Why it’s not the Watergirl

I chose to return to my team project forum 2 where I stated that in the movie The Waterboy gender roles and gender differences were not just seen in the classroom, but also in college athletics. My claim was that college movies tend to promote the idea that men’s sports is the highlight of college athletics. This helped spark my interest in looking into why men’s sports is so prominent in college’s portrayed in movies. I found that it is not only shown in college movies, but in real colleges around the country. This has actually been an issue for a very long time in American collegiate history. It was not until 1972 when Title ix of the Education rights demanded that women have equality on the playing field. As explained by Deborah J. Anderson title ix “prohibits discrimination by gender in any federally funded educational activities” (2). Now this law seems pretty straightforward, it should not be hard to follow but when it comes to sports it can get murky. “Although the scope of title ix to college athletics has been especially complicated because athletics programs, unlike most academic classes, usually are sex-segregated by sport.” (Anderson 2).  To be honest it was not something that I thought too much about. Going back to my claim, I used specific sports and explained them as supportive roles like cheer leading. Sadly I could not find any research or studies that mentioned anything about supportive roles in sports. To find information like that surveys would have to be carefully questioned, and the study done would be very abstract. However I did shift my focus over to another idea in college sports that still encompassed gender. This first source that I found helped inadvertently support my thesis, it supports it weakly and in a second hand way but it still highlights my main objective of wanting to know why men’s sports are so much more popular to the majority of Americans, however what I did not find was research suggesting that women can become socialized to think that because of this are they in a supportive role. So now going back to the movie, why did we only see men on the playing field? I know that the movie focused on the men’s football team, but why was it the men’s football team? Why is it always the men’s athletics in the spotlight? There are very few times in cinematic history that it highlights a women’s sports. There are many indications of inequity which is a big player in why men’s sports still dominate college. Starting with a definition “equity is a standard by which resources are distributed according to relative contributions” (Hebl, 227). Looking at this idea of inequity, how does this apply to sports and gender? Well institutions are going to be more likely to support a program that is prosperous, so in the sports world people are more willing to go see a men’s basketball game over a women’s basketball team. Even though title ix is enforced it doesn’t change the viewer’s preference. So going back to the first article Hebl suggest that “if ticket offices charge lower fees for entry into women’s games, they may be perpetuating differences in the perceived value associated with each team.” (227). this is a great claim made, wouldn’t you want to see the sport that has a more expensive ticket? That could equivocate to an overall better experience. Or at least that is what people believe, and why shouldn’t people. It makes sense to me that between men’s basketball and women’s basketball if the ticket is higher for the men’s game, overall it will be a better game. Hebl then says that “public’s perception of men’s and women’s sports may depend in part on the ticket price” (228). Applying this to the Waterboy there is a strong reason why it is the Waterboy and the Watergirl. With the idea of equity it explains why it is focusing on a school’s football team. Football brings in a lot of attention from consumers, not to mention the popularity of college football. And that could be what people want to see, they want to see this struggling football team and their evolution into a top tier team that takes on Louisiana University. There are plenty of examples in this movie that support the masculinity of sports. For example like I have pointed out plenty of times it is the men’s football team and that yes there is women’s athletics shown in this movie, but it is the cheerleading squad. Cheerleading is an essential part of football, usually one is not the same without the other. Like I said though, cheerleading is purely a supportive sport. The main spectacle during football is well… the football game! The cheerleaders are just there to pep up the crowd and cheer on the team with intricate and impressive stunts. Do twist my words around though, what cheerleaders do is very important and takes it takes a lot of hard work and practice to accomplish some of the stunts that they do, but in general people are not going to a college football game mainly to the cheer leaders. They are in no way pointless and useless, they help amp up the crowd and maybe even cause ticket prices to go up. They help shape the overall experience of college football and can even sway the outcome of the game. And cinematically, cheerleading has been portrayed in movies like Bring it On and Fired Up, but most of the times they are seen doing competitions that happen outside of football games.

In conclusion, my view has shifted from looking at how college’s sports could possibly socialize girls into a more supportive role, and looked at why it is a men dominated section of education. I covered the idea of how title ix has helped improve equality, but movies like The Waterboy are indicators that college sports is still focused on men’s college sports and not women’s sports. The idea of equity was brought up and that consumers could possibly be basing the value of the sport based off of the price of the ticket.

Anderson, Deborah J., John J. Cheslock, and Ronald G. Ehenburg. Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Determinants of Title IX Compliance. Vol. 77. Ohio: Ohio state University Press, 2006. N. pag. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

Hebl, Michelle R., Traci A. Giuliano, Eden B. King, Jennifer L. Knight, Jeanin L. Skorinko, Anjali Wig, and Jenessa R. Shapiro. "Paying the Way: The Ticket to Gender Equality in Sports." Sex Roles 51.3/4 (2004): 227-35. Web. 27 Mar. 2015.