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Abby Ferguson and Kelly McGuire
Section One: The Fundamentals
A) What do we know about sport? What are common assumptions we make about sport and society?
| This was my reply to a very interesting repsonse of the prompt: Sports Promote Social Mobility
“I really appreciate your answer to this prompt! I was wracking my mind trying to understand this concept because it is so foreign to me. I personally don’t feel sports true function is to be a tool for upward social mobility in the slightest. Maybe one participating in a specific, maybe, commonly elitist sport would give one of a lesser status the appearance of upward mobility but in reality its my position that it is incredibly hard for anyone to successfully use sports for this function. I haven’t heard discussions surrounding sports as one that makes it common for creating upward social mobility. Reading you answer helped me understand the nuances of this prompt much more clearly. Especially your last comment on the short-lived nature of athletic careers, like by the time you risk it all to manufacture this upward mobility, against all the odds, one accidental injury, or just natural short career span of a sport and all that work is over. Usually at the cost of sacrificing regular childhood experiences for all this effort at the chance of upward mobility.”
Let me know if you prefer this responses to be more or less opinion or reading based. |
Exercise 3: Notebook prompt
What are some other metanarratives about sport that you are familiar with? Find an image or video clip or draw something yourself that captures this idea…
So what? Why does any of this matter? Does it matter? As something we grow up with – live with – play through – we don’t often interrogate the meanings of sport, and perhaps we don’t want to.
But being aware of these assumptions and metanarratives is especially important, I would argue, because of the centrality of sport to our everyday lives, the role that sport plays in shaping our childhood and worldviews and….. [finish that thought]
Metanarrative: Competition and Victory “I would argue, because of the centrality of sport to our everyday lives, the role that sport plays in shaping our childhood and worldviews and….. ” sports metanarrative of competition and victory, sports in reality promote violence, aggression, and honestly at times acts of war in controlled spaces. Teams equal countries, and players are the soldiers, beating each other through brutal and often illegal means, but because they are at war, because they are playing in a game of hockey, the physical assault is entertainment, is a badge of honour, and a norm of the game. |
B) What is social justice?
Exercise 4: Padlet Prompt
Think back to the last section and try to look at some of the ideas we discussed differently. How might sport and social justice actually co-exist?
Record any images, video clips, or gifs you added to the padlet and identify a point of intersection between sport and social justice (can be an issue or a barrier or a debate or something you would like to explore in more depth in this course) . Screenshot or paste in your response below.
| https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/how-skateboarding-saved-david-gonzalez-120715/
Community engagement When youth engage with sports it can provide a sense of purpose and community to those who may be experiencing struggles at home emotionally, financially etc as well as be a place to let go and escape from these troubling experiences. When sports are made accessible through the collaboration of SJ, sports function as communal efforts dedicated and sustained fairly where each person can feel valued and affirmed. An example of this is how skateboarding facilitates community and saves youth from getting involved in dangerous situations on the streets or in their lower-income communities, instead of having nothing to do and risk getting involved in something more dangerous kids can turn to their boards, go to the skatepark and see their friends make new friends and support systems, that might not be at home, and not be so dangerous. This is exactly how it went for professional skater David Gonzalez how attributes skateboarding to saving his life. This is how sports and SJ can collaborate and facilitate community engagement for everyone.
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C) Social Justice Reading
(note: this activity is optional!)
D) KINESIOLOGY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Exercise 5:
Exercise 6:
What are the implications of bodies-at-risk discourse and the refusal to understand the health gap from a social justice perspective, according to the authors of this article?
| Bodies at risk discourse is discourse surrounding marginalized people and their bodies and how they exist outside the expectations of society and the status quo. Through this discourse narratives are created where radicalized people, LGBTQ people, or people living in poverty, or with disability, as unhealthy, lazy, or without self-discipline in comparison to white middle to upper class people who have the time and financial stability to participate in neoliberal profit ventures, essentially buying their healthy bodies.
The implications of this sort of discourse is that even in conversations surrounding health, society is participating in and sharing hegemonic values and ideology that continues to dampen efforts for vital and sustainable social justice.
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Section Two: Sport Feminism
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
What is feminism? What does it mean to you? Choose one of the images below and explain how it captures your understanding of feminism (or find one that does speak to you and paste this into your pressbook with an explanation of why it matters to you.
I feel like this picture captures what my perception of feminism is very well. It To me feminism is an umbrella term for social movements that advocate for the equal treatment of women and more recently intersectional advocacy for the rights and equitable treatment of marginalized women who are marginalized or discriminated against for being women and another or several parts of their identities.
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Exercise 8: Notes Prompt (optional)
NB: Cornell notes is a great resource that teaches effective notetaking. Unfortunately, our system can’t save notes taken in the H5P app, so this is fully optional.
Exercise 9: Crossword Activity
Exercise 10: Padlet Prompt
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| I do feel there’s a change occurring in sports where we are all finally realizing that there is always room for inclusivity. There’s the idea with privilege that to have equal rights would be to take from the privileged but that is not true, it is equality, it is not regression, privilege, rights will not run out, it is not a unrenewable resource, there is room for everyone. Its the same with sports, having professional women’s leagues does not take away, or regress mens sports, there is room for both and for both to thrive and that is what we are seeing across many professional women’s leagues like basketball, hockey, rugby, and soccer. People care and are starved for more women’s sports content and skill and its an exciting trend to watch.
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