A "Partnership" Model of Sports
"Now that women have increased opportunities
to play with men, are they playing like men?" asks athlete
Mariah Burton Nelson. Nelson damaged her knees playing
basketball, buying into the no pain, no gain" philosophy.
She required bilateral knee surgery. "Even at the recreational
level, I sometimes see men brutalize each other in the
name of victory," Nelson observes.
Professor Mary Duquin, who specializes
in the psychosocial aspects of sport, describes how the
"no pain, no gain" attitude puts the health of athletes
at risk. "An insensitivity to bodily well being is evidenced
not only in training and dieting regimens but in the valorization
of athletes' willingness to sacrifice bodily health for
victory. This socialization toward bodily sacrifice has
contributed to an increasing rate of sport injuries among
youth: annually more than 1 million in basketball, 900,000
in baseball, 500,000 in football, 110,000 in gymnastics,
and 105,000 in soccer."
As an alternative to the "winning is all"
attitude that ignores pain and injury, Nelson describes
a new "partnership" model of sports in her book, Are We
Winning Yet? How Women are Changing Sports and Sports
are Changing Women. In this model, "teammates, coaches,
and even opposing players view each other as comrades
rather than enemies. Players with disparate ability levels
are respected as peers rather than ranked in a hierarchy,
and athletes care for each other and their own bodies.
However, Nelson cautions that in respecting
all ability levels, players should not settle for mediocrity.
"If you don't practice, and don't slide into base [for
fear of hurting the first-base player], and don't lunge
after the ball, and don't allow anyone to lead, the excitement
and skill can be drained from the game. Players are deprived
of the rich experience of playing the best they can, as
hard as they can.
When physical education professors Vivian
Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter applied the concept of
the "female" sports model, as they call it, to intercollegiate
sports, they came up with this list of principles:
- The "student" portion of the teen studentathlete
is the more important.
- Student governance of campus programs and student
involvement via student athletic associations are
healthy, viable phenomena.
- Winning is great, but can be compatible with the
growth of the individual.
- The greater the cooperation and mutual interest
between the academic and athletic aspects of college
experience, the better.
- The improvement of the student as an athlete is
less important than the improvement of the student
as a healthy, contributing member of society.
- Selection and fostering of a specific sport are
based on the perception of participant interest and
the sport's ability to provide positive experiences
for the student.
- Women, women's sports, and men's minor sports are
necessary for the proper development of a balanced
and responsible athletic/academic complex.
(Empowering Women in Sports, The
Empowering Women Series, No. 4; A Publication of the Feminist
Majority Foundation, 1995)
