Stereotyping of Women who play Rugby Project Earth Charter: Gender Discrimination Erin Galvez

1. Stereotyping of Women who play Rugby Project Earth Charter: Gender Discrimination Erin Galvez One online section of ENC 1102 Composition II, College of Arts & Sciences AND two online sections of EDF 2085 Intro to Diversity for Educators, College of Education Instructors: Sheila Bolduc-Simpson (SBS) and Dr. Mark Simpson (Dr. S) INTRODUCTION  In September 2012, Florida Gulf Coast University accepted the proposal for a women’s rugby team, as a club sport for all students currently enrolled at FGCU. It started as a simple club sport with athletes who had no idea of what Rugby was. In the semester of spring 2013, the women’s rugby team played competitively against other universities with a chance of going to a higher level if games were won. The Women’s rugby team coach, Lisa, started from the bottom with introductory of basic rules, positions and point of the game. With her knowledgeable information she cooked up a fierce group of tough individuals who played so well together their first season, they had an opportunity their second season to play at a state level if certain games were won. The most difficult challenge would be recruiting females to play the aggressive sport because of the image we were given as rugby players; as the hefty drunkards who liked to get aggressive in a sport. If the majority of the student body were aware that some of the sweetest beings played rugby just because, maybe there would be more girls coming out to play and have a good time instead of in their dorms hoping for an amazing group of friends. The online survey will gather information about the assumptions of characteristics and perception if a female rugby player. FINDINGS Even though only sixty-six respondents completed the survey, the website sent me an email that it was time to analyze the survey I created. With that being said, there was also a limit to how much data could be analyzed unless you chose to purchase the upgraded version. In that case, you could analyze as much information possible. In my case, since only sixty-six people responded to my survey, the data was enough to analyze. Sixty-two out of sixty-six respondents answered the first question in regards to assumptions of women rugby players. A majority of them assumed female rugby to be lesbians. ABSTRACT This research focused on an online research survey to analyze the awareness and assumption of women who play rugby. The research focused on the principles in aspect to gender discrimination. The survey also questioned random takers of their perception of a female rugby player. Of the sixty-six people who responded to the survey, three respondents had no knowledge of what rugby signified and/or what it consists of. Approximately 20% of the survey takers were not familiar with how female rugby players are stereotyped to be hefty due to the fact that in order to play a sport one is considered to be fit and athletic. Further findings indicated that sexual interest had absolutely nothing to do with playing a sport and that the sport does not influence peoples’ sexual orientation. One of the many conclusions is that women who play rugby at FGCU should be given the chance to spread awareness of who they are and how they look on the FGCU athletics website. Spreading awareness of who these females are can possibly stop discrimination of a woman who plays rugby at FGCU. With that being said, the FGCU athletics website should also list upcoming games and notify students of social gatherings to support the FGCU women rugby team. The following answers are a portion of the entire question answered by sixty-two people. They are lesbians 3/26/2013 8:11 PM Mainly, that they are muscular. 3/26/2013 7:15 PM That they are either mean or lesbians 3/26/2013 5:05 PM That maybe they shouldn't be playing the sport 3/26/2013 2:54 PM That they are lesbians 3/26/2013 12:50 AM That the women are all butch and lesbian. 3/26/2013 12:27 AM Lesbian dike 3/26/2013 9:36 AM they are all lesbians 3/26/2013 9:35 AM lesbians 3/26/2013 2:56 AM Lesbians or butch girls. Maybe just really outdoors girls. 3/26/2013 1:09 AM • METHODS • I used a free survey website called SurveyMonkey to create a free survey in regards to the research I was doing. • In order to determine the level awareness from FGCU students, the survey consisted of 8 questions regarding familiarity and one question of perception of who a female rugby player is to the survey taker. • The first question had a 250 word limit. • The rest of the questions were either yes or no with a why question below them in regards to the characteristics of women rugby players. • The survey was posted to several FGCU Facebook account pages for the convenience of FGCU students. I chose the website SurveyMonkey because I was already familiar with how it works and it was free. Even though the better options for creating surveys are on the upgraded paid for version, the free version was more than enough to create a reliable survey in regards to my survey. The best part about SurveyMonkey is that it gives you an option to link your Facebook account to the survey created in order to post the newly created survey on your Facebook account. LITERATURE REVIEW The Women Club sport is a four month newborn FGCU athletic organization having only two semester’s duration. Other women rugby players have a better insight of gender discrimination from the past. For example, an anonymous woman posted a blog on wordpess.com in March 2011 about head injuries, rugby and how to be a lesbian. The author writes about her personal experience before, during, and after playing rugby for a few years. She informs the readers that rugby is a tough transition from playing tennis and even though good health insurance is suggested, the sport is fun. She admits that the girls on her team were professional lesbians but that the majority of them were straight. She gives a very descriptive image of the different type of females that were on her team as well as their reasons for playing rugby on that team. Another female rugger posted an article about being stereotyped on the inthecac.com website. She wrote about being characterized as a certain type of woman with specific attributes. She mentioned begin foreseen as hefty, drunk, and an unattractive woman to people who never met her or even spoke to her. In her article she went ahead and advised the reader who she is. Her description had absolutely nothing in common with who she was sought out to be. • WORKS CITED • Ateka, Samson. "Kenya: Kibaki Orders Probe over Gender Discrimination in Sports” allafrica.com. 18 Feb 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013 http://allafrica.com/stories/201302182213.html • Awordgrl. “Head Injuries, Rugby, and Learning to be a Lesbian.” Lesbian Link. 30 March 2011. Wordpress.com. 13 Feb 2013. http://lesbianwink.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/head-injuries-rugby-and-making-friends. • Ferdy. “Sexism in sport.” Ruggerblogger.blogspot.com. 12 Feb 2007. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. http://ruggerblogger.blogspot.com/2007/02/sexism-in-sport.html. • Inthecac. "The Female Rugby Player: Stereotyped." Popular Cac. 4 Sept. 2012. Inthecac.com. 18 Feb 2013. < http://inthecac.com/2012/09/04/womensrugby/>. • Madison Minotaurs. "Rugby Frequently Asked Questions" Old Fashioned. 2005. Web. 18 Feb 2013. http://www.madisonminotaurs.com/rugby_faqs.html. • Rob Wildman. “Girls shouldn't write about rugby.” Dailymial.co.uk. 28 Nov 2011. Web. 18 Feb 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2239653/David-Campese-sexism-row-Australia-legend-slammed-abusing-Georgina-Robinson.html. • Survey Monkey. “Women’s Rugby Survey.” SurveyMonkey.com. 13 Feb 2013. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WVQXDXS CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The above findings clearly demonstrate that the female rugby player is stereotyped to be a lesbian. The results of the survey also indicate that the women who play rugby are not sought out to be hefty, ill-mannered, ugly, man haters, butch or drunkards. It can be concluded that awareness needs to be spread about the women who actually play Rugby at FGCU so that current students and potential students can have factual information. One way to do this is to be a part of the FGCU athletics website, with current photos and descriptions about the females under them and sending students’ notifications to support the team and upcoming games. FGCU athletics should expand the informational resources about the sports being offered at the university instead of having students drive by the recreational area wondering “what is that”.