New Mexico's Elizabeth Lambert

After watching the video on Elizabeth Lambert's actions during the New Mexico versus BYU game I was very disappointed. It is actions like Lambert's that help women's sports receive a bad name. Women’s sports do not receive much attention as it is but when the attention that they do receive is negative it also does not help. All it will lead to is negativity to the sport, soon people will be think that women are too emotion to handle the stress of competitive or elite sport. Having played soccer for many years I know that it is a physical sport, however, it is certainly not as physical as the video shows. While Lambert’s actions are inexcusable, they should have never been allowed to escalate in the way they did. Where were the referees, coaches, or teammates? All of the fouls that were committed were very blatant. I was very happy to see that she has been indefinitely suspended from her team.

M.Herrera
Kin 338I Sect.6

Elizabeth Lambert - 2009 BYU and New Mexico

Nichelle Anderson KIN338I.S6

I recently had the opportunity to go to a soccer game of young ladies aging from 15 to 17 years of age. I have never been to a soccer game and have never really played, except for what they require you to do in school. I was quite shocked by the amount of brute force these young ladies were using. Since I didn't really understand what all they were allowed to get away with I asked allot of questions to those around me. This sparked my curiosity about Elizabeth Lambert and what I had caught on a MSN web homepage picture. After looking up the now quite recognized video of Miss Lambert, I was quite disturbed by this young women, she has such balls to be so down right mean on the field. Miss Lambert not only punched one player in the back, she pulled one players ponytail so hard she hit the ground face down. Miss Lambert proceeds to kick another player down, slide into one knocking her down, and finally karate chocking one player to the front of the neck and smacking her on the back of the head. The video does not say if Miss Lambert was punished or if all this type of behavior is completely allowed. Somewhere this young lady has lost the spirit of what it is to enjoy playing a sport and being a team player only to become so competitive she will due anything in her physical power to win at all cost, no matter who she takes down.

Female Athletes Posing Provocatively

From the panel debates I discovered that I am a hypocrite. Especially, around the topic of provocative posing and sports. It was hard for me to take one side during the debate. I found myself caught in the middle. As a mother, I understood that it is bad representation for our children. Female athletes who pose provocatively can show our children, especially young girls, that indecent exposure is ok. And I would not want my little girl to ever under-represent herself. On the other hand, I understood the opposing view that posing provocatively is the only way that these female athletes will earn as much money as male athletes (who do not pose provocatively). It is wrong and unfair that women do not get paid as much as men who play sports. So it only makes sense that these female athletes make up the difference in their pay by posing provocatively.
Prior to the panel presentations, I felt that provocative posing was not good for female representation or sport. And I felt that female athletes should not pose provocatively. So, I learned from this panel presentation that I don’t know how I feel about female athletes and provocative posing.

Ann Marie E.
Kin 338I Section 3018

Semenya is getting to keep her gold

I am very happy that they are allowing Semenya to keep her gold. I thought it was unfair from the beginning to try and take that away from her and all of her hard work she put in to get that award. The article discusses the issues that still lie about if she is eligible to race in the future. I am reading this article laughing because the author is saying things like "Whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor,” the sports ministry said". They already publicly humiliated her and now they are saying they will not reveal the result, if she not in the next race we all know what their decision was. I understand that people cheat in sports, but in this case Semenya can not help how she was born, she identifies herself as a woman and that is exactly how she should be treated. I guess it is situations like Semenya's that create more obstacles and better defined rules in game of sports.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-semenya-medal&prov=ap&type=lgns

Brynn Bixler tu/th at 9:30 Kin 338I

Is marketing the sex appeal of LPGA golfers good for the game?

I believe that the marketing of sex appeal of LPGA golfers is bad for the game. The spirit of golf itself is known for the class and prestige. I understand that golf is a male dominated sport, but adding sex appeal to attract more participants to the sport is horrible. I'm sure the sex appeal is good for male golfers who wouldn't mind to look at these images and but it attracts participants to the sport for the wrong reasons because of these images.

These sexual images makes golf lose the integrity, class and prestige that it is known for, and definitely represent female golfers in a bad light. Not only does the images give female golfers a horrible representation, it also gives the wrong message. The message that the images give to women who want to pursue golf, is that in order to be successful in this male dominated sport is that they have to be represented in a sexual light rather than being know for their talent and skill.

As a female participant of golf, I am greatly disturbed and feel insulted by the images of female golfers being represented in a sexual way. Looking at these images makes me believe that golf is losing its integrity and class.

K. Lew
KIN 338I.S6

ESPN: Negative Coverage of Women's Sport

Earlier this month I was watching Sports Center and I noticed that there was some actual coverage of a women’s sporting event that wasn’t basketball, golf, or tennis. The short segment showed the University of New Mexico’s logo, a picture of a lady soccer player, and a soccer ball. I was interested to see why they were giving women’s soccer coverage, as it is not a sport they cover very often, women’s or men’s, unless it is a team winning a championship and I knew it wasn’t playoff time in soccer. I can’t say I was surprised when footage of a U of NM defender, Elizabeth Lambert, was shown ripping an opponent down by her pony-tail, sliding hard into another, and finally looked like she kicked an opponent while she was on the ground. I wasn’t surprised because I’ve been watching ESPN long enough to know that the only way they would show a regular season women’s soccer game is if something extremely negative happened during the game. My first instinct was to blog about this but initially I wasn’t sure what to write about it. When I saw that Professor Kauer put up an article about the same subject a little while after (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/sports/soccer/11violence.html), my interest was piqued again and I decided I would write about it. I shared my opinions on ESPN and their lack of women’s coverage in my last blog and basically, like most other people, I agree that there really should be a larger part of their programming on women in sport. My feelings regarding this isolated incident are if they aren’t showing the positives in women sport, why are they showing the negatives? All this does is shine an extremely negative light on women’s sport, a light that started off dim, and now anyone watching the program could very easily think along the lines that that is all women’s sport is about. There is no way ESPN could show equal coverage between women’s and men’s sport that is just unrealistic, but they can definitely show more women’s sporting events and when they do make sure they are positive or at the very least show an equal amount of negative and positive stories to allow the viewer to come up with their own opinions.


Danny Welsh
KIN338i.s06

Is "Hooking-Up" Considered Feministic Freedom?

Check out this article from ABC News.com that discusses the issues surrounding the feministic thought that hooking-up is liberating from the male-dominant values and double standards that are ever present in today's society. What are your thoughts on the issue? (copy and paste the link into your address bar.)

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sexual-hook-ups-damned-chastity-groups-hailed-feminists/story?id=9056528&cid=ESPNheadline


Robin Yancey
Kin 338I T/Th 9:30-10:45 am
Fall 2009

Am I a hypocrite?

Before our panel position papers were due, I was neutral to the idea of female athletes posing provocatively. However, after doing research and learning more about the pro side of the issue, I started to support that side more than the other. The reason for this post is that I clearly stated in class that there is absolutely nothing wrong with female athletes posing provocatively in ads or on television and it's not degrading athletes in any way. Earlier this week I saw a Reebok commercial that I did find offensive to women in general. The ad is suppose to be funny by the camera man focusing on the sales women's butt when she is trying to advertise Reebok's latest fitness Easy Tone shoe. I did find it a little funny, but it did get me to question why was I offended with this situation and not when it comes to half-naked women athletes?





If the video didn't show up, here's the url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZtNuyypRbk

Do you guys find it offensive at all?


Torey Richmond
Kin3381
Section 01
Tues/Thurs
9:00-10:45am