Sunday, April 3, 2011

Title Nine in Sports

This weeks blog is something that i personally know a lot about because i wrote my research paper about it in highschool.  Title 9 is something that tries to take the restriction off who can and can't play a particular sport.  Title 9 says "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid." This is a change that i believe was made for the better in sports.


This website tells you everything that you need to know about title nine and how it has affected people.  Although i believe that it was made for the better and has helped many girls be allowed to play in quote unquote mens sports i haven't personally seen it help any male athletes play in quote unquote female sports.  For example a boy in my highschool was a tremendous volley ball player and we didn't have a mens volley ball team at our school but there was a girls team.  Because of title 9 the boy should have been able to play on the team because there wasn't a mens team but the school wouldn't just let him.  If he wanted to play then he would have to jump through a million hoops first and then if he did all that he would only be allowed to play in the back row and was never allowed to approach the net.  I could see why they wouldn't want him to approach the net because people could say he could jump higher or hit harder than any of the girls and that wasn't faire but by not allowing him to do this he wasn't able to play to his full potential.


Another experience i have with this issue is when a girl at my highschool was allowed to play football.  All she had to do was say she wanted to play and she was on the team because of title nine.  There were no restrictions put on her where she could and couldn't play.  She ended up playing middle linebacker on the freshman team and at times she would be the full back.  I personally believe that this was a great thing just letting her play but at the same time it was a little bit one sided just letting the female athlete play her sports when the male athlete had to jump through so many hoops just to play the back row so he never played.


Something that i also notice is that everything that you see about title nine says women's sports.  if you type title nine in sports into google this come up under videos.  Every video there is about women where Title 9 clearly states that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex"be discriminated upon in sports.  This should mean men too and there should be more about this information on the internet than just the womans information.  I do know that it has affected much more women then men but still there needs to be information on both sides.


A couple video that i found aren't from you tube so i cant post the actual video but here in the link for the first video.  it is about how schools are going to have to do more to show that they are complying in title nine.  The only issue is that the video mainly talks about woman but clearly says both sex at a few points.  Then my favorite video is this one.
it talks about both mens and womens sports being equal.


During class i just want to touch upon how great title nine is but also how it isn't truly fair for both men and women.  It seems like men's sports are always being cut to add more women's sports so the schools dont get in trouble.  One great example of the is at PC where the men's division 1 baseball team was gotten rid of to make a women's hockey team.  Although they are a good team just because they needed another women's sports the just totally got rid of a good men's program.



4 comments:

  1. I also had a girl at my high school who was on the football team. She was very school spirited and as far as I know practiced with the team and had her own uniform, however I never saw or heard of her playing. She would just be in the sidelines. So although my high school was complying with Title IX they were also working around it and not having her on the field a lot. I think this is one thing male and female athletics need to weary of.

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  2. hey i exteneded off of your blog! i disagreed and agreed with some of the things you said. i also had a kid in my high school who wanted to play volleyball but we didnt have a mens team. however he did end up getting to play!

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  3. A girl in my high school also played on the football team. I can't exactly remember which position she played but I believe she was a backup kicker? I could be wrong but the point being is that she got the chance to play on a men's team. However, there were some people that made fun of her constantly about it and I think after being on the team for two seasons she finally quit.

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  4. I never really thought of the males and how title IX affected them, or should affect them. I just always thought of females and athletics when i hear talk of it. There were similar situations at my school with girls wanting to play with the boys, I think everywhere you go there will be situations like these and coaches or parents trying to "get around" the rules.

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