Women In Sports

            In the nearly sixty years since World War II, sports have become arguably the single most important institution in our nation. They have overcome issues of race, color, and class; however, one area that faces continual struggling is that of gender equality. More specifically, areas of concern include male/female athlete marketing, perceptions, and pay. Whether we are talking about sexism, sexuality, or just plain ol" sex, sports has played (no pun intended) a role in our distinct interpretation of each. Sports create an alternate fantasy world occupied by less than 1% of the nation's population where society's rules are not only bent or broken, but many times cease to exist entirely. The emphasis of this paper is the disparity regarding gender, and the reasons why female sports and athletes continue to be marginalized in comparison to their male counterparts.
             One status granted to most male professional athletes is that of a "playboy". Whether it is the money, the fame, the houses, the cars, or whatever, male athletes appear to have very few problems attracting members of the opposite sex. Wilt Chamberlain went of record saying that he had sex with over 10,000 women, yet remained one of the NBA's most prolific and admired players until his death. Certainly a female athlete with such a past would not be judged as mildly, and would most likely never publicly disclose such information in the first place. Such sexual promiscuity leads to the related issue of monogamy. Male athletes are notorious for being unfaithful to their wives and girlfriends, engaging in acts of infidelity. Magic Johnson spoke out to Barbara Walters shortly after the world learned of his contraction of the HIV virus in 1990, saying that he has had sex with up to 8 women at once on occasion, which is why he cannot be certain exactly where, when, or from whom he got the disease. Examples such as these are tragically all too prominent in the world of sports, yet, as more cases abound and number of illegitimate children rise, our admiration for these athletes remains.