The author Susan Cahn explores the history of women and sports. The article explains how women who participated in sports or who were deemed athletic were considered either masculine, mannish, or lesbians. This gendered notion, “…served to keep women out of sport and to stigmatize those whose interests or appearance did not fix dominant cultural norms” (Cahn, 294). Meaning that any woman who has an interest in sports or who appear to have male characteristics because of sports helped cause gender fears in the community. Cahn also explains how sports were where men were men and displayed their masculinity to determine who was a “better man”. People believed that women who participated in such activities, “…would become manlike, adopting
