Gymnastics

Fall is finally here! That means that the new gymnastics season is starting.  I love gymnastics. I’ve been teaching it for the past 4 years (in Fond du Lac, my hometown) and love when a new class is about to begin.  Little girls and boys are so excited to use all of the equipment and it’s so fun to see how much they can learn in only 6 weeks.  Usually there are a lot more females than males so I guess this sport can relate to class because it is a gender specific sport: it is predominantly females.  The boys are my favorite to teach though!  The boys are the ones that are usually the most enthusiastic and ready to go right away and the girls are typically shyer (at first).  I guess we will see what this season brings!

First Relection

While reading the first chapters and discussing some of it in class I can easily see the stereotypes of being feminism and masculine because I even make the same assumptions.  Feminism refers to females, being dainty, loving pink, loving to shop, being a care-giver, being an emotional supporter, being just plain emotional, being beautiful, thin, etc.  When I think about masculinity I picture strong, muscular men, being the financial supporter of the family, always taking the lead, not showing much emotions, being stubborn, tall, defending "his woman" if there was a need to, etc.  I am one of the people who don’t easily see past that the typical stereotypes, but after reading the first few sections and talking about some of the issues in class I am starting to change my mind.  I do know that women do a lot to better our world and are very strong; some being single parents therefore making them the ones financially responsible.  On the other side males are also changing; lately there have been a lot more single dads who need to be the care-giver of the family.  I can see now how many times the stereotype of a specific sex (male or female) is reversed. 

Also I’d like to talk about another issued discussed in the readings: mythical norm (white, middle class, heterosexual, able, thin, and a young adult).  Much of chapter 2 talked about institutions and how they central in creating systems of inequality and privilege.  Institutions produce messages that shape our understanding of social life.  I totally agree when the booked talk about that if something isn’t “normal” it’s mostly frowned upon.  When the book discussed that heterosexuality is dominate and the opposite of that would be lesbian or gay (the subordinate) I easily related because in society it is clear that many people don’t approve of same sex relationships.  Hopefully we the people can change some of the typical norms and adapt to some situations because the world is always changing around us and we need to see that the way we used to see the world is different than how the world is today.