Women are neglected at many areas while it comes to the basic rights or sports. There are many women who have earned the highest success by hard work. The way of being a sport celebrity has never been easier for a woman. They had to face a lot of troubles at every step. The participation of women in sports is in a limited number because of the negative views of many people on the participation of women. The movie has provided a clear picture of that real scenario and portrayed the life of a girl with the dream of being a champion boxer. The purpose of this paper is to write a reflection about participation of women in the sports based on the movie and research about the real situations.
Every woman or man is born with some dreams. It has always been the hardest task for a woman to chase her dream. They have to risk so many things of life to get that dream fulfilled. The life of Maggie Fitzgerald has never been easier as well. She has been struggling on the every single second of her life. She had worked hard in a restaurant and saved money in every possible way to chase her dream. She joined in the training center, but the Boss always denied to train her. It was hard for her to get her Boss agreed to train her.
The movie turns time by time and shows how he risked everything to being a Champion and sacrificed her life indeed. “It is the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you” (Million Dollar Baby, 2004). The life of the most successful women athletes is also full of struggle like this. They had to pass through the different obstacles set by the society and rules to find someone like Frankie in that movie to provide them support for moving forward. The worst case took place in many cases, while the families also don’t like the work of a woman athlete and do not support them as it happened for Maggie Fitzgerald throughout the movie.
The questions about gender come to the place at every topic related to sports. The traditional thinking was driven through a road where the participation of women in the sports was limited to a little number of home based games. The tradition started to change with time. The participation of women in the various workplaces and the movement of gender equality introduced many differences. It was always hard for the women to get their place in the male dominated society and it is still the same.
The sports industry is expecting the participation of men compare to women. According to Margaret Carlisle “to talk about sports is to describe a paradox, for sports is a province that demand most properly male” (Raney & Bryant, 2006). The movie also portrays the same. Frankie the boxer trainer always refused to train Maggie Fitzgerald at the early stage because she is a girl. She had to work alone herself and passed through a very tight condition to be trained by the Frankie. It clearly shows that the gender plays an important role for the sports. There is less number of capable girl in the world who had talent, but got the chance of proving themselves.
The success history of the most athletes were written of hard struggles. They had to win many challenges to win the place that they won today. The life story of the successful athletes also speaks the same. They had to face more challenges compare to the male athletes to earn the positions. “Though women who have the talent and ambition to be leaders and make a difference still face challenges that simply do not apply to their male counterparts, we experience the kind of access to new opportunities those from past generations never could have imagined” (Lee, 2016).
The life of many athletes can be taken into considerations to provide some examples of success story. Serena William, Ronda Rousey and Maria Sharapova are the name of extremely successful women athletes. Serena William had to face different obstacles on her way. She always had to be in the fear of a career where she should be educated or being successful in another way. Her family relocated many times in her childhood and she had to face many challenges for her racial conditions. However, the inspiration of her family and her hard work made her a Tennis star. Ronda Rousey also had to face struggle in life. She was suffering from some physical disorder in her early life. She had overcome tough situations and the hard work made her a biggest MMA star. Maria Sharapova had grown up in a family that was relocated many times in her early life because of the fear of some sorts of accidents. Her family had huge financial problems. They were unable to buy a new tennis bat for her. She managed to practice with some alternate ways. Her passion for the tennis made her one of the iconic character of the modern world.
The woman always had to face the problems to participate in the proper competition. There was no way for them to participate in the big contests before. They had to just keep practicing on the small events with having very less fame. The society never took it easily and sometimes family didn’t support them. It can be mentioned that “sports represents a context in which traditional notions of gender and gender relations are reinforced” (Lindner, 2012).
A woman can lose support from their families, friends, and society because of their brave approaches of being an athlete. The movie clearly portrays the struggles and the bravery that a woman needs to be successful. There is always a story of sacrifice and bravery behind every success story. The women who can show their power and put them on the spot with hard work can achieve the desired success and be the iconic character to inspire millions of women like them to be successful.
References
Lee, A. (2016). Most Influential Women in Sports. Bleacher Report. Retrieved 18 March 2016, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2015585-25-most-influential-women-in-sports
Lindner, K. (2012). Women’s Boxing at the 2012 Olympics: Gender trouble?. University of Stirling.
Million Dollar Baby. (2004). Hollywood.
Raney, A., & Bryant, J. (2006). Handbook of sports and media. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
