I really enjoyed taking part in this scavenger hunt because it has allowed me to explore all the fascinating topics that stuck out to my peers and had really opened my eyes to a lot of gender based struggles that many individuals have had to go through. Overall it was also awesome to see a bit of personality from my peers since class was hosted on zoom I could not really make many genuine connections with my peers but since the independent projects were all very creative it really showed me how talented and how much dedication all my peers put into their projects and that makes me happy because it seems like we all had fun with our projects along with providing very interesting and insightful information which really captures how much this class has taught us all.
Author: Ashley Fung
Ashley Fung Post 12
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v7osgNljcS-yKUg7RQVRZkNgOAqGpdmEJoB_yn2ckp4/edit?usp=sharing
These next couple of google slides are additional information regarding my final project. As you can see in the slides, I put pictures and explanations of some of the few gender inequalities that female athletes face in our present day. In addition, I explain how although there have been laws such as Title IX to prevent these inequalities from occurring, these injustices still occur worldwide to so many female athletes across the world.
Ashley Fung Post 14 Final Project
Project link:
I decided to make my creative project a parody of the song “Montero” by Lil Nas X because in this song he speaks about his life as a gay man and how society perceives him as the devil because of his identity. This is similar to how in our society, people paint women out to be unathletic and not worthy of receiving equal overall treatment in the world of sports. Some people fail to recognize the difficulty of being a female athlete and tend to claim that the women’s game is easier or less intense than the men’s. This lack of unequal treatment that society holds on him made me think about the gender inequalities seen in sports worldwide, also it’s a catchy and great song. The parody I created mentions some historical moments which are clear indications of how women are not treated fairly in sports compared to their male counterparts. For example, in the song I keep referring to the 2021 NCAA March Madness tournament because there were so many events during that tournament that did not give women equal opportunities compared to the men’s tournament. For starters, they did not provide the women in that tournament with an actual weight room, only one rack of dumbbells and a couple of yoga mats, meanwhile they gave the men a huge weight room filled with machines. In addition, they gave the men PCR test daily but only gave the women an antigen test that does not catch early stages of covid. The March Madness tournament did not even provide the female athletes with adequate food, they served them frozen pre-package meals while the men dined at a buffet every day. The destruction to the physical and mental health of female athletes during this tournament is inexcusable. Furthermore, I also mention ESPN and commentators because many commentators manipulate linguistics in order to make women seem inferior to men. Additionally, ESPN and NCAA websites promote and broadcast men’s sports way more than they do for the women. For example, the men’s college basketball games were allowed 8% more fan capacity than the women’s. To make matters worse, for fans following the game statistics through the NCAA website’s posts, there were 18 posts uploaded of only the men’s tournament before the first post of the women’s tournament. Also I allute to some professional players such as Lebron James and Sue Bird because they have identical statistics and have won the same titles and championships during the same time frame, yet their pay is nowhere near equivalent. Throughout the song I state that change needs to occur and that we must stop this trend of history repeating itself. Women are constantly being mistreated in the world of sports and it’s time to break the stigma that the patriarchal society in which we live in holds against women. Lastly, I end my parody piece by stating that we are all human so we should all have equal access to the wonderful treasures of our world.
[Lyrics to Montero parody for WGST, advocating equality for all genders in sports]
The inequalities are insane
Title 9 only saved us yesterday
21st century, we still fighting for equal pay
Been praying and wishing for some equality
March Madness weight room, NCAA didn’t even try
Sue Bird and Lebron stats, don’t even lie
Unfairness constantly revealed, it doesn’t even hide
So many hard working women, that the world not treating right
All day, we see on ESPN That women are neglected
And just wondering when
Someday, I hope we all ascend
We need equal rights it’s time to break the trend
We deserve what we want
We deserve what we need
We been fighting it for it
It’s time to make a change
We deserve what we want
We deserve what we need
We been fighting it for it
It’s time to make a change
Mmm, mmm, mmm Mmm, mmm, mmm
Ayy, ayy
All these women are thriving
And I just feel that the world is not trying
So stressful this life got me crying
End the patriarchy, we must start defying
Oh, oh, oh, I see Women don’t get the same sports publicity
Commentators call women, girls, just to demean
Forcing women’s games have a lower fan capacity
I can’t believe March Madness only gave men PCR’s, Talk about,
Not caring about women, even during a pandemic, a pandemic!
All day, we see on ESPN
That women are neglected
And just wondering when
Someday, I hope we all ascend
We need equal rights it’s time to break the trend
We deserve what we want
We deserve what we need
We been fighting it for it
It’s time to make a change
We deserve what we want
We deserve what we need
We been fighting it for it
It’s time to make a change
Oh, all genders deserve equal rights
Equal participation and opportunities
This world needs to do better
After all, we are all humans
Post 10: The Master’s Tools By: Ashley Fung 4/27/2021
Based on Audre Lorde’s essay, The Master’s Tool Will Never Dismantle the Master’s house, I agree with the statement because throughout the essay she mentions how the world has not made much progress regarding issues such as racism, sexism and homophobia. This highlights how although society seems to be progressing in world issues, many forms of discrimination still exist in our society and happen all the time. Lorde speaks from the perspective of a lesbian black women, therefore I feel that she is a valid candidate to speak upon this issue because she experiences this in her own life and knows people who have face this type of oppression as well.
Lorde states how our society still follows the patriarchal precedent that was put into place hundreds of years ago. She explains how black women are constantly oppressed and prohibited from participating in conferences and face forms of racist feminism. In the essay introduction for racist feminism begins when Lorde states, “If white American feminist theory need not deal with the differences between us, and the resulting difference in our oppressions, then how do you deal with the fact that the women who clean your houses and tend your children while you attend conferences on feminist theory are, for the most part, poor women and women of Color? What is the theory behind racist feminism?” This was a very crucial line because it demonstrates how some people and corporations are blind to the differences in the types of struggles that black women face compared to white women. This shows how racist feminism is extremely counter intuitive to giving equality to black women because in reality it is alienating and not acknowledging them; practically treating them as if they do not matter. Conferences do not pay attention to the gender and racial inequalities that occur in many places of work to black women.
Additionally, Lorde brings up the topic of how the efforts of society to bring about change concerning the issue of forms of discrimination towards individuals is occurring but not all people are not recognizing the wrongs of society which is why oppression keeps recurring. Lorde states, “They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” This relates to the idea of the master’s tool being unable to dismantle the house because this phrase represents that no matter how many small fixes and slight changes society tries to place on the current structure of society; it will never be able to fix everything because our society itself has been created in favor of all these corrupted ideals that still discriminate individuals daily. I do not think the phrase should be modified because it also depicts that society cannot seem to agree among itself to rid of the racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminations; similar to how the tools owned by the master, cannot take the master’s house apart.
Research Summary On Gender Inequalities In Sports By: Ashley Fung
I learned many things while researching the topic of gender inequalities in sports. Basketball is a prime example of a sports industry exploiting women compared to men in factors such as unequal pay wages, lack of equal resources and opportunities, and overall unmatched treatment regarding both physical and mental health. During the 2021 NCAA march madness college basketball tournament, the female athletes experienced inequalities in food quality, covid testing materials, publicity on the website, and weightroom resources. This shows that even during women’s history month in today’s time period, our society still fails to eliminate gender inequalities in something as simple as sports.
In addition , my other resources provide background information that speaks about Title 9, a law passed which prohibits sex based discrimination in schools funded by the government. I was also able to find statistics and historical events by finding out background information on the gender inequalities from the past compared to the gender inequalities that are happening in the present. This allowed me to learn some tactics and unfairnesses that were used in the past that are currently used today as well. Gendered hierarchy of naming is a subtle use of linguistics that reveals hidden misogyny. This is seen today in the march madness issue regarding the NCAA men’s basketball logo compared to the NCAA women’s basketball logo. The logo for the men’s does not include the word men’s but the word women is displayed on the logo for the women’s tournament. This is a gendered hierarchy of naming because this is implying that the men’s NCAA basketball is the norm and the default, which makes the women’s league seem like the sideshow or the addition to the men’s tournament. Gendered hierarchy of naming was also used in the late 1900’s by basketball commentators. The commentators would refer to female athletes as young ladies, girls and women but would never refer to male athletes as boys, only as men. This is just a few examples of how there has not been much progress made regarding gender inequalities from the past compared to now because the same things keep occurring just in different forms. My research also shows how in a league made for women, there are hardly any women actually in charge and holding leadership positions. Why are men granted higher leveled roles in a sports industry made for women? How do these organizations expect to understand the needs of women, if they do not allow women to be in charge and give input on the matters that the female athletes encounter? Sports industries have been making excuses for the acts of sexism that have been occurring for decades.
My statement is that in the world of sports, there have been many gender inequalities that have occurred throughout history and are still ongoing in our modern day. Women are constantly oppressed and deemed as un-athletic` compared to their male counterparts. I believe this stigma can be broken by first getting rid of the inequalities within the sports organizations. When the sports industry stops being sexist and starts promoting gender equality, then this could level out the amount of women’s sports content that gets released to the public hence making the public get more exposure to women’s sports. This argument is important because it distinguishes how women have been fighting for so long to get equal treatment and although now women are allowed to do things like vote, it’s still not enough, women are still not seen as equal and sports makes it very clear that gender discrimination still occurs in our society.
Post 9: Insight on an entry from “The Bridge Called My Back” Ashley Fung
The entry I am choosing is from Nellie Wong called “When I was growing up”. I believe it was important because it shows how much society instills insecurities and brainwashes the youth through media and what society chooses to show to the world. This is important because it shows how much society’s standards can make women feel alienated and excluded. In the reading, the protagonist explains how at one point in her life she wished to have been born white. She goes on to explain how when she was young, she would see beautiful white women in magazines and as movie-stars; and that her sisters received more praise than she did because they were fair skinned. This is significant because this shows what society chooses to show on media and the lack of representation of other women from different racial backgrounds. Society ingrains insecurities on young women by objectifying women and only allowing those who fit society’s criteria to be famous and cared for. This ties back to the other pieces because some of the other readings in the collection explains how society is constantly oppressing, judging, objectifying, and forcing women to fit the demands of society’s standards.
The chosen quote is “ I hungered for American food, American styles, coded: white and even to me, a child born of Chinese parents, being Chinese was feeling foreign, was limiting, was unAmerican.” In other words, this quote means that growing up the narrator felt insignificant and unworthy of living because society did not show any signs of valuing or liking women who were not white. I feel that this quote relates to my reason of importance mentioned previously, because it shows how excluded this poor girl felt growing up just because of the standards that society placed. In addition, this quote also shows how much society brainwashes the youth into thinking that they are unfitting to society based on their appearance and racial backgrounds. This quote is a great representation of the passage as a whole because the passage explains the narrator’s struggles while growing up and this quote explains the feelings she had as she experienced these struggles growing up as a female minority.
Post 8: Annotated bibliography Ashley Fung April 13,2021
Source 1:
Deliso, Meredith. ABC News, ABC News Network, 19 Mar. 2021, 6:02pm, abcnews.go.com/Sports/ncaa-apologizes-womens-basketball-players-weight-room-disparity/story?id=76563430.
This article is about the NCAA apologizing for the difference in weight rooms that they provided for the men’s march madness tournament compared to the women’s march madness tournament. As shown in the article, Sedona Prince, one of the women’s NCAA players shows a video of herself in the women’s weightroom which only had one rack of dumbbells and a couple of yoga mats while the men’s weightroom was filled with many different kinds of weights and equipment. In addition, the article shows many reactions from other people about this issue such as Stephen Curry and Billie Jean King. This article relates to my topic because it shows that even in a non profit organization, the male gender still gets treated as superior compared to the other genders. The men at the march madness tournament got access to better resources compared to the women at the tournament, which is an inequality in treatment between genders. This will give me more information on historical events to work with when creating lyrics for my final project.
Source 2:
Senne, Joshua A. “Examination of Gender Equity and Female Participation in Sport.” The Sport Journal, 29 Feb. 2016, thesportjournal.org/article/examination-of-gender-equity-and-female-participation-in-sport/.
This journal goes in depth about how not only is there no gender equality among the ahtletes, there’s also a lack of female participation in sports governance. For example, in the WNBA only 33% of the general managers are women, this lack of want for women in charge occurs because of the hegemonic masculine norm, which is the principle that prevents women from obtaining leadership roles within sports. This means that women are not given fair access to obtaining leadership opportunities in sports cooperation, just because of their gender, which is misogynistic. This relates to my topic because I’m composing lyrics for a song about gender inequalities in sports.
Source 3:
Chakraborty , Sujay Chakraborty. “LeBron James Made $30m MORE THAN Sue Bird despite Both Clinching Fourth Career Title.” Republic World, Republic World, 19 Oct. 2020, www.republicworld.com/sports-news/basketball-news/lebron-james-made-30m-more-than-sue-bird-in-2019-20-season.html.
This article is about the comparisons between the statistics and championships earned by Sue Bird and Lebron James. According to the comparisons, they both spent the same amount of time playing professional basketball and have won the same amount of championships and had once one of the championships in the same exact year yet their pay is nowhere near equivalent. Lebron not only gets a higher paying salary but he also receives a greater bonus for winning the same exact award that Sue Bird won. This inequality in pay for the same accomplishments shows what kinds of things women deal with in a sports environment. This relates to my topic because it is a historical event that will help add facts to my song.
Source 4:
Eitzen, D. Stanley. Fair and Foul: beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, 2016.
This book explains all the different types of inequalities in sports history and chapter eight in particular is all about the inequalities in sports regarding gender. This book mentions historical events that helped push for change such as Title IX. Additionally, the book also states how researchers noticed a gendered hierarchy of naming. In basketball, the commentators often call female athletes the terms ladies, young ladies, girls and women but never refer to the male basketball players as boys; only men or on occasion as young men. This is significant because the speakers do this in order to deny women their maturity in experience or age. Also, the book states that announcers usually refer to female basketball players by their first name and typically refer to male basketball players by their last name. Which is important because it conveys that the commentators do this in order to make men seem dominant and women as the subordinate; through the use of certain linguistics. This relates to my project because these are more ways that women are treated as inferior to men in the sports community.
Source 5:
Gibson, Charlotte. “Report Finds Strides Made in Women’s Sports in Past Few Years, but Inequality Remains.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 Jan. 2020, www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/28489077/report-finds-strides-made-women-sports-years-inequality-remains.
This article from ESPN shows how the women’s sports foundation is pushing for change and getting change slowly but there’s still so many inequalities. In addition, the article mentions how the NCAA has had a gender gap in the amount of participation granted. Back in 2017, women had 62,236 fewer participation opportunities than men in NCAA sports. Also the article adds that the women that do get the opportunity to play don’t even get a lot of media coverage opportunities either. Learning about the Equity Project, which is a stride for change placed by the women’s sports foundation in order to progress the path to equality among genders, will relate to my project because it will give me background information about current projects that are aiding to better and set more equal opportunities and participation in sports.
Post 7: Black Feminism Ashley Fung April 12,2021
There are many relations between the TED talk from Kimberlé Crenshaw and the poem “Who Said It Was Simple” by Audre Lorde. Both of these pieces express that life is an unfavorable double edged sword if you are both a person of color and a woman.
The TED talk from Kimberlé Crenshaw expresses this double edged sword by explaining a story about how the court did not side with what Emma was saying even though in reality she was correct. Emma stated how this company had double discrimination towards her because the company hired people who were African American but they were all men meanwhile all the women that were hired were white; and Emma is neither. Kimberlé Crenshaw explained how if only the court had a better understanding of what Emma truly meant they would have noticed that Emma was infact being double discriminated. Crenshaw then states how the court is failing to see the real problem. Since women were not allowed to work in the fields and the company only hires white women, this gave Emma no chance at getting a job. This idea of not having an equal chance due to something inevitable relates to the poem “Who Said It Was Simple” because this poem portrays how the narrator is infront of a mirror, wondering which one of her will survive the oppression she’s facing. The narrator is showing how by looking at herself in the mirror, this is how the world views her, society discriminates her in two ways, one for being a woman and two for being a person of color which relates to this idea of a double edged sword.
This idea of a double edge sword also relates more to the goal of Black Feminism and how it differs from “mainstream feminism”. The goal of Black Feminism according to Crenshaw is that we have to raise awareness and help stop the racial discrimination and the gender oppression that happens to Black women. This is not the same as “mainstream feminism” because in “mainstream feminism” people typically only focus on the discrimination of gender and do not acknowledge that women of color also face a racial discrimination. Additionally, the poem and TED talk also shows how society does not understand that. This is because in the poem the white ladies allowed the white man to skip the black guy standing in line and had no problem with it because they see white men as the superior. While in the TED talk, the idea of double discrimination was displayed when Crenshaw mentioned a bunch of black men who were killed by the police and stated how once she started saying the black women who were killed by the police, barely anyone in the audience knew who she was talking about. This idea of promoting awareness and pushing for justice for black women should disassemble this unfavorable double edged sword that black women have been facing for decades.
Post 6: Ashley Fung Bibliography April 6, 2021
- Deliso, Meredith. ABC News, ABC News Network, 19 Mar. 2021, 6:02pm, abcnews.go.com/Sports/ncaa-apologizes-womens-basketball-players-weight-room-disparity/story?id=76563430.
- This source is credible and reliable because it is on a news website and this article provides recordings which prove the events mentioned in the article. In addition, this article should qualify as worthy of academic standards because it includes responses from firsthand accounts that were present during the incident.
- Senne, Joshua A. “Examination of Gender Equity and Female Participation in Sport.” The Sport Journal, 29 Feb. 2016, thesportjournal.org/article/examination-of-gender-equity-and-female-participation-in-sport/.
- This source is reliable, credible and meets the academic standards because it is a scholarly journal that offers many statistics from events that have occurred over the past few years.
- Chakraborty , Sujay Chakraborty. “LeBron James Made $30m MORE THAN Sue Bird despite Both Clinching Fourth Career Title.” Republic World, Republic World, 19 Oct. 2020, www.republicworld.com/sports-news/basketball-news/lebron-james-made-30m-more-than-sue-bird-in-2019-20-season.html.
- This article is credible and reliable and should meet academic standards because it is factual statistics of 2 players and shows the audience a side by side comparison of the inequalities between the 2 players even though their statuses are identical.\
- Eitzen, D. Stanley. Fair and Foul: beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, 2016.
- This book has certain chapters that go into depth about specific inequalities that happen in sports due to gender, which will be further discussed in my essay. It is a credible and reliable source because it was a book that was introduced to me by a former Brooklyn College Professor that I have had therefore, it should also meet the academic standards.
- Gibson, Charlotte. “Report Finds Strides Made in Women’s Sports in Past Few Years, but Inequality Remains.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 Jan. 2020, www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/28489077/report-finds-strides-made-women-sports-years-inequality-remains.
- An article that mentions the unequal opportunity in sports for certain people due to gender. This article should be reliable and credible because it is on the ESPN website and I highly doubt they would allow false information to be published on their official website. This article also backs up the main points in the article by using supporting details and statistics which makes this article suitable for academic standards.
Ashley Fung Post 5: Make a plan for independent project
The topic for my independent project is about the lack of equal opportunities in sports for all genders. I need to know accounts of different incidences where there were obvious unequal opportunities in sports for a certain gender as opposed to the others, how long has this unequal treatment been going on for, how do people feel about this topic and possible solutions to solve this problem for future generations.
My project relates to many academic subjects, but mainly history because I will be discussing a few historical events and contemporary news that portrays unequal opportunities that were given in sports due to gender. For my research, I would like to find articles that support my claim as well as recorded interviews from people, professional athletes, fans, and coaches; discussing how they feel about the inequalities that many athletes face due to gender. I might add statements from social media accounts such as twitter in order to indicate how people feel about this topic, but I’m not entirely sure if I want to go about doing this because I do not want to receive false information or state something from a fake account. However, I also want to add social media posts from people in order to convey how they feel about this issue. By using factors such as articles, it will give me a better understanding of the background information regarding my topic and will allow me to explore possible solutions for the issue my topic is referring to. By using factors such as historical events and contemporary news, it will give me a better understanding of the specific types of unequal opportunities that have already occurred in the past and will provide real life examples of the inequalities in sports due to gender. Lastly, if I pursue using factors such as social media, it will allow me to understand others opinions on this topic and how this topic affects them.
To conclude, it is definite that there have been many occurrences of inequalities and lack of equal opportunities in sports due to gender. My project will go into depth about some examples of different types of inequalities, different points of views from the instances, and prevention methods and next steps to resolve this issue of unequal opportunities in sports because of gender.
