. Growing up in a world where coming out is becoming a commonly acceptable way of living; it is not the same for the views of my parents. The 2007 Gallup poll shows just how different the generations are: “Among 18-34 year olds surveyed, just 23% disapproved of gay lifestyles, compared to a 51% disapproval rate amongst U.S. citizens aged 55 and older” (para 15). This quote is obviously geared towards the feelings of those who watch sports, but I feel is a pretty fair representation of the general public.

Now moving on to the actual sport’s teams which is the highlight of this article. The media plays a very large role in influencing the way people feel and think. Look back at the “Beyond the Perfect Body” and “Reading the Muscular Body” articles and how the views of people and their body types are very much influenced just by magazines. I know it is the job of the media to report various happenings and events, but I do not feel that they need to publicly announce their take on the issue, or lack there of. If a team knows or has a feeling that one of their teammates has a different sexual orientation, but it does not make a difference to how the team plays with each other, then the media should not be twisting the straightforward information.  The article states that “many professional athletes already know gay teammates anyhow, and that this awareness had no negative effect on team morale” (para 28). Why is there such an issue if the team does not see one? I think the article should also do this study on the teammates of Amaechi to see how they feel after his outing and if they even knew beforehand.

The Asianization of America

I did not want to write anything before I knew what we were going to be talking about in class and how it was going to be presented. I also do not wish to offend Yu and her country, so if I do, I am very sorry.

With that being said, I would like to talk about the “Asianization of America” article. I never realized how much of an influence the Asian culture had on America. From the article, it talked about all of the food, decoration, religion, and movie influence there is from the many Chinese restaurants to feng shui decorating a room.

“These days, it's not hard to imagine someone, freshly wakened from his futon and clad in a T-shirt emblazoned with Chinese calligraphy, ducking into Starbucks for a cup of chai before popping over to Blockbuster for Jet Li on DVD” (para. 4).

While I do not own a T-shirt emblazoned with Chinese calligraphy, nor do I rent Jet Li movies, this is a common scene for me. I do sleep on a futon bed and I do love a good Chai Tea in the morning to help wake me up.

I knew there was a lot of influence in the United States, but I never stopped to look at my own life. I vaguely remember wanting to redecorate my room many years ago. I had three completely different styles and colors in mind: black bedspread and black walls splattered with neon colors: Hawaiian/beach theme; and a red, black, and white room with an oriental influence. Of course my parents would not let me have the black emo room, and I ended up with the Hawaiian/beach theme, but I really like the oriental theme. It just seemed so sophisticated. There are many other instances where Asian influence is in my life without going into detail about materials and objects being made in China.

Beyond the Perfect Body

             Of all the articles that I have read, I took the most interest in this article. I find it fascinating how the media plays such a huge role of how women view their bodies. It is sad that even self-help magazines such as Shape have articles that tell women how to tone their bodies and to not be ashamed of how they naturally look, but then the “trainers” are skinny and healthy looking. I can see how frustrating this would be to a woman who is self-conscious about her body. How can a magazine that promotes healthy thinking about body images be so contradictive with the images it portrays in other articles about famous, skinny models?

            Reading this article reminded me of a research paper that I did on Barbie and why they changed the structure of the doll. Makers of Barbie thought that the skinny shape of the doll affected the way young girls viewed their bodies. The previous Barbie’s measurements on a full sized person would have been extreme and very unproportional. The new Barbie doll has more realistic measurements for a normal sized woman.

            As a child growing up, I was never insecure about my body because of the way Barbie looked. I admit, I thought she was gorgeous, but never did it make me want to change the way I looked. If the public had such an issue with Barbie and there was a change made, why hasn’t the media changed the way that models look? There are too many women and adolescent girls who have some sort of an eating disorder because of how society portrays how a woman should look with extremely skinny models. How many eating disorders will be enough to make society stop showing skinny young models?

The Promise of Sociology

“The first fruit of this imagination—and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it—is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances. In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many ways it is a magnificent one.” (para 9)

            This large quote is a very bold statement and hopefully true of the select few Ohio State Football players that decided to trade their hard earned medallions for various services. To me, doing this kind of act shows that they have no respect for not only their team, but also what Ohio State stands for. Ohio State is a well known school with high standards for admission as well as for athletics.

I can remember watching Terrelle Pryor play in the Navy Game and giving both Michigan and Ohio State fans a fit with him switching back and forth between both teams. He was so proud that day that he finally got to reveal his team of choice. What happened to that pride? How could such a talented athlete lose sight of what he worked so hard for to represent?

Pryor is not the only athlete on the team that made this mistake. It is unfortunate that he is the one that is getting most of the heat from the media, though he represents a huge part of the program at Ohio State. I am sure that this group of boys is not the first group to have done such an unthinkable thing, but as a whole, I hope that they are learning from their mistakes and that something like this does not happen again in the future. That other may learn from their mistakes so history does not repeat itself.

“In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many ways it is a magnificent one.” How true this statement is. It is a terrible lesson to learn for the boys in question, but a magnificent one because Ohio State football is such a widely known program, that it is getting a great deal of media attention so that other athletes do not do this in the future.