Mariah Burton Nelson

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The text Mariah Burton Nelson, “I Won, I’m Sorry” is centered on the culture of women athletics during their athletic career, how they must always create the atmosphere of femininity to accept being a winner. Most professional women athlete today in 2012 feel a degree of femininity is essential to having a successful career. A good point is how women athletes have crossed over to more feminine competition as beauty queens, swimsuit models for “Sport’s Illustrated” to escape connotations such as; the female athlete being associated with being a lesbian. The author of the text notes how the media plays a great role in determining how the public perceives female athlete roles. The addressing of the media having a role in projection of a female athlete role interjects the media may not always send the best message concerning a female athlete, which is a message of femininity concerning the athlete. The interjection of the media cast typing how female athletes are always feminine no matter the sport you play; it will always have a feminine illusion of the female athlete. Society tells us that boys are the athletic ones and girls are beautiful. However, more and more women are making a living for athletic ability, most of the time because they are a beautiful athlete. Women athletes have made huge strides since Title IX but there is still room for improvement. The media coverage of female athletes needs to change for all the young girls who look up to these female athletes as role models and the mass media needs to take a more active role and cover male and female sports equally. (Will Anything Change, http://femaleathletes.wordpress.com/, May 5, 2008) The text was directed mostly toward women athlete community, while speaking to any woman who has had experience with the culture of the athlete community also; targeting male and female to understand the discriminating
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