Blog or Journal Entry #3

Hi Everyone,

I mentioned that I would post some ideas for you to write about in this week's blog or Journal entries. Each week, you may elaborate on something related to the past week's assigned readings which are available on E-Res. Or you may wish to follow up on something that we discussed in class. Here are some specific ideas for Tuesday's entry:

1) What were some of the gendered moments you remember from participating in youth sport (or more recently)? Perhaps you discussed some of these things in your groups but did not get to talk about them in class. Did you ever think about how your experiences in youth sport might have been different if you had been born into the body of the opposite sex? Are there sports you wish you could have played if you were born as the opposite sex? Are there sports you played but would not have wanted to play if you were born as the opposite sex? Give examples to illustrate.

2) Were there other ways besides through sport that you received messages about what it means to be masculine or feminine? Looking back do you consider those messages to be constraining (i.e., did they limit you from doing things or participating in activities that you would have liked to do)? How did the readings and/or discussion make you think differently about your socialization as a male or female?

3) Considering some of the cases we discussed about transgendered and/or transsexual athletes (including the post by Casey on Fallon Fox), how should such cases of "variant-gendered individuals" be handled by sports' governing bodies? You may want to do research on your sport to see if there have been similar cases in the sport(s) that you played and/or follow.

These are a few ideas. The deadline for submitting blog or journal entries is class time on Tuesday. Remember that if you would prefer to write comments on someone else's post, the deadline for doing so is class time on Thursday.

Let me know if you have any questions (nspencr@bgsu.edu)

Thanks,

Dr. Spencer