Gender Stereotyping in Sports

By: Angel Akinkuoye

Gender stereotyping starts at a very young age. Parents tend to push their child to a certain sport depending on their sex. Usually if they had a boy, they would push their son into doing sports that involve contact and aggressiveness. Also for a girl, parents tend to push their daughter into “girly” sports, such as gymnastics or volleyball. Sports that don’t have a lot contact, is perfectly fine with the parents that have daughters. I feel as though this is somewhat wrong. The child should be able to choose which sport he or she wants to play. If the child picks one that doesn’t fit their gender, I feel like that is completely fine. I think a few parents think that having a child play in a sport that doesn’t really fit them will eventually mean that their child will be homosexual. For example, a boy who wants to become a cheerleader and a girl who wants to play football or basketball would sometimes be classified as “gay”. I feel like that’s wrong to assume that a child will be gay if they played a sport one doesn’t usually play. It’s the child’s life, and I feel as though he or she should pick whatever sport they like and whatever their interested in.  Personally, my parents never pushed me to a certain sport. They just wanted me to be involved in school, whether it was sports or the marching band. When I started playing basketball, they supported me my entire high school career. When it comes to sports, children have the say in what they want to do, not the parents.