Masculinity Benchmark 2015

Last pick again, a young boy thinks as he defeatedly moves to the team he is put on for a pick-up game of basketball. Just seconds after the game begins, the boy finds himself with the ball in his hands before it’s ripped away by the captain of the other team. “Man up!” his teammates yell at him, proving a common problem society faces everyday: masculinity. To be masculine is to have that machismo quality a man “should” possess like athletic ability, sexual conquest, and economical success. Sports offers an open playing field to reinforce that in society. Because of the influence it has and the actions and behaviors that come with it, sports display a stereotypical version of masculinity which can negatively affect men in the future.

Sports is embedded in American culture. Whether it’s football, basketball, or baseball, it is a “secular religion” and the players of the game are the gods according to Joe Ehrman in “Be a Man.” With so much support comes the power of being able to influence millions through the television and media. The same way that Stephen Curry displays his faith on the court is the same way that Chris Culliver of the S.F. 49ers displays his masculinity by making anti-gay comments before last season’s Super Bowl. Kate Pagan wrote in her article, “So, What Defines a ‘Real Man’ in Sports,” that a “manly man… means projecting an air of invincibility, a willingness to absorb pain,” and an expectation that “vicious insults can do no harm.” Incidences like Culliver’s, dealing with violence, vulgar language, sexual assault, and injuries- which appears for almost every athlete- can shape the way society sees a man.

Sports aid parents, more specifically the male figure, when disciplining a boy of the means of being a man. It usually starts at an early age too with pee wee football, or the little league for baseball. For my eight-year-old cousin, it’s basketball. My cousin, Ryan, is still learning what to do and what not to do, so at the end of one...