No Change in Gender Stereotypes

    
No Change In Gender Stereotypes


       You might often ask yourself, "have women in sports finally had a breakthrough where they can excel in male dominated activities?"  Well...there answer is no! 

    Females in today's society have most definitely rose to the challenge and have accomplished far more than anyone ever could have imagined.  But, this does not mean that they are capable of competing at the same level as every male athlete.  In the case of Erin DiMeglio; a female third string quarterback for her hometown high school, was given the opportunity a few times in some regular season games to throw the football in her male dominated sport.  

   In her case, she was able to throw the "pigskin" just a few times as she mostly simply hands-off the ball to her star running back.  In the eyes of the author Erwin Straus, he believes that the difference between a male and a female throwing a football is because of not only the obvious physical attributes, but a biological attribute.  Females do not grow up throwing a football, instead they are taught how to be pretty and "act like a girl".  They are not brought up learning how to act like a male, as males grow up throwing balls with their elders and learning how to become athletes.  

   As I, and many others see the way that females throw a football, or any ball for example, they do not throw the ball the same way that a male does.  This is not to say that females can not throw a ball!  They just simply lack the velocity and distance that statistics have proven.  In an article in the Washington Post titled, "Throw Like a Girl? You can Do Better" by Tamar Haspel, it states, "Around the world, at all ages, boys throw better — a lot better — than girls. Studies of overhand ball throwing across different cultures have found that pre-pubescent girls throw 51 to 69 percent of the distance that boys do, at 51 to 78 percent of the velocity. As they get older, the differences increase; one U.S. study found that girls age 14 to 18 threw only 39 percent as far as boys."  

   As you can see in Erin's highlight, she still throws the ball like a female even though she does have an impressive arm.  In the first link Erin has her highlight, while in the second clip, the #1 high school quarterback recruit Christian Hackenberg throws the ball right on target at an impressive speed with a tremendous amount of distance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=20dUeN3V1YI&feature=endscreen 

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/videos/_/id/142578/christian-hackenberg

   It is not to say that females can not throw a ball or play a sport at the same level as male athletes, but they will just always be a little step behind because of 1. physical attributes and 2. biological attributes.

Identity of a Steroid User

    
  Steroids in sports is not a story that people are just hearing about.  Steroids have been around for many years now and it seems to be that they are most often abused in the sporting world.  What exactly are steroids?  Well...steroids are: "any of a large group of fat-soluble organic compounds, asthe sterols,  bile acids, and sex hormones, most of which have specific physiological action." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/steroid

    This illegal substance was not at first illegal upon discovery.  It was in 1930 that Dr. Ruzicka created this drug to fight conditions such as cancer and AIDS.  The first positive testing for these drugs were in the Olympics where athletes were testing positive for a cancer fighting substance in their blood stream. The drugs can be taken through pill form and even injection. Steroids in Sports has a lot of information that will allow anyone who wishes to look further into this subject.

Many famous sports icons such as; David Ortiz, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejeda, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, and Chris Benoit.  If you were unaware after reading these names, 6 of these men are baseball players who got caught for abusing these illegal drugs to enhance their athletic performance These athletes are listed in this link as athletes who have been caught or suspended by the MLB.  In the case of steroids, they cause a human to become "unnatural".  The cells that are built up in their bodies are being compounded with many different hormones that flow through their blood stream.

   In some cases, Olympic athletes are caught using steroids.  Even though the athletes are tested before competition, in the case of a Belarus Shot Putter in this years 2012 London Olympics, Nadzeya Ostapchuck was stripped of her gold medal for testing positive after her event was already finished.  She tested positive for steroids after her competition which allowed for Valerie Adamsof New Zealand to become the Olympic Champion for the second year in a row. 

  What would ever cause an athlete to use steroids?  Is it the excitement of knowing your personal performance will increase? Or maybe the fact that most athletes feel it is impossible to get caught?  Whatever the reasoning might be, it is only a matter of time until each user gets caught.  These athletes may set records, win gold medals, become the best in their sport, but at the end of the day they will be a steroid user who could not do it on their own.