Girlhood is constructed in such a way that girls learn which types of behavior, clothing, and colors are characteristic of being a successful female. At an early age, girls learn to identify with specific girl-appropriate activities and objects that are usually introduced to them by their parents and others in their immediate surroundings. At a very early age, the introduction and affirmation of girl-correct conduct is assimilated by young girls via media. Identifying with things and actions that are girlish, manifests in females so early that it is assumed to be an engrained attitude. The concept of a girl’s gender identity becomes firmly fixed at a young age. Sports studies examine the way in which athleticism empowers young girls and builds confidence. This differentiates it from studies that scrutinize the negative aspect of girl culture as defined by advertisers and in school. In academics, girls have long been relegated to non-science and math majors. This makes them the victims of cultural assumptions and programming. However, in sports, there has long been a separate category in which girls compete with other girls. This makes the sports paradigm in modern culture much different than that of the academic model. In sports, girls are not expected to compete with the boys. This has an impact on the way girls view themselves, but whether or not it is also reinforcing ideas of inferiority is debatable. Popular culture aims to attract girls through romantic stories on television, film, and in music. These types of cultural artifacts have been labeled as poisonous by Mary Pipher in her book Reviving Ophelia. Pipher’s take on sports is that girls are encouraged to know what is going on in men’s sports as a way of becoming interesting to males. The only girls who are usually encouraged to engage in sports themselves are the ones who appear not to fit in otherwise (Pipher 88). In order to perform their identity efficiently, girls eschew participating in rough and physically aggressive sports such as football. The message that games such as tackle football are not appropriate for girls comes from their peers, coaches, teachers, and the media. One of the main messages is that girls do not act, or dress, like boys. Clothing is one of the most obvious cultural artifacts directed at girls. How a girl looks is assumed to present to others her needs, interests, and desires. Thus, girls wear sports clothing that is different from the traditional male athletic gear. The types of clothing worn have gender distinguishing sizes, buttons, and zippers on items that are otherwise identical, such as jeans and sweats. Some items are reserved specifically for females, such as skirts and dresses. Football jerseys and padding are decidedly male. In sports where women popularly participate, such as tennis, they have special tennis skirts marketed to them (Duits 136-137). Modern girl culture still perpetuates notions about tomboys and girls who behave more like boys than girls, especially when it comes to competitive sports. Historically, young women who enjoyed athletics were called “sporty” as a way of differentiating them from regular girls (Duits 139). The handle “tomboy” was another way to distinguish normal girls from girls who lived to climb trees, be outdoors, and were more adventurous (Duits 139). Traditional girls were naturally assumed to enjoy feminine clothes and toys. Tomboys and sporty girls did not look like boys in the sense that they had masculine features. Rather, they were boyish girls who dressed more like boys and were drawn to games usually reserved for males, such as football (Duits 139). The traditional conservative feminine model of womanhood underwent a change in the 1960s during the sexual revolution as more women entered the broader sports arena. However, men’s and women’s sporting events remained decidedly gender-segregated. Sports are one of the most rigorously defining aspects of womanhood because girls and young women have adapted to participating only against other females (Hall 45). Competitive sports for women sends messages to them in a variety of ways that teaches females how to present themselves and judge other females. This is evidenced not only in the way women sports figures are trained but also in how they are presented to the public. Athletic women are still required to be feline, beautiful, and sexy in order to earn even a fraction of what their male counterparts do endorsing products. The way in which girls establish different representations of femininity via sports is by adopting behaviors usually considered male, such as being outspoken, physically strong, and forceful with their peers. The observation that girls act in a way that is more dominant has changed the established gender script and forced society to reconsider outdated ideas about femaleness. This overturning of traditional roles is due to the gains women have made in sports and other previously male-dominated spheres. As more females have entered sports that were previously all male, there has been a change in perception about women as athletes. However, these sports-oriented girls have not taken on the same roles reserved for their male counterparts (Hall 45). Modern gymnastics is a good example of how rapidly some sports have changed to allow for female competitors. Gymnastics is a sport that is close to my heart. However, it was originally an elite competition solely between men. In the first Olympic Games of 1896, only male gymnasts competed. It was not until 1936 that female gymnasts were allowed to compete. Female gymnastics became very popular very quickly. Gymnastics was considered a sport at which girls could excel and people found them graceful, pleasant performers. Two famous gymnasts, the USSR’s Olga Korbut and Romania’s Nadia Comaneci became media darlings. The widespread television coverage of these girls motivated parents to enroll their daughters in gymnastic programs around the world (Ryan 14). The performances associated with girl gymnasts were a direct result of media saturation and product endorsements. Olga was seventeen when she won her first Olympic medals but she looked much younger. Nadia was only fourteen. Nadia ended up posing for sexy underwear advertisements in the United States thereby causing an uproar among feminist. The fame of these two tiny, extremely thin girls is thought by some scholars to mark the beginning of eating disorder trends among young girls. Pipher contends that she interviewed teenage girls who were motivated to binge and purge after joining gymnastics teams at school. The pressure to perform, the emphasis on appearance, and the daily weigh-ins were extremely detrimental to the girls’ self-esteem and health (Pipher 167). The pressure on teenage girls to emulate and look like professional gymnasts, and by extension epitomize the feminine ideal, has caused endless psychological trauma due to the pressure of being thin and youthful (Ryan 15). The success of girls in gymnastics did not do anything to decenter the mostly male-oriented arena of high-paying sports. Instead, it left many young girls with the idea that they, too, should be a size zero. Many academic studies have been focused on the history of girl culture and correlations between media images of girls, cultural artifacts that are designated feminine and the girls themselves. The point made by most scholars in this field has been on how girls act as consumers of a cultural that dictates to them how they are supposed to look and acts as well, and probably most significantly, what they are supposed to buy in order to establish their femininity. In many cases, young girls in modern times are portrayed as the victims of mass media campaigns designed to sell them products (Hall 45). While gendered representations in the media are definitely problematic, people who emphasize females in sports try to present girls not as the passive recipients of negative and shallow messages, but as people with agency who can be inspired to strive for athletic excellence. Many times, the difference lies in how the parents raise their daughters and the role models that those girls are encouraged to embrace.
Works Cited
Duits, Linda. Multi-Girl-Culture: An Ethnography of Doing Identity. Amsterdam, NLD: Amsterdam University Press, 2008. Hall, Horace R., and Brown-Thirston, Andrea. Understanding Teenage Girls. Lanham, US: R&L Education, 2011. Pipher, Mary B. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Putnam, 1994. Ryan, Joan. Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
