Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Rachel Nugent
Homosexuality was originally thought of as the reversal or inversion of the two accepted genders. So
lesbians were masculine women.
The idea of a woman being attracted to another woman went against the accepted social norms and so
they understood it as a woman expressing masculinity.
This idea extended into the early 1900s and similar thoughts exist even today (for example, the Butch
Lesbian stereotype).
Some Stereotypes
So, why?
Its my goal to find out why these stereotypes exist today.
Some of my preliminary research has lead to being able to
somewhat see how they originally formed, but with such an openminded generation, its odd to see that these stereotypes are still
so prominent.
People say that stereotypes exist because theyre based in truth
but a study concluded that the estimated number of gay people in
sports mirrors that of the entire population (so, between 2 and
10%).
Implications
The idea of connecting female homosexuality and female athletes
with the link of masculinity seems to be an attempt to say that if
women are successful in sports, its because they are more
masculine.
Because women cant just be good at something without men.
That wouldnt make any sense at all.
Methods
Gather statistics on professional female athletes
Research more thoroughly the link between female homosexuality,
sports and masculinity
Draw conclusions about why these stereotypes are still so present
today
Look into the medias portrayal of female athletes
Talk to female student athletes about how they feel about the
image that female athletes have in the media and create some
sort of presentation that represents the information theyve given
me.
Suggestions
Queer people in sports (larger population)
Comparing small proportion of men who come out with the female
athletes
It sounds too broad, maybe focus on specific sports like basketball
or whatnot
Stereotypes of men in traditionally feminine sports
Look at teams and practices and see if theres anything that
supports the stereotypes