• Growing up, and sometimes still today I only think of watching sports as a form of entertainment. Sometimes it escapes my mind that professional sports teams such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL are forms of business. This means that players are paid to play, and do not play for the fun of it. Players are also paid to win, winning certain awards comes with financial bonuses. The number of viewers a team and a league get determines aspects such as the salary of a player. Finally, athletes are able to do sponsorships with other companies to not only bring more attention to a certain company but to also earn money as individual athletes. A commercial I can think of that has been playing recently is Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews promoting McDonald’s within a commercial.

So what?

• One of the main reasons I think it matters that professional sports are a business is because there is a point where sport turns from “fun” to “serious”. As someone who played recreational sports, and moved into competitive sports in my early teen years I was able to see this firsthand. Playing recreational sports was all about having fun, so much so that the score was not kept track of and everyone got a participation trophy. When I started playing competitive sports I noticed a shift, where many players and their parents were a lot more focused on the game, their individual development, as well as the team’s success/winning. When I noticed this as a child, I felt like it made playing the sport I loved less fun, and I could feel the pressure of other parents.
• Although I never wanted to take my sport to a professional level, I can only imagine the seriousness at this level of sport. I think when you are a professional, the level of fun in sports disappears.
• The reason why I think this matters is because as a kid, the meaning of sport is to have fun and enjoy playing. Whereas when you get older I feel that sport loses this meaning.

• I believe that sports can connect with advocacy and activism. This is because I have seen many sports teams as well as individual athletes stand up for what they believe in while practicing their sport. An example of this may be from the years of 2016-2020 I watched some of my favourite athletes kneel during a national anthem being played. The reason many athletes did this was to protest against systemic racism in the United States while the U.S.A. anthem played. As someone who watches quite a few sports, while any anthem plays the TV crew usually gives viewers a look at many athletes during this time. Thus being a great time for athletes to capture the audience’s attention.
• An example of an athlete kneeling during the anthem is Colin Kaepernick, an NFL quarterback who at the time played for the San Fransisco 49ers. This took place on December 18, 2016, when the 49ers were set to face the Atlanta Falcons.

• One of the perspectives I found according to the authors of this article was a “blame the victim orientation”. Blaming the victim can happen in many settings, in this instance, it has to do with health but can also come into play when dealing with sexual assault cases. Blaming the victims is what it is called, it is about blaming the victim for their circumstances. In the context of these authors, points of intersectionality are taken into consideration to blame the victim for their health and kinesiology.
• Health inequity is another important aspect of this article. Intersectionality can affect many things in an individual’s life such as their environmental, social, or economic way of life and/or disadvantages. These aspects can have an effect on an individual’s health and well-being: for example, an individual who comes from a poorer community may not have the funds for things such as healthy foods, access to healthcare, or a way to spend leisure time.

• In my opinion, feminism means to stand up for injustices women have faced through history, and still face to this day. When I think about feminism, I think about all the feminists who came before me and fought for my rights to vote, work, have an abortion, etc. Feminism, in my opinion, requires resistance. I say this because women have heard the word “no” many times, and we still get back up and keep fighting.
• I chose this picture below because I think it defies some common stigmas and stereotypes about women. The stereotypical woman has long hair, does not have muscles, wears something more feminine such as a dress, and is quiet. I like how the woman in this image seems confident, I think confidence is something that many women have to fight to have due to historical events. I also like how she is flexing her arm, I think in today’s society many people think that men are the only ones who should have muscles, which is completely not true. Another thing I like about the woman in this picture is her appearance. I think many people believe for a woman to be labelled as pretty, they need to conform to societal pressures of appearance that I previously claimed (long hair, wearing makeup, dressing feminine). I like how the woman in this picture is wearing what she feels comfortable in and is still confident.
• All in all, when I think about feminism these are some of the characteristics I think about:
• Confident
• Resilliant
• Loud and proud
• Courageous
• Passionate
• Fearless
• Bold