Unit 4 Studies in Gender

This is such a big theme I had to break it down into subtopics:








Gender Roles
Sexism: Girls in Sports
The Beijing Declaration
Pay Inequality/ Wage Gap 
Body Image
Domestic Violence
Rape Culture
Gender Inequality in Taiwan: 8 Issues

Gender for ESL

Sexism and Women in Sports

                                                                          (9:27-12 min)

A. Vocabulary:

Sexism  性別主義；（尤指對女性的）性別歧視，性別偏見  gender  性別    gender roles       gender inequality         feminism  女權主義；女權運動  rape culture     (rape-強姦；強暴) domestic violence   女性遭受的家庭暴力 male privilege  (privilege- 特權，特別待遇)

B. Activity 1: Three Lists of 8

C. Discussion Questions

          1. Do we have sexism today even after women have the right to vote?

          2. Give an example of sexism in the media.

          3. Give an example of sexism in everyday language.

READING 2: Girls Inspired by World Cup Wins

As the United States celebrates its victory in the Women’s World Cup, girls across the country are sporting (穿戴) their Carli Lloyd jerseys, dreaming of running the field in 2019 or 2023. One of the victors from this year’s tournament, which raked in an unprecedented (史無前例) 22.86 million viewers in Sunday’s 5-2 win over Japan — making it the highest rated soccer game in the U.S. on a single network — will be youth soccer organizations, which can expect to see an uptick in participants as a result of the success of superstars like Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo. In 1999, after the U.S. women’s soccer team last won a world cup, 7.3 million females ages 6 and older participated in soccer, which was a 20 percent increase from the 6.06 million participants in 1987, according to Public Radio International. And this most recent victory — which got very public support from high-profile figures like Beyoncé, Barack Obama, and Justin Timberlake — is sure to have a similar effect, helping boost the youth soccer participation (參加) numbers, which were steady from 2008 to 2012, according to the United States Soccer Federation.  “There is no question that we will be a beneficiary (受益人) of this victory,” Ian McMahon, national executive director of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) says. “Anytime there is a success as high-profile as this, with this record number of viewers, for us as an organization, we would expect to see a surge (陡增，遽增，急遽上升) in young girls wanting to play soccer. We believe that, with what we offer, they’ll come in and want to play soccer longer and become advocates (主張；擁護；支持；提倡) for the game. It doesn’t matter where they end up — it’s just about being active, coming out, trying soccer, having fun.” AYSO, which counts U.S. national team member Alex Morgan among its alumnae (女校友), currently has 204,893 girls registered in the U.S., and they expect that number to increase steadily between this World Cup victory and the upcoming Olympics. But it’s not just girls who were excited by this week’s big win. “We had people in the studio who have sons and no daughters, and they were wearing the jerseys of Abby Wambach or Carli Lloyd,” Fox Sports analyst Kyndra de St. Aubin, who covered the World Cup, says. “But for young women especially, to have these incredible role models (模範，楷模，行為榜樣), it proves you can achieve your goals. These women foster (鼓勵；促進；培養) an environment of working hard and achieving your goals — they are motivating young women to get involved in this sport or whatever sport or activity they want.” This type of inspiration is relatively new for girls. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be Michael Jordan when I grew up,” Danielle Slaton, a Fox Sports analyst who covered this World Cup and a former member of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, says. “He’s great, but I didn’t have a female role model in the sport that I was interested in.” And while that started changing with the U.S. team’s victory in 1999, this year the team is even more diverse (各種的；不同的) — providing role models for even more girls. “People fell in love with how different the people were on this team,” Fox Sports analyst and former member of the U.S. women’s team Leslie Osborne says, “Because of social media, players can express their personalities now in so many different ways. This team had a 40-year-old mom of two, a young recent college graduate, and members of the gay and lesbian community. So many kids, regardless of the nationality or background they come from, can relate to women on this team.” But Slaton says the effects for girls and parents aren’t just short-term (持續時間短的，暫時的). “You look back to the ’99 women’s team and you saw young girls who were anywhere from 10 to 20 cheering them on, and those girls are now women who are starting to have their own families and bring their daughters to games,” she says. “It has a long-term (長期的) effect for women who were inspired when they were kids and are now moms saying, ‘I want my child, my daughter to experience this.’” It’s just as meaningful for the players, Slaton says. “It’s very inspiring for the players on the field to look up and say, ‘Look at our fans, look at our girls, look at the power I have to make a difference in their lives,’” she says. “When I was playing, it was so inspiring. Plus, you have players on the women’s team who are moms themselves, so it’s probably especially meaningful for them.” But while all this excitement will likely work wonders for women in soccer and women in sports in general, fans needed to look no further than the medal ceremony to be reminded that sexism in sports is not completely a thing of the past. When models in skimpy, tight dresses (又短又暴露的裙子) walked onto the field dressed like Robert Palmer girls, fans on social media let out a collective groan. “Sepp Blatter’s last middle finger to women’s soccer is medal-bearing, black-dress-wearing models from Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’ video,” sportswriter Tom Reed tweeted about the president of FIFA.      “That was disappointing,” Osborne says of the parade of models. “I remember we were in the studio, and I was going, ‘Of all choices, they have to pick a black skimpy outfit?’”  Blatter is on record having made sexist comments, including encouraging female athletes to wear shorter, tighter uniforms. “Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts,” he said in 2004. “Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men — such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?”While these comments — and the models that surrounded the winning athletes — are sending our girls a negative message, experts are hoping that was drowned out by the overwhelming support and celebration.

1. The Women’s World Cup was insanely popular all over the world, so why wasn’t  it even covered my Taiwanese sports media?

2. How was the US soccer team diverse? How is the US soccer team not diverse?

3. How was Fifa sexist?

4. How are female sports stars positive role models?  What are the short term and long term effects?