Sports is Also a Woman’s Fight Analysis Essay

Sports is Also a Woman’s Fight
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Throughout history, women are considered inferior to men secondary to their soft qualities, making them look vulnerable and fragile. On the contrary, this weak image should not be confused about the actual qualities and capabilities. Nevertheless, through time, women have proved their proficiencies in many things, ranging from housework down to the professional fields of science, technology, literature, and sports (Zhu & Chang, 2019). Some films have illustrated the strong side of women, and one of these is the 1992 film entitled, A League of Their Own, which showed how women championed baseball during World War II CITATION Mar92 \l 13321 (Marshall, 1992). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the stereotypes faced by women in sports, particularly during that time, and to enlighten the readers on the strength of women compared to that of men.
Historically, baseball was a past-time for the Americans that gradually developed into a full-blown professional sport. This was because the sport required strength, agility, and power, which were considered only men. Men and women who played it are prohibited from joining the games, particularly the women of color CITATION Ear99 \l 13321 (Early, 1999). However, during World War II, where most men were sent to war, there was a scarcity of human workforce, thereby opening women’s opportunities by taking over the jobs left. The condition was that women should return to their domestic work as soon as men return. However, the situation turned the events that gradually favored women because the postwar era highlighted women’s strengths. An example of this is when women began to join baseball, and this began when Toni Stone showed her might come in the professional baseball games in a Negro minor league. Her talent was featured in many newspapers, which allowed women to join all-male sports, like professional baseball CITATION Ric19 \l 13321 (Richard, 2019). The introduction of women in this sport created a subculture that allowed for their gradual acceptance in the field. The change in baseball direction in the United States was best portrayed by the film, A League on Their Own. Here, we found two sisters named Dottie and Kit; one is good at catching while the other is excellent at hitting the ball. They were plain girls who lived in the rural area and played softball as a past-time. Soon enough, their talents were discovered, which paved the way to gain unforeseeable fame in their baseball career CITATION Mar92 \l 13321 (Marshall, 1992).
Three central stereotypes are evident in the film. Initially, the preference for all-women baseball games was not widely accepted. This is seen as a lack of coverage of the all-women games, particularly during the women’s first few games. The film is seen as many empty seats in the arena where the women teams compete. This is contrary to reality when the men’s baseball league was popularized, and the arenas were at total capacity. Even when the women’s division was interesting, people did not attend to watch the women’s baseball game. However, as it gains popularity, more people attend the games CITATION Mar92 \l 13321 (Marshall, 1992). This was emphasized using a medium camera shot that gradually converts to a long shot to cover the crowd. Sometimes, the film utilizes a wide shot that gradually converts to a full shot so that the focus is on the woman pitching or hitting the ball with minimal movements in the background to show that there were only a few audiences. When the women’s division already gained fame, the camera angle used medium to long shots, focusing on the crowd, illustrating the audience’s joy, and highlighting the applause and standing ovations in some.
The scenes in the film are also widely visible in reality from the past up to the present. Cooky et al. (2013) conducted a longitudinal study on the coverage of women’s sport in the media by analyzing television coverage of news media games in 6 weeks. The news agencies chosen were from Los Angeles, California, including KNBC, KABC, KCBS, and a national broadcasting station, ESPN’s SportsCenter. The results revealed that coverage of women’s sports was minimal.
Next, the sexualization of women in sports was evident in the film because commercials about female athletes show that t...