Gender and Flag Football Essay

Submitted By Christy-Eddy
Words: 1476
Pages: 6
Open Document
SOCY 325
Gendered Role Reversal project

Explain your act: (a) what did you do; (b) where did you do it; and (c) how did you prepare. For my gender role reversal project, I decided to play flag football with my husband’s (all male) Navy command. His command has physical training 3 times per week, with one of those days being a sport day. The division decides between flag football, basketball, soccer or baseball each week. The group meets at one of the open fields on the base here in Norfolk near the gym. I had to get “permission” from his division in order to do this assignment. At first, they laughed, but when my husband told them briefly what it was for, they allowed me to participate. To prepare, I had to read up on football because I know very little about this sport. I also had to get my husband to tell me the “rules” that they play with. I also thought about what I would wear and if I should do my hair and make-up as I normally do. I decided to wear just a t-shirt and pair of loose-fitting, basketball type shorts. My hair was just pulled back and I did wear make-up, but only a mild amount (foundation, light blush, light eye-shadow, and lip gloss). What responses did you receive while performing your act?
When it was brought up to my husband’s division that I wanted to play flag football with them, most of them laughed. Most of his division knows me, and they know that I am not fond of sports. Add in the fact that I’m 5 ft 1 inch tall and all of them are 5 ft 9 inches and taller, and they found it humorous that I would want to participate in this game with them. A few of the men were even “afraid” that I would get hurt, because even though it’s flag football, they can get rowdy. After giving them a full reason as to why I wanted to play, they finally agreed. It did take some convincing though.
During the actual game, I could tell that most of the men were “avoiding” me. They rarely passed me the ball and it was almost like I wasn’t there. I wasn’t given an actual position to play, they just told me to try to keep up. The turning point in the game was during the 3rd quarter. I was given the ball, and much to everyone’s surprise (even my own) I threw the ball to another teammate over 50 yards with perfect precision. Everyone was amazed that I had such a good arm. The rest of the game, I ended up playing “quarterback” and I did it very well! As the game went on, it seemed that everyone was more comfortable with me being there, and I became more comfortable with being the only female there. How did you feel while performing your act?
In the beginning, I was terrified. I was nervous because I’d never played before and I was a little self-conscious about playing a new sport with all males. When the game began, I felt ignored and a little like I wasn’t wanted there. I felt like I needed to prove myself to these men in order to feel welcomed in the game. After I was able to prove myself to the men on the teams, I felt a little more at ease and they made me feel more welcome. I think the longer we played, the more we got along and we ended up having a lot of fun. What would you do differently, if you had to do this again? Discuss this question in terms of how you operationalized your act, in other words would you perform the act in the same location, same time, would you change your appearance during the act etc. Please refer to the required reading for this assignment Mack et.al. (2005). The link to that reading can be found in the syllabus.
If I had the opportunity to do this experiment over again, I think I would only change a few things. Operationally, I did not fully discuss with the teams why I was there. I did tell them that I was doing an experiment for school but I did not tell them what kind of experiment. In their minds, I was just infringing on their physical fitness game time. They didn’t know if I was doing an experiment on myself or on them. In retrospect, this might have been why they were not very
Show More

Related Documents: Gender and Flag Football Essay

Social Construction Of Gender Roles Essay

country that controls the opinions and outlooks on social topics around the world. Gender is defined as a state of being male or female, while gender identity is defined as a personal concept of oneself as male, female, or both (Medscape). This idea is relative to the concept of gender roles, which is defined as a presentable embodiment of male and female identity. It is difficult to determine if what people think of gender identity is their own idea or if it is a product of a consumer based society.…

Words 1642 - Pages 7

Systemic Racism In The NFL

affect the very lives of people of color; and they don’t have the benefit of looking away when they get tired. What’s become the most frustrating thing about this topic is the way that it is regularly framed: as a protest against our actual anthem and flag, and, by extension, the government, specifically military service-members and veterans. Rather than waste time explaining why I believe this logic is false and flawed, I feel it is prudent to point out the idolatry in it, particularly when the argument…

Words 1048 - Pages 5

Summary Of It's All About The Beer Ads

Everyone has one brand of everything they prefer over the other. Shoe brands, restaurants, and clothing brands, but why is that certain brand the one that is preferred? Advertisements are everywhere and they catch the attention of viewers they reach out to. What does that mean? Well, think about it. If a toy commercial comes on, a twenty year old doesn’t even look up to watch it, but the four year old in the room is staring at all that the commercial has to offer. Mothers may be interested in new…

Words 1815 - Pages 8

Andrew11thGOV STSHBExpelledEssay

threats based on a fellow student’s sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or race, and the most common punishment for violation of these rules is expulsion. Students are required to sign off, and agree to abide by rules established by the college, as previously stated, “Offense III [of the Brown Code] – which deals with harassment – prohibits inappropriate, abusive, threatening, or demanding actions based on race, religion, gender, handicap, ethnicity, national origin, or sexual orientation” (Hentoff…

Words 1399 - Pages 6

Human Resource Management Essay

Human Resource Management The primary function of human resource management is to increase the effectiveness and contribution of employees in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. There are many areas to the HRM process such as Human Resources Management and being a manager, being an employee and their goals, Human resource planning and recruitment, and selection, performance management, EEO and Affirmative Action, Human resources development, Compensation and benefits, Safety…

Words 1801 - Pages 8

Defining Governments: Concepts In The Business System

PAPM September 17/13 Defining terms Government: Comes from the Greek; means to steer> all about steering policies. It boils down to notion of purity. Gov’t is a body/a group of individuals that have the authority to make and enforce laws and they do so in a civil/corporate or religious organization. And in public law they do it in a fine jurisdiction. So in the broadest sense it is to govern/to administer/to supervise. Public Administration: Social and political drive of gov’t. Factors that…

Words 1933 - Pages 8

Intercultural Autobiography: Self Reflection Paper

Intercultural Autobiography: Self reflection A popular colloquial saying quips that you don’t get a second chance at a first impression; it’s a light hearted answer to a phenomenon we all seem to be familiar with, and which at times doesn’t feel so light hearted at all. When making an initial judgment of a person, most people form an opinion in less than a minute; some studies have shown that it’s less than a second. (SOURCE) The truth is however, every individual you meet has a story; a wealth…

Words 1934 - Pages 8

Essay on personal persona

others think. This is not something I do intentionally to be mean or anything I just feel that you should always tell the truth no matter what. Along with that I also fall into the categories of being a book worm, athletic ( basketball, softball, flag football, boxing, and running), over sensitive when you break through what my grandma calls my version of the Berlin wall. She says this about me because she says that since my father passed I try to keep as many people as I can at a distance. My Family…

Words 1865 - Pages 8

Objective Reasonableness

The rights of American citizens are protected through the Constitution of the United States. These protections allow citizens to gather and protest when they feel that they are being not being treated in the proper manner. In the United States, there has been a recent influx of protests and riots expressing distress over the state of police treatment of American citizens, which has been notoriously violent and connected with racism, bias, and discrimination. To hold the police accountable, citizens…

Words 1746 - Pages 7

Creation of Dash Essay

April 2014 with the start of the second NWSL season, a 24-game schedule that includes 12 home games at BBVA Compass Stadium, which they will share with the Dynamo. The NWSL is supported by the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), Federation of Mexican Football (FMF) and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) and is the top-flight women’s professional soccer league in North America, featuring many of the top players from the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as talent from around the world.…

Words 2078 - Pages 9