Tiras


 * Intoduction:** My name is Tiras Koon and there were numerous reasons why I decided to take Women In Literature as my English elective. First of all, I have always been a big fan of women. As a whole women are way better than men, they are attractive, they are much more kind than men, and what I realized is that most women I know are very smart and powerful. I took this class hoping to realize and get a better understanding for how women feel about how they are treated in society. I never would have realized how outrageous women can be treated throughout the world if I had not taken this class. It was lucky enough that I got to be in a class full of girls, but I came into the class with a small outlook on women in society and this class really opened my eyes.

Coming of Age
 * Papaer Assignments:**

Media Paper

[|Blog] I thought the Blog portion of our class was pretty cool because it was like we had our own little web chat group on the internet and we could say what we felt. Although it was a little hard for me personally because I am not one of those people that goes onto the computer everyday, and so I am not really a computer expert. I do need to start getting used to that though because I am sure I will be using a computer in college a lot. My favorite blog topic was the assignment where we dicussed on what it means to be a girl/boy or a woman/man. I found that assignment pretty interesting because I really had no clue on what it meant to be a mature man and if I was one. It was very helpful to hear the outlooks from everyone in the class because it gave me a better understanding.

 **Proposal** I. The topic I have chosen relates to professional male and female athletes and their exposure in the media and how they differ. I chose this topic because I have been a person who was always interested in sports, and if you asked me what my favorite station is I would say ESPN. One thing that I have noticed however is that whenever I watch ESPN or Sportscenter, is that almost every single story or highlight is related to male sports. I would say the air time in a 1 hour Sportscenter segment would be 55 minutes of male athlete highlights and 5 minutes for females. II. My essential question is: How does exposure in the media differ between professional male athletes and female athletes. III. Well first off I am going to watch a whole lot of ESPN and Sportscenter which should not be very difficult for me. I think it will really help if I interview fellow athletes (male and female) so I am going to interview other Varsity athletes in my class. I am really interested to see if the responses are very different or rather similar between males and females. A question that I am going to ask numerous times to people is that would they rather watch a NBA game or a WNBA game because it is the exact same sport being played males and by females. I am going to try and find ticket sales between NBA teams and WNBA teams located in the same cities. I want to see why male sports dominate the media compared to female athletes. Editorial:  Editorial If you have ever watched any Espn station there is a very high chance that whatever comes up on that television screen, it will have to do with professional male sports. As someone who watches a lot of sports and Espn, I have definitely realized the inequality in air time between male and female sports. Don’t get me wrong, if you asked me if I would rather watch an NBA game or a WNBA game I would choose to watch the NBA game. That does not mean that men deserve more exposure because they are genetically made to perform at a higher physical level than women in a general sense. What should really matter is that our female counter parts that participate in sports work just as hard or harder if that to succeed in the sports we play. Since I have been attending a very athletically active school I have learned that there are many girls that I know that work harder and longer than most guys I know that play sports. I am a guy who has loved playing sports and have realized how hard it is to become a pro athlete and how much hard work it takes and females have to go through the same process to reach that goal. So why do males dominate the amount of exposure in media by such a large margin and for so long? I remember when I was about eleven years old when I was playing Little League baseball in Halawa. There were numerous teams with many players on each team, and all the teams were all boys except for the Rockies who had one girl and her name was Rayna. Rayna could hit the ball harder and farther than any boy that was in our league. When ever I played her team the baseball stands would flood with scouts and coaches. We all respected Rayna because she could play better than anyone of us boys. But now that I think about it, did we all respect Rayna because she was a great ball player or that she was excelling better than boys in a boy’s sport. It makes me wonder if Rayna would have gotten as much attention and respect if she was excelling the same as in baseball but in softball instead. I highly doubt that she would have gotten the same treatment if it were softball. But from my point of view, whether it is baseball or softball and whether it is a male or female if they can crush the ball than they have my respect. I found in a Women’s Sports Foundation article that in a 20 year study by Purdue and USC sociologists they found that in 2009 men took 96 percent of sports news. The reason that men dominate the sport’s media is not that there are way more men playing sports because 3.1 million women play in Interscholastic sports in our nation compared to the 4.4 million of men. Who says whether male or female sports are more entertaining than the other which is why women have every right to exposure and publicity in the media as men. Sports are something that I love as well as millions of people around the world. It is something that should always be fair to all participant because sports is something that brings people together to enjoy themselves and have fun.
 * Final Project:**
 * < PROJECT COMPONENT ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">DUE DATE  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Watch lots of ESPN ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Everyday  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Expert Source Identified ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Friday, April 8  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Interviews ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Thursday, April 28  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Base of project complete ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Thursday, May 15  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Final Annotated Work Cited ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Thursday, May 19  ||
 * < <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Presentations ||< <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Friday May 20-Thursday 5/26  ||

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Research Paper: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Sports is Sports <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Whether it is a male shooting a basketball or a female shooting a basketball or watching a pitcher throw under-hand or over-hand, what makes women sports so much different from male sports? And if they are not as different as we portray them then why do men dominate the amount of exposure in the media since....well since forever actually. If you have watched ESPN before than there was a very high chance that whatever was being displayed on that segment had something to do with professional male sports. The inequality between air time for men and women is ridiculously lop sided in favor of the men. There is no doubt that people in general prefer watching male sporting events than female ones. If I had to choose between watching a live MLB game or professional softball game I would choose the MLB game but, that does not mean that female athletes are any lesser or that softball is more boring. What people want to watch all depends on their preferences but, the amount of air time that the media wants to allow should be way better spread out. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">I found in a Women's Sports Foundation article that in a 20 year study by Purdue and USC sociologists they found that in 2009 men took 96 percent of sports news. I saw that statistic in the article and I could not believe it. I figured it would of been like around 75 to 80 percent, but 96 percent is just ridiculous. I mean the population as a whole may prefer watching professional male sports and ESPN is trying to give the audience what they want to see, but that is very unfair to the female <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; line-height: 200%; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">2 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">athletes who work just as hard or harder than the male athletes. There are may great female athletes out there such as Jennie Finch, softball pitcher on U.S Olympic team, or Mya Moore, top draft pick in most recent WNBA Draft. But, if the media continues to deprive the great female athletes of our generation than we will never get to see or hear of what these ladies can do. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 17px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">There may still be more male sports activities than females but females have clearly shown there interest in sports over the past few years. Men use to dominate the participation in sports as well but now there are 3.1 million women playing Interscholastic sports in our nation and about 4.4 million men that participate. So the reason that men own the amount of air time is definitely not because there is an abundant amount of more men playing sports than women. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"> 3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">As you can see in the chart above that I was able to find supports the fact that women are starting to engage in sports just as much as men and in some cases more than men. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Many people will say that they would rather watch a male sporting event rather than a female sporting event because generally men are faster and stronger which makes the game more explosive and entertaining. That is just an opinion of people and depends on what type of game certain people are into. I asked my Uncle Mel who played volleyball in college, if he would rather watch a men's volleyball game or a women's volleyball game he said that he'd rather watch the women's game. He said that Men's games are not as good because they are shorter and happen so fast, where watching women's games are more exciting because there are longer rallies and they have to use teamwork instead of sheer strength. There is no body on this planet that has the right to say which sports are better or more entertaining because it has all to do with preferences and opinions. And I don't know how they determine the air time on ESPN and Highlight shows, but something needs to be changed. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">People may come off as thinking that sports is something that is more for men than women and that is why men are on T.V more than women. However, the female athletes all over the world would have a little something to say about that. Sports is something that brings people together and is known and enjoyed by people everywhere and so it should be fair to everyone who participates in it. Women work just as hard as men to enhance their skills in sports they love and they deserve to display there talents to large audiences just as much as men. The bottom line is this, sports are sports and if people are true fans of sports it should not really matter who is playing to enjoy the game because athletes play for the love of the game.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Final Project Thoughts: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">I never really realized how much the media shafts female athletes in our society until I reserched on my project. I was kind of oblivious to how many female sports there are out there and how talented women are. A big factor to that is that our media rarely recognizes and gives updates in the female sports world. If you asked me who won the last five NBA championships I would be able to give you the teams in order, but if you asked me who won the one of the last five WNBA championships I would have no idea. Female athletes work very hard to accomplish what they have and get to where they are and it is only right they get the recognition that they deserve. Maybe one solution could be that women have there own sports highlight shows instead of ESPN so at least people will get to choose what they want to watch and all athletes talents are showcased.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Final Assesment: ** I was really suprised that I would enjoy this English elective. I really enjoyed hearing what all the girls had to say in class. It felt like I was a girl in disguise because it felt like the girls were not afraid to say things which I felt was awesome. Since that is how I thought all the girls felt it really made me feel I could open up to the class and give them my insight and see how similar and different we are. I would definitely reccommend to guys to take this class because it will really help you understand women better than you did before. This class can really benefit men and women in many ways and help us to be a stonger society.