Women in Sport Digital Diaries

2012-01-31T14:58:00.001-08:00

For the Love of the Game

2011-12-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

This class has taught us a lot about the struggles that women have faced just to be able to play a sport they love. There are many struggles, perhaps too many to count. A struggle to prove that their ovaries were not going to fall out if they were active. A struggle to prove that they can stand the physical exhaustion that comes with a 800m run. A struggle to have the same rights as males in school settings.A struggle to be taken seriously as an athlete and not just another pretty face or body. A struggle to keep their personal lives off the court/field. I believe the latter was the one the most difficult to hear about. I was always aware of the stereotype of the "lesbian athlete" but I had no idea just how difficult it could be. The fact that coaches could/would make it virtually impossible for a player to participate in the sport that they worked so hard to play just because they do not agree with their lifestyle was horrible to learn. I would like to see advances in society that things like this was not an issue. Why so people care so much about who others love? Acceptance is what I long for. Acceptance to those that may be perceived as different but still work hard to fight for success. Women athletes are a force to be reckoned with. Struggle is just another word in the dictionary, and as far as I'm concerned go by this simple philosophy... Be who you are, do what you love, and play hard, for the love of the game.

Nicole A. Coleman

Coaches

2011-12-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

With the recent stories that have broken out about assistant coaches taking advantage of young children as in the cases with former Penn state football defensive coordinate Jerry Sandusky and former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine. I have now reached a point, where I no longer will allow myself to watch college sports such as basketball and football. I have always never been a huge fan of college sports due to all of the stories about certain players receiving benefits O.J Mayo or taking money Reggie Bush or allowing them to get away with certain things like having someone else take your SAT test for you as in the case of Derrick Rose. This latest news of coaches taking advantage of young defenseless children is disgusting in my opinion because these young kids looked up to these people as figures of leadership and for them to use their power for such an inhumane way is evil. The reason that I will no longer follow college sports in general is due to the fact, that those university could have done something to put a stop it; in the case for Penn State where the school president was informed but instead of going to the authority, he chose to ban Sandusky from bringing children into the football building. In the case of Syracuse University, where the current men basketball head coach chose to make negative comments calling the two young boys liars and only bring this subject up now years later because they were interested in making money. Even though the head coach made an apology a day later for his comments, saying he spoke out of line without knowing all of the facts, which was true the damage was done. I have had enough of all of these college sports scandals to the point, where I will no longer follow any large schools such as the USC of football or the Kentucky of Basketball and will only focus on the smaller school that go about winning the right way.

Luis Carlos
Kin 338i
TuTh 930-1045

Is there any room left in L.A. for the Lakers?

2011-12-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

I am a fan of Lakers for many NBA season but during the upcoming season it's seen like the Lakers have been pressure by the Clippers. For some reason, the Lakers have been trade off Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown and Chris Paul for this season. I really don’t know why they are making this trade because those players had helped Lakers wining a lot of game. During the upcoming season the Clippers are seeing to do a better job than Lakers. The Lakers are coming off as the losers comparing to the Clippers. I think the main reason for this is because of the bad trade between the players. For the upcoming season, the Lakers still have Kobe as the main player but still the Clippers have a bunch of new guys and Chris Paul, one of their best players. Kobe is getting older and I think the Clippers will take over all Kobe’s fans as time go on. As a Lakers fan, I really wish Lakers can win again the Clippers during the upcoming season but it’s going to be a tough season for the Lakers.

Ngan Bui
ID#009617320

Sexuality and Athleticism

2011-12-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

After learning more about homophobia in sport and watching Training Rules, I stumbled upon an article, which I posted on twitter awhile back, that I wish Rene Portland and many other people out there could read. I know it's not about lesbians in sports, but I feel that it goes along the same idea of what Rene Portland and others wouldn't want on their team. The article is about a transgender Samoan soccer player named Jonny Saelua. In the Samoan culture, Jonny is a fa'afafine, which states in the article that "you have to be Samoan, born a man, feel you are a woman, be sexually attracted to males and, importantly, proud to be called and labeled fa'afafine." She became the first transgender player to compete on a World Cup stage and helped achieve American Samoa's first victory in international soccer. Everyone on her team accepts her and makes her feel part of the family. They don't treat her differently and really just focus on playing the sport they love.

I feel that the same thing applies to most teams out there, where the coaches and teammates are comfortable with gay, lesbian, bi or transgender players on the team but that unfortunately wasn't the case for former coach Rene Portland. In Training Rules, it didn't matter how great of an athlete a player was on her team. If Portland felt, thought, or knew a player was lesbian, she would do anything to not only remove that player from the team, but from not being able to play college basketball again anywhere. That was one of the issues that caught most of our attentions in class. No matter how great your athleticism, your sexuality will determine whether you can play or not. If only Rene was more accepting like many people out there along with the Samoan culture. She threw away and discouraged many amazing female athletes that could have taken the women's Penn State basketball team far, as well as their own personal careers in basketball. Definitely not the kind of coach I would want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/sports/soccer/jonny-saelua-transgender-player-helps-american-samoa-to-first-international-soccer-win.html?_r=2&ref=soccer

Jan Redondo!
KIN 338i Section 1

What I Learned

2011-12-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

In our final class meeting we did something that I wish more classes would do: we discussed what we learned, overall, in the class.

We answered our choice of two questions from a list of many. Being the super self-centered guy that I am, I shared one of my answers (because I love to hear myself talk, of course).

My other answer however, I never mentioned out loud. Not even when we were talking in our smaller groups.

"Why?", you ask?

The answer is very simple: in all honesty, I am ashamed.

I don't remember the question exactly, but it was something along the lines of: "What is something you are going to do differently because of this class?"...or something like that.

God, this is kind of hard to write, but I feel like its something that needs to be said...

I say the words "gay" and "faggot" a lot. Not with "homophobic" intentions, just when I'm messing around with my friends or I'm calling something "lame".

I am ashamed that I do that. Furthermore, it really was this class that made me feel that shame.

I used to live in the dorms and one of the first friends I made there was a lesbian couple. Almost every day I would let those words slip. I would call my buddy a "faggot" or call a TV show "gay" without even thinking twice.

The two of them were really cool about it, but I could tell it bugged them a little. So I stopped (The best could anyways).

But we drifted apart. You know, life just gets in the way sometimes...and without them there as a constant reminder, I feel into my old ways.

This class, with its close examinations of our society and the underlying prejuices we just accept, brought it to my attention once again.

I have tried to stop saying those words entirely. I don't always succeed (old habits die hard), but I feel like I am on the right track to eliminating those words from my vocabulary.

I know it isn't much, but I like to think that every bit helps in everyone's fight for equality.

Thanks a lot for reading :)

Gus Keller
Kin 338i
Tuesday/Thursday 9:30 - 10:45

Reflection

2011-12-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

In our last meeting, one of the questions asked was, "Did you perspective on women in sport change?" I guess my opinion did change, as I didn't have much of an opinion about it when class first started.

I had never thought of the all the extra struggles women face in sport compared to men. I simply thought they were not as popular because the sport wasn't as physical due to anatomical differences. I was partially right, but I now realize that there are much bigger problems for women than simply having their pelvis angled differently than men.

The biggest one that stuck out to me was the battle that women had to fight between how masculinity was sought after in sport while it was the opposite in society. To excel at their sport, women had to be aggressive and strong, but to do so came at the cost of their supposed "femininity." Women at the highest tier of sport would skimp out on lifting because it would make them appear "manly."

It's also weird to realize that nearly everybody feeds into this mentality that women are inferior. I realized it when I was talking about girls with my guy friends. We all agreed that women who play sports are usually pretty darn cute. That is, until they get too ridiculously buff and start to look like a man. At that point, I realized how far society has been able to perpetuate that belief unto its members.

This class really was an eyeopener for me. It removed the veil for me about femininity and showed me that it wasn't a battle simply for the women to fight. I really do hope many more people take this class so they may see for themselves.

Bryant Pham
Kin 338i
TuTh 930-1045

Body Image

2011-12-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

It is a well-known fact that women have always had some kind of body dissatisfaction, whether their hips are too big, or their eyes are too small. There is some characteristic or genetic trait that a woman can beat them self up about. Constant conversation topics that I have had among my friends have included degrading ourselves. We each continue the conversation, with statements of what we are unhappy with. Although this should not be considered normal behavior, it is something I think women participate in. It’s a terrible cycle that girls have created and continue to be stuck in. We don’t like something about ourselves, so we talk about our insecurity and then point out negative things in others as well. This course went one step further with the articles and additional information on this topic. With the readings brought the extended knowledge that was most surprising to me, adolescent girls as young as eight years old are having body image issues. At such a young age girls are very influenced by what they are surrounded by, and also are pressured by their peers. Society has put a great value on looks. This has made me much more aware of what I am saying and how I portray myself around younger girls. I have tried to make it a point to not say anything negative especially about myself but also not about other girl’s body images.

Natalie Bell

Section 1

Homophobia in Womens' Sports

2011-12-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Rene Portland was the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Penn State University. She was a very successful coach and seen as an icon to the school because of the win-loss records and championships she coached her teams to. She had three rules that her players had to follow if they wanted to play for her: no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians. She made it clear to her teams that if she suspected a person to be a lesbian or found their names to be associated with any lesbians, she would take away their scholarship, cut them from the team and make transferring impossible. Lesbian players had to make the tough decision to either leave what they had worked so hard for or try and hide who they really were so the coach wouldn’t find out. However, whichever decision they chose, it is obvious that Portland affected these women’s lives forever. Jennifer Harris was one of those women who was a star on the team, but when Portland believed that she was a lesbian because of her style of play, dress and braids, she cut her from the team. Harris was one of the first people to stand up for herself in public and show them who Portland truly was as a person, not as a basketball coach, that ultimately brought the end to her career at Penn State.

Homophobia continues to exist in the sport world, mainly in women’s sports and especially in women’s basketball. It is the fear of gay or lesbian people and is not appropriate in society. Homonegativity is displaying negative attitudes or behaviors towards LGBT people. Although it is more appropriate in society, it still isn’t fair. I don’t understand how a person can believe they have so much authority to jeopardize a person’s education because of their personal life. There is no connection between how well a person plays a sport, or does anything in life, to the types of people they are interested in. Poorer shooting percentage or defense is not the result of a girl liking a girl. There should be no reason to cut someone from the team if they aren’t doing anything detrimental to the team and it’s obvious that Harris wasn’t, or any other lesbian, wasn’t. Another thing that boggles my mind is that Penn State is not the only place where discrimination or abuse happens (e.g. Paterno, Sandusky), and that it happens every day across the country. I believe that the public unconsciously uses a coach’s achievements as an excuse for why they shouldn’t be punished and deny that the coaches are still normal people who have the potential to do wrong. It is unfortunate that society has brought people to appreciate sports more than the reality of people who play them. Coaches are still people and shouldn’t receive special treatment because they are given the label of “coach”. It is wrong for people to judge others and even more so, for coaches to use their public support and power as an advantage and they need to realize the entire world isn’t under their control.

I thought the documentary was very good, not in its content but in its attempt to share a small story of what happens daily. The thing that bothers me the most is that society has allowed people to believe this type of nonsense. One of the women in the documentary said that if the term “lesbians” was replaced with a certain race, that Portland would have been gone a long time ago. Homonegativity is a serious issue that is shadowed by racism and feminism, but just as equal in consequence and it needs to be treated that way.

-Chelsea Oshimo, sec. 1

Rene Portland's Lack of Punishment.

2011-12-13T00:56:00.000-08:00

Rene Portland was the women’s head coach for Penn State basketball for twenty seven seasons, and for those twenty seven seasons she had no problem with stating her rule of no lesbians on her team. She ruined many female athletes careers because of this rule, it did not matter if these women were actually lesbian or if she just thought they were. It was not until Jennifer Harris accused Rene Portland of removing her from the team because of her sexual orientation that she was given a small amount of punishment. She was only fined 10,000 dollars and was required to attend diversity training sessions, and placed a zero tolerance policy for future violations. Ultimately just a slap on the wrist.

My question is, why did this continue on for so long? How much sooner would this have been dealt with if this was an issue based on racism? I doubt twenty seven years. If she said that she wanted no African Americans on her team this issue would have been stopped immediately, and she would have been fired. This just goes to show how certain issues in our society are more important than others. How long is it going to take until our society starts accepting people the way they are? Discriminating based on sexual orientation should be just as big of a deal as racism. No one should have to go through what Rene Portland did to these young female athletes. She ruined their careers and diminish their hopes and dreams, and its wrong.

Christine Thiebert

What do you want from me?

2011-12-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

While searching among the many advertisements directed towards women an idea struck me. While there has been much complaint about how ads showing women are sexualized and often times not directly relating to what they are selling, there seems to be just as much complaining regarding the exact opposite as well. Women are complaining when ads are treating women exactly the same as men and approaching their sales the same way they would approach men. While I understand the fact that men and women are different, I would think that at least moving in the direction of equality would bring about more good than otherwise it seems that women just don't seem to be happy with whatever changes do come about. After a good search through all the ads I came to the conclusion that maybe they just want to have something to complain about. The ads seemed to be moving in a progressive direction but the criticisms of the does not seem to be relenting whatsoever. This brought me to the question what do women want to see in advertising? If they don't want to see women sexualized or in provocative clothing or poses and they don't want to see women acting like men then what will satisfy them to buy a product.

Ryan Plunkett
Kin 338I

Homophobia and Athletics

2011-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

After learning everything about homophobia and LGBT athletes and coaches in this class, I never realized how much of an issue it is for them being an athlete. During high school, I played 3 sports all 4 years and every single year on every single team there was at least 2 gay people on my teams, so it didn’t bother me. Now I played volleyball, soccer, and track, which are not typically the sports associated with lesbians, but because it was never a problem and it didn’t seem to bother any of my coaches, I never paid much attention to it. My volleyball coach was female and she knew when some of the girls were gay and it didn’t affect their playing time or anything. The only thing that came even close to being treated differently was how she joked around with some of them during practices about their girlfriends, but none of them seem to take it personal, they would laugh with her. But one of my friends played basketball during high school and was surrounded by them. She’s straight and that fact that the majority of the team preferred to date women didn’t seem to make a difference in the fact that she loved basketball. I know I didn’t care that some of the girls on my teams weren’t into guys; it didn’t matter because we were all there to have fun with the sport and compete.
In the video we saw in class Training Rules, Rene Portland seemed to think otherwise. I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that out of all sports, she coached basketball and decided to implement this “No lesbians” policy. I don’t mean to sound judgmental or stereotypical but women’s basketball is one of those sports that tend to have more gay athletes than others. It’s just so horrible that Rene Portland was allowed to be the women’s basketball coach for so long, and during her reign she shattered so many of the athlete’s dreams. It didn’t even matter that some of her victims were not even gay, there were so affected by this stupid rule. If she was so against homosexuality because of her religion, then she should have realized how much she was hurting these young women by being so discriminatory. Someone’s sexuality shouldn’t determine their ability to do anything, whether it is playing a sport or coaching it, the important thing is the quality of their play. The whole homophobia in sports issue does seem to be getting better and I hope that athletes in the future won’t have to worry about being portrayed as lesbian or gay and they can be respected merely due to the fact that they are a quality athlete.

Nylene Herrera
Kin 338I Sec 01

2011-12-11T02:26:00.000-08:00

Madison Chock and Greg Zuerline, are 2008-2009 worlds junior ice dancing pduring rofessinals figuer skaters. Both fromed a team in 2007 and trained under coaches Igro Shpiband, Marina Zoueva, Jhonny john, and Adrinne Lenda in Canton, Mich. Madison and Greg became more than partnes

Women in Popular Media

2011-12-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

"Field of Dreams", "Any Given Sunday", "Hoop Dreams", "Rudy", and even "Space Jam". With all the evolutions in the world of sports, newer and better ways of displaying sport for means of inspiration or entertainment come on the scene. Most of us are familiar with all of the sports movies above, and vast numbers more. We can be certain that there are no shortages of sports movies featuring men, which provide us with countless amounts of inspiring, memorable moments in men's sports. However, is it possible to attempt to correlate the few number of sports movies featuring women's sports with the current lack of comparative popularity in women's sports? I say yes! Movies like "A League of Their Own" and "Bend it Like Becham" feature truly fantastic and quality stories about women in a man's sports world. However, apart from a number of complimentary, almost comedic scenes, none of these movies are centered around the lack of respect in today's culture for women's sports. It is my belief that more media focused on this, in the form of films or otherwise, is positively key in part of the promotion process of women's sports. If there is one thing I take away from this semester, it is that the media has a power unlike any other, not just in the world of sports, but in today's culture, focused around communication and social media. When, then, I ask, will the opportunity present itself to mass market women's sport on the same level as far as popular media? With rising popularity, stemming from the impressive Women's USA Soccer Olympic Team, I feel that there will be an extreme increase in the amount of sponsors, media exposure, and popular media inclusion of women in sport.

don't ask don't tell

2011-12-09T22:10:00.000-08:00

Today I was thinking about the debate that one of the groups did on don’t ask don’t tell and also about the movie we recently watched on the coach from Penn State. In high school my varsity coach was a homosexual. It was one of those things where we all knew and she knew that we knew but it didn’t really matter because it wasn’t that big of a deal to us. She never straight out told us that she was gay, and we didn’t need her to tell us. We respected her personal life enough not to comment on it if she didn’t want us to. She and her partner both worked at our school and were both varsity coaches for soccer and swimming. A lot of people in the school and different sports knew and would sometimes make little jokes about it but nothing serious or cruel. I think that coaches should have the right to say if they are gay or not, but also have the right to keep it to themselves. My coach believed if she made a big deal about it then everyone would and since it is her personal life outside of her job as a coach then she had no reason to broadcast it when her team, the only people who mattered to her, already knew. However some coaches might feel differently about it and want to share it with their teams.

Personally I think that students in this era can handle homosexuality now without prejudice because it is pretty mainstream in everyday life, at least where I live. I do think it depends on if you trust your audience or not though. Our coach for example did a lot for us in finding scholarships and team building. But I also think it is a little different for girls then boys coaches. I dont know why but a lot of boy's that I have known feel uncomfortable around homosexuals, more so then the girls Ive known. But hopefully times are changing. My coach started a while back so that might be the reason she didn’t say anything to us about it, but I noticed that from my sister’s time there to the end of mine that she opened up a lot about it to either parents she was close to or even to us by inviting her partner to our games.

Allyson Nomura

KIN 338i

sec. 06

Homophobia

2011-12-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

One thing that I found very interesting was the topic about homophobia. I didn’t know that there was so much homophobia in our country until I saw the video Training Rules and I read the articles about homophobia and heterosexism. I cannot believe that the things that were going on with the Penn State Lady Lions was allowed to happen. There were many people that were aware that this was happening but yet didn’t do anything to stop it. I just find it sad that many people knew about this “no lesbians” on the team rule but yet nobody took action against it. Even after the school implemented sexual orientation to the discrimination policy, Rene Portland was still in charge of the team and still didn’t change anything about her “no lesbians” rule. I think there should be more awareness about homophobia and there should be ways of stopping things like this from occurring again. People should not have to hide their life only because others are not o.k. with their sexual preference. They should be able to live their life the way they want to and not worry about changing their lifestyle because of society’s expectations.

Hector Barajas

KIN 338i

Section 06

Yoga Curiousity

2011-12-08T23:25:00.000-08:00

Growing up in a very athletically demanding family I have been constantly being a sport since a young age. Thankfully, the rate I partcipate in a competitive game has dramatically slowed down. Usually I was on multiple teams simultaneously and rushing back and forth from practice to practice. Because of the physical demand I put myself in at such a young age it has aged my body rather quickly, I feel. After our lecture on yoga I have become much more curious about the benefits yoga would do for my body. Not only could I hope for a physical benefit from yoga but, also hoping for stress relief and an area where I clear my scattered brain. Considering I am a very shy person, I will definitely do some online shopping and purchase an at home yoga video.

Chad Schug

Kin 338I - Sec 06

More benefits of Yoga

2011-12-08T22:25:00.001-08:00

My personal experience with Yoga

After hearing the lecture on yoga in class, I just wanted to give my personal story about the wonders of yoga and how it’s helped me control things in my life by connecting my mind and body back. A couple of semesters ago when I started attending CSULB, I worked and went to school and I gradually started going to sleep later and later at night, until some nights I wasn’t going to sleep at all, and it showed. My boss starting taking my hours away in the mornings cause I looked so bad. That’s when I realized I might’ve had a slight case of insomnia and went to the doctor. He of course prescribed medication for sleeping pills but I was too scared I would become dependent of them like many people are. He suggested exercise, when that didn’t help he suggested yoga. I wasn’t flexible and nor did I want to go any class and do it in front of a lot of people so I got a video, “yoga for stress relief”. After the first night I did it I slept like a baby. I did it for a week straight and haven’t looked back ever since. Within a week my insomnia was completely cured. Now I try to do it now at least once a week, but I haven’t had any problems sleeping, in writing this blog I probably jinxed myself but at least I know now how to control it. I strongly suggest everyone add yoga to their exercise routine.

Christopher Barnett

Kin 338I - Sec 06

Off the Court and On the Catwalk

2011-12-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

I found an article that interested me with information regarding a WNBA that gave up playing basketball. The player was Elsa Hosk a 23 year old Swedish native that wanted to become a model during her teenager moments. Her dream to model was placed on hold due to the decision to finish high school as a high priority and be a female ball player. Elsa continue to play basketball professional, but wanted to fulfill her dream as a model.
The article caught my attention due to the headline and unusual act for a woman to do regarding sports. I understand that women have rights to choice whatever path they want to live their lives; but the story clearly ties into the stereotype on women. The norm constructs the idea that women are soft like flowers and should not interact in physical activities. I don’t believe that it is wrong for Elsa Hosk to quit basketball and become a model. The action is just unusual for a athlete to do and are view as muscular figures.
The women in sports course discuss the issue with the media and how women are portrayed. This particular article would have been a great topic for the class to interact. The body type image is important on young girls that want to be athletes and the case with Elsa Hosk will not affect the youth. I believe that her choice will remind young girls that they have the choice to become whatever they want and be successful in that career.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2068350/Elsa-Hosk-From-pro-basketball-player-Victorias-Secret-model.html

Tatiana S.kin 338I.S6Fall2011 t-th9:30

Tennis hidden in the shadow

2011-12-08T18:36:00.001-08:00

The media likes to place attention towards men’s sports the most. I have been a fan of sports since I could see television and never thought about how basis the media can be towards genders. I found a article on the ESPN website that had the headline “Ana Ivanovic cruises to rout in final”. The article was about a tennis match called the WTA Tournament with a player by the name of Ana Ivanovic defended her Champion title. She won with a 6-3, 6-0 over a player known as Anabel Medina Garrigues this passed Sunday.The article seemed interesting to me as a reader based on the fact that the information was on posted on television as a headline. Instead, the article was on a website and located under other sports. The two players that were a part of the Championship Tournament are new to me as a sports fan that has watched ESPN on a daily basis. The media presents the perspective that they want the audience to believe and what image is considered the right look. I hope that in the future that more women athletes are represented in the sports media and placed in the shadows.
http://espn.go.com/tennis/story/_/id/7198924/ana-ivanovic-rolls-final-successfully-defend-wta-tournament-champions-title

Tatiana S.kin 338I.S6
Fall2011 t-th9:30

Your Good for a Girl

2011-12-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

All my life I have always had a passion for snowboarding. Being a girl it has been difficult to receive the respect on and off the slopes each time I am up in Big Bear, Vail, Snow Bird, Brighton where ever I may be. I enjoy riding but it is very insulting when a guy tells me I ride "Good for a girl". What the heck is that supposed to mean? If i were a dude I wouldn't be skilled. What I don't understand is why people don't think us girls can take on the sport just as much as a guy can. Being a 5th year season pass holder and a follower of Big Bear mountain's newsletter I am pleased to have read that this upcoming season Burton's girls team will be coming to visit and taking a photo shoot with the special made quarter pipe for extreme boosting. Along with the quarter pipe photo shoot they will be putting in some down rails and showing off the girls talents. Last year when the Burton team came to visit Bear Mountain, the event was so successful that they were invited to join again. From the footage from last year and the pictures posted, I hope that all people whether men or women see this understand that snowboarding can be for both males or females. And that there are some women out there that can shred and kick butt just as much as a guy can!

Kin338i Section 6

C. Elliot

Shred The Gnar....Bro?....

2011-12-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

In the recent surf flick, Lost Atlas, directed by Kai Neville, professional surfer Dusty Payne was quoted saying that girls are “terrible” at surfing and “sit on the boat waiting for the surf to die down to 1 foot waves so that they can go out and do their tail slides.” In response to that comment, women’s world tour champion Carissa Moore replied that Dusty was her greatest influence to expand her level of surfing even further this past year at this years Surfer Poll awards. This example of degradation of women’s surfing isn’t anything new. Since the beginning of women’s surfing, they have always had little respect compared to the men. Today, stars such as Carissa Moore and Coco Ho have expanded their trick book even further to include aerials and big carving turns, moves that can be easily witnessed in men’s surfing today. Women’s surfing does not have the same respect, or much less contest prize money as men’s surfing. However it is not without lack of trying. Nike has sponsored an all women’s surfing film called Leave A Message. The future of women’s surfing is promising with expanding trick books, revolutionary surf films, and young girls that are pushing the limits every time they surf.

Eating Disorders

2011-12-07T22:29:00.001-08:00

I really wish there had been another day of discussion of the Female Athlete Triad and Eating Disorders. It seems like that it’s always the topic that just gets brushed upon since many people already know about the basic eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia) and the symptoms/ characteristics that define them. What people don’t realize though, is that someone doesn’t have to be “diagnosed” to be considered a disordered eater. A girl doesn’t just snap one day and all of sudden become anorexic, it’s something that slowly starts to build and eventually take over your whole mind and body. When someone finally gets diagnosed it’s almost too late; it was already a problem that had been building for some time. There is a whole range of levels of disordered eating and overtraining to lose weight, making a lot of girls believe that what they are doing is okay since they haven’t actually been diagnosed as “anorexic”. I feel like if girls were better educated on the topic then they could become aware of the fact that might actually have an eating disorder, and talk to someone or get some help before the problem becomes so bad that they are clinically diagnosed with anorexia nervosa or bulimia.

K. Sexton

KIN 338I Section 6

Yoga and Sport

2011-12-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

The practice of yoga in my life has tended toward the erratic side of things, but I still have come to know many of the benefits that come from the practice. Like many people, I too thought that yoga was more of a way to stretch than to get a good sweaty workout in, but after a couple classes my idea changed. Though I only went to a couple of classes after first discovering it, I immediately bought some DVDs so that I could practice at home. Almost immediately after beginning, I started to notice my anxiety levels decreasing. So while it was not a deep and spiritual thing for me I did notice the relief that I achieved mentally and physically when I practiced regularly. Fast forward a couple year and I have taken to running and cycling as my main forms of activity. Like many runners I ended up with some over use injuries and my sports medicine doctor recommended doing some light yoga practice to increase flexibility and minimize pain. Once again the results seemed almost immediate. I certainly see where yoga can fit into a person’s life in many different ways and we will get out of our practice what we get in. So while now I participate almost exclusively in endurance events I try to add in some yoga to put a little balance in my life.
A. Page
kin 338I.S6

Portland Massacre

2011-12-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

Rene Portland is one of the most recognizable names in all of women's basketball. In her 27 year stretch at Penn State, she appeared in 21 NCAA tournaments, including a Final Four appearance, five Big Ten championships and two conference tournament titles. She is one of 9 women to have achieved more than 600 wins at one school, finishing at PSU with a record of 606-236.

Many believe her to be one of the greatest coaches of women's basketball history, but her resume still lacks a National Championship. I feel there is only one reason a coach this successful can not produce a ring: chemistry. In order for any sports team to play to their peak of performance, all cylinders must be firing and the team dynamic must be extremely tight. Portland however, had three simple rules for her players: no drugs, no drinking, no lesbians. I believe that the third and most controversial rule is what led to her lack of ultimate success.

Homophobia has no place in this world, especially in sports. Team chemistry is without a doubt one of the most important elements of a successful team. When Portland introduced the "no lesbians" policy she created a massive rift between members of the team. There were those who supported her policy and were used by Portland as spies. Others lived in fear of being found out as a lesbian, or simply did not agree with the policy and just wanted to play basketball without the overbearing weight of the fear of getting in trouble.

I feel that if Rene Portland had educated herself on homophobia and its affects on teamwork and interactions, she could have been limitlessly even more successful.

J.Petorella

KIN 338I

Sec 6

PSU = the devil?

2011-12-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

Penn State University has had a reputation for winning for decades upon decades. With the recent events that have occurred at Penn State, it seems that all of the memories of their glory years may be discredited. Rene Portland has led the PSU women's basketball team to over 600 victories and has also won the Coach of the Year award twice. Although she has a long list of accomplishments that she is very-well known for over her 27 years as head coach, her reputation may be shot forever now due to her discrimination against homosexuals, or more notably lesbians and she uses her faith as an excuse! I'm not one to judge others on their sexual preferences or religion because I feel that someone else's business is their own, and if they are happy then that's all that should matter. I believe that Portland firmly believes she was doing the right thing, but I cannot understand her God complex. I understand that the Catholic religion believes that marriage and relationships should occur between a man and woman, but if we look out at society today, homosexuals are constantly surrounding us. We can't escape it no matter where we are, but it still makes people feel incredibly uncomfortable. I also believe that you cannot help who you love and that homosexuals did not choose their way of life. No one wants to be discriminated upon and judged, and no one just CHOOSES to be homosexual to be rebellious. I think it's strange that others don't see it that way either, but that's just me. Although her religion looks down upon same-sex relationships, what I'm having the hardest time understanding is why she felt the need to ruin the lives of those that didn't see things the same way she did. She had such an enormous amount of power that she literally ruined the lives of so many women and watching the video in class, you can still see the pain and agony that these women felt. She permanently did damage to human beings that were just trying to chase a dream. After she kicked these people off her team, she went out of her way to make sure that they were never to have a chance at the big leagues all because they lived a different way of life than her own. She is not superior to anyone, she is not God. I cannot believe how long Penn State turned the other cheek and let this woman torture her players. Joe Paterno and his staff only cared about winning, and they did everything they could to ensure that they would keep doing just that... but here we are years later, and all of that might just go to shit.

- Clara Cho KIN 338i S.6

Crazy Crazy Crazy

2011-12-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

I could not believe how Rene Portland was still able to keep her job after all that she has done to those poor girls. I never knew about her until this class and I wish I would have known sooner! I cannot believe that this actually happens in this world. I mean, seriously? How is it that good people get laid off their job but some obviously crazy woman gets to keep her job after 1. harassing her players to make sure that they know she doesn't tolerate gays 2. CHANGES A GIRLS HEALTH RECORD LIKE A CRAZY PERSON 3. attempts to sucker girls into going to penn state because other schools allow lesbians to play on the team 4. IS CRAZY 5. RUINS PEOPLES LIVES and 6. CRUSHES DREAMS. Did i mention that this woman never even won a title with her team? How on earth did Penn State think that keeping her on was a good idea? I just do not understand what went on in these peoples minds to think that this insane person should be in charge of other people. They must be insane too. I also feel terrible for those poor girls that had to be in the same room with this woman. I feel like I would just smack her in the face if I was anywhere near her. I can't even imagine having to go through what those girls went through or even what they had to go through after she got done with them. To have everything that you've worked so hard for just be taken away for something that doesn't even matter. She is this so called Catholic but I don't even think that any Priest would even think that this is right. They would probably think that shes a crazy person too...

Desiree Hernandez

KIN 338I Sec 06

It's Not Just Penn State....They Just got Caught

2011-12-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

After watching the video about Rene Portland and her anti-lesbian policy at Penn State, and in light of the Sandusky fiasco at the same Penn State, I found many parallels, and these same parallels were a major reason that both affairs escalated to the level they did.

In both instances we witnessed an person in a position of power abuse it. I have previously discussed Sandusky in my former blog post, but Portland's openly anti-lesbian policy and the harm it caused is still very serious itself, as both negatively affected the lives of innocent young children and adults. The damage that Portland caused many young developing young women was obviously long lasting and changed many of the women in the movie lives' forever, often for the negative. This is eerily similar to the affect Sandusky has had on his victims, although obviously not on the exact same level.

The most disturbing fact of the Portland and Sandusky cases were how long they were able to continue. The standing university policy discussed in the video was that a superior must be informed of the situation and then action will be taken. The only problem with this was that in both instances this procedure was followed, and in both instances nothing significant happened. This lack of discipline showed by those with more power than Portland and Sandusky is despicable and cowardly.

But Penn State is not the only place this occurs. In the past year or two college athletics has seen more scandals of similar power abuse than in recent memory, and possibly in history. This exposure of power corruption shows that Penn State is not the only place that despicable acts are carried out and covered up, the only difference is that Penn State got caught with two particularly despicable examples.

The effect this has on sport, and particularly women's sport, is shown by the power structure that allows this to happen. It is still male dominated and as such the equality needed between male and female sports will not occur, especially when proper use of power is not enforced. To remedy this situation, a comprehensive NCAA review of all schools must take place in order to address the corruption that seems to have become more commonplace than rare.

Brandon Robison section 6

Anti-Lesbian: Rene Portland

2011-12-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

The video, "training rules" was about how the Penn State women's basketball coach, Rene Portland was an anti-lesbian women who did not want any lesbians in her team. If the basketball girls were lesbians or even caught talking to lesbians, they would be out the team. Jennifer Harris was one of the top scorers in the team but was released from the team because Portland thought that she was a lesbian. Rene Portland should of been fired from the school during this time. She even had a a policy that mentioned NO LESBIANS in the team and no major authority did anything about it. She might have been one of the best coache's of the time but that shouldn't mean she gets special privileges and should definitely not allow her to get away with certain things.

Rene Portland discriminated against lesbians and some of the players had to lie about their sexual orientation just to stay in the team and not get their scholarship taken away. In the video, one of the players lied about having a boyfriend when in reality she was a lesbian. The basketball players avoided any lesbian activity because they did not want to get kicked out of the team. Portland was intimadating to the players and I'm pretty sure some of them are still psychologically hurt. School authorities need to step up and act against such behaviors like this.

Freddy F. kin 338i Sec. 1

Gender as social construct

2011-12-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

it is hard to concieve the thought that our genders are a concept that are in fact determined by society. however, to understand this concept we must first deiferntiate our "gender" and our "genetic gender", in other words what society expects us to act and look like because of our genetic gender, and our chromosomal configuration that classifies us as male or female. it is in fact our "gender" that is the social construct becuase from the moment we are born, society imposes upon boys the role ofr masculin rough hellraisers and on girls the role of feminine, submissive, princess. although in our present time there are many instances that suggest a change in the way society views and assigns these roles- the fact is that gender is a concrete mold in the factory of society that is not easily going to broken. the problem with social gender roles is that they are rigid and uninclusive; there is no middle ground for individuals that do not conform exactly to the characterisitcs of the social man or woman. another huge problem is that people in general tend to inerchange or even intertwine a persons social gender with their sexual orientation. these two major issues are what create major problems for women athletes because first of all they do not conform to what society dictates a women should be i.e dainty and soft. secondly, the association of social gender and sexuality is what leads to many female athletes being labled as lesbian and manly. however, this is a concept that is based soley on a construction that penalizes those who insist on breaking away from the imposed norms that set limits upon the capabilites of the human body and mind. women athletes have made strides not only on the part of womens equality but also on the part of advancing society as a whole and helping make society a more accepting and open place to people of all kinds.

kevin C. KIN 3381 sec 06

Women's Sports Magazines

2011-12-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

There are a variety of sports magazines available. Unfortunately, most of these magazines are geared towards men. Although female athletes are featured in the magazines along with photographs (most of which are racy), women would enjoy more sports magazines geared towards them. Women's sports magazines would feature strong female athletes portrayed in a way that we would not mind our daughters looking at and admiring. More women's sports magazines can benefit female athletes, women, children, and men. Female athletes would be offered more opportunities to have their athletic talent highlighted; where it would be ok to show off their true strength. Women and men alike could enjoy the articles and get to know these women as athletes and not eye candy. Children would be able to look up to these athletes and parents would be comfortable knowing that this is what our children admire. More women's sports magazines would benefit media and society.

Tiara Gose
Kin 338 Sec 6

Training Rules vid, how shocking!

2011-12-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

In the film "Training Rules" showed how there is injustice that happens in the world due to sexual orientation. The person that committed this discrimination was Rene Portland. She as a Basketball coach might have been respected by Penn State for winning some games. However, she also took away many women basket player's rights to play the sport they love just because they were lesbian. The women who were discriminated against didn't just lose their scholarship but their love of the sport and of life. I never really realized how gay individuals get discriminated against in such a manner. It's unbelievable that schools still do such things in the athletic departments. This type of discrimination happens every day; however, people never really find out. In this case, Penn State/Rene Portland did get caught with violating the rights of many female basket players. This comes to show us as a society that we still need a lot of improvement; to accept people for who they are and not for what race are they or sexual orientation one has.

Rodrigo Uribe

Kin 338I sec 6

The Closet is for Skeletons and Clearly You're Still Alive

2011-12-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

This is a shout out and a word of encouragement to those athletes who are hiding their sexuality from coaches, teammates, and the world. Speaking from experience, I know the struggle that comes with being gay and the hardships of ridicule and grotesque looks from those confuting bystanders. The taunts and threats are formidable, but your fear and suppressed feelings will eat away at you way more than those ignorant few preventing you.

Rene Portland, former Penn State women's basketball coach, was one of those few who tormented many of her athletes to stay in the closet or forbid contact with a lesbian. She pushed her beliefs onto her players, yet in a pep talk before a game she hypocritically states, "celebrate who you are." How can non-heterosexual women celebrate themselves when a mentor is tearing them down.

Well guess what? Times are changing, and we are fortunate to be living in a time when the once tolerated are now doing the toleration. More and more athletes are coming out to their coaches and teammates and every person that is doing that is paving the way for future generations to live a life of happiness and without fear and discrimination. Athletes who come out of the closet are breaking grounds to set a new foundation for acceptance and understanding that no matter what sexual orientation you claim you are still a human being. There needs to be more role models for children, so they do not have to feel scared and potentially hurt themselves mentally and even physically.

The change we need for an accepting world begins with you, with every athlete, to either come out and be proud of who you are or to support those who are lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual. I promise you it will be worth it.

Need some help...here is an article you may find useful.

Alejandra Fregoso

Kin 338I Sect. 6

Amazing Coach or Demeaning Monster

2011-12-02T15:08:00.000-08:00

After watching the video “Training Rules” in class I am mortified at the behavior of the Penn State basketball coach Rene Portland. Unfortunately, however, I am not surprised that this issue was made to be less than it was and that the process of making things right became a long and dragged out process. Rene Portland’s corrupt behavior towards her players was disgusting. She let it be known that she would not accept lesbians on her team and she threatened her players to the point that those who were gay felt forced into leading a double life just to keep their scholarship. She made most of the players extremely uncomfortable. She even went as far as changing the medical records of students who decided to leave her team so that they would not be able to transfer. She also participated in negative recruiting, which means that she suggested to potential recruits that competing schools were full of lesbians and that her team was “lesbian-free”.

In my opinion, her negative recruiting practices were the most disgusting and demeaning. She not only implied that competing schools were full of lesbians but that lesbianism was wrong and because of this, that her school was better. Who is she to say what is wrong and what is right, and how dare she act as though her school is superior. Is it really superior if she has to forcefully repress the homosexuality of her own players so that they must act as though they are heterosexual? One of her own players had to pretend she had a boyfriend at another school just to keep up appearances with Rene. The entire situation ties perfectly into our panel debate about whether or not coaches and players should come out to their teammates. One of the pros of “coming out” was that the team had the potential to experience a stronger bond with their teammates and there would be a greater sense of unity amongst the players. Coach Portland, however, created a completely different set of surroundings for her players. She created an uncomfortable and passively hostile environment for her team which in turn caused tension and a great deal of anxiety. Rene Portland should have put her own feelings aside and allowed her players to be themselves; they would have felt better and therefore they would have played better and maybe then she would’ve actually won some championships.

-Erin Osborne

Penn State : Rene Portland

2011-12-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

after watching training rules in class the past couple days i was speechless and amazed of how much power Penn State is giving to their coaches. Starting with Rene Portland and going all the way to Paterno and Sandusky. i feel like just because they win games and are improving a certain sport program the president of the school shouldn't be giving the coaches total control to the point where they don't even realize or care what that coach is doing. Rene Portland abused her power as head coach of women's basketball. it's even demonstrated by how much power she was given when she changed the medical records of that girl who tried to transfer, which resulted in her getting her scholarship taken away,or when she made girls choice between their friends and controlled who they could hang and couldn't hang out with. Portland may have won games, but she broke a team apart slowly and separated girls. she scarred girls who to this day are still dramatized by what she did. and she also made girls hide their true identities. coaches are suppose support and be there for their athletes. Rene Portland didn't do that at all. she didn't even want to be interviewed for the video training rules which showed that she was guilty in everything that the girls stated in the video which is horrible. Overall, Penn State needs to take more initiative and watch carefully over their coaches because this seems to be a repetitive thing where the coach's are abusing their power and athletes.

Robin Mora

kin 338i. Section 01

Penn State as a Poster Child

2011-12-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

After watching the video “Training Rules” and hearing about the current scandal at Penn State, personally I have felt a strong dislike towards this just named university. There are other universities where bad things happen as well but for some odd reason Penn State has got caught. Rene Portland was an anti-lesbian and I found it very disturbing what she put those young girl athletes through. Many of the former women basketball players that played for Rene and were lesbian are now living a very hard life and with many psychological problems. Not only did Rene Portland ruin those young athlete’s basketball careers but they are also scarred for life. Both Rene and Sandusky have scarred young people for life and the major disturbance I have with this is that no major authority would put a stop to it and that just because of college athletics they got away with things ordinary people would not be able to get away with. If I’m not mistaken a math professor at Penn State made that point during the film that if he was discriminating he would have lost his job but because Rene Portland was in college athletics she got to discriminate all she wanted. They need to put a stop when it comes to letting big college athletics get away with anything they want just because they are producing a prestigious name.

Daniel Barajas kin.338i Sec.06

"Training Rules" Video

2011-11-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

Regarding the video “Training Rules”, all I have to say is that Rene Portland is out of her mind and just a flat out terrible person. It’s fine with me if people don’t approve of homosexual relationships. I don’t really understand what they disapprove of, but it’s their opinion so they can think and feel how they want. But to enforce the “no lesbians” rule that Portland did on her team for so many years is just astounding to me. It also blows my mind that she would not only kick girls off of her team and take away their scholarships, but then go so far as to make it practically impossible for the girls to transfer and play basketball at a different school. I don’t understand why people allowed her to get away with this for so long or merely giver her a tiny slap on the wrist the one time she did get in slight trouble. I also don’t understand why, once the story of her blatant discrimination against homosexuals did get out, girls still wanted to play for her. I understand she’s a great coach but I personally wouldn’t want to play for such a terrible woman. And she’s never won a national title anyways! I guess I knew people still had issues with homosexuality but never really realized just how big of an issue the discrimination still is.

Chelsea Brown

KIN 338I-06

Skirt or No Skirt ?

2011-11-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Lately, the International Amateur Boxing Association are discussing whether women fighters should wear skirts in the ring when fighting at the Olympic games of 2012. Clearly this is sparked charges of sexism and surprisingly some female boxers don't mind. Since female boxing started and during the famous Leila Ali, women have worn boxing trunks. Trunks seem to be the standard and most suitable unform for boxing. Female boxers should have the right to chose what to wear in the ring and not be forced to wear skirts. Some of the female boxers disagree and believe that trunks are the uniform or"kit" of boxing, while others don't seem to mind and they will just follow the rules. These women boxers want to be known as Boxers and not female Boxers. I think that women should have a choice whether they want to wear shorts or skirts. It seems that the International Amateur Boxing Association wants to make the female boxers more feminine. This situation is a lot like the womens basketball. In womens basketball they made women basketball players look more feminine in their pictures and made them wear dresses. The basketball players would wear make up during games and their hair was always in a pony tail because other styles or braids seemed to masculine. I believe if they pass this rule of women forced to wear skirts in boxing it will begin a slippery slope, next they are going to demand women wear make up and have their hair in a pony tail.
Giovanny Gamarro
Kin338 Sec. 6
http://m.espn.go.com/extra/boxing/story?storyld=7272894

2011-11-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

It's kind of ironic that the topic we have been focusing on the past couple weeks, following the panel debates, is female athletes in the media. I have been challenged on many different levels since we've began reading articles and watching films on the portrayal, exploitation, and under-representativeness/appreciation of female athletes.

Going into the panel presentations, and even at the end of the debate, I was very much stuck on my personal thoughts, opinions, and ideas that it is very much acceptable for female athletes to pose nude or provacatively. I believed, and still somewhat believe, that they work hard for their bodies and they should be able to show it off proudly, but I never really thought about the way other people may percieve these photos or the many subliminal messages that they send to young girls and boys, and even adults.

I have been clueless to the struggles of women in sport to get to where we are today. I only see women empowered and on top, I didn't have to experience the descrimination and the difficulties in sports for women. But now that I have learned about all the hardships that women went through so that we could be where we are today, I have been easily persuade to have a different view on the way female athletes are portrayed in the media. I still believe that it is good for female athletes to be proud and comfortable with their bodies, but that they should be educated in the past of women in sport.

There are so many underlying messages in the portrayal of women in the media that many people are unaware of: posing with their children and husband, wearing make up and feminine outfits, camera angles, and more. But maybe this is just the current ideals of female athletes today. Maybe the past concerns and accusations are in the past, and this is the way women truly want to be portrayed, with no underlying fears of people thinking they are homosexual or too masculine. I wear bows and skirts because I like to wear them and I think they're cute. There is really nothing else to it.

Kyndall Hagens
KIN 338I Sec. 01

Penn State Basketball Video

2011-11-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

All I have to say is that Rene Portland is crazy. It is disgusting and appalling to see what she was doing with the women's basketball program and how she was so homophobic and anti-lesbian. She had no right to tell any of those girls who they could or could not be, that should be up to them.

Like someone had mentioned in class, it is crazy to see that she never won a national title, and yet she could still run the program and be that much of a horrible person. What's also disturbing is how she wasn't winning and the athletic officials at the school even knew that this discrimination was going on. It's sickening knowing that their excuse for not changing this or punishing Portland for this discrimination was because it was not technically in the rules that they could't discriminate against homosexuality. One would think that it wouldn't matter if it was in the rules or not, because it is a case of being humane and treating these athletes who have worked so hard with respect. I had never known how much of a problem homophobia is within the collegiate sports arena, it is truly shameful. They need to let these athletes be who the want to be, and focus on their athletic ability and not their sexual orientation.

Jenna Todd kin 338I.S6

Penn State Basketball

2011-11-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

After watching the film about Penn state basketball and coach Rene Portland, I wasn't shocked, but disappointed. I do not think I am ignorant to the different types of discrimination, but its not something I always think about.

There were so many issues I had with Rene Portland from her just not allowing Lesbians on the team, assuming people were lesbians, interrogating people, telling people who they could be around, but what was the most irritating was her and the school preventing these ladies from going other schools after she romeved them from the team or they were harassed into leaving. Either by tampering with medical documentations or just openly threatening them by saying they will not play anywhere else. This is just so dishonest and plain mean. You may have your views or moral values, but to purposely damage someones life is unacceptable. She is suppose to be a coach which is a role model to these young women and set good examples. When I played on teams I looked up to my coaches and put a lot of trust into them. If I had been treated like these girls I do not know how it would have affected me. I believe it would have discouraged me from doing what I love and I can imagine the pain I would have gone through. Instead of growing these youn woman she was more concerend about tearing them down.

Treating people with respect and common human decency can be a start. The old saying of do to others as you would want done to you really needs to be taken seriously. The "I'm better than you" or" my way is the only way" needs to be toned down. Working on ourselves to be the best people we can be will go farther than worrying about trivial stuff about others. Focus energy to things you can actually control.

Vanessa Humic
SEC 6
KIN 338i

What is it with PSU and their coaches?

2011-11-29T22:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are all very well informed with the current events centering PSU regarding Paterno and Sandusky. However this is not the only controversy to plague the shining name of Pennsylvania State University.

For 27 years, Rene Portland was the head coach for women's basketball at PSU, however it did not come out to public knowledge for a good portion of that time that she had such deep rooted anti-homosexuality opinions. After viewing the film, "Training Rules", it came to my attention the seriousness of her opinions as well as her actions. This woman was so intent upon keeping homosexuality out of her program, that she put so much fear and pressure into her team that it ruined lives. She purposely went out of her way to strip scholarships, and opportunities for young women to continue onward with their dreams of basketball stardom.

This brings up the question, how can you call yourself an educator when you are so keen on bringing harm to your students. Yes, in this case there were no physical damages but it does not degrade the affects of emotional abuse. Many of these young women were so afraid for their futures that they lived in fear hiding who they truly were. Although Portland is no longer a part of the PSU faculty, it will never take back her actions against so many young women.

These two scandals appearing in the media against PSU have shocked the nation, the scary part is that there are undoubtedly so many other unreported circumstances hindering the growth and development of the youth. It is unfortunate that such an established university such as PSU should be plagued with 2 coaching scandals in such a short amount of time, and many people must be wondering what is it with PSU and their immoral coaching staff?

Samantha Robert
Kin 338i-Section 6

On the shortlist...

2011-11-29T12:55:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article earlier today that related to BBC's sports personality of the year award. Apparently, UK women's sports is even more of an afterthought than it is here in the U.S.

The top 10 contenders for the award are ALL male. The author of the article (to which I will post a link) expresses that she is hardly surprised that these females were snubbed, given the country's attitude toward women's participation in sport.

Sure, we've learned that mass media in the U.S. pays more attention to male athletics. However, this makes me wonder - how is a woman's involvement in the sporting realm viewed in other countries? I find it so hard to believe that so many other countries would hold such a biased view on female athletes.

I wasn't a fan of women's sports before the class and I'm not afterwards, unfortunately the male dominated money makers are the front runners: this is no surprise to anyone. Although, from an athletic point of view, I respect, and encourage the progress and determination of these athletes. I know the body of work they put in, and they should be praised and admired for doing so. To snub them of any such recognition is immoral and unjust, regardless of the country or its beliefs.

These women, like their male counterparts, are in the gym 24/7. Not only sculpting their bodies into peak physical condition, but perfecting their game: whether it's at the free throw line, in the batting cage, or in the film room. How is it fair for a female athlete to win the gold medal at the Shanghai world championships, and not even be mentioned as one of the best performers of the year? Does the media realize how emotionally and morally degrading this is to an athlete?

This is someone's job; their profession. It's usually a childhood aspiration they've molded and worked on all of their lives. Respect the blood, sweat, and tears these athletes have sacrificed for their sport. We need to be able to give credit where it's due, regardless of sex, race, or religion.

Article Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/29/women-sports-personality-year-2011?newsfeed=true

Elliot Osrin
KIN338I (Sec. 6)

Big Running

2011-11-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

Before reading the sports journal article"Clydesdale Runners and Technologies of the Body" it had not come to my attention that there was a such thing as a Clydesdale running community. I was so intrigued with this community because I can relate to their experiences. Being a big individual, I just recently began running and know the mental strength it takes for a big individual not give up and keep at it. Weight division in marathon running is something that I was really thrilled about, it makes me want to join a marathon if there is weight division because it seems to make everything fair. Not all of runners meet the runners body criteria, runners come in all different shapes and sizes and having weight divisions would make marathon running a great experience for everyone.

Also, the article discussed how the Clydesdale running community supports and cheers for each other at the end of each marathon even after the main winners had already left. One important thing I learned from running is that a little support really goes a long way. After reading the article, I am seriously considering running the next Los Angeles Marathon. This article has inspired me and made me realize that there are big individuals, like me, out there do not give up in long distance running.

Jose T.
KIN 338I Sec 06 10771

Skewed Results?

2011-11-26T23:37:00.001-08:00

One thing I found to be very interesting during class lately had to do with the reading of Power and focus: self-representation of female college athletes by Vikki Krane, Sally R. Ross, Montana Miller, Julie L. Rowse, Kristy Ganoe, Jaclyn A. Andrzejczyk and Cathryn B. Lucas. This reading was study done on how college female athletes personally wanted to be represented in photographs, however “athletes were told, (1) the research team was developing a photo essay titled This is a Female Athlete, which would be shown to younger athletes in subsequent research and (2) during this photo shoot, you will have full control over how you will appear in the photographs, including the location, attire and poses for the photographs” (pg 7). If these athletes knew these photos would be shown specifically to younger athletes that immediately skews how they are going to dress and pose. I do not think that the athletes should have been told that these photos would be shown to anyone specifically. If the research team had said these photos would be shown to attractive, eligible college men would they have posed or dressed differently? Since these athletes went into these photo shoots knowing that their audience was a younger generation I do strongly believed that it changed the overall results of the study, and that more research should be done on how female athletes truly want to be shown in photographs.

Jennifer B
Kin 338i section 6

Rene Portland's Controverseal Rule

2011-11-26T10:52:00.001-08:00

For just under 30 years, Rene Portland was the head coach of the women's basketball team at Penn State University. She has brough the program much success with over 20 NCAA tourniment appearances, a Final Four appearance, multiple conference championships, and two conference tournament titles. She is among a short list of women basketball coaches to reach over 600 wins at one school, giving an overall record of 606-236 at Penn State. Although she was praised for making and keeping Penn State women's basketball a winning program, she was the centerpiece of a huge controversy.
She had only three rules for her players to abide by as she was head coach; no drinking, no drugs....and no lesbians. She forbid her players from associating with any lesbians even if they were straight women. As we saw in the film Training Rules, Jennifer Harris accused Rene Portland of kicking her off of the team because Rene believed her to be lesbian. Harris reported that her coach was threatening, intimidating, and hostile toward her just because of this assumption. Rene Portland was fined $10,000 along with other consequences, and was eventually forced to resign from her position at Penn State University. Aslo, in the film Training Rules, there were many other victims to Portland's demeaning attitute toward lesbians. There were a few other girls who suffered discrimination from Rene, or who were threated by her knowing that she had the power to kick them off the team, make transferring hard, and make playing anywhere else nearly impossible. Some girls were so afraid that they hid their sexual orientation and lied that they had boyfriends back home. I'm sure that there has been many other cases on the women's basketball team at Penn State under the reign of Rene Portland that have suffered this unfair behavior. One of the twins that we saw in the film state that Rene Portland stripped all of her love for the game away from her and that she had no desire to play anymore and she thanked Rene 100% for that. It just makes you wonder how many other girls she had threatened or discriminated against or even kicked off the team because of their sexual orientation. Jennifer Harris got kicked off the team because she was just accused of being a lesbian. Jennifer Harris is straight. How many other straight girls did Rene Portland kick off the team because she believed them to be lesbian, or because they were just simply associated with someone who was a lesbian? I appreciate Jennifer Harris being brave enough to stand up to Rene Portland and file a lawsuit. This new must have helped so many of her former victims when they heard the news. If I was one of them I would feel just. It is unreal that Rene Portland got away with doing this to so many girls, ruining their hopes and dreams just because of sexual orientation. And not knowing how many other girls hopes and dreams she sent down the drain makes it ten times worse when you think about the possibilities that may have happened.
Danielle Coffman
KIN 338i Section 06

2011-11-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article the other day about a girl from Saudi who won a bronze medal in the youth olympic games. It was a very interesting article because Saudi does not allow women to represent them in the Olympics, and they are one of only three nations that have still yet to send a woman to the olympics. This young woman went to the youth olympic games herself, and took her horse because she competed in a show jumping competition. She had to manage and pay for this by herself because the country of Saudi would not support her. She ended up getting the bronze medal which stirred up the liberals in Saudi who believe that women deserve more rights. Especially in places like Saudi where right now young women are not allowed to participate in any physical activity at all at public schools let alone play sports. I think this is terrible because I think physical activity is a very important and healthy aspect of life and I hope that people in Saudi can realize that and allow women some more freedoms. The article brought up banning Saudi's men from competing in the olympic games until they allow their women to compete. I think thats a very interesting proposal but I feel like that would stir up something that the IOC really doesn't want to deal with even though it may be the right thing to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/sports/18SAUDISPORTS.html?pagewanted=all

Casey Feickert

Kin 338I sect. 01

2011-11-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

The social media has shaped the Penn State scandal in so many ways with different color and shape. The media is the primary source, and it broads out the information to the rest of country. What we received from the media sources such as newspaper, magazine … was the information that what the writer or the maker wanted to send to us. That may be the truth or untruth. Child sexual abuse is such a serious disease in the society. Many people ignored or looked at it lightly just because they didn’t know the victim, or they didn’t know how to love the kids. For me, the scandal is such the dregs of society that needs to eliminate.

Phuong ly kin338 s1

Psu scandal

2011-11-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

The media has completely blown the scandal up. I believe that it needs to be blown up. Joe Paterno needs a reality check. He needs to know that it's not okay that the program took more president over the lives of the children that were ruined. Paterno should have said so Eggo fright away when it happened and he could have kept a good face for the program. He could have shown that he cared about the lives of the children and that he wanted to make things right so the program didn't have a bad name. They co coach had already retired by the time anyone knew about the scandal so the whole issue could have been resolved and mended before the media even knew about it. I think that paterno was mainly worried about looking bad to the public and I'm sure he was worried about the way His friend and colleague would look to the public, and I understand his concerns about the future and the success of the program, but he could have avoided the whole situation. I'm completely disgusted with the whole situation. I don't understand how anyone could sweep this issue under the rug for any reason. Paterno deserves what he got and deserves even more than that. I don't think he understands the repercussions of his actions, or non actions in this case. He should face those children along with his colleague. He is an amazing coach with great attributes and accomplishments, but his morals, values, and priorities were completely wrong.

Distance Learning PSU Sandusky Scandal

2011-11-17T23:47:00.000-08:00

Everytime I learn new information about the Sandusky case it somehow tops my previous 'shocking' reaction to the previous news. The information that continues to come up regarding the case becomes more and more shocking and disgusting at the same time. The people involved, the rioting Penn State students, Sandusky's attorney, just everything. When I heard the interviews of both Sandusky and his attorney I couldn't believe the answers to the questions they had. To me that way the interviews went seems like evidence enough to clearly show that Sandusky is guilty. The media presents the information to the public taking sides with the victims (thankfully) and in my opinion it would help when it comes to making sure the outcome is what it should be. I think It's really important for the victims to speak and for them to understand that it's okay for them to do so just to make sure justice is served. It would be really hard for the victims, but I think it would provide really evidence for the case. Kerrie brought it up in class about how the NCAA has not said anything of the issue which seems odd because they are a very important factor when it comes to power in college athletics. It seems as though the media are in control when it comes to power in this story, and for once they actually seem to be portraying the most morally correct viewpoint, which I think is odd for our society since the news always seems to drift off into topics that are not necessarily important. I hope since the media are the major focus that they continue to provide this viewpoint that Sandusky is guilty.

Nylene H. Kin 338I Sec 01

PSU Scandal

2011-11-17T23:44:00.000-08:00

I think that social media has somewhat shaped the PSU scandal to make it appear as if the whole school is bad and at fault. Realistically, you can’t even put the blame on the football team - none of the current football players had any idea this had happened. The only people who should be at fault are Sandusky and Paterno. I feel that McQuery should have gone straight to the police but he was a young adult in college at the time and it is understandable to me that he probably had an immense amount of pressure and threat from his peers to keep his mouth shut.

Power is a huge factor in any scandal and I definitely think it plays a role here. For starters there is the power that Joe Paterno has. He was able to keep this whole thing under wraps for so many years and I think it takes a very powerful person do do that. McQuery was under the impression that Paterno had enough power to do something about the situation, which is why he went to Paterno in the first place. Also, the media has the power to sway its readers/listeners/etc in certain directions.

This scandal is really just sickening to me. Not only did it happen in the first place, but it happened continuously after that and for many years. I can see where McQuery was coming from by going straight to Paterno with the idea in mind that Paterno, being the amazing head coach he is/was, would handle the situation. However, upon realizing that Paterno had not made assertive enough action, I think McQuery should have stepped up. Sandusky is at fault 100% and it sickens me even more that he acquired his victims through a non-profit organization that HE CREATED for underprivileged kids. While I understand that Paterno has been an amazing coach for so many years, I think the students (and all other protestors) need to take a step back and realize that they’re protesting for a man who openly and knowingly allowed one of his faculty members to sexually harass young children for a decade.

Chelsea Brown

KIN338I Section 06

penn state scandal

2011-11-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

Joe Paterno was a legendary college football coach who will never be forgotten during a conversation about the greatest coaches of all time. Over six decades with a single program is a phenomenal tenure at a nationally recognized program. The unveiling of the horrific story at PSU went through different focal point. First, the attention was on Paterno and his legacy then the transforms from a sport story into a news media frenzy when really the focus should right away be on the victims. Social media plays a factor in this because it gives everyone a voice to speak they want which was, at the time, the football program. Twitter especially has given people the ability to link their topic of interests and speak to one another about they chose. I found most people were honoring Paterno on his accomplishments but also criticized him for not taking the morally correct path outside the lines. Now in the most current of news there are more and more schools being allegedly caught molesting children as well. This situation gives us the ability to reconstruct on views on authorities and trust factors that we must think about when leaving our children with them.

chad schug KIN 338I Sec 06

PSU Scandal

2011-11-17T23:26:00.000-08:00

Social media, while it has brought more publicity to this scandal and helped shine it in the national spotlight, has now become a source for insecure comments and jokes. The embarrassing number of tweets I read that poked some sort of fun at this whole scandal is just sickening and sad. This scandal, through social media, has shown just how low American's can stoop.

The problem with power is that it corrupts, and the problem with absolute power is it corrupts absolutely. As evidenced yet again in this horrific instance, those who are given power are often those not fit to hold it. These individuals use this power to perpetuate their own well being with little regard for the rules. They consider themselves to be above the laws, history has shown this numerous times, and every time it is absolutely despicable. Media, in my mind, should exist solely to publicly oust those who choose to abuse their privilege.

In the framework of feminism this crime is covered up because, as Alyssa pointed out in her blog, sexual crimes perpetrated against males by other males are seen as weaknesses in a masculine culture. The scandal was covered up, not because of its horror, but because it would have shown weakness in the football team. The sport of football is extremely hyper-masculine and something of this magnitude would have, and now has, devastated the program.

Personally this scandal makes me ashamed to be part of a society that would cover something this horrid up. The fact that anything is seen as more important than the personal well being of these young boys is absolutely revolting. Jerry Sandusky deserves a whole lot more punishment than he will ever receive and Joe Paterno should be utterly ashamed of himself, and should count himself lucky that he has not received any legal ramifications at this point. The interview Bob Costas did with Sandusky was absolutely enjoyable from my point of view because Sandusky only tightened his own noose. I obviously hold a lot of rage on this topic and there isn't enough time or space to fully explain it here. For now I just hope that our twisted system gives everyone what they deserve.

Brandon Robison section 6

Penn State Scandal

2011-11-17T23:19:00.001-08:00

The penn state scandal has been all over the media for the last couple of weeks. It is hard not to know what happened with all the media coverage this story is receiving. The media plays a huge part in this scandal by bringing different points of views and perspectives. As we can see with this scandal, power was a big factor that contributed to covering up this story. Paterno knew what was going on with Sandusky and he decided not to say anything to the police. He did not want his legacy or Penn State's reputation to go down with this scandal so he decided to cover it up. This comes to show us that the people with power can get away with stuff that people without power cannot. This seems to occur a lot in our society and it doesn't seem like it is going to stop anytime soon. I just find it so wrong for people that have a lot of power like Paterno to abuse of their power even if it means hurting a child. Like I said earlier this happens a lot in our society and that is not correct. This is one of the worst scandals that I have ever heard of when it comes to collegiate sports. I just think it is so disgusting that nobody would even bother to report this to the police. They could've stop this type of act from occurring again if somebody just had the courage to speak up. It is sad to see Paterno's legacy finish off like this but he had the decision to report Sandusky but he didn't, and that will be the cause of his tainted legacy.

Daniel Barajas

KIN338i

Sec 06

Sodomy is now okay in society!

2011-11-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

Well at least apparently it had been at Penn State for the last decade or so with Sandusky.

Media has built up Joe Paterno as this magnificent angelic god in Pennsylvania. People around that area worship him so. It's probably a huge reason why nothing was ever reported about this huge scandal. People wanted to protect football and this giant legacy that Penn State and Paterno had just built. The people in power wanted to maintain that so they silenced anybody who tried to speak up or some chose to not speak up. This culture of power and respect for the football legend built up to the point where going against it was considered deviant. It was now acceptable to cover up for the football great, nobody what the cost was.

One could look at this entire scandal from the view of the Functionalist perspective. Everything that has happened over there in Pennsylvania just happens to uphold all of what society values. We value football. We value sports. We value legends. We value entertainment, money, and power. We value children. Maybe not so much on that last one. The scandal just shows us that many people value such things much more than they do the safety of children. Scary thought.

I'm really shocked that people are actually holding a vigil at Paterno's house as if he was some kind of martyr. He put his own legacy over the children. These children will be permanently hurt psychologically and traumatized forever. Yet people worry more about their football season then they do about the lack of Paterno's actions to protect the children. I look at this scandal and I'm like, "Wow, we really do value sports more than children." Then those crazy fans just feed into that scary thought.

Paterno and all those involved need spend some time in jail for what they have done or haven't done. They had moral obligations but they let petty things come before the safety of children. Speaks so much about the world we live in...

Bryant Pham

Kin 338i TuTh930

Penn State in the Media

2011-11-17T22:57:00.000-08:00

I think that social media has shaped the PSU scandal by putting the coaches in the spotlight instead of focusing on the victims and seeking justice on their part. Many students at Penn State were outraged at the way that Paterno was fired, but social media was greatly responsible for the outing of this information.
We see that McQueary, though he took the right steps according to school policy, is considered to not have done enough as witness. So though the acts were reported to Joe Paterno, the people with more power above him decided to use their power to put a stop to the reporting as to save face.
I believe through feminism we can greater understand the cover up that has happened. Men are greatly emasculated if they are thought to have be victim of a sexual crime. Sexual crimes are vastly though of as something that happens to women. It is a crime of power and dominance of of sexual satisfaction. So I think that the cover up can be related back to the power of masculinity.
Though, I agree that McQueary could have done more than just tell Joe Paterno what he saw, I understand that he was in a difficult situation that not many people can imagine being in. As people we want to believe that we will react in the best and most responsible way possible, but this cannot always be the case. I think McQueary acted under what he thought was the right choice at the time. He told his superior, so there was an element of power but also perhaps fear and confusion in what he had witnessed.
While it is a terrible thing that has happened I think that the whole Penn State situation can serve as a benchmark case as sorts. Now I think victims of similar crimes will feel empowered to speak out upon what has happened to them. I would like to think this will create some healing for not only those victims of the Penn State scandal but also for those struggling in similar situations.
Alyssa P.
338I-6

PSU

2011-11-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

Social media has shaped the PSU scandal to focus more on the reactions of those around as opposed to what is actually happening. It feels that there is more emotions involved in the firing of Joe Paterno than there was regarding the raping of the children themselves. The media has shifted its focus from the case itself to everything surrounding the case.

Penn State had the power to cover up the deviant behavior from the media. They intersect at the point where those with power are able to make the media turn a blind eye to their wrong doings. As long as they have so much power they are able to turn the media away.

The crime was committed because of a flaw in the system. This whole situation was able to get out of hand because of the power that the school has. If it weren't for this idea that the football coaches are invincible and untouchable the number of rapes would have stopped at one. The continued deviance was supported by the organization. The college was able to cover up the scandal and thus allow it to continue to fester. It is not the fault of the person for being corrupted but rather the whole system that allows behavior like this to exist without cracking down on it.

My reaction is one of disgust. The whole situation sucks. Everything from those involved to the reaction of those closest to the situation. Sandusky deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life were he won't be with children and the only raping that will be going on is most likely not going to be in his favor. Paterno ruined his reputation by allowing something like this to go unattended to, if it weren't for his sterling record I'm sure that he would be either pursued by the courts or ran out of town as he deserves to be. Penn State managed to not only screw up in allowing this to happen and actually helping facilitate further actions by giving him access to everything he needed to continue but then it also failed to save its reputation due mainly to its student population. I understand it is not all the students who are making asses out of themselves but the loud majority have managed to ruin it. Any chance of Penn State salvaging their reputation for the foreseeable future has been lost. The fact that the main concern and focus point for much coverage surrounds Joe Paterno is an abhorrent. Right now there are victims who are dealing with very real concerns that will last for the rest of their lives and yet we are talking about football and what's going to happen to Paterno. Its ridiculous how out of touch with reality these people are. Society in general is just messed up if this is allowed to happen and when it is brought into light we are still able to argue about it. There should not be two sides to this debate, there is clearly obvious evidence that cannot be denied that Sandusky raped children (not fooled around as he claims). It was rape simple as that and yet people are still outraged at the fallout that occurred. All in all I'm just sick of hearing about it, I'm fed up with the whining and arguing, and lastly I'm pissed off that this has to get so out of hand it is even invading into my classes at school. It should have been swiftly dealt with or better yet prevented. Its a bleak day indeed when football is able to overshadow the real life concern of rape involving children. There are more important things going on like Occupy Wall Street and the continually increasing tuition that should be the main concern and talk of college students. Change should be coming from other places that can be built upon. Yet here we are, discussing something that never should have been able to happen distracting us from more important matters. I have absolutely nothing more to say about this topic.

Ryan Plunkett Kin 338/332

News Travels Fast

2011-11-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

Social media has played a huge roll in the recent Penn State scandal. In today's society, news can travel fast. The Penn State gossip has been a trending on many of the social media sites, as well as other news publication journals. The general public can become easily informed on how this shocking story unfolds.

For years, Penn State has been highly upheld in the college football realm. Some say, former coach Joe Paterno was the reason Penn State had done so well in the past. Until recently, Joe Paterno was the ideal football coach who could win games and bring in a huge revenue for the school. He had built Penn State into a powerhouse for football and money. If anyone challenged his power, like in the sex scandal, they were often no match for what Paterno had become. What most don't realize, is that there is a strict hierarchy of class and ranking within the system. No one dare to challenge Joe Paterno or the Penn State football. When the media broke with sex scandal allegations, many were shocked.

When the sex scandal incident occurred, Paterno knew. However, he also knew that this would certainly bring down Penn State football, so he was quick to cover it up. For him, it was not about morals, but about making more money. Sure he probably felt bad that a child had been raped, but why would that stop him from being the best?

Joe Paterno knew about Sandusky's filthy actions, yet never took control of the situation. As a head coach, I feel he was obligated to step in and take action against Sandusky from the very beginning. The fact is, a child was sexually assaulted and NO ONE stepped in to help. It makes me sad, angry, and disgusted that our society cares more about money than the well being of another human.

Your friendly neighborhood classmate,

Michelle E. Perez

Kin338i

Sec 06

Penn State Scandal

2011-11-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the social media coverage, it has helped shaped the Penn State scandal in a positive way by allowing information to be more accessible. The continuous coverage has allowed more information to be brought to the public. With a large number of people voicing their views through social networks about the scandal, it has shown the nation what a horrible crime took place, even after there was a possibility to put an end to it. Power, media and deviance intersected by allowing Sandusky not to be brought to law until now. Being such a huge icon in Penn State School, Sandusky was able to for the most part be bigger than the law. When news was brought to the University President, instead of going straight to the police, he instead choose have a conversation with him and tell him to stop it. The crimes that were made committed by Sandusky were inhumane and there is no way of making any senses of them other than they should have never been committed. The covering up of these crimes in my view took place because many saw Sandusky as this football god so therefore he couldn’t have actually committed those crimes. My personal reaction to this whole situation was a difficult one at first because I at first felt that Joe Paterno was fired as just as a form of a scapegoat to take pressure of the school. In my view i felt that was unfair to just basically throw him under the bus after all he has done to the school, from donating money to help building Penn State to a football powerhouse. The more I thought about it, the more I began to see that firing Joe Paterno was the correct move to do because even though he came forward and told the President of the school about what had happen; he did not come forward and told the police. By not coming forward, he allowed Sandusky to be free and continue taking advantage of those boys. Even though he did the right thing, he could have done more and put a stop to those evil crimes that Sandusky was committing. Even, though i still believed that the school should had allowed him to coach that last home game, I agree with them firing Joe Paterno and as for Sandusky, i hope he pays the prices for his crimes.

Luis Carlos
kin 338

PaterNO Scandal

2011-11-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

With the social media covering this scandal, I think of it as a positive thing because it has opened up and given people the details that might have not been told otherwise. Social networking such as twitter and facebook has allowed people to voice their opinions and many people are getting involved with this issue and searching deeper for details that television might not show. I think that any student nor human being trying to cover Paterno's ass is crazy. Paterno may have not been the "dealer" but he was the middle man and if that were my brother I would be livid that there is even a chance this man might be "let go". The whole situation is wrong and reports are now saying Paterno told the truth... it's not the truth. If someone could have just stopped this ten years ago by a phone call or just telling Sandusky to stop when they witnessed something instead of running home and keeping their mouth shut. This is all just really mind boggling to me and it makes me sick to my stomach. Penn State might be really up their with sports status especially in football but it is wrong for people to back Paterno up.

C.Elliot 338IKin.

PSU Scandal...

2011-11-17T22:18:00.003-08:00

The social media in today's society has a great impact in all the news that is happening. One of the main news they are focusing today, would have to he the PSU scandal. Even though I am not a great sport's fan I have been following this scandal because I was really surprise in the way media and fans got involved in it. According to an article I read, the whole reason why people found out about what Sandusky was doing to the children was due to an Internet post somebody put up. With this said, you can just see how powerful the media had on this scandal. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/sports/ncaafootball/internet-posting-helped-sandusky-investigators.html?pagewanted=all?src=tp)
When I first heard about this scandal, I thought to myself “ Damn I can’t believe the people that knew about this couldn’t just pick up a phone, call the police, and report this situation. By just that one phone call, it could have helped many victims stop getting abuse. They had many eye witnesses and some police reports, but still, nothing!! The media had come across the fact that people never did anything because they wanted to protect the name and reputation of Penn State. It is sad to say that people cared more about PSU reputation than saving some young boys' lives. What kind of society are we living in?

Alicia Mercado
KIN 338I Section 1

Distance Learning Assignment - Penn State

2011-11-17T22:18:00.001-08:00

The newsabout the Penn State scandal has spread quickly with new information beingbrought to attention on what seems like a daily basis. The media latches ontoupdates about interviews, victims, public appearances and anything else theycan get their hands on to expose the latest to the public. This was one of themajor themes that I noticed in that people only see the side of the story thatis being shown to them. The power that the media has pushes info at it’saudience, eventually leading to the public only seeing Penn State as thescandal school. One of my RT mentioned that the football team was beingquestioned about being invited to bowl games, which is amazing to me, becausethey have absolutely nothing to do with the commotion. How does punishingpeople who don’t have a part in the circumstances make any sense?! It doesn’t,but the media manipulates what people see, regardless of what their opinionsmay have been prior to hearing it on the news.

Socialmedia sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. have allowed people to communicateand network with others around the world. Recently, they have been used tovoice people’s opinion about this hot topic. They offer a place for the publicto view different sides of the situation, that they might not have thoughtabout, from different types of people. Californians may view the situation andits characters as appalling and horrific, while students of Penn State supportand riot for Paterno’s return. From a sociocultural perspective, our culture viewsthe behaviors of the scandal illegal, dishonest and prohibited. The Americanpeople grow up understanding the norms of society and morals are a base to everything.For Sandusky, Paterno and anyone else who was aware of the abuse that washappening, they covered up the story because they couldn’t admit to beingmorally wrong in such a public and popular position. In another RT, I noticed atheme that people are concluding to that was nicely said by a Penn Statealumnus, John Amaechi; you “can’t be a part time man of principle” which standstrue for both sports and life and something everyone can live by.

Lastly, the third theme that Ibecame aware of, not only my RTs, but in all the relative posts, was that lifeis more important than sports. The question that I always seem to ask myselfwhen I watch the news, is “What were you thinking about in that very moment? Ofcourse, you were probably thinking, I want the money out of that cash register,I want to get high or drunk. But did you subconsciously think about what youwere doing?” If the allegations are true, in the moment Sandusky was abusing aboy, did he think what he was doing constituted him as a good person? Becauselet’s face it, no one seeks to live their life as the worst person they can be.The only reason why this story is as big as it is, is simply because of PennState’s status as a great football team with the best coach. The more importantaspect to look at is that children’s lives were exploited. A football team cangain back the prestige they lost, but a mother can’t recover the child shelost.

~Chelsea Oshimo, KIN 338I - Sec. 1

Tragedy?

2011-11-17T22:10:00.000-08:00

Many people have a lot to say about the subject of Joe Paterno and Penn State. Most of it is negative. The first tweet that I saw was calling what happened a Tragedy. I do not know exactly what to call this situation, but I do not know if I would call it a tragedy. The early days there were various views of the scandal. Media has greatly amplified these views. Media will take advantage of anything, and it has the power to make things worse or make them better. From what I see they are making things worse.
It could be media that is the underlying cause of these cover ups. Mass media has built up Joe Paterno and Penn State's reputation, and I believe the institution would hate for all that to be ripped apart. It could be that the fear of having this school in a negative light is what drove the idea of covering up the situation. This in no way is acceptable. Where are the moral values? Where is the responsibility? What upsets me the most about this is that Joe Paterno and all these other people knew "something" (can't be said exactly what) was wrong and he just passed on the responsibility of dealing with it. It is obvious to me that he was fully aware of the situation. But what upsets me even more is the media. i read more that 50 tweets in the last 24 hours about this, some poked fun at the subject (which is wrong), and some said that it was completely right for Joe Paterno to get fired. But out of all the tweets not ONE said anything about the victims that were, and potentially hurt because no one spoke up. The media is talking about the "Tragedy" of losing an iconic coach because of a "stupid mistake" but the truth is that this [the true tragedy] is a scandal and media needs to focus more on the moral mistakes and the victims.

N.A. Coleman

Distance Learning Assignment 2

2011-11-17T22:04:00.001-08:00

social media has shaped the penn state scandal in the way that it has provided a forum for people aorund the country and the globe to express their opinons and knowledge about the situation. ofcourse there are opposite views about the subject and so social media allows for a discussion amongst the educated, the not-so-educated, and the uninformed.

as one person tweeted " absolute power corrupts absolutely" in other words, when certain organizations are allowed unmonitored power, things happen that boggle the minds of the general public. ofcourse often the media can help monitor and put a limit on the things that these people can get away with, but moreoften than none, the most horrendous crimes go unnoticed. it is not uncommon to find that when prestige and public pride are the most important aims of a group the regards of the dignity and worthiness of others- defenseless- are disregarded, and the crimes against them go impune.

the only way this situation could be explained is by understanding that interests of power and corruption often coexist and the agendas of these powerful people lead them to dismiss serious crimes in order to protect their interests and reputations. a similar situation can be observed within the cases of child molestation within the catholic church; prominent religious leaders felt that alerting the public of this abuse would create a scandal that was not necessary and would lead to a loss of followers.

i personally feel that this situation is sad, yet it reminds us that we should not put our trust in establishments or individuals to the point of idolizing them and following them blindly. corruption is rampant within the sports world and we the genral public often make it easier for these enviroments to grow into sespools of greed, crime, and hypocrisy.

Kevin C KIN 338I Sec 06

Penn State Making Headlines

2011-11-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to social media, the Penn State scandal has been the dominating topic of discussion and debate. The media I've mainly heard this story through are twitter and news on television, and even though the attention seems to be more on the people involved rather than the act committed, at least the media has helped bring out an important issue. Unfortunately the issue should have been revealed a long time ago but better late than never. I feel that the media can intersect with about almost anything, but when it comes to people with power, especially involved with some deviant act, the media will cover it as soon as possible. The media can influence the way people think about the situation as well since they decide what to show from the information they retrieved.

Personally I think it's sad that the people who knew about the issue for so long didn't try harder to stop it. Is your own reputation more important than a child's life? I feel like the issue of child sexual abuse is getting more attention but only because of the big powerful names of Penn State, Paterno and Sandusky, which is sad. If it were some random guy doing this and it ended up on the news, the air time of the story would probably be a couple days but this story has been going on for so long and will continue to be. Why do we have to wait for some big shot name to be involved with this kind of scandal before we start to get more involved with organizations that help victims of this issue? And it's sad that people are turning this situation into a sort of joke, like #sandusky is now used as a verb. "why you gotta Sandusky the kid?"

Child sexual abuse is such a serious and sensitive issue and shouldn't be something looked at so lightly. Though Penn State, Paterno and Sandusky are getting lots of attention, I hope this case really helps people think more about life, their morals, and learning from other peoples' mistakes.

Jan Redondo

KIN 338I - Section 1

Distance Learning Penn State Scandal

2011-11-17T21:58:00.001-08:00

Twitter is almost information overload. You get a lot of good articles and peoples opinions, but there is a lot of crap on there too. I think some of the jokes are not really appropriate. Although with all the social networks there is no reason for people to be uninformed. You cannot sweep stuff under the rug.

Everything is being blown up now, but it seems like there was very little information about this when things were starting to be uncovered. The money and power surrounding Penn State football was a big part of this, but the ability to get information out to the public has increased.

Unfortunately with issues of rape there is a group of people that want to blame or accuse the victims. I think many women will not come forward because they are scarred to be criticized or given part of the blame or even not believed. These young boys may have felt the same way or even there families. They may have been scared and ashamed just as many women are left feeling. I see many people disgusted and so mad at the accused, but it takes a huge blow up like this.

I think many people involved need to start taking some personal responsibility. Mcqueary has all these different scenarios on what happened. Joe Paterno is acting like he doesn't remember and knows nothing. The football became more important than the well being of people. Maybe we all need to take a step back and figure out what is really important in our lives and the people we care about.

Vanessa Humic
KIN 338I
Sec 06

Someone Plays Ostrich Man

2011-11-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

Second Mile charity was founded by Jerry Sandusky to help troubled youths. However, Second Mile is the place where many young boys were raped, so I have doubt about what the boys are being trained at this place. the young victims were violated in a serious way for a long time. The crimes were covered up by someone until the wake of the sex abuse scandal. Based on the information the court found that total to eight victims, they were abused at young ages. In this child abuse scandal, there are some people who witnessed what happened, but they were trying to hide. For example, head coach Joe Paterno saw Sandusky in the locker room performing anal sex on a young boy, and the Athletic Director Tim Curley has been seen old demon - Sandusky doing a sexual nature to a young boy. The investigation will expose more about their lies. They are the worst in college football history because what they did are very despicable. Besides, there are heroes like Mike McQueary and Jim Calhoun because they reported what they saw to expose the crimes of those in positions of power. How sad and wrong what happened at Penn State is! And how right cheeky Sandusky was!. Without feeling remorse, Sandusky maintained that he was innocent of charge when he was interviewed. Now, I’m worried about Sandusky’s adopted children. I hope that they have not been raped by his evil father.
--
Phuc Le
KIN 338I Sec. 01

Penn State's problem

2011-11-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

In the way such subjects are sensitive, the problem that Sandusky faces is sensitive as well as serious. A case such as this would be taken to a level of complete secrecy to attempt to keep the image of the children from taking a toll. But with such celebrity offenders media was bound to step in. As the problem came about, the media gave it a full cover that rose to a magnitude where a whole community of students rioted the streets. The media has given the case a profile rival the case of Michael Jackson.
In a case such as this one power, media, and deviance have all intersected in a focal point of chaos. On one hand we have the power that Paterno had created over the perception and attitudes of the Penn State community. Second the influence that media has created over the public. A lot of people have such a weak view and opinion, that they allow them selves to believe anything told to them by any form of media. Third we see the side of deviance. Where a man was accused of a criminal act towards minors. With the story connecting to the disappearance of a prosecuting attorney back in the late 1990's. Such mix of cases add to a result of great chaos.

In a case involving defendants such as Sandusky and Paterno, media and gender are part of the reason for the cover up. On the side of gender, it is the view of men, as strong emotionless subjects could provide the reason for the way the case developed. It could have been that Joe Paterno saw the fault in his assistant coach, and expected that a simple verbal warning would bring a man to his senses. On the other side of media, the creation of such a legacy by Paterno, many would not believe that such problems would ever rise up, let alone happen in such a structured program. One must see all the sides of the case in order to come to a conclusion of how it all transpired through out the years that Sandusky commmirted the actions he is accused of.

I personally believe that Sandusly needs to be taken to a trial to be punished for what he did to all the children that were victims to his actions. It is within the law that men must find the answers to deal with such problems. Along with Sandusky, Paterno and the rest of the staff from the university need to be held accountable for their neglect to take action. In the correct actions would have been taken in a timely manner, many children could have been save, and Sandusky's problem could have been treated

Cesar Vazquez
Kin 338 Sec 1

How Can Our Priorities Be So Mixed Up?

2011-11-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

This twitter assignment opened my eyes to the entire Penn State Scandal. Hearing about it and actually seeing other peoples responses is completely different. Most of the responses, or tweets, I found criticized the protesters at Penn State. I believe that the media has shaped the entire scandal into a scandal that is more about what is going to happen to the football team rather than what is going to happen to the victims of the entire ordeal. Our culture idolizes sport and sport legends and nobody seems to want to acknowledge this. It is completely obvious that our priorities are completely mixed up, especially with this scandal.

Joe Paterno obviously held a lot of respect and power within his community, however some people still hold him up with high regard instead of recognizing that his silence had a huge negative impact within this case; silence can be and was completely detrimental in a case such as this and a lot of people refuse to recognize this. The media reflects this idea that power is the most important aspect even if it overshadows justice. Because people idolize those in power, especially in sports, faults and injustices are often overlooked and swept under the rug because again our priorities are off. The entire cover-up most likely happened because those in control weighed the downfall of a legendary football coach against the lives of innocent young children and decided that football was more important and quite honestly, it’s disgusting. Personally, I was glad to see that so many people were criticizing the Penn State students for rioting, it gives us hope for humanity. How can these people justify Joe Paterno’s actions? How can people look at him and say that his silence wasn’t extremely damaging in this case? People hold sports heroes up and its sad the lengths they will go to in order to prevent those heroes from falling.

-Erin Osborne

KIN 338I

T/Th 2-3:15

Penn State.....

2011-11-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

Social media has shaped this case into simply, what it is. It has not falsely portrayed the story in any way. It is a disgusting and revolting story period. The media has definitely made it a huge deal, which it should. Now with the syracuse story coming to light as well, this penn state story has probably started a revolution in the questioning of coaches. Certain people achieve a level of power, and feel that they can get away with anything, and this shouldn't be the case; especially at the expense of children. Hopefully the media coverage of these events will help people come to resolution to end this problem.

As I mentioned above, these coaches get in a position of power where they feel that they have so much authority that they can do anything they want. The combination of deviance, media, and power is a deadly one. Something goes wrong, gets found out, and that is forever your reputation. No matter what follows, you are know (or the program is known) as the child molestation scandal. That is not a tag that leaves you.

I think that if we look at this scandal through a feminist framework, than we can say that the coaches at Penn State covered up this issue in fear of losing power. Power above other sports teams, other coaches, and other staff. They have pull at the school, being in charge of what was a successful program, that they had somewhat of a monopoly. They feared that they would lose that power if word got out.

My overall feeling about this whole scandal is simply disgust. I am astonished that the defensive coordinator would do this. I am astonished that the head coach wouldn't go to the police. I am astonished that the president of the school didn't get this issue resolved. I am astonished that the defensive coordinator was still allowed to hold his children's camp once this information was brought to light. I am astonished at the lack of common sense in some people. People need to understand what it means to have power, and be a role model to others. That power needs to be wielded with the knowledge that people are always looking up to you. However, Penn State obviously didn't grasp that concept.

Austin Flynn (tu/th, 2:30-3:15)

Joe #Paterno's Scandal

2011-11-17T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Joe Paterno scandal at Penn State has had an enormous amount of media coverage and exposure. The way these events have been told to us through social medias, such as Facebook and Twitter, has greatly influenced the way we look and view the situation.

Social media has created a sort of divide between two rather distinct groups of individuals. Ones who feel that Paterno deserved his punishment for the cover-up, while the other group is angry at the allegations, but somewhat sympathetic towards Paterno and feel he is not to blame. These two groups of people have shaped the events to seem serious, but that there may be a reason to forgive Paterno.

Those who feel Paterno is equally as guilty as Sandusky feel that the punishments issued were not enough. This could be due to many reasons, but the main focus should be on issues of power, media, and deviance. When these three issues are combined quite often there is usually one group who does not get what they want. Paterno’s sterling reputation, roots at Penn State, and lack of direct involvement in the issue at hand forms a type of protective layer around Paterno leading to many of his fans being sympathetic and in support of keeping a coach like Paterno.

Through a feminist lens, we can see a different responsibility for the cover-up. Perhaps the fear of losing the power or dominance that Paterno and Sandusky had as coaches led them to agree on a cover-up story and never speaking of it. Their dominant presence at the school led the staff to support them as well.

As far as personal reactions to the scandal at hand I have a rather strong feeling. Any individual involved with sexual abuse of children, whether they were the perpetrator themselves, or had any knowledge of the event and not reporting it to any law enforcement, should be subject to the furthest extent of punishment by any law or establishment responsible punishing body. The events at Penn State were horrendous and should become a precedent for future similar scandals.

J. Petorella

KIN 338i SEC.6

Penn State Scandal

2011-11-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

The media has played a big role in the penn state scandal. There has been countless stories coming up that are related to this scandal. Many people have different perspectives due to how the media has expressed this story. It is pretty clear that power is a big factor when it comes to this scandal. Since Paterno knew what had happened with Sandusky would become a huge story and that it might have affected him and the program, he decided not to say anything to the authorities. It is evident that money and power had to a lot with Paterno's decision not to notify the authorities of what was going on.

I believe that it is totally disgusting what happened with this whole scandal and how it was handled. If Paterno knew that this was occurring he should have told the police. I just find it crazy that nobody had the courage to report Sandusky to the authorities. Its just crazy how long this scandal was covered up and how long it took for somebody to step up and say something. It comes to show us how things are ran in this country. The people with power could get away with covering a story only because they have the money and the power. It is just sad how many people's lives were destroyed because nobody had the courage to report this vicious crime when it first was observed. It only would have taken ONE person to make a difference. Only if one person would have told the authorities what was going on many people would be living different lives right now. It is just disgusting how all of this occurred and in a place where many people should feel safe which is a public institution.

Hector Barajas KIN 338I Sec 06

Distance Learning: Joe Paterno

2011-11-17T18:15:00.000-08:00

Social media today has a huge power to affect every people. By clicking or posting, million or billion people know exactly what you are thinking, what you are doing. Besides that, it also helps us update some information from my friends or even from a person who we don’t know anything about. For example, if we type “Penn State scandal” or “Joe Paterno” on Google or Twitter, we would see hundred of article and thousand of status about it. By reading those articles, I recognize that we have 2 different thinking about Joe Paternom , the legendary coach at Penn State, after he was fired . First, a lot people are angry about what he was doing. He knew his assistant coach allegedly raping young boys, yet he was acting like he didn’t know anything or making it look like he still really didn’t care. However, when his legendary was going to be affected, he started to talk about it. That makes people angrier. Second, some people, especially his fans, think that he didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Coach Paterno has been more than a football coach, especially to the Penn State community. He has been involved with numerous charities and fundraises that have gone to improving Penn State. After being elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, Coach Paterno has permanently left his mark on college football and Penn State University. For my opinion, although I admired what Coach Joe Paterno had done, I still can’t stand what he was doing when he knew his assistant coach rape over 40 young boys.

We have so many ways to handing the media scandal such as be upfront, say it straight, involve the team, and turn a negative into a positive. However, I think “say it straight” will be a best way to react to the scandal because it keep my internal and external communications simple, direct and frequent so that everyone is kept informed of my progress.

Duy Phan

Kin 338I Sec 01

People are disgusting.

2011-11-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

Ill start off by saying that I did not know anything about Penn State, Sandusky, Paterno, or even about their football team before this whole scandal. Social media has definitely played a huge part in this because not only did it inform the world, but it definitely spread the word about the case so quickly. The media has also shaped the scandal because they are not only putting the coaches in the limelight, but the schools reputation keeps getting lower and lower. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing though. The media is getting this information out that has been hidden for so long. The idea of going to a school who cares more about their reputation than doing the right thing disgusts me, especially in this situation.

Power, media, and deviance all intersect because these coaches are given this power. They are obviously abusing this power and it needs to be stopped. These coaches are supposed to be role models, they are part of a team and help guide these students to follow this path to doing things right. How are they supposed to live a good life if they are being taught by people who commit crimes? This is where deviance comes in. Sandusky is supposed to be this role model. You see coaches as a sort of guardian of the team, yet in Sandusky's case he is a deviant. He should not be able to have the power, he obviously is misusing it and doesn't deserve it. The media intersects with this as well because he is now being shown as the person he really is.

I just think that it is ridiculous that they tried covering up the situation. What kind of person who is supposed to help kids just let people do those horrible things to them? How would anyone let anyone do those things to children? I don't care if he is some football coach for some team I really don't even care about! I feel that not only Sandusky, but all of the other people involved in this scandal and cover up should get locked up too! I just think that this is all disgusting and I think that Penn state should be ashamed of themselves, along with all of the people involved in this.

Desiree Hernandez

KIN 338I Sec 06

Distance learning assignment

2011-11-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

the media has shaped the PSU scandal by amplifying the issue and making it a great concern. the media has controlled what the general public will take in and has shaped the way our minds would percieve it which would be as the most horrible scandal in the world. the media has much power over how the story would be portayed for the public. it is a good that the media is not trying to defend Paterno or Sandusky or their actions. The media is airing the entire story in order to inform the general public of all that has taken place. From this situation and everything that has happen in the last 15 yrs shows how issues of power, media and deviance intersect. The aurthorities at Penn State had the power to go to the proper authorities in order cease what was taking place but instead they wanted to keep all the "good" media they were receiving to hide the deviant behavior that was happening all along. being that those in postions of power knew about the scandal and said nothing this is their way of covering it up, by waiting almost 2 decades to reveal what was happening; after all the good that PSU was being televised for. The media is now using their power to exposed the authorities their in order to allow the public to question the morals and ethics at PSU. My personal reaction to the scandal was that, for one, sandusky is sick and Paterno does not have morals. Its sad that the victims had to suffer and go through what they went through with these 2 men, but i also wonder ahy didnt any of the victims speak up sooner in order to save someone else from becoming victimized. It is shameful that Sandusky does not find any wrong in his actions and i hope that justice is served to all.

J. Nettles

Kin 338I Sec 01

DISTANCE LEARNING ASSIGNMENT: SCAN-DAL-SKY

2011-11-17T17:40:00.001-08:00

Let me just start off this entry by mentioning that the accused are innocent until proven guilty. But, until then, I will express my views on the situation as I see fit…

Now, we all know the immense power the media has on pop culture. The way we dress, our hairstyles, what we eat, the teams we root for, etc. Looking back at the glorified football history of Penn State, it’s tough to imagine a situation like this ever occurring. After all, Joe Paterno consistently preached doing things the “right way.”

There’s no doubt Joe Paterno knew what was going on. That’s obvious. I’m of the belief that whatever you do in darkness will eventually come out to light, and unfortunately for the great coach, not having the faith in his program or himself to get the situation taken care of, eventually backfired, and tarnished his legacy.

Take a look at Paterno’s reputation and coaching record at the time of the alleged 1998 incident. The Nittany Lions went 9-3, and ranked #15, and #17 respectively. If you knew something wrong was happening, why didn’t you act and replace Sandusky? After all, there are countless numbers of better suited coaches looking for Defensive coordinator positions. Sandusky’s defense allowed a total of 183 points that year. Not bad for a 9-3 football team. But was it really worth hanging onto him?

On another note, I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Trust me, no collegiate football program has garnished more scrutiny than the Miami Hurricanes. Earlier this summer, the NCAA and the media were shooting down the Canes football program and even petitioned for the death penalty after accusations that the players had been given “illegal benefits.” This strikes a very personal chord in me. I bleed orange and green, why would the media salivate over the opportunity to destroy the Hurricanes? Is it jealousy? Maybe because it’s 80 degrees in Miami right now, and 40 with snow in Bristol, Connecticut? (ESPN Headquarters).

Whatever the reason, I don’t see ANYONE in the media petitioning for the Penn State program to be cut. I’m not saying it should be, I’m saying I’d rather be considered a “thug” in the eyes of the media than an ass-hungry child molester. Why is it that ESPN acted like it’s the end of the world when these athletes were paid, mind you most come from poverty stricken neighborhoods in South Florida and can’t even afford to get their families to a game. Tell me how that is a bigger problem than ABUSING innocent CHILDREN using YOUR OWN ATHLETIC FACILITIES?

The media wants us to feel sorry for Paterno. But, I ask you, if Paterno didn’t have the accolades he did at PSU, would you really care? NO. You wouldn’t. He would be considered an old, lying, coward. Granted, we don’t know all the facts. But, society isn’t stupid. The media, and pop culture can only do so much to steer our opinions in a certain direction. Paterno used his immense power in the typical fashion of a dictator. Cover up as much as you can, and maintain a calm exterior: the show goes on. But who knows? Maybe Joe Pa was in the wrong place at the wrong time…but I doubt it. It’s clear that this was an act of greed.

No one wanted to take the blame, no one wanted to lose commitments, jobs, or their reputations. At the end of the day, what you preach in football wasn’t followed by this joke of a staff. I think the situation is disgusting, I think it’s a shame for Penn State and Paterno, BUT, if he truly did know what was going on, I don’t have any remorse for him. He, and the rest of that athletic staff are criminals.

What’s going to happen to Penn State? I think the program needs a complete overall, head to toe. No one’s job should be safe, whether they’ve been with the program for 30 years, or 30 days. I call for newly appointed A.D. David Joyner to change your image, evolve, transcend the boundaries of the media, and become great again. Let’s start paying attention to the HUMAN element of what goes on in our athletic programs, and stop worrying about idiocy like players being paid, or selling memorabilia. After all, football is a game that makes men out of boys. They shouldn’t remember their athletic experiences in shame and disarray.

Elliot Osrin
KIN 338I Sec 06

Learning Assignment

2011-11-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

the media has become a huge cause why? the PSU scandel has spread. Accourding to the scandel on Jerry Sandusky, it has been spreading through social networking services with the help of Twitter, Facebook, Television, Magazines and very more sources of the Medias. Without, this entier media people would not be acquainted with this scandel. I feel that when people post up private opinions about the scandel, it informs other people to build up ideas, and network with each other and bring more conversation about the issue. Media being occupy is a good thing, for it invovles younger spectators to understand the situation and learn that some people can take advantage of them.
Power, media, and deviance all interspect in many ways. According to the public being inoperative, information becomes a peroblem. I feel that the authority that Joe Pateron and the few people at Penn State that knew about Sandusky try to keep the scandel as a secrete, where I feel that if Joe Pateron was so scare of losing his control, but if he was to speek up this harmful scandal would have been stopped. He having control tends to hide deviance from the media, but according to this case the media empower to discover about the humiliation.
This scandel in my opinion is an ethical issue, if Iwere to Witness such a horrible thing happening I would admittedly speak up. Covering for someone you know that has prevented such an awful thing just to protect yourself is such a shame. This was exactly what Joe Paterno and others at Penn State where doing instead of making a phone call and protect these athletic children. Many years children have been abuse and they did nothing to protect these children. I believe that Joe Pateton and others deserved to be fired and their legacies ruined beacuse they were pretending that nothing was going on and ruinning the lives of these childern.
When I first heard about this scandel, i've couldn't believe that something like this has been happening for many years. Children that have been abuse not only going to remember about this scandel its being carry for their entier lives. No children should be a powerless victim. The sad thing is that children looked up for these people and the fact that Sandusky took advantage of these children is very sad to hear, that for; Sundusky deserves any punishment that is given to him beacuse he took advantage of these children through sex and now he has to pay for what he has done.

2011-11-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

PSU SCANDLE

2011-11-17T16:56:00.000-08:00

The media has began an uproar with the PSU scandal, and it should have. It is necessary to show that nobody is above the law when they commit any crime, ESPECIALLY when it has to do with innocent children. The thing that is mind boggling is the amount of time it took for this scandal to come out. Head coaches knew about this and did not do anything about it. Why? Paterno could have avoided this entire news frenzy and being fired if he reported when he was told about it in the first place. Penn State will now and forever have a stigma that can not erased be erased. The other surprising thing was the initial shock many of the students and Penn State football fans had. Unfortunately, the shock had to do with the football game rather than that Penn State supported child abuse. How did they support it? By not reporting the wrong doing and "looking the other way". So why did they cover it up? Were they scared of losing their jobs? Were they scared of putting a bad name on Penn State? Did they think now that people know about Sandusky's perverted mind he would snap out of it? Yeah, look how that turned out. So many children's mental health could have been saved but the victims were being put on the back burner. It wasn't just the coaches of the team, the governor approved 3 million dollars towards Sandusky's charity even though investigations were being conducted.

The good thing now is the main focus is turning to the victims of the scandal, remember those are the kids not the ones hiding the truth and got fired for it. PSU has been raising money for sexually abused children.The focus is to put those in jail for the crimes they committed and protect the children for the greater good.

-Alejandra Fregoso Kin 338I

Distance Learning Assignment

2011-11-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

The media shapes our reality; they decide how to spin a story, what information they’re going to put in a story, and how we should feel after hearing the story. And in the PSU scandal this is certainly the case. The way I thought ESPN shaped the scandal was at first, sympathy for Joe Paterno, nobody knew if he was going to continue to coach, he made a statement saying he was going to retire at the end of the season, but that was short-lived. A lot of the focus was off Sandusky and McQueary the people who were involved with the case and put the focus on Paterno and how Penn State just gave him a phone call to fire him. Then it showed students reaction to the firing. Not till I came to class did I actually get the real story of what happened. I believe this is due to the power of intersection and the media, ESPN was probably being told by their producers not to give the whole story until all the details of the story were given. If I were to apply any sociological framework to this case it would probably have to be the social standpoint theory. Sandusky, Paterno, McQueary and the AD that Paterno told were all upper class white males. The children that Sandusky was molesting were lower class, less privileged children. The standpoint theory looks at hierarchies and power, and even if these kids who told their parents, they’re at the bottom of the totem pole in America and these football coaches at Pennsylvania are at the top and the police and media outlets sweep it under the table. I personally think this is a travesty, how some people can pray on the innocence of these young boys. I went to sports camps when I was younger and I think back to how naïve I was to reality, although I never had a coach do or say anything inappropriate, at the same time I wouldn’t know the difference, or boundaries and I think it’s sad when people of authority take advantage of the innocence of youth.

Chris Barnett

Kin 338I – Sec 06

Distance learning assignment: Penn state

2011-11-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

The social media has shaped Penn state scandal as the
horrific scandal of the century. With
all the news covering the Penn State scandal everyone in the world is being
exposed to it. The media has given the
people the possibility to speak out about the scandal through twitter and other
networking sites.
This horrific case that happen in Penn State shows how
people in some form of power, use their power by taking advantage of people
that are in lesser power (in this case young kids with a low social class).
Finally, the media has so much power to make the public have a certain reaction
to horrible events. The media can easily
ruin someone’s reputation or clear their name.
It is clear that Sandusky is a pedophile and has to be
locked up for life for his crimes that he has committed. However, Paternos involvement is a sad
representation of humanity. It’s awful when one would rather protect their
carrier rather than doing the right thing.
This is clearly one of the most disturbing scandals that came
out in our time. However, it is not the
only horrific event that has ever happen about kids being raped. Kids all over the world are always being
abused by others. We as a humane society
have to take action when anything of this matter is presented in our lives. So this is for everyone, anyone that
encounters a rape in any form do something about it, do the right thing and
drop kick the SOB.

Rodrigo Uribe

Kin 338I Sec 06

Distance Learning

2011-11-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

The media has a huge impact on what remains in the thoughts and minds of the general public. If the media continues to replay the information about the PSU scandal then people will continue to talk about it both in person and through social media sites such as Twitter. This chain of events only perpetuates the situation causing information to spread like wild fire. This is what decides which topics become very well known through out not only the U.S. but also the world. This is what has happened to the scandal of Penn State University, with Jerry Sandusky’s molestation of multiple little boys and the cover up that caused Joe Paterno to lose his job as well as his respect from many. Twitter and other social media has had an impact on the PSU scandal in a large way as it continues to constantly update the world on what is going on while allowing people to share their own opinions, both good and bad, on the issue, especially about Paterno himself.

While analyzing Twitter and the posts concerning Penn State and the Joe Paterno scandal three of the main themes were power, media, and deviance. These three issues intersect a lot in the PSU scandal, especially among Twitter. The idea of power has been bounced around on Twitter, with tweets like Paterno’s record of 409 wins for football for Penn State, how the students continue to support Paterno and riot for him and the question of if his statue is still standing. The most interesting aspect of this theme is the debate of if he should or should not have been fired and if he did do what he was supposed to do by relaying the information. All of these things play into how much power the world put in Joe Paterno and how beloved he truly was by so many. The media, especially outlets such as Twitter continue to perpetuate this story and continuously update the public on new information. Deviance is the last main theme with many people tweeting the line of “horse play” and the fact that Paterno was fired over the phone when all of this could have stopped if he had only made a phone call. In general the idea of deviance correlates with just how wrong this whole situation is, how it all could have been stopped after the very first boy. The ideas of power, media, and deviance together sums up this scandal, how the deviance or misguided use of power lead to this tragedy, and how it is now all being spread through the media.

Power I think gives the best reasoning to why this situation occurred the best, the fact that so many people gave Joe Paterno so much power. The trust that the public put in Paterno as being someone who was all mighty allowed this cover up to happen. When in reality power, and the misuse of power is when people begin to believe that they no longer need to fallow the rules anymore. People begin to believe that they are above the rules. This was the case here as well, because something else should have been done, the school did not have the right, did not have the power, to try and cover up all the awful things that happened in that locker room.

I personally think Paterno should have done more. This whole situation makes me sick and even reading about the things people post on Twitter and how much it involves the pension that Paterno will receive or the possible hiding of his assets, all of these people posted about these topics, but in reality their concern should be for the boys themselves. The scandal that was caused from trying to hide the molestation only ended up leading to more cases and more little boys being hurt by this disaster. That is what people should really be tweeting about, not about Joe Paterno and how sad it is for him, but how sad it is for so many young boys to have been devastated and so deeply traumatized.

Twitter is not the most reliable source ever created but it spreads ideas, thoughts, and information to the whole world in just the click of a button. The information may not always be exact but the content most definitely gets the world thinking and discussing information. This is not the last the world has heard about Joe Paterno and Twitter will continue to keep the story alive.

Jennifer Branson
Kin 338i Sec 06

distance learning

2011-11-17T13:33:00.001-08:00

The media has become a huge reason why the PSU scandal has spread. Information about this scandal is spreading like wild fire with the help of twitter, facebook, television, magazines or any other source of media. Without all this media many people would not know about this scandal. Also I think that when people put up personal opinions about the scandal it starts to curve peoples ideas, and can bring even more conversations about the issue. The good thing about the media being involved is that younger audiences are knowing about situations like this, and are being informed that some people in this world are not who they portray they are.

Power, media, and deviance all intersect in many ways. The issue of the public being withheld information becomes a problem very often. I believe that the power that Joe Paterno and the few people at Penn State that knew about Sandusky over powered the scandal. I think that if Joe Paterno was not so afraid of losing his power this scandal would have been stopped years ago. Power tends to hide deviance from the media, but in this case eventually the power could not keep from the media any longer.

I do not know really know how to make sense of this scandal. This issue in my opinion is a moral issue and if I were ever to witness such a horrible thing happening I would speak up. It is sad to say that Joe Paterno and others at Penn State were afraid to step up and make a phone call because they wanted to protect themselves instead of helpless children. Children for years were being violated and they did nothing about it. I believe that Joe Paterno and others deserved to be fired and their legacies ruined because they could of possible ruined the lives of many other young children. Their legacies would never have been ruined if they had said something the first day this was witnessed instead of ensuing a cover up.

When I first found out about this scandal I was appalled I couldn’t believe that something as morally wrong could continue on for this long. I coach soccer and if I ever were to witness something like this to happen the first thing I would do is call 911 regardless of who it is. No child should be a defenseless victim. The sad part is, is that Joe Paterno was this figure that many looked up to and granted he might have been a good person and a good role model to many, but because he didn’t say anything when children needed him the most all of his good has been erased. I can not even emphasize how disgusting Sandusky’s actions are. He deserves every punishment that is given to him.

Christine Thiebert

KIN338i

Penn State Scandal

2011-11-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Social media has changed how the whole world communicates. In terms of the PSU scandal, social media has allowed for everyone to voice their opinions on the topic. This can be seen in both a positive and negative way. In a positive light, social media is an outlet for victims where they can share their stories, and people everywhere can support them and let the perpetrators know of their disgust. On the flip side, with their thoughts and opinions, people can make the victims feel as if they were the ones who did something wrong.
Media is very influential in our culture and it has the power to make people perceive subjects and other people in a certain light. We give the media and people (football coaches, athletes, etc.) this power which allows them to act in a way in which they feel they can get away with things. Others will go out of their way to protect them. When media and people defy social laws or Judaical laws, there are people right behind them to make the issue "go away".
Our culture is heavily influenced by fame. People with fame are given power. Joe Paterno and his coaching staff used their fame and power to cover up this sexual abuse scandal and let it continue. All in the name of the school's "reputation" (fame). There is no excuse for what happened. Everyone involved should be punished. This is sending a message that we put more emphasis on protecting our reputation than an innocent child.
I think the scandal is disgusting. There is no way a man should "enjoy hanging out with young people" as much as Sandusky. He needs to get the maximum punishment possible. As for the cover up, I think it empowers other coaches and athletes to do things like this, thinking they can get away with it. It is horrible the power that we give these HUMAN BEINGS.

Tiara Gose
Kin 338I, Sec.6

Distance Learning Assignment

2011-11-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

Social media has played a huge factor in exposing the Penn State scandal. With all of these outlets like twitter, facebook, Internet, newspapers, magazines, and television, almost everyone has heard some news involving the issue. These sources transmit all of the info quickly out to the public and through sources like twitter and facebook users are able to reply and post, relaying it even farther to their followers. Also since this happened at a university, it is more relevant to the younger generation who do not normally follow news as much as their parent generations.

The recent child abuse scandal where assistant coach Sandusky allegedly raped the children from his own charity camp has been the big story in the media for the last couple weeks. He was sick enough to create his own camp to select his victims from. Head coach Paterno and some other university officials covered it up and now they are paying for it. I definitely do not think that it was right for any of them to cover it up. I do have a little more sympathy for the grad student that witnessed it because if I were in his situation, involved in a powerful organization with powerful people, I would not know what to do either. But then again I probably would have called the police first instead of the coach. Overall I think this entire situation is disgusting and I hope all of the victims will come forward so that this will not happen again.

Allyson Nomura

Kin 338I, sec 06

Distance Learning Assignment

2011-11-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

Media has the power to shape any kind of news, whether it be a scandal, a celebrity wedding, or diet fads. However, with scandals, media is a very powerful source, as we are seeing with the Penn State scandal. It has allowed millions of people to access information, interviews, blogs, and videos on anything and everything associated with the Penn State scandal. Some sources of information, especially blogs or people opinions on twitter and facebook, open up many new ideas and insights about the scandal everyday. Media helps it be an ongoing discussion and investigation that the whole world can follow. The media definately intersects this issue because any information leaked my someone powerful, or possibly an unknown victim, carries the possibility to be shown to the public and change the story even more. I think that Sandusky went so long without being charged or without the authorities finding out because the few people who did know were trying to protect thier identities, their positions at Penn State, and the identity of Penn State as a whole. It is understandable that the administration at Penn State didnt want their school to be affiliated with this kind of scandal, but the moral thing to do would have been to speak up about it to protect the lives of future victims. Now things are just that much worse because no one spoke up; there were much more victims, multiple people lost their jobs because they covered it up, and the whole school has to suffer an even worse scandal than if someone had just spoken up early on. My personal reaction to this is that i think Joe Paterno should have spoken up in the first place when he had the opportunity to. Now he has lost his job, lost respect of people around America, and now his football team must suffer because of his bad decisions. Being an athlete, I can understand how they must feel losing a great coach at this time in the season, especially with the reason behind it. Also, my reaction is that Sandusky is a horrible man for doing this to so many young children. I dont see how anyone could do something like what he did, then cover it up and do it 40 more times. He has damaged so many lives. Overall I feel that if someone who found out when it was first happening spoke up about it, it wouldnt be such a horrible scandal as it is right now. Plus, part of my family comes from Pittsburgh, so I am a huge fan. And hearing that such a scandal like this comes from even the state of Pennsylvania, is very dissappointing.

Danielle Coffman KIN 338i Sec.01

Overwhelming Support For Victims

2011-11-17T09:07:00.000-08:00

Learning about this tragedy in class last Thursday I was horrified to hear about what had happened. The information that I was given that day was that there was an assistant coach at Penn state that molested kids and his head coach did nothing about it, even when he was caught multiple times. I was shocked, and was in for another shock when I heard that students were protesting the fact that this same head coach that allowed this to go on was being forced to step down. I was appalled. I thought there must be hope for humanity, so I turned to social media to see the people’s reaction. I was happy to report an overwhelming support for the victims of this tragedy, a outright disgust toward the coaching staff in general, and thoughts on how this all could be handled differently. The part that stood out to me as an overwhelming theme was the support for the victims; this was what I expected from everyone, including those on Penn states campus. The real reason everyone is protesting is because Joe Paterno is such a legendary coach for this team, but his legacy is nothing in my opinion if this is what he is letting go on within his staff. I think the fact that Paterno is such a powerful force for Penn state is the reason that people love him, not necessarily because he has good character. In my opinion students at Penn state are just pissed cause they think that they are going to lose a few games, and the power of their team is going to be comprimised. To me, and maybe this is just me, sports in general is a whole heck of a lot less important than the lives of these young boys. Looking at the support on Twitter and Facebook gave me a slight glimmer of hope for humanity and showed me that people are still standing up and fighting against the unjust, even when a struggle for power is involved.

Distance Learning Assignment 2

2011-11-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, with the rapidly development and ubiquity of Social Media technology, people have many chances to access millions of resources from around the world even with the click of a mouse. We have all heard the despicable details of the Penn State scandal involving former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky involving the sexual abuse of over 20 children through his own charity. A lot of reliable information has come through social media from people directly on the State College Campus. Not only is information being relayed and an incredible rate, but reaction is twice as fast. Just by going on twitter you can see what each one of your friends thinks about the scandal and what should happen with Joe Paterno. People everywhere are expressing shock, anger, anguish and loss.

Social reaction has been shown to play an important role in reducing the degree of post traumatic response. Moreover, The victims of the Penn State scandal will benefit from knowing that everybody in society is trying to recognize the suffering, giving hand and voice to the outrage and find justice and change.

The Penn State scandal shows how powerful social media is in today’s days. All the details were distributed quickly and effectively by various sources. Social media’s potential is beginning to become fully unleashed; and I think the public expression of concern by so many people through social media may be healing for generations of victims of this scandal.

Cuong Le- KIN338I, S01

Distance Learning Assignment

2011-11-17T00:39:00.000-08:00

Social media has played as an important part in today society, and especially in the younger generation. However, social media could be a broad term sometimes that we cannot easily defined it. I know that social media is a very popular activity going on, but what had really opened my eyes about this perspective is the PSU scandal. I barely pay attention to the news, and even worse is that I never really care about the sport news. About an hour ago, I must admitted that I am totally had no clue about this PSU thing. By just a few terms to put in the “search” box, I could easily access to and read several of different articles related to the scandal. Social media is a very powerful technique that could cause a lot of affect in the scandal. The more popular the “related persons” are, the more news and comments will appear on the internet. Even though there were a lot of articles talk about the PSU scandal but its broadening did confuse me at the beginning. I saw different headlines like Joe Paterno was fired, Penn State doing charity, or even Paterno hand house over for his wife for just $1. The scandal had shaped every perspective in the media.

I can’t really give any personal reactions to the scandal since I have no idea what is Penn State, and how much effect it brings to the sport world. Based on a few articles that I have read, I could tell that many people are disappointed with what happened. They described it as a tragedy and couldn’t even believe the truth. If I were someone that really loves sport in general, and football in specific, I believe I would feel the same thing. It is difficult to accept the fact that someone who really gets your respect would do something to destroy your view toward them.

Tammy Mai - KIN338I, S01

Penn State Scandal

2011-11-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

The recent child abuse scandal at Penn State University is disgusting on so many levels. First, a respected assistant coach, Sandusky, allegedly raped over 40 victims- all young boys who will probably be forever scarred from such traumatic events.

Maybe more distressing is the fact that I don't know what's worse: the fact that at least 40 young boys were raped by a trusted male role model, or the fact that the witnesses, the famed head coach Joe Paterno, the athletic director-all supposedly respected men- all did NOTHING. Maybe the worst is neither of those. Maybe the worst is that according to a circulating tweet, a man from Arizona says that Penn State officials had "ignored similar claims of abuse" in the past, indeed, several others are saying that the administration actually enabled the pervert to commit these crimes by continuing the football camp and allowing him to run it, despite reports that the camp was a way for him to recruit new victims.

And it just keeps getting worse. Sandusky was not only unpunished and enabled, but his despicable crimes were covered up by the administration at least, and probably local police and news outlets- which strengthens the support for social media venues like Twitter. Inquisitive members can read articles and information surrounding the situation that they deem important, and not be relegated to just the spin on the story the main stream media outlets spew. Unbelievably, ESPN and many others continue to focus on the tragedy of Paterno's ruined reputation rather than report on Sandusky's sickening acts.

So while the witnesses were probably trying to save their jobs by keeping quiet, and the PSU officials attempted to keep the face of their beloved football program clean, as least we know the severity of the situation to a greater degree. Other media outlets could have easily made the situation out to be a case of an unknown "bad egg" at a good university, but I think Twitter has been important in providing tweets from various people, informing everyone that many were complicit in these crimes, and all of them need to be punished. This was no accidental discovery of some new issue, this was a calculated cover up and it just goes to show that reputation really means nothing.

Ivy C.

KIN 338 sec 6

Penn State Distance Learning Assignment

2011-11-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

With the scandal being all over the internet and news by social media it’s hard to miss it or not know what’s going on. It is showing Sandusky and Paterno with no mercy and is letting out all the truth and every little bit of information that they can find on them which I believe is great because it’s releasing the truth that they have been hiding.The media is showing and talking more about Paterno and Penn State football when they should be covering the stories on Sandusky since he is the real criminal and main subject of the whole issue. He is the one who started the whole thing. Issues of power, media, and deviance intersect especially in the Penn State scandal is by Sandusky was being deviant and using his so called power to rape and sexual abuse young boys. Sandusky and Paterno were both being deviant about the situation that was happening. They thought that because they were high ranked they had the power to do whatever they want, but they were only abusing their power. The media in this case intersects because the issues are about people being sneaky, deviant, and people abusing power and hiding the truth.
I don’t understand or can even make sense of Sandusky’s crimes. I can only think of one reason why Paterno would try to cover up his crime. It had to be because they have known each other for many years they both “had each other’s backs” all the time, but in a situation like this paterno should of the right thing and told the police and not try to protect his friend who was doing something horrible. Paterno probably figured that no one would ever find out and if he kept it a secret and Sandusky did then nothing would happen. It makes me disgusted to know that paterno let him stay on the team with all these boy athletes knowing what he has done.
My reactions to this scandal are disgusted. Sandusky abused his powers and sexual raped many young boys who are now probably terrified of a coach. Which is wrong on so many levels. Athletes shouldn’t be abused and scared of their coaches, coaches are suppose to be mentors or role models and Sandusky and Paterno both screwed that up. They lied and hid the truth from thousands of people and didn’t even seem to care. The school was right to fire Paterno and take his statue down. He was suppose to be a good representation of Penne State and now he’s an embarrassment along with Sandusky. Paterno should of went to the police as soon as he found out about Sandusky.
Robin Mora
KIN 338I_Section 01

Distance Learning Assignement

2011-11-16T23:22:00.000-08:00

Social media has shaped the PSU scandal by helping educate and throw out thoughts on the scandal that some may have never thought of before. I know personally, there were some articles that I would have never found on my own if I was just doing a random web search. The social media has definitely also made it easier and more accessible for those on the sites to find out information in an organized and efficient way. As for how it has shaped the scandal itself, it has become a bigger phenomena than it would have been if there weren't any social media outlets.

The power, media and deviance intersect in a way in which people are able to take advantage of resources and use them for good, or also bad. Having the opportunity to say basically anything they want in the media (public cites) can cause people to say very negative things about the scandal tat can easily influence the thoughts of others. Also, in a different sense, with such power that the program holds, it is crazy to see how big this scandal has gotten, and how there are definitely hailing negative remarks in the media about the men involved in the scandal, but also terrible remarks about the school itself.

One framework that may be used to understand these crimes and the cover up would be power structure. For one, knowing that by outing Sandusky as a child molester, the whole football program at PSU would have been ruined (as it is now). It goes to show that no one wanted to take down "the man" (calling him "the man" because he is high on the power structure in the US due to the high popularity and stature that college football has in the US) because then America's favorite past time would be tarnished (which it is now) and would not be the grand American sport that the US is infamous for.

My personal reaction to the scandal is that it is disgusting and appalling that this wasn't taken care of at the time that it happened. I feel that everyone who knew about it at the time should be fired with no question. I personally have fond the media coverage helpful because it has given me a lot of new facts and insights that I would have never known if it had not been for these media sources.

Jenna Todd 338i section 06

PSU's Coach Sandusky Scandal

2011-11-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

Penn State's beloved coach Sandusky rape scandal is all over the media. Social media has shaped the scandal as a very serious event and has made it the top story lately especially in sports news. Sandusky's accusation is not to be taken lightly and many people are outraged on how long it took for it to become known and the law to get involved. Most of the comments in the media and social newworks such as twitter are if the assistant coach Mike McQueary actually witness Sandusky raping a 10 year old boy in the locker room, why didn't he go to the police? Instead McQueary went to the defensive coordinator Joe Paterno and from there no action was taken, it seems that it was silenced.
It seems that if one has power you can get away with anything. Many people believe since Sandusky was succesful at winning football games then the president of the school will keep people silent from bring out Sandusky's molestations. This scandal was another one of those political power silence schemes but finally it was leaked out to the media. The media is a powerful tool and it can be used for good or bad. In this case media did good and it is blowing up the scandal and making it known Sandusky's criminal actions. Unfortunately the reputation of Penn State is going to be hurt and now even more becuase it took so long for someone to take action.
Personally I cannot believe the way McQueary reacted and told another coach instead of first of all try to stop Sandusky and secong report him to the police. Maybe at the time of being shocked it was okay but after some time if McQueary saw no type of action being carried he should of went to the authorites. But then again, the power of the school and politics has the last word. No doubt in my mind i believe that McQeary and Paterno were some how forced to be silent either with threats or money. And although McQueary and Paterno did not rape children they are still to be punished for not going to the authorities.

Giovanny Gamarro
Kin338 Sec.6

Distance Learning Assignment (PSU Scandal):

2011-11-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

Distance Learning Assignment (PSU Scandal):

The most talked about news story in the sports world is about Penn State. Unfortunately, the coverage on the University is under the spotlight due to events that occurred with a scandal that was hidden. Victims were sexually harmed by Sandusky and the University’s reputation changed for the worse. According to reports, in 2002 Sandusky was caught anally raping a ten year old boy by an assistant coach Mike McQueary. Eventually, word of this particular incident went to the athletic director and the president of the school. Sandusky was no longer allowed to bring any boys on campus and was considered a form of punishment; but he was not fired.
The social media has shaped the PSU scandal contained some themes that were indirectly and directly discussed among twitter users and other forms of media outlet with the white privilege and how the public is in shock that this scandal occurred with a prestige University. The scandal has three themes that are issues of power, media, and deviance intersect does tie in with the story will expand and the public will learn more about how PSU abused power and influence to keep the University a clean image. In addition, the theme of power is shown through media coverage with the fact that those that contain power withheld information in order to protect the school. Also, the witnesses were forced to keep the scandal hidden from the public. The term deviance is in the social media as well. For instance, the decision to withhold knowledge of any information and all illegal sexual activity is not the best choice. The media will continue to play out the story the public will find out that firing the Coach Paterno should have resulted to someone else getting fired that was involved in keeping information hidden.

The scandal is something that I would have never thought of happening to young boys by a coach. I personally would want the victims to know that they are not allowed and stay strong. The legacy of Joe Paterno will be ruined due to the scandal and according to the media college students are uproar about the situation. To conclude, this incident could have been brought up years ago and someone could have stopped Sandusky right away.

Tatiana Shellman
kin 338I.S6